June Monthly Round-Up 🦠

This month has seen some big changes to Primordial Empire’s demo, with our first bit of combat content finally arriving, and more updates followed to refine this microscopic warfare. Let us quickly go through what happened in June!

Combat Update

Thanks to all of your support, the combat update has been met with enthusiastic response from the community! The new combat scenario has introduced ruthless enemies and brutal battles to Primordial Empire. See the patch notes for the full details!

And there's even more to the update -- if you achieve 3 stars in both the economic and combat scenarios, you can unlock a third, bonus stage with a procedurally generated map that makes every replay a unique experience. You will need to carefully plan your expansion and explore truly unknown territories while fending off waves of enemies from multiple angles. Master the first two scenarios and take on the new challenges of the bonus scenario!

Follow-Up Patches

Getting the new content online is just the first step. I’ve been working on refining the microbe combat experience with balance changes, fixes and optimizations throughout June. Some of these changes include:

Steam post image Introducing Biome modifiers to the Bonus Scenario that add more variety to the environment – different biomes have different characteristics

Steam post image You can now manually save your progress, with up to 48 slots available!

Improved exploration and path-finding to help you traverse the map with more ease.

Full details of the updates can also be found at the bottom of this blog post.

June has been a hectic month with the barrage of updates, and all the work has been worth it to see everyone enjoying the combat stage so much. Thank you so much for playing Primordial Empire’s demo, and your consistent feedback has been some much appreciated (and very essential) nutrition for the game to continuously evolve. It's time for me to start working on the next batch of update, so please look forward to more new content in the future!

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June Update Full Patch Notes:

v0.2.2_demo patch notes:

• Change to Stem Cell plasma production: They now continually produce Plasma (even when starving),

• Addressed plasma balance indication mismatch at higher biomass (please notify if still inaccurate),

• Introduced biome modifiers to Bonus Scenario: Lush Biome: More fertile ground in light, lots of wild growth, rich in protein Salt Barrens Biome: Less fertile ground, sparse wild growth, rich in resources Mineralized Biome: Very rich in minerals Fungal Biome: Toxin-rich, relatively low in minerals Cave Biome: More fertile ground in darkness,

• Rebalanced Bonus Scenario procedural generation:

  • Fairer enemy placement,

  • Fairer resource placement,

  • Increased incursion warning lead time to 3:00 minutes (up from 1:00),

  • More sensible enemy incursion points,

Hotfix:

• Prevents game crashing during final wave in Bonus Scenario,

• Prevents rare crash during main menu after having selected Bonus Scenario and switching to a different scenario,

v0.2.3_demo patch notes:

• Fixed Bonus Scenario stars not getting counted in main menu,

• Fixed rare main menu crash when selecting Bonus Scenario and then immediately loading another scenario,

• Fixed plasma balance indicator inaccuracy (second attempt),

v0.2.4_demo patch notes:

• Improved exploration & path-finding:

  • Attractive pheromone now needs line-of-sight with Vesicle Hubs only if sending cells to unexplored territory - sending them around where vision is available no longer requires Vesicle Hubs around,

  • Cells can now pathfind across the entire map (enemies, too),

  • Convenient waypoint mode: holding shift, just click start- and endpoints and the best path is automatically calculated,

  • Changed attractive pheromone range to 80% of original in waypoint mode, 160% of original in normal (simple click) mode,

  • Cells attracted to a waypoint pheromone will hook into it from the waypoint closest to them.,

    • Recycle tool can now remove attractive pheromones (normal- and waypoint pheromones). Cells attracted by removed pheromone abandon their movement plan.

    • Removed heat death zone in Economic Scenario to make achieving the 3-star goal less tedious,

    • Lancet Hives now start with two Lancet Cell production chain inputs filled (up from one),

v0.2.5_demo patch notes:

• Rebalanced Bonus Scenario for fairer starts:

  • Enemies spawn farther from Colony Heart,

  • More crystal patches within reasonable range of Colony Heart,

• Fixed Nematoblast's and Aminoberries' position not updating after maturing if parent Plant shrinks/grows,

• Optimized plant placement tool,

• Stem Cell Sprouter no longer requires Enzymes to build,

• Stem Cell Sprouter's "benthos eater" production chain is off by default (i.e., when placing, no warnings appear if fertility is missing),

• Spawning Stem Cells from Stem Cell Sprouter no longer costs mineral (just 1 protein),

• DNA Sampler's "benthos eater" production chain is off by default,

• Berrygrass' growth rate doubled,

• Aminoberries' spawn time reduced (24 -> 20 seconds),

v0.2.6_demo patch notes:

• Save system overhaul: Adding 48 manual save slots,

• Grubbers now spawn work-ready,

• Updated exploration tutorial with info text explaining:

  • that Stem Cells should be fed on long journeys,

  • that Stem Cells get consumed by building plants and that this can be disabled,

Hotfix:

• Fixed load button list misalignment in pause menu,

• Improved explanations for strategic resources (in both tutorial 5 and main resource GUI)