Siafu, King of the Ants

[Yaoiboi415]

I'm sure you've already included them as some end game content, but in case you haven't you should. They are the deadliest ants in the world and an alpha predator of Africa. Elephants run in the opposite direction when they are seen. With colonies of over a million, they have long been considered the king of ants.

 

[Rayalot72]

They've mentioned plans for driver ants before, but it's unknown if that plan has/will change, or if they'll be anything like what's in the real world.

 

[Serafine]

Honestly I'm having more respect of Oecephylla weaver ants - they are the uncontested rulers of the tree crowns from Africa to Australia.

Army ants may be powerful but they are almost blind (Dorylus ants don't even have eyes) and can be easily avoided, weaver ants on the other hand have amazing vision, can communicate directions and even specific types of threats to each other with dances similar to the ones bees perform (which makes recruiting to food and conflict zones incredibly effective), have slicing mandibles that can pierce human skin, a potent acidic spray that can quickly disable most insects and are astonishingly aggressive even in small numbers.
When Bernd Hölldobler got his first weaver ants decades ago he just opened their package to let fresh air in and put them on a table at the other end of the room. Several minutes later he noticed a movement at the edge on his working desk and realized there was a small group of weaver ants slowly walking onto the table, scouting the area. When he got closer to examine them they didn't back of but instead opened their jaws, put their abdomens in the air, fixated his head with their eyes and took a clear threatening pose.
Adult colonies of these ants are no joke - the realm of a single colony can stretch over more than a dozen large trees and contain millions of ants which are entirely capable of killing smaller vertebrates like lizards and geckos with ease and generally make their tree(s) pretty much inhospitable for any species they don't like. In fact they are so effective at keeping their trees clear of any pests (except for the aphids and other tree-sucking insects they farm which do not harm a tree's fruits however) that they are used as biological pest control - you don't need any chemicals when these things are on a tree (picking fruits from such a tree requires protective equipment and some sort of training though).
If there's any king (or queen) species of the ant kingdom it's most likely these girls.

 

[Redmoth27]

I remember having a experience with them when I was younger, they were at my grandpa's house in Northern Queensland and there was a tree on the hillside with tones of them. One day I got tons of pesticides, rocks, and a nearby hose seeing if I could kill them. I tried to throw rocks and spray them but they were too high to do any real damage. So I grabbed a footstool to reach them, I threw a rock and it hit but the second didn't. There was a hole in the nest to where I could spray them which I did, only in just a couple seconds they started to attack me and dropped from the wires above. Some were even climbing on the footstool.
I kept spraying the nest for a couple minutes trying to kill the queen, but they were biting and spraying acid on me so much that it was getting impossible to keep destroying the nest. I then ripped a piece of the nest off, but they were crawling all over my hands and rapidly stinging me. I jumped off the stool, slapped my hands to kill them and ran for the hose. I started spraying the nest with the hose with them biting me on the ground. I then noticed that tons of them were crawling across the wires. So when I finished soaking the nest I sprayed the weaver ants on the dangling wires.
I thought a job well done and returned to normal. Later that night I checked on them and saw them rebuilding the nest. They, must've evacuated the queen earlier and had started rebuilding. It was clear they won and I let them be. It really shows how powerful this species really is.

 

[Scorpinator]

I remember having a experience with them when I was younger, they were at my grandpa's house in Northern Queensland and there was a tree on the hillside with tones of them. One day I got tons of pesticides, rocks, and a nearby hose seeing if I could kill them. I tried to throw rocks and spray them but they were too high to do any real damage. So I grabbed a footstool to reach them, I threw a rock and it hit but the second didn't. There was a hole in the nest to where I could spray them which I did, only in just a couple seconds they started to attack me and dropped from the wires above. Some were even climbing on the footstool.
I kept spraying the nest for a couple minutes trying to kill the queen, but they were biting and spraying acid on me so much that it was getting impossible to keep destroying the nest. I then ripped a piece of the nest off, but they were crawling all over my hands and rapidly stinging me. I jumped off the stool, slapped my hands to kill them and ran for the hose. I started spraying the nest with the hose with them biting me on the ground. I then noticed that tons of them were crawling across the wires. So when I finished soaking the nest I sprayed the weaver ants on the dangling wires.
I thought a job well done and returned to normal. Later that night I checked on them and saw them rebuilding the nest. They, must've evacuated the queen earlier and had started rebuilding. It was clear they won and I let them be. It really shows how powerful this species really is.

