Note: Multiplayer is not planned, it would be a secondary project the devs might take on in the future, after the core game is released.
This is mainly about balancing different colony species that fight each other.
Formica Fusca:
The criticism here is that, while black ant soldiers are quite strong, they can't really outmatch most special ant types, particularly Formica Rufa spitters. I would argue, however, that they can be fairly easily balanced as a swarm by modifying their underground. Essentially, they should get funnelwebs, woodworm, woodlice, and devil's coach horse that favor a lot of larvae over beetles. This would make them excellent for having a good economy that they don't need to fight other colonies for, with rush strategies revolving around building a lot of soldiers very quickly using easy food, particularly if colonies like the Rufa have to contest with devil's coach horse beetles with no free food pockets, and instead need to fight for overground food scraps or aphids.
A rush could either go for wiping the enemy colonies as fast as possible, or simply taking full control of any aphids or overground food sources.
Formica Rufa:
These are interesting due to their varied unit choice. Rapid fire would give them a lot of potential to fight wildlife, and use raw numbers to overwhelm foes that can't compete with them, with the added benefit of countering melee-focused colonies at high levels if the colony in question uses only a few well-upgraded ants.
The mortars are a very interesting counter unit. They would operate extremely well against most rushes or swarm tactics, like lvl 1 rapid fire spam or a fusca army. They could be countered, however, by the use of level 3 ants instead of swarms, as these would do more damage per respawn, and last longer through mortar fire.
This is mainly about balancing different colony species that fight each other.
Formica Fusca:
The criticism here is that, while black ant soldiers are quite strong, they can't really outmatch most special ant types, particularly Formica Rufa spitters. I would argue, however, that they can be fairly easily balanced as a swarm by modifying their underground. Essentially, they should get funnelwebs, woodworm, woodlice, and devil's coach horse that favor a lot of larvae over beetles. This would make them excellent for having a good economy that they don't need to fight other colonies for, with rush strategies revolving around building a lot of soldiers very quickly using easy food, particularly if colonies like the Rufa have to contest with devil's coach horse beetles with no free food pockets, and instead need to fight for overground food scraps or aphids.
A rush could either go for wiping the enemy colonies as fast as possible, or simply taking full control of any aphids or overground food sources.
Formica Rufa:
These are interesting due to their varied unit choice. Rapid fire would give them a lot of potential to fight wildlife, and use raw numbers to overwhelm foes that can't compete with them, with the added benefit of countering melee-focused colonies at high levels if the colony in question uses only a few well-upgraded ants.
The mortars are a very interesting counter unit. They would operate extremely well against most rushes or swarm tactics, like lvl 1 rapid fire spam or a fusca army. They could be countered, however, by the use of level 3 ants instead of swarms, as these would do more damage per respawn, and last longer through mortar fire.