Hi there,
I discovered this game yesterday on the commentary section of a newpaper (about ants !) !
I'm a huge fan of ant (i have several farm at home ! And i studied ants for years W/ myrmecologist), and also a RTS entusiast.
Here my review of your game :
WHAT I LOVE :
- The animation are pretty ok for an indie game with only 3 dev
- I like how you move "squad" of ants through pheromone marker rather than moving directly ants, and i like seend some doing "whattthay want" instead of beeing little robot
- The interface is pretty cool
- The design are nice
- The game run pretty smoothly
WHAT I DON'T LIKE (really not) :
- How the population is managed. I hate pop limit, and especially in a STR. And i hate the system "you have X max ant, you have larva ready, when an ant dies you get a new one after X seconds"
- You can basically let 7 workers do all the job into the colony. It's not enough, and it's not reallistic
WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN :
Settings.
- please make us able to chose on which screen we want the game. I have 3 GPU, 6 screens, and i am not able to chose where the game display (but in windowed mode)
- Trap the mose in the selected screen, so we can move the camera with the mouse on edge (not always working properly)
- Make us able to move the camera like with the button under the wheel (you keep it pushed and it moves the camera)
Gameplay
- I want mutiplayer and colony versus colony mode like any STR over "survival" things
- Add war fog
- I'd like to see like 4-5 type of ant for every species, not especially the "standard" worker/fighters thing, but like give us the ability to "upgrad" some nursery spot for ant with better starts (for species without dimorphysm, like step 1 = underfeeded ant, step 2 = normal, step 3 = well feeded big ants, like what you can see in nature). It's almost already the case but i don't know who's who.I'd like to be able to "sort" my ants by power / capability
- Remove the max population.
- I'd prefer -by far- a system with continuous population growth. Like every nursery produce 1 ant every X secondes. It's a bit... weird to see larva and pupe ready to get an ant but... not giving it at all as long as you don't lose an ant.
- A step by step breed growth. Like the total cost is 20 food point. The egg take X seconde to go to larva. Then the larva wait 4 food and will go larva2 after X sec. Then larva2 wait 4 food to go to larva3. Then larva 3 need 4 food to go to larva4. Then larva4 need 4food to go to pupae... and after the last X sec it gives you a working new worker.
This will require the player to have WAY MORE active worker in the colony in order to manage the breed, making it more realist and more tight to manage.
Then :
- make ants age. After X days the ant die of old age. It'll be, in fact, a max population cap (since you can't stack as much ant as you can, but only something proportional to how much breed you can feed)
- Allow injured ants to "heal" by eating. Puting more pressure on food (=> increasing management gamplay)
- add a 2nd type of ressource : material (construction bloc), needed to build anything on a virgin spot. You could get some (few) by digging, and get more outdoor on some thing (and having some with some food, like seeds give you few and stuff...)
- Allow us to move the queen. Fist of all it is not realistic, the ant queen is not like the termite one, so fat she can't move, and it's also needed for multiplayer (so you don't exactly now where she is, and can't rush her).
- Allow us to "replace" dirt on a digged spot, for better underground management.
Maybe later :
- Allow us to create princess, to stop a survival game and start a new colony on another map
- Make species with more than one queen
- Make species with particular food needs (only seeds, like most Messor, only meat...)
- Setup sustainable food source (aphid...)
I discovered this game yesterday on the commentary section of a newpaper (about ants !) !
I'm a huge fan of ant (i have several farm at home ! And i studied ants for years W/ myrmecologist), and also a RTS entusiast.
Here my review of your game :
WHAT I LOVE :
- The animation are pretty ok for an indie game with only 3 dev
- I like how you move "squad" of ants through pheromone marker rather than moving directly ants, and i like seend some doing "whattthay want" instead of beeing little robot
- The interface is pretty cool
- The design are nice
- The game run pretty smoothly
WHAT I DON'T LIKE (really not) :
- How the population is managed. I hate pop limit, and especially in a STR. And i hate the system "you have X max ant, you have larva ready, when an ant dies you get a new one after X seconds"
- You can basically let 7 workers do all the job into the colony. It's not enough, and it's not reallistic
WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN :
Settings.
- please make us able to chose on which screen we want the game. I have 3 GPU, 6 screens, and i am not able to chose where the game display (but in windowed mode)
- Trap the mose in the selected screen, so we can move the camera with the mouse on edge (not always working properly)
- Make us able to move the camera like with the button under the wheel (you keep it pushed and it moves the camera)
Gameplay
- I want mutiplayer and colony versus colony mode like any STR over "survival" things
- Add war fog
- I'd like to see like 4-5 type of ant for every species, not especially the "standard" worker/fighters thing, but like give us the ability to "upgrad" some nursery spot for ant with better starts (for species without dimorphysm, like step 1 = underfeeded ant, step 2 = normal, step 3 = well feeded big ants, like what you can see in nature). It's almost already the case but i don't know who's who.I'd like to be able to "sort" my ants by power / capability
- Remove the max population.
- I'd prefer -by far- a system with continuous population growth. Like every nursery produce 1 ant every X secondes. It's a bit... weird to see larva and pupe ready to get an ant but... not giving it at all as long as you don't lose an ant.
- A step by step breed growth. Like the total cost is 20 food point. The egg take X seconde to go to larva. Then the larva wait 4 food and will go larva2 after X sec. Then larva2 wait 4 food to go to larva3. Then larva 3 need 4 food to go to larva4. Then larva4 need 4food to go to pupae... and after the last X sec it gives you a working new worker.
This will require the player to have WAY MORE active worker in the colony in order to manage the breed, making it more realist and more tight to manage.
Then :
- make ants age. After X days the ant die of old age. It'll be, in fact, a max population cap (since you can't stack as much ant as you can, but only something proportional to how much breed you can feed)
- Allow injured ants to "heal" by eating. Puting more pressure on food (=> increasing management gamplay)
- add a 2nd type of ressource : material (construction bloc), needed to build anything on a virgin spot. You could get some (few) by digging, and get more outdoor on some thing (and having some with some food, like seeds give you few and stuff...)
- Allow us to move the queen. Fist of all it is not realistic, the ant queen is not like the termite one, so fat she can't move, and it's also needed for multiplayer (so you don't exactly now where she is, and can't rush her).
- Allow us to "replace" dirt on a digged spot, for better underground management.
Maybe later :
- Allow us to create princess, to stop a survival game and start a new colony on another map
- Make species with more than one queen
- Make species with particular food needs (only seeds, like most Messor, only meat...)
- Setup sustainable food source (aphid...)