Haha, what a story ^^ But yea, i kinda like the idea of one colony thats massive in numbers and are like the top ants that would be a boss to fight against, an invading colony on the map, that slowly but increasingly conquers the map if you aren't strong enough to withstand them. Even A.I. would struggle or 4 players, (you and 3 A.I. try and combine strenght) against one massive colony.

 

[Serafine]

Weaver ants have more than just one nest ;D
An old colony can have several dozen nests in a single tree and their realm may stretch across more than half a dozen trees. Finding the nest that contains the queen is pretty much impossble.

 

[Redmoth27]

Oh, wait I forgot to tell that there was another nest right behind the big one.

 

[Buffalo981]

I'm pretty sure African Driver Ants are going to be implemented with the mechanics stated in the link below. http://slugdisco.com/african-driver-ant-gameplay/

This link may be outdated but I believe it is probably very accurate because there was a similar page for leafcutters made at the same time. It said leaf cutter majors would have two options: physical attack resistance, and venom resistance, as well as a taunt ability. Both physical attack resistance, venom resistance, and the taunt ability have been confirmed recently, so what it said was accurate. http://slugdisco.com/tag/empires-of-the-undergrowth/page/2/

The last one I could find was for fire ants: http://slugdisco.com/category/empires-of-the-undergrowth/page/3/

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

Please note the age of that post - nearly 3 years ago. As mentioned in recent newsletter we've reduced the number of species in order to make the species we do have more fleshed out. We'll announce each species as it comes and the only currently confirmed species beyond the current ones are leaf cutters.

 

[Buffalo981]

Aren't Solenopsis invicta also confirmed because in the kickstarter fire ant bridges were a stretch goal for reaching 15,000?

 

[ALEMAN12]

Honestly I'm having more respect of Oecephylla weaver ants - they are the uncontested rulers of the tree crowns from Africa to Australia.

Army ants may be powerful but they are almost blind (Dorylus ants don't even have eyes) and can be easily avoided, weaver ants on the other hand have amazing vision, can communicate directions and even specific types of threats to each other with dances similar to the ones bees perform (which makes recruiting to food and conflict zones incredibly effective), have slicing mandibles that can pierce human skin, a potent acidic spray that can quickly disable most insects and are astonishingly aggressive even in small numbers.
When Bernd Hölldobler got his first weaver ants decades ago he just opened their package to let fresh air in and put them on a table at the other end of the room. Several minutes later he noticed a movement at the edge on his working desk and realized there was a small group of weaver ants slowly walking onto the table, scouting the area. When he got closer to examine them they didn't back of but instead opened their jaws, put their abdomens in the air, fixated his head with their eyes and took a clear threatening pose.
Adult colonies of these ants are no joke - the realm of a single colony can stretch over more than a dozen large trees and contain millions of ants which are entirely capable of killing smaller vertebrates like lizards and geckos with ease and generally make their tree(s) pretty much inhospitable for any species they don't like. In fact they are so effective at keeping their trees clear of any pests (except for the aphids and other tree-sucking insects they farm which do not harm a tree's fruits however) that they are used as biological pest control - you don't need any chemicals when these things are on a tree (picking fruits from such a tree requires protective equipment and some sort of training though).
If there's any king (or queen) species of the ant kingdom it's most likely these girls.

I don't want to Sound like an ass but hence Ants are antient Wasps that droped their wings and lived in the Underground. They communicat more like wasps than bees not that I could dertermine the exact difference actually lol.

 

[Serafine]

Bees are just furry wasps, so there's not much difference between those either. People often associate dances with bees, fact is though wasps, bees, bumblebees and ants are all relatively related and to some extend all use the same means of communication.
Bee pathfinding is actually pretty complex, they even use "air highways" similar to ant trails with marker bees constantly flying back and forth on a path and additional "target marker" bees marking the flowers and bushes themselves (this is required because the directions given by the bee dances are pretty inaccurate and would not be sufficient for the worker bees to actually find the food).