More antspecies and ideas to imprement them

[VarmintLP]

Hello there,

JohnSlugDisco actually told me that it would be a great idea to put the idea of my sugguestion into the sugguestion area so here I go.
I'm a bit tired from work so I thought why not just quote what I wrote to share this with everyone in the right section.

I also got a pretty healthy knowledge about ants in general and hope to find a camponotus queen to keep a larger antspecies which lives inside woodnests. It would be really awesome to have one of those since they are much easier to see.

Hopefully I will be of help to the developers with my knowledge and try to support them with my knowledge about ants and perhaps not unknown but uncommon facts about several antspecies. Hopefully we will get to see some of the following antscolonies (more like types not specific species):

- Harvester Ants: Diet which is 99,99% seeds and rarely an insect. Not all seeds tho since some are actually poisonous. (even to us humans) Messor Barbarus for example.
- Honey Pot Ants: Storing their food inside some of their workers. Some Antkeeps feed the colony colored honey to make it more colorful. Myrmecocystus mexicanus for example.
- Dracula Ants: They are best know for drinking blood from their own lavae or puppae. They are specialized predators tho. Stigmatomma for example.
- Trap-Jaw Ants: They are picky eaters but their jaws is one of the fastest and most painful in the world. They sometimes keep springtails as livestock. Anochetus for example.
- Gamergate Ants: Every ant starts as a queenant but they usually have an alpha queen (the gamergate) which tries to keep her brute infertile. They can however change the leader if another one wants to overthrow the current alpha. They are clever girls. Diacamma rugosum for example.
- Wood Ants: They are bigger than most ants and easy to spot. They live in dead trees or wood. Preferably dry. Camponotus herculeanus for example.
-Weaver Ants: They build their nests inside of trees using the silk of their larvae to glue the leafs, mosses and twigs together. Camponotus orinus for example.
- Marauder Ants: They are well known for their extream sizes. The queens can grow up to 3 cm in length (as far as I know/saw). Pheidologeton for example.

I must tell you that I don't know everything of course and some of those informations might be wrong. Like the name of the species or one or two facts but as far as I remembered those facts should be true.

Hopefully we will get to see some interesting new colonies and I could imagine a fight between weaver ants and leaf cutter ants but I don't know if those two kind of ants could ever meet or if they will be implemented into the game but I will gladly help the developers if they need some help with facts and informations about different kinds of ants.

So to add more informations about the Messor Barbarus coloney and how it could be implemented. They are known to travel a long distances and create something like trails over time which act as highways to get to the nearest area with food. Here it would be interesting to have them climb up the plants to harvest some seeds which could regrow after a night had past. They don't need much food and a small colony can actually survive about a month until they need more food. I tried it with some workers which had lost their queen. Sadly they cannot have more than one queen unlike other ant species which would of course be super interesting to see. Like having an underground colony which would find one or two other colonies to forge a super colony.

Back to the MB. They usually only pick the most interesting and healthiest looking seeds but they also sometimes just drop them which actually helps to spread plantlife. This could be an interesting feature for some maps. With a chance of 1-5% an ant could drop a seed and leave it to grow into a new plant. This would be awesome since it would enable them a closer food source. but this would only work if there was only no other food plant within 5-10 hexagons. Depending on the mapdesign anyway. ^^

Now to give some idea for a battleing scenario. Messor Barbarus vs Lasius Niger. MB would try to get new seeds and LN would be trying to defend their aphits which are living on the plants. I actually once bought a mint plant and it was covered in aphits. I didn´t had a colony ready to care for them however so I had to throw the plant away since it got rekt in my attempt to free it from the aphits.

Same could be for the leafcutters. LC want the leafs the LN want the aphits and therefor protect the plant.

 

[MedinB]

Hello there,

JohnSlugDisco actually told me that it would be a great idea to put the idea of my suggestion into the suggestion area so here I go.
I'm a bit tired from work, so I thought why not just quote what I wrote to share this with everyone in the right section.


So to add more informations about the Messor Barbarus colony and how it could be implemented. They are known to travel a long distances and create something like trails over time which act as highways to get to the nearest area with food. Here it would be interesting to have them climb up the plants to harvest some seeds which could regrow after a night had passed. They don't need much food and a small colony can actually survive about a month until they need more food. I tried it with some workers which had lost their queen. Sadly they cannot have more than one queen unlike other ant species which would of course be fascinating to see. Like having an underground colony which would find one or two other colonies to forge a super colony.

