Revamped AI Update [Patch 1.03]

The first update for Amoeba Battle has arrived! We've been collecting feedback from you since our launch and we're pleased to release this update that addresses many of your suggestions and concerns.

REVAMPED BATTLE ROYALE AI

The battle royale AIs have had their aggressiveness, strategies, tactics, and decision-making processes overhauled. The AIs are also now smarter with energy usage, especially with regards to probes, and they will use the extra energy to field more varied armies.

We heard your feedback that the Casual and Normal AIs were too difficult so we've tuned their personalities to be less aggressive. Newer players should now be able to jump into battle royale mode without the immediate threat of microscopic annihilation. For our more experienced players, the Brutal AI is now more brutal, so there's something for everyone!

IN-MATCH LEADERBOARD

You can now pull up a complete leaderboard of all players during a match (default hotkey TAB). The leaderboard shows the map name and each player's (or team's) rank, their color, their MVP amoeba, and whether or not they have no amoebas remaining.

SPECTATING IMPROVEMENTS

When spectating, you can use the leaderboard to view the game from a specific player’s perspective! Doing so will set the shroud and fog of war to what that player can see. This functionality works both during a live match and when viewing replays. When spectating, the new leaderboard will also show how many amoebas each player has left.

REPLAY VIEWER IMPROVEMENTS

The replay viewer has gotten some major upgrades! You can now adjust the speed of the playback, making it either slower or faster than normal speed. You can also pause the replay and jump forward/backward in time so you won't need to restart the replay to rewatch your favorite part.

CONTROLS IMPROVEMENTS

Based on your feedback, we've made some adjustments and additions to the controls. Players using a controller can now add amoebas to a control group using RT + D-Pad. The virtual cursor for controllers now has a lower minimum speed. We also discovered that newer players had a tendency to accidentally deselect their amoebas, and expressed frustration when their amoebas did not follow orders. To address this, we've implemented sticky selection, which will not deselect any amoebas unless you explicitly want to select new amoebas.

ONLINE SCREEN IMPROVEMENTS

The Online screen now displays the number of users online, the number of users in the queue (waiting for a match), and the number of matches in progress. Hovering over this information with the mouse or virtual cursor will show a breakdown of the users in the queue and matches in progress. This feature is still experimental so it may get disabled as we iron out issues. Additionally, there are some minor improvements like being able to copy+paste invite codes (on PC), and the online screen will now play a sound jingle when it finds a match!

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR FEEDBACK!

There are a host of other, smaller improvements and bug fixes made throughout the game that are in the official patch notes below. Please let us know what you think of these changes in the Steam discussion boards or on our discord. We hope you enjoy this update and thank you for playing Amoeba Battle!

OFFICIAL PATCH NOTES - PATCH 1.03

Feature: Battle Royale AI Improvements

• Wild amoebas will now enter the battlefield 60 seconds after the match has started (instead of 5 seconds). Developers’ note: We noticed some players were being paradropped directly onto Wild amoebas or had to deal with one or two groups right at the start, frequently losing one of their first three amoebas. We felt this was too punishing so their appearance has been moved later into the game.
  
• Default Battle Royale AI difficulty for Versus matches has been changed from Veteran to Normal. Developers’ note: Since new players are more likely to face AIs than other players at this time, we decided to make Versus mode more forgiving.
  
• All Battle Royale AIs have had their aggressiveness, strategies, tactics, and decision-making processes overhauled.
  
• All AIs are now smarter with their energy usage, especially with regards to probes.
  
• All AIs are less likely to build only Locusts and will try to field a more varied army.
  
• Only Brutal AI will be mean enough to purify your last amoeba.
  
• Casual AI is much less aggressive in early-mid game, no longer uses advanced tactics, cannot use extinction upgrades, and has a limited amoeba cap. Developers’ note: The old Casual AI was not fulfilling its intended function as an easy way for new players to jump into battle royale mode and figure it out. This new version should remedy this problem.
  
