Super Colonies?

I'm no ant expert, but I've seen and heard about some species of ants that can form super colonies through merger! How about adding that in the game? Maybe a multiplayer feature, you and your friend control the same colony! Two queens, double the ant power, and maybe harder enemies? Or this feature(maybe) could have you "accidently" finding another ant colony(in the near future) and possibly merging with it, then you could control both colonies and move the other colony into your existing base.
 

Serafine

Queen
Backer
Beta Tester
Ecosystem Beta Tester
Ants that form supercolonies essentially think all ants of their own species belong their own colony, so you can take ants from different parts of the world and throw them together and they will merge into one single colony.

The worst offenders are species of Argentine ants (Linepithema humile), Bigheaded ants (Pheidole megacephalia), Garden ants (Lasius neglectus), Yellow crazy ants (Anopolepis gracilis), Black crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis) and a few others - all of which are highly invasive species that can do tremendous damage to ecosystems they don't belong into, up to the point of eradicating entire species.
Solenopsis invicta (red imported fire ants) are also starting to take steps towards this as increasingly common sightings of highly polygynous colonies with dozens of queens indicate (they don't form supercolonies yet, but having a large number of queens in a colony is a good start).

I agree that it would be interesting to have satellite colonies with multiple queens in the game but most likely these additional queens would have to be very very expensive and I'm actually not entirely sure how good the game's interface would be at managing multiple colonies.
 

MikeSlugDisco

Community Manager
Staff member
Community Manager
It's something that's certainly been considered, but the way we've built the game we think your main Formica ereptor colony will be relatively small (by some ant standards) probably maxing out at around 200-300 (but with instant respawning of ants it'll feel more than that).

The way the story mode will eventually take shape we're hoping you'll become quite attached to your queen, because she'll be there all through it! Having another monarch on a satellite throne may muddy the waters a bit.
 

Redmoth27

Queen
Backer
Mike maybe could be a second queen then she splits off and later in the story her own colony goes for revenge.
 

MikeSlugDisco

Community Manager
Staff member
Community Manager
I don't really want to say too much more because it'll spoil the story mode. But you will be following the complete life cycle of your colony.
 

Serafine

Queen
Backer
Beta Tester
Ecosystem Beta Tester
Does that mean ALATES?

Also if the queen is there in all levels will we be able to invest into her and "upgrade" her? Like having her produce better minions or produce eggs at reduced costs or faster developing brood (may all be specific for each absorbed species, so you can specialize in your favorite units) and the upgrades carry over to the next level (maybe even alter the visuals of the queen model)?
 
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