Highly Theoretical Multiplayer Balance

[Rayalot72]

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.

 

[Rayalot72]

Leafcutter Ants:

This will depend on how it is implemented, but assuming the majors have taunts that affect everything nearby:

The confirmed "taunt" ability may serve well to counter high level but few ants, by taking the most hits while soldiers can deal any damage they need. Particularly, if the major's hitbox is large enough, this may serve as a highly effective way of preventing mortars from splashing an entire army (large crabs on 2.2 do this, as they're large enough that devil's coach horse larvae rarely enter the splash radius).

Enough low level ants should be capable of both surviving and overwhelming any majors.

Alternatively, the taunt may be possible to wait out by using a large number of tank units, like the Rufa warriors, enabling attacks on the other soldier types with a second wave of soldiers.

If the taunts are permanent effects, then chances are the best counter will be to simply have a lot of damage to kill the majors, while tanky but low damage forces, or forces that require the enemy DPS to be taken out quickly, will be prone to getting overwhelmed before they can handle the majors.

More or less majors will likely effect how battles play out, as a lot of majors may be incapable of taking on low HP but high damage foes, while they'd effectively halt any forces that can't compete in a battle of attrition (lvl 1 spam).

 

[Rayalot72]

Actually, Leafcutters will probably have the main advantage of stability as far as food economy goes. Chances are that they will not be competing for the same food sources as other colonies, or will simply be able to take from two food types. This would give them their own advantage that could keep them powerful in dire conditions, and potentially allow them to out-compete every other colony late-game if left uncontested. I expect they'd play the opposite of black ants, which perform very well early-game.

 

[Rayalot72]

Workers:

Workers, if balanced to be worse at tanking than the Rufa warriors, are likely to become even more vital in multiplayer than in single player, as secondary teams that harvest food but don't cost much to make will be vital for competing with other players. If upgrades are made cheaper, increasing their speed may be quite effective in making them good for running past areas that enemies are prone to be patrolling in.

In combat, they may operate well as "stall" teams for low numbers of strong ants that are respawning, or PvE psudo-tanks against high damage enemies.

 

[Soccer51x]

Interesting comments, I am excited to see how the super majors turn out. It'd be awesome to see them cost 100, seeing as they will hopefully have more than twice the health of a normal soldier. Seeing as they probably won't do as much damage, but be focused on distracting and tanking. I really love the capabilities of where this game will go. Keep up the good work devs!

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

Interesting comments, I am excited to see how the super majors turn out.

Please note that we have not confirmed super majors in any form.

 

[Redmoth27]

We all know it's coming in the game in some form Mike.

 

[Soccer51x]

Lol, trying to make it a surprise mike ???

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

Lol, trying to make it a surprise mike ???

We do have some surprises in store but this is not one of them. No point people getting hopes up for something that is unlikely to happen.

 

[Raptorofwar]

Speaking of colony on colony, can you add slavemaker ants as both a buildable unit and as an enemy colony? Slavemakers could be used to bolster one's economy while weakening others. They'd only really be useful in colony vs colony, though. I'd love this to come in Freeplay mode.

 

[Rayalot72]

A slavemaker colony would still be fun in PvE if the mission is well designed. I'd love to go for brood theft to take on threats.

 

[Soccer51x]

It'd be highly overpowered, something that is faster than other ants and has more health than workers. I'd suggest making it about as much as 1.5x the amount for soldiers. 50 is way too little for that type of insanity

 

[Soccer51x]

Mike I joke with you by the way I know that it's highly unlikely, but could you make a newsletter on what is to come ??? Very appreciative of your willingness to listen to people like me

 

[Rayalot72]

Potential Food Balance

Underground:

The underground should be the only part of multiplayer that corresponds directly to the colony being played. Each colony should have its own personal underground, and it should be randomly generated within a few parameters, where the hardest to obtain food is furthest away.

Enemies:

Enemy difficulty should scale with any PvE difficulty settings that are preset, voted on, or chosen.

The ratio of enemy difficulty should be based on the sheer strength of the colony type in question, so that strong species take about the same amount of time as weak species to clear their underground.

As an example: The fusca are weak, and should receive free pockets of food, or passive enemies, and later funnelweb spiders, devil's coach horse larvae, and a few devil's coach horse beetles. The rufa, on the other hand, are quite strong, and should have few to no free pockets of food, with at least larvae to block them, and a much higher frequency of beetles to threaten them.

Quantity:

The amount of food in the underground should correspond with a colony's ability to compete with food sources overground, whether guarded by PvE enemies or contested by other colonies.

For example: The Fusca take a while to get going, and are no very strong, so they would need a lot more food underground to allow them to either get going or compete overground. The Rufa, on the other hand, can quite easily contest any overground food. Because of this, the Rufa should be forced to use overground sources to supply themselves, with the underground only having enough food to keep them competitive in a dire situation.

Overground:

There should always be some free food nearby to each side of the conflict overground, just to provide a way to get some food to get going. Enemy difficulty and ladybug frequency should both be determined by difficulty scale.

Guarded Food:

PvE enemies should guard some overground food, particularly that which is closest to only one team but further from the others. This would provide an alternative food source to strong colonies that can't compete for contested food.

Some of this food may want to be renewable, but not to the extent that you can win by never going to the contested areas.

Contested Food

This food should be between any number of teams that are equal distances from it. This would provide something colonies would need to fight for to grow, whether it takes the form of that which is washed up into inter-tidal flats or an aphid farm. There should generally be at least 2 contested areas for each team, with more of such areas than there are colonies on a team (in a 2v2, there should be 3 contested areas), so that one side can always obtain some kind of food if they focus on it, while the stronger colony could win by controlling the most areas, or balancing that which is contested with PvE guarded or underground food.

Very little of the contested food should be temporary, with almost all of it being renewable in one way or another.

 

[Rayalot72]

Difficulty Scale:

This should vary for the individual colony, scaling both the underground and any PvE enemies that are nearby.

The default difficulty should be Medium. Every game won in a streak should up the difficulty, going to hard and then insane. Losing twice in a row in medium difficulty should drop you down to easy until you win one.

The player should also have the option to handicap themselves, and set their difficulty to hard or insane at all times. You could even go as far as to allow them to turn on challenges like the 1.X mole crickets, or anything we may get with 2.X.

Contested areas that have PvE enemies, or aphid farms with ladybugs, should scale difficulty based on the average difficulty of the colonies that are nearest to those farms, rounded down.

 

[Rayalot72]

If they add slavemakers, I wonder how they'll be implemented. It would be very nice if, instead of being limited to a single colony type, they could raid all species. This would enable them to combine the firepower of their enemies to use against them.

They could also get ahead by disabling the spawn tiles of an enemy colony to ensure that they can grow quicker than their enemies can, and this may make them a viable counter to Fusca rushing, or colonies that rely on underground food, as any setback will effect all expansion for the affected colony.