• Normal AI is less aggressive in early-mid game and no longer uses advanced tactics.

Feature: Replay Viewer Improvements

• The replay viewer now supports fast forward, rewind, and pause. It also has controls for playback speed.

Feature: Leaderboard

• You can now view a full leaderboard during multiplayer matches!
  
• The leaderboard shows your rank, the ranks of every player in the match, and every player’s current MVP amoeba. It also shows the name of the map you are on and which players have already been eliminated.
  
• When playing a team match, the eliminated icon appears next to allies on the leaderboard that have lost all of their amoebas to better alert you that they need a reinforcement upgrade.

Feature: Spectating Improvements

• When spectating, you can now use the leaderboard to view the game from a specific player’s perspective! It will set the shroud and fog of war to what that player could see. This functionality works both during a live match and when viewing replays.
  
• When spectating, the new leaderboard shows how many amoebas each player has.

Feature: Controls

• You can now add amoebas to control groups using a controller using RT + D-Pad!
  
• The virtual cursor for controllers now has a lower minimum speed. Developers’ note: Some players have requested a slower virtual cursor so we lowered the speed of the minimum setting. As an example, if the virtual cursor speed slider previously ranged from 100-300 “speed”, it now ranges from 10-300 “speed”.
  
• There is now a limit on the number of pings you can issue in a given time frame.
  
• Using box select on mouse and keyboard, lasso select on Switch touchscreen, or the paint select on controller no longer deselects previously selected amoebas until it would select a new amoeba. Developers’ note: This functionality is called “sticky selection”. We’ve noticed newer players end up accidentally deselecting their amoebas quite frequently, then become frustrated when their amoebas seem to ignore their commands. Sticky selection should remedy that problem.

Feature: Online Screen Improvements

• You can now copy+paste invite codes on the online screen on PC.
  
• The online screen now plays a sound effect when it finds a match, and periodically beeps as the match timer counts down.
  
• The online match countdown will now stop if only one player is left in the queue because the other player(s) left.
  
• The online screen now displays the number of users online, the number of users in the queue, and the number of matches currently in progress. Hovering over this information with the mouse or virtual cursor will show a breakdown of the users in the queue and what queues they are in. Developers’ note: We heard feedback from players that they would like to know if other people are playing the game so that they know to wait for the next game. This feature is still experimental so it may get disabled as we iron out any issues.

Feature: General Improvements

• Within a given session, skirmish lobby settings are saved so that players don’t need to re-input the settings if they wish to play multiple skirmish games in a row.
  
• Announcement UI on the main menu has been updated, including the ability to hide it.
  
• A game clock has been added to the upper right corner of the screen during a match.
  
• Replicating and mutating amoebas now remember if they were holding position or not after the cysts hatch.
  
• Upgrade Ready animation has been changed so it is more noticeable and helps draw the eye to the research bar.
  
• When playing a team match, getting a Reinforcement upgrade now forces the Upgrade menu to open. Developers’ note: We found players didn’t know about reinforcements in team games so this should make it clearer to players that they can redeploy amoebas and continue playing.
  
• Changed icons for Reinforcement upgrades. Developers’ note: We found that players didn’t necessarily realize that the reinforcements upgrades were different from regular upgrades so we changed the icons to make them stand out.

Other: Bugfixes

• Battle Royale Wasps should no longer get stuck trying to attack things they can't see.
  
• Implemented optimizations to reduce the number of disconnects and “unable to connect online” errors.
  
• Fixed an issue where trying to view a replay would lead to a black screen.
  
• The display name for Rocks on the unit info panel is no longer broken.
  
• The message alerting players that they can still use probes in team matches when they have no amoebas now properly shows up every time they lose their amoebas instead of only the first time.
  
• Fixed an issue where cutscene music was not playing if music volume was set to 0.
  
• Added some missing people to the credits.