Back to the MB. They usually only pick the most interesting and healthiest looking seeds, but they also sometimes just drop them which actually helps to spread plant life. This could be an interesting feature for some maps. With a chance of 1-5% an ant could drop a seed and leave it to grow into a new plant. This would be awesome since it would enable them a closer food source. But this would only work if there was only no other food plant within 5-10 hexagons. Depending on the map design anyway. ^^

Now to give some idea for a battling scenario. Messor Barbarus vs Lasius Niger. MB would try to get new seeds and LN would be trying to defend their aphits which are living on the plants. I actually once bought a mint plant and it was covered in aphits. I didn’t have a colony ready to care for them however, so I had to throw the plant away since it got rekt in my attempt to free it from the aphits.

Some could be for the leafcutters. LC want the leafs the LN want the aphits and therefor protect the plant.

This is not probably going to happen this is just an inspired RTS game, am I right?

 

[VarmintLP]

well. I think that they try their best to keep it as realistic as possible. Although they also downscale most of the things. Like the colonies don't actually start to be super activ during founding and only start looking for food as soon as the colony got some workers to spare. I could imagine that they will add some more interesting antcolonies like the recently added leafcutter ants and I think the next more interesting could be a weaver ant but since those are hard to do it might not happen any time soon.

The honey Pot ants would also be interesting or the trap jaws. But that will be up to them to decide. I can mearly offer my experience and help in these matters with my knowledge.

 

[rakuen0611]

I disagree about Honey Pots....as their repletes are just immovable storages. Other than that, they are just like formica fusca in terms of gameplay
A species that uses gamergates would be interesting as they offer different playstyles. From what i can tell, those sorts of ants are less socially oriented as the ants that are currently playable and tend to be bigger in body size and forage independently and rely on stings to subdue food all are good options for diverse gameplay.

So the species i have in mind is Dinoponera Gigantea. As one of the largest ants in the world they have huge hp, defense and attack. Also, they should have a extremely poisonous sting as a special attack that stuns as well. You start off with the Gamergate and, like in real life, you don't have a claustral brood. The Gamergate has to hunt and feed herself until she has enough "stock" of food to lay eggs thus functions as a playable unit. She should have boosted stats if only slightly and give off some sort of aura to increase the stats of near by colony mates. A key function and drawback for playing as these ants is that egg laying depends on this stock and it takes a long time for ants to hatch. Their stats and special ability should make the difference, but this adds a layer of strategy and planning as you're not invincible. Another function to this species advantage is that if the Gamergate dies, another ant can be the gamergate up until all ants are wiped from a gameplay session.

another idea i have is for bull ants in this case Myrmecia Rubripes. Large in size with with their distinctive mandibles offers an excuse for an aoe attack. They also have deadly stingers that should poison and stun. Similar to the Gigantea, their queen can be liike a playable unit though more traditional game play since they have queens instead of gamergates. But as with other large ants, they should have a slower incubation period and rely more of a separate stock to control how many ants are born at a time. the queen however can hunt for a while until her first brood is born. You have to manage units as they replace slower to make up for their high attack and aoe and stings. No gamergates so no way to replace a lost queen. Management with these ants would be key

 

[VarmintLP]

I actually just gave an example with not a too presice example in all the cases. However it would just be interesting and easy to implement those honeypot ants. A gammergate colony will probably be much more difficult to program properly but I do agree that they will be interesting to play if available sometime in the future. Also. Did I say that all the informations are correct? Also also. When did I said that the foodstocks are mobile? I just said they store food in some of their workers. ^^

 

[Guy Fieri]

I think honeypots could be interesting. Repletes should be much more cost effective than traditional food storages and they should be important to the levels they are in. One level could involve storing as much food as possible before a food shortage, during which a stronger colony of a different species (Solenopsis xyloni?) will attempt to raid yours for food and your colony has to last off of the replete's storages until the other colony starves. Another level could involve a burrowing enemy that targets your defenseless repletes and you either have to waste food on food tiles or defend your repletes.

