Some ideas after 10 hours of playing the campaign

[Snippy2]

Hey guys,

first of all. I really like the game. I have ants myself in real life and I adore them so much. I played Empire of the Ants all the way and your game is great and takes some of the ideas of the good old games to the next Level.

I have some suggestions for the game that can make it more diversified I think:

• Think about introducing a second resource like ants Need in real life. I would suggest splitting the Food resource into sugar and Protein. Sugar is important for all the ants and can be obtained via aphids, seeds (seeds can of Course only be collected by seed collecting species like Messor), nectar, sugar/honey from mans waste. Maybe you can introduce some Kind of upkeep that drains sugar periodically from the storage rooms of the ants (real ants also do have to eat regularly, in the game actually living ants do not Need to eat at all). Proteins are important for the brood and for the queen to lay new eggs (just like for real ants). This way the Food System gets a Little more complicated but also more satisfying in my opinion.
• Try adding more different types of rooms. Take a look at Empire of the Ants and the ideas in this game, maybe. I can think of a chamber to breed edible larvae and different Chambers to store Food, based on the humidity requirements (seed cannot be stored too humid for example because they would germinate).
• How about weather? I would be really happy to see rain in the game. Even better would be rain that can influence the nest of the ants. A heavy rain can destroy some Chambers and the ant have to build Kind of walls to Keep the water out. The Building mechanism of the game would Profit quite a lot from a mechanic like this in my opinion. At the Moment it is a Little bit boring because all the Chambers will keep intact forever - nothing can destroy them. Maybe you can imagine additional other Things that can destroy the Chambers. Or at least some ant work and material costs to keep the rooms intact after a while.
• I think the second challenge (to unlock the third stage of the formicarium) is much too easy. Especially in comparison with the normal Levels in insane mode. They are really challenging but a looot of fun!
• Add polymorph and polygynic colonies of ants (if not planned anyway with the leaf cutter ants).

Thats all of my ideas I can think about right now. I hope you take them into account and maybe implement some into the game. That would be great. Thanks for developing this fantastic game, guys!

 

[Buffalo981]

I'm pretty sure polymorphism is already planned to be a big thing with leaf cutters, they mentioned it in a newsletter.

 

[Serafine]

Agreed on the second ressource. Be aware though that insects also give minor amounts of sugars.

I don't think we need different food chambers (except maybe for leaves because they're a different resource). Usually ants (with the exception of harvester ants) do not have food storage chambers at all - they keep all the food in their social stomaches.

Weather would be cool but I'd also like to see strategic positions based on environment effects like a place under a warm stone that increases breeding speed or reduces brood costs.

We already have polymorphism in the game - if you carefully look at the ants when they level up you'll notice that L3 ants are bigger than L1 ants (which isn't really realistic because adult ants can't grow but it's okay for gameplay purposes).

 

[Snippy2]

Thank you for telling me your opinions on my ideas.