Apologies for any inconvenience!

An update is also released for Classic Worlds, changes:

• Level 1 – The Exploration Begins: Minor changes in the Dakini script – unnoticeable to user
• Level 2 – Power of Faith: Preachers teleporting directly to your base removed
• Level 2 – Power of Faith: Added a stone head that gives two shots of Swarm – appears when the connection is restored
• Level 4 – Lightning Eel: Minor changes in the Chumara script – unnoticeable to user
• Level 4 – Lightning Eel: The Dakini Shaman no longer takes part in the first attack
• Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: Dakini patrol points near the vault changed to prevent Matak constantly swarm them.
• Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: Chumara no longer sends all people to a point inside their base
• Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: Fixed a navigation bug for Matak that forced them through a cliff instead of a better walkable path
• Level 8 – Legend of Kikikini: The boat attack is now in an infinite loop – if it fails for any reason (for example the Shaman is dead or busy, not enough boats or Chumara guards kills the Shaman) they’ll try again and again until the erosion is successful.
• Update: Level 4 – Lightning Eel: Fixed a possible hang, reduced the Dakini forces and Firewarriors disabled (upon user requests).

A patch is being prepared for Grass Worlds that adds a beginning FlyBy on all levels and addresses gameplay issues on Forging Alliances, The Traitor and Taitaki’s Introduction, it should be released before the end of the week. It’s suggested that you turn on Auto check for updates in the launcher to be notified immediately. Update: The patch is released, full change log can be viewed on the Survey screen.

The Grass Worlds Beta is about to be closed soon. Don’t worry, as soon as it closes it will be available in the final mappack so you can continue to play after a short download. Please note that games saved in the beta will still work after downloading the final version, however it’ll use the beta scripts as it’s saved into the save game file. This may cause problems with the language file so it’s possible that wrong texts will appear in those saved games.

I’ve found a critical bug in the auto-update mechanism of the launcher! The launcher patch has fixed it. Even though people opted into the Public Beta will see that the Beta Patch is installed actually it won’t get installed because of this bug. Once the launcher update is installed you must click the Update button again to get the Beta Patch.

I’ve recently noticed that the latest version of Avast Antivirus prevents the updates from being installed because it launches the update application (upd.exe) in sandbox mode. To ensure that the updates can be installed and the game can be successfully launched please exclude your Populous folder from being sandboxed.

I have an other announcement! Our old site is now closed because the migration of the content is now finished and most of the contents is out of date. All links to the old site is now redirected to the new site! If you have a link to an old content please update it. The news archive may be available in the future.

We’ve got an e-mail recently with a bug occurred in Land of the Wilds, when Chumara supposed to rebuild they wanted to access the main island caused all the braves slowly died. It’s caused by a wrong co-ordinate in the script. It’s now corrected in version 1.5 upd. 2 and I’ve also removed the Shaman’s tower because they always wants to build it whatever I do and when I disable the main drum tower they wants to go to the location of the prison.

While the launcher no longer collects feedbacks from Classic Worlds (because it’s implemented for the Beta test since the most bugs and balance problems will occur during the tests) you’re still welcome to contact us if you found something.

Bugs: If the shaman is in a tower (near or beyond the stonehead), she won\’t heal from time to time after she got attacked by fire warriors.

I regret to hear that you found a bug. Unfortunately, It’s a bug in the Populous game mechanism which we can’t solve by hacks yet. It might be appear in the base game (Populous The Beginning, Populous The Beginning Undiscovered worlds) too.

Using the earthquake and the landbridge spell, this level (Teamwork Forever) isn\’t really hard, you can simply win it by camping + swamp [...]

The Block 2: Grass Worlds contains levels with medium difficulty. The basic difficulty level will increase in every block from block 1 to block 5. If you think the normal mode is too easy for you, you can try the strong mode option (or the hard mode which will be added in the future). There might be problems with the difficulty balances so the maps might be less easier or more stronger in the future. Don’t forget: all kind of feedback is useful!

Game froze when I sent 140 men againts the enemy shaman

It’s might be another bug of the basic game. Please send us more feedback when the game freeze. If this issue doesn’t appear on the other maps, we may can solve it.

[...]after the summoning of the angel of death, the allies still behave as partners?[...] (The Traitor)

Alliances can’t be broke during a single player level, as you can do in multiplayer games, because you have to set the alliances in the HDR file. It’s a limit of basic Populous what we can’t solve. There might be some change in the scripts in the future for the better simulation of the broken alliance. On the next level they will be enemies.

if you clear Green quickly you have to wait forever before you get the landbridge. (Sabotage)

There will be a solution in the next patch. The Matak may become more stronger and an event listener will help to solve this problem the Dakini will finish off Chumara properly, executing a stronger periodic attack while disabling the attacks from Chumara that caused the Dakini attacks to fail as it forced them to defend the base (edited by Dezsike).

Upcoming features
-2 new terrain style will be added during the beta
-Some fix on the implemented terrains

Known issues with Grass Worlds:

• Level 14: Allies Torn Apart is missing – Please apologise for that, I don’t have permission from the project leader to release it. It will be added later is now released and fully functional.
• Level 16: Evil Land has no AI yet. I’ve not included it as it’s still very buggy to date but I’ve included a sneak preview in the Beta pack so you can see how it will look like.
• Level 10: Forging Alliances: The AI don’t know the current time left so it can’t increase it when Chumara gets hurt, they’ll have a weaker army if you let Matak in.
• Level 11: Teamwork Forever: Chumara simply builds where they find space. I can’t really control where the AI should build so to reserve space build a “wall” from huts.

Good Luck and Have Fun playing Devil Worlds. Remember, your feedback is very important so please take the survey after playing – it’s entirely anonymous, only your input and the version numbers are sent. Thank you. Your feedbacks are also welcome via comments on the website.

Update 1: If the survey screen don’t appear or you encounter a launcher crash during the launch progress please opt out of the beta, restart the launcher and opt in again.

Update 2: If you have an old launcher that doesn’t support the beta test click the Update button to update your launcher. Once updated you can opt in to the beta test and click the Update button again to download Grass Worlds.

Update 3: If you don’t have Ghost Army on a level where it’s supposed to be please ensure that the memedit.exe can be started by the launcher (if it can’t be started you’ll see the level IDs instead of the numbers on the list). Some antivirus programs may prevent this, in this case add your Populous folder to the excludes. If you have Reduce Memory Hacks enabled in the launcher disable it or wait 5 minutes. It should be look like this when you cast the swarm anytime anywhere on Forging Alliances:

Update: The BETA patch is being prepared at the moment. It’s just few hours until you can play Grass Worlds. Be sure to opt in to be notified instantly when your download is ready!

To participate please tick the Allow BETA Updates checkbox in the launcher. As soon as the beta test opens you can download the new levels and play. Before or with the beta pack a patch for the launcher and Classic Worlds will be released that corrects 2 fatal and 1 minor bugs, also utilizes few technical changes that you won’t notice. The new launcher will be a little smaller and will use even fewer memory by reducing the number of windows. It also comes with extra features that you can use:

• Send anonymous stats: Allows the launcher to send statistics for us. The information sent is the level IDs you’ve played and the approximate game length. Default value: Depends on the Allow BETA Updates option (Off if it’s off, on if it’s on and can’t be disabled in this case). The statistics will be public.
• Reduce memory hacks: If you prefer to play long on levels instead of completing them as quick as possible of if you have a slow CPU, enable this option to reduce the frequency of memory hacks applied to free up CPU time. Default value: Off
• Force survey level list: Displays all beta levels on the survey list instead of only those you’ve played. Use this if you want to play all levels first and give feedback later. Default value: Off The launcher will auto-check the levels on the survey list that you’ve been played, but you can override it.
• Disable IP check: Your IP address will not be determined and displayed when entering IP Game mode, this speeds up the progress if you don’t have Internet connection and want to play over LAN only. Default value: Off
• Windows 7 color fix: This option will patch your registry to fix the in-game color glitches on Windows 7. WARNING! This affects the original game too!

See you soon in the Grass Worlds beta, we’re waiting for your feedbacks.

Another thing that I want to tell you is that one of our old addresses (populous3.freefronthost.com) will go offline at the 16th of January! From that day this address will no longer work. If you’ve bookmarked this address or you’re linking to it please update your bookmarks or links to the latest address (populous-online.co.uk) as soon as possible – as I’ve still seen traffic coming through it. Thank you.