 

[Gherks]

As an Aussie, I'd be interested in seeing the Australian Bullant Myrmecia Gratiosaor or analis. They generally have a small number of ants per nest, are solo hunters and prey mainly on lizards and frogs and other insects, but also nectar and seeds. Some can grow up to 4cm long (1.6in), are incredibly aggressive and amazingly smart ants (they always attack from behind).

For in game they would be hugely expensive, as they are only slightly smaller than the queen. Their tile would be around 4 tiles large. Once they go above ground, they would hunt insects, but also larger animals. They would be quick, plus they jump, have a powerful sting and high health. (ive stepped on one repeatedly and it still kept coming for me)

For one of the missions, as the bull ants dont have colony workers, your queen must invade the nest of your rival, kill off the queen and take over the colony.

For another mission maybe foraging for food around human habitats while another colony is present. Possibly having human feet stepping and crushing your ants and food though out the game (kinda like that blue gloved finger that keeps crushing my ants).

 

[VarmintLP]

As an Aussie, I'd be interested in seeing the Australian Bullant Myrmecia Gratiosaor or analis. They generally have a small number of ants per nest, are solo hunters and prey mainly on lizards and frogs and other insects, but also nectar and seeds. Some can grow up to 4cm long (1.6in), are incredibly aggressive and amazingly smart ants (they always attack from behind).

For in game they would be hugely expensive, as they are only slightly smaller than the queen. Their tile would be around 4 tiles large. Once they go above ground, they would hunt insects, but also larger animals. They would be quick, plus they jump, have a powerful sting and high health. (ive stepped on one repeatedly and it still kept coming for me)

For one of the missions, as the bull ants dont have colony workers, your queen must invade the nest of your rival, kill off the queen and take over the colony.

For another mission maybe foraging for food around human habitats while another colony is present. Possibly having human feet stepping and crushing your ants and food though out the game (kinda like that blue gloved finger that keeps crushing my ants).

That sounds like an interesting colony. But strange that those only go for frogs and lizards. But then again. It's Australia. Where people don't care about the poisonous spiders inside their shoes and where everything wants to kill you. Just saying this. Decisive Emu Victory and killing millions of invasive, feral cats with sausages containing a poison against which every animal in Australia is resistant since it's from a local plant. What a great country.

Don't worry. I'm not trying to mock anyones country. Those are just some random facts that happen to be true.

Anyway. Love the idea and it would definitely mean that there would need to be a much bigger map so it could provide enough space for the workers. For the came of course it would require a spinning tile system if they make the exception that the workertiles for this colony would be 6 tiles in a row OR they could make the exception that the tiles are generally just bigger than usual. This would make it 1 queensized tile per tile (6 small tiles in 1 big tile. I mean if the chambers are big then the tunnles also need to be big.

This also reminds me kind of of the ants from Indiana Jones and the crystal skull. Although those might have been invented since they are actually super big and way too smart to be real. Unless those do exist and are just super dangerous. D:

 

[Gherks]

Sounds perfect!

 

[A cool guy]

As an Aussie, I'd be interested in seeing the Australian Bullant Myrmecia Gratiosaor or analis. They generally have a small number of ants per nest, are solo hunters and prey mainly on lizards and frogs and other insects, but also nectar and seeds. Some can grow up to 4cm long (1.6in), are incredibly aggressive and amazingly smart ants (they always attack from behind).
...

Wow! I've heard of this species and looked at them capturing small insects, but I never knew that they are intelligent! Maybe instead of being those ants, they should be the enemy (ooooo... a level in Australia ) because it'll be hard to make them strike from the behind. Or maybe slug disco just won't program that into the level. Great idea though!

 

[Gherks]

Wow! I've heard of this species and looked at them capturing small insects, but I never knew that they are intelligent! Maybe instead of being those ants, they should be the enemy (ooooo... a level in Australia ) because it'll be hard to make them strike from the behind. Or maybe slug disco just won't program that into the level. Great idea though!

That being said theyve only ever attacked me from the front!

 

[VarmintLP]

Well ants are quite intelligent. Some of those species did already exist in these forms with the dinosaurs. Like they had agricultur with their fungus growing and care-taking of aphits millions and millions of years before we humans were even arround.

Of course they have changed since then but still. It's very impressiv how intelligent they were. They are so good with their communication and socialskill that they have developped a social stomage which is to store food for their sisters and queen. So when two ants "kiss" they are doing what's called