Surprise, we’re doing it now! As it turns out, everything we talked about in yesterday’s newsletter is good to go, so here it is! The Adventure + update is available now.
This is a ‘regular’ update, but quite significantly larger than most of our regular updates. As well as the long-awaited extra level Adventure, we’ve also put the even longer-awaited velvet worm into its rightful place in the 3.x levels - including previously unheard narrator lines!
This update also includes a feature that has been overdue for a long time - tutorial mode. New players will be encouraged to first play through the tutorial before diving into the campaign, and even more experienced players may benefit from the refresher course it provides. A redesigned menu integrates this addition into the game, with a new section called the ‘arcade’ for extra levels, battle arena, and demo levels
Finally, the 1.x levels now have their own tile set - the rotting log will no longer look like sand! A new texturing of decomposing birch wood and crumbly soil will set it apart from the beach. Full patch notes below.
Headline Features
Velvet Worm
- Added to 3.x levels, freeplay, battle arena & new extra level Adventure
- Long creature with the ability to spray slimy glue at its enemies that slows them
- Comes in 3 sizes of varying strength
Adventure
- A long-form leafcutter extra level with unique mechanics
- Build up XP to upgrade your colony & unlock new units
- Unlock the uber velvet worm for use in freeplay as a reward
Tutorial mode
- A new 10-15 minute tutorial to explain the basics in a practical way
- Goes over digging, hatching, pheromones, combat & more
- Both new & experienced players should benefit from this thorough tutorial
Main menu rework
- More descriptive buttons to guide players to the right place
- Will highlight tutorial mode for new players
- Added an arcade section for battle arena, extra levels & demo levels
Rotting log tile set
- Woody, crumbly textures added for the rotting log environment
- 1.x levels no longer use the beach underground tile set
Other Changes & Additions
- Big-headed ant workers are no longer encumbered when carrying
- Camera rotation buttons are now rebindable
- Resource, tile & creature info toggles moved to side of pheromone panel
- Reworked underground lamp distribution
- Hold Out scoreboard changed to match that of Extremis
- Added thumbnails for demo levels
- Some rewording of objectives & descriptions
- Numerous improvements & optimisations to many game processes
- Updated localisations
Fixes
- Enemy colony in 3.1 should no longer hide underground permanently
- 1.1 victory cinematic reworked slightly to not show the ‘sky’
- Subtitles no longer overlap if a certain creature is killed too quickly in FC4
- Fixed an issue that caused lynx spiders to shrink on loading a freeplay game
- Fixed accidental switching of some minor improvements menu descriptions
- Status effect particles now present for the hungry spider
- Extra level scoreboards now all display the difficulty
- Fixed some spelling mistakes