Multiverse Version 3.7.1
It’s been more than two years since the last update, and almost five years since the website and launcher first went live in 2021. I’m not sure where the time went, but I won’t bore you because most of you scroll past this part anyway. So hello again, and let’s jump straight into the details.
Remember, to install this update you’ll need to run the updated installer:
>> Click here to download the Multiverse Launcher
WARNING: As always, your launcher settings may reset with the new version. When the launcher is opened for the first time it may crash and restart automatically, and any previous game saves may be unplayable.
Full HD Support for Main Menu & Solar System
Many of us have been playing Populous: The Beginning on resolutions higher than what the game came shipped with for some time now, but we’ve always been locked out of increasing the screen size whilst perusing the game’s menu.
That changes today. You can now change your settings, start a new game and even travel the solar system in Full HD!
You wouldn’t believe the amount of work that went into getting this running smoothly and even though it’s been tested thoroughly, there’s always someone out there playing on 960×640, so if you spot any inconsistencies, please get in touch.
New Firewarrior Mechanics
Modders and players who like to experiment now have new options for making Firewarriors behave a little differently. Instead of blasting enemies into the sky, fireballs can now use the new ‘push’ effect to shove enemy followers across the ground.
To support this new addition, the following values can now be adjusted:
- Missile effect speed
- Push speed
- Knockback strength
- Missile damage
New Archer Colours
Archers are still a relatively new unit introduced to the Multiverse Launcher through the Ascension and Witching Hour campaigns. They’re fast‑firing, bow‑wielding, zombie‑slaying followers who specialise in picking off threats from a distance. With this update, they now gain access to the four new tribe uniforms: cyan, pink, black and orange, making them fully playable across all eight tribes.
Smarter News System
You’ll probably never come back to this website once your launcher is set up, so there’s a good chance you won’t even read this. More likely, some AI will skim it for you and then congratulate you on being such a uniquely brilliant human for asking incredibly insightful questions.
Anyway, on the off‑chance a human or an AI is still paying attention: news now comes straight through the launcher in a cleaner, more modern way. Updates expire automatically instead of hanging around forever, and anything important will pop up in a format you can’t really miss.
Seasonal Snowflakes
Nothing says it’s Christmas time like snowflakes drifting down your gaming client, and nothing cements that festive feeling quite like a seasonal update arriving three weeks after Christmas Day.
2026 is shaping up to be a big year for Populous and the Multiverse Launcher, so stick around. More is on the way.
In future updates...
- Launcher Improvements
- Increased Modding Capabilities
Full Patch Notes
- News can now have an expiry date and can automatically open for users.
- During December and January, snowflakes will fall on the launcher screen.
- Main Menu screen can now support up to 1920x1080 resolutions.
- The Solar System now runs at resolutions up to 1920x1080.
- Added support for new archer colors: cyan, orange, black and pink.
- Firewarriors can now push units instead of knocking them up (using the TIF2_BLAST_PUSH flag).
- Added a ‘Firewarriors’ mod category. Players can now tweak new values: Missile effect speed, push speed, knockback strength and missile damage.
- Added several new Lua scripting functions.
- Fixed a crash that occurred during campaign installations when an existing campaign folder contained subfolders with numbers in their names.
- Resolved several crashes related to News JSON parsing.
- Fixed Lua’s
FoW.getViewRangewhich was not returning anything. - Fixed Lua’s Storage table
getmethods not having fail‑safe return paths. - Fixed a bug where keys were processed twice in the Solar System menu.
- Fixed an issue where Shamans killed by the vortex effect stopped from respawning.
- You can no longer click on the difficulty skulls as they confused users.
- Vanilla backgrounds have been upscaled to 1280x960 (older campaigns using custom backgrounds remain unchanged). Users can choose to ship with upscaled backgrounds (up to 1920x1080) or stick with default/custom 640x480 backgrounds.
- Discord’s Rich Presence will display “Solar System” when players are inside the Solar System.
- The snowflake effect will not alter ground textures if
SnowSettings.TextureAltis set to -1. - Each tribe can now have an individual population limit (configurable via Lua).
- Added a new Lua flag to prevent Shamans from respawning (configurable via Lua).
IniReader::ReadStringcan now read 4096 characters (previously 255).- The Lua function
Music.SetPlaybackSpeednow accepts a float instead of an int.
In other news...
Completed Campaigns
I finished playing some single-player campaigns recently, meaning I can assign a difficulty to them for the website, and decide whether or not they are approved. In case you weren’t aware, approved campaigns are campaigns that:
-
- are relatively bug-free
- have a storyline
- are original (not a copy or remaster)
- are not unjust difficulty
Strange Journey
A challenging campaign with a unique take on story telling in Populous: The Beginning, created solely with the game’s original coding language (i.e. not using LUA).
* There is a game breaking bug at end of level 10 where the enemy Shaman doesn’t spawn, meaning you can’t lure her to the objective to complete the level. It is also very difficult and unintuitive to actually “lure” her if the game doesn’t bug.
* The final level needs to be less punishing, at least on the normal difficulty. Ideally the purple Shaman shouldn’t be able to be move, like the preachers, as she can trigger a fail state if she enters the preacher’s radius. The distance of the radius could be reduced or the mechanic could be replaced by requiring all preachers survive, and keeping the radius fail state for higher difficulties.
Difficulty: Expert
Approved: No
The Witching Hour
The most ambitious and creative campaign that Populous had yet to see. I personally really enjoyed my time with The Witching Hour and I will soon be revisiting it on its hardest difficulty. I have a lot to say about it, but I want to do it in a video. So you’ll have to wait.
I will say that in terms of it being an approved campaign, the overly-ambitious design and mechanics often leave it in a fragile state, capable of crashing if you sneeze in its direction. Since saving had to be disabled due to conflicts with the custom code, it feels awful when the game crashes and you lose your progress.
Difficulty: Expert
Approved: No
Devil System Chapter 1
I was sad to see flybys weren’t created for the 12 new levels. There’s something majestic and intriguing about seeing what each level has to offer before you play it, and the original version was very good at doing this.
* There is a game breaking bug at the end of level 24 that urgently needs fixing.
A polished free-flowing campaign that isn’t too complex, but does introduce some unique mechanics as the story unfolds. Players who have completed Tikal’s Journey and are looking for something similar will be happy exploring the Devil System.
Difficulty: Advanced
Approved: No
* correcting this will award approval
Website Updates
I’m always making tweaks to the website. Recently the campaign page has received an improved difficulty filter, individual campaign pages now display a “Click to play” tooltip when you hover over the multiverse icon, and the “More Campaigns” page has been renamed “Campaign Packs” to make it easier for people to seek the .pack files of campaigns. If you spot any errors on the website, please let me know.
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