Ideas for a new Freeplay map?

It is a tricky one. Leafcutters really do not want to fight like other ant species. I think generally in freeplay they will feel better than others because of this (you cannot just hide in your nest you actively need to forage) however you are right ubers will just feel like a pain in the neck.

Just spit-balling here but what if we included an experience system into freeplay that allowed you to unlock species abilities and improvements. Could make it so only the harder creatures provide any so it is worth hunting them?

What if instead of collecting food from the bodies of Ubers, you spawn a large plant with really high food yield (about equivalent to the Uber or whatever is in scale with other leaf depots) that is protected by an Uber or some other creatures?

That would maintain the playstyle of the Leaf Cutters having to go out to forage for food, but still offer these high-risk/high-reward type situations.
 

Guy Fieri

Worker
I'm a bit late, but if you do add rain like some others suggested, make it so that the rain spawns large numbers of creatures that live underground or in leaf litter. The harvestmen, rove beetles and their larvae, and whip spiders would be good options.
 
I'm thinking have a map that has a dip somewhere in there and it could flood ( I don't know where the water comes from)
So with the leafcutter update released we are bug fixing and and improving small aspects of that this week. Hopefully next week we can start to look at freeplay.

Initially we will be adding the leafcutters to freeplay, new ubers, new landmarks, tiered enemies (enemies get stat boosts later on rather than spawning more of them) and a new map.

I am undecided about how to do the new map and totally interested in community suggestions. Do you have any thoughts what could make a nice new freeplay map? (Jungle terrain obviously) We want to hear them!
I was thinking we do a map with a trickle of water going down somewhere in the middle of it. And the ants can go through that trickle without being harmed. then a timer could tell you when the trickle becomes a flood and the other side of the map could not be reached.
 

Sav

Larva
Also a bit late, however maybe some ideas also for the future. Firstly, it seems like that for leafcutter ants the most important achievement is expanding their territory. Only then they are able to stay alive and flourish. I think this territorial expansion is one of the most interesting gameplay features of EotU and especially playing leafcutters.

The rainforest is not an easy environment, many threats are existing: lingering spiders, nests of flying species, actively hunting spiders, other ant colonies, etc. I think all of these threats could provide an unique gameplay. Examples:
  • Lingering Spiders: Such spiders have typically a web which can be pretty big comparing to ants. They are located on plants and also often between the stones under plants. In both cases they are an obstacle for our ants staying between our ants and the plants. To reach the plant you need to overcome these guardians.
  • Nests of Flying Species: Obviously ants are always endangered also by flying species, however for gameplay reasons it doesn't make sense to implement such species in a manner that they ravage the whole map. Instead, they could have a nest somewhere on the map and around that nest there is always the threat that your will get picked by such predators. This would result in a permanent attrition for your colony and could also be a way to block some of territories. The only way to reach those territories safely and begin with foraging is to destroy the nest. At some point you will need to attack these nests.
  • Actively Hunting Spiders: We have already those spiders in the game and their behavior is already good enough I think. Only addition could be an active lurking when they discover the ant nest or a supply route.
  • Ant Colonies: I think also for other ant colonies most of the concepts do already exist. Army ants could be an late game event, other leafcutter colonies would compete for territories, others could be an obstacle on the way for better territories.
Freeplay is right now more like an infinite battle arena. I think an event based approach would make it superb.
 
One suggestion I'd like to make: Add breeder ants into the game.

Maybe as a kind of win condition aside from killing all other colonies? 'Spawn X number of breeders to win'.

As for a map, maybe a desert one, home to scorpions and tarantulas and centipedes?

*goes back to workin on Turtle Ants thread, where I just suggested that*
 

MedinB

Colony
Since your still deciding I say... Army ants. A river... erm... well we don't have the army ants into free play yet, and we have floods on towhead.
 
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