The SWAMPED! Update - New Swamp Map & Critters

We thought it was about time our swamp environment had a little TLC, so it's time to head back to the wetlands. Get utterly swamped in a new custom game map - Creek - and two new creatures, the rough green snake *Opheodrys aestivus *and the adult form of the eastern newt Notophthalmus viridescens!

A multitude of fixes and quality-of-life changes are also included Additionally, players can now save their freeplay game setups for re-use and sharing, and advanced users can even edit the setup files for unique effects - a Steam guide going over how this functions is in the works.

Patch Notes

Headline Features - The SWAMPED! Update

• Added 2 new huge-class swamp creatures

  • Rough green snake Opheodrys aestivus

  • Eastern newt adult Notophthalmus viridescens

• Added a new swamp-themed custom game map: Creek

  • Set on an island in a slow-moving swampy creek

  • Designed for 2v2v2 combat

  • In skirmishes, one of the two new creatures will patrol the outskirts of Creek in a circular patrol pattern

• Freeplay setups can now be saved and loaded

  • Build a freeplay setup in any configuration you like, save it, then export it to a CSV spreadsheet file to share with other players

  • Edit your custom game setup spreadsheets for detailed control

  • Save setup files can be edited externally to arrange a game exactly how you want

  • Options that aren't available in the menu, such as each colony's underground starting chamber and its surface tunnel (alternative exits and termite mounds included) can be accessed this way.

  • The game will load and play your setup precisely as you designed it

  • The functionality of freeplay setup CSVs will be expanded on over time

  • A Steam guide for the full functionality of CSV editing is currently a work in progress

• 5 example freeplay scenarios to demonstrate the CSV editing capabilities

  • Hunt the Ubers: you have a super-powerful ereptor colony and uber creatures will begin spawning extremely quickly and relentlessly

  • Bad Neighbours: leafcutters vs fire ants, starting super close to each other

  • Pot Luck: 4 colony free-for-all with randomised species, with more rapidly changing landmarks

  • Waves from Hell: you're a powerful Matabele colony under relentless attack from buffed waves, fed by enemy termites

  • You vs the World: super-powerful fire ants vs 5 allied enemy colonies

Changes

• New creature models, textures and animations for the devil’s coach horse and slave-maker ants

• Significantly reworked memory usage and allocation for efficiency which should result in some performance increase and loading time decrease

• The queen is given more space when playing as termites in Chowder

• The objective in 4.2 saying "Workers are worth less" has been reworded to "Soldiers are worth more" to avoid localisation issues

• Alligatorback scorpion harvest slots increased to 8

• Moving between formicarium stage 4 and 5 now keeps slightly more brood & food chamber tiles

• Victory & defeat images added for Myrmecia ereptor colonies

• Ranged wood ant variants now have different icons

• Texture resolution improvements on 4.2 A Bridge Too Far

• Termite species are now playable in Chowder in Remix mode

• Nest numbers on the minimap now have an associated symbol

• Savannah levels underground material improvements

• Rising Tide, Queen of the Hill, Sand Spit & Towhead have a new water look

• The skip button has been restyled and is hidden when playing with a controller in the 4th formicarium challenge

• Localisation updates

Fixes

• Fixed controllers not being able to select a unit option when launching a level

• Fixed an issue with low FPS underground on 5.3

• Fixed the adaptation tooltip video breaking when moving quickly between tooltips

• Fixed the termite minor soldier showing the major soldier's build icon

• Fixed exploding termite workers counting as soldiers on the population tooltip

• Fixed major termite soldier/worker nursery counts being incorrect

• Fixed shore crabs and sand lizards not spawning in custom games in some circumstances

• Newer uber creatures now count toward the Hunter victory condition in custom games

• Fixed the centipede’s stun applying several times in one hit

• Fixed the enemy colony trying to dig through rock in The Harvest

• Removed a harvest point from a leaf that was unreachable in Adventure

• Fixed the leafcutter super major tooltip showing no name in Adventure

• Fixed a victory notification flicker as the UI faded out

• Fixed broken victory/defeat sequences in Strawclutch

• Fixed some situations when hovering over a tile displayed an incorrect cursor icon

• Fixed defeat animation issues in Drive Them Back (custom game version)

• Fixed cavern resource/danger sliders failing to load from a setup file when set to minimum

• Fixed scientist 2 announcing the unlocking of the fire ants if it happens after FC4

• Fixed Formica ereptor royal guard attacking slowly

• Bombs in bomb mode can no longer destroy tiles around the very edge of a map

• Rock tiles destroyed by bombs no longer reappear on custom game load

• Fixed dragantula’s swoop attack visual effect staying around forever if it is interrupted

• Fixed shore crab’s tantrum ability sometimes causing it to get stuck

• Fixed some obscure issues with fire ant bridges

• Fixed several save game crashes relating to climbable plants, large creatures and nest entrances

• Fixed rare crashes on saving & loading

• Fixed rare crashes involving creature movement, pickup & death

• Fixed rare crashes involving digging and chamber placement

• Fixed rare crashes involving UI & minimap

• Fixed a crash when a corrupted custom game save meta file was present; the game now remakes the meta file instead

• Fixed The Other Foot victory cinematic

• Minor UI fixes in the tutorial, especially on controller

• Fixed a broken texture on Causeway

• Fixed a custom colony issue when selecting species that exclude Matabele or leafcutter units with controller

• Inspect tool no longer closes when the tool is cancelled with keyboard & mouse controls

• Rising seawater no longer shows in ant nest entrances

• Fix (hopefully) for the Mac cursor issues

• Several miscellaneous controller fixes

• Fixed the custom game difficulty not showing up on the menu tooltip

• Fixed an old bug where auras would show through faded terrain as squares

• Fixed a tester credit issue

• Various spelling corrections

Quality-of-Life Changes

• Save files are now significantly smaller and faster loading

• Lots of polish and refinement to the way the new UI works with controllers

• Added a hotkey for the Inspect tool which can be rebound in the menu for keyboard & mouse users

• Inspect tool button has been moved next to the pheromone panel

• Arachnophobia mode now turns the creature icons in the Battle Arena spawner into hats

• Notifications now appear in front of subtitles to aid low resolution screens like the Steam Deck

• Custom game Hunter victory condition will no longer allow the game to launch if there are no uber creatures selected

• Selecting Hunter game mode in custom games now turns on uber creatures