Also a bit late, however maybe some ideas also for the future. Firstly, it seems like that for leafcutter ants the most important achievement is expanding their territory. Only then they are able to stay alive and flourish. I think this territorial expansion is one of the most interesting gameplay features of EotU and especially playing leafcutters.
The rainforest is not an easy environment, many threats are existing: lingering spiders, nests of flying species, actively hunting spiders, other ant colonies, etc. I think all of these threats could provide an unique gameplay. Examples:
- Lingering Spiders: Such spiders have typically a web which can be pretty big comparing to ants. They are located on plants and also often between the stones under plants. In both cases they are an obstacle for our ants staying between our ants and the plants. To reach the plant you need to overcome these guardians.
- Nests of Flying Species: Obviously ants are always endangered also by flying species, however for gameplay reasons it doesn't make sense to implement such species in a manner that they ravage the whole map. Instead, they could have a nest somewhere on the map and around that nest there is always the threat that your will get picked by such predators. This would result in a permanent attrition for your colony and could also be a way to block some of territories. The only way to reach those territories safely and begin with foraging is to destroy the nest. At some point you will need to attack these nests.
- Actively Hunting Spiders: We have already those spiders in the game and their behavior is already good enough I think. Only addition could be an active lurking when they discover the ant nest or a supply route.
- Ant Colonies: I think also for other ant colonies most of the concepts do already exist. Army ants could be an late game event, other leafcutter colonies would compete for territories, others could be an obstacle on the way for better territories.
Freeplay is right now more like an infinite battle arena. I think an event based approach would make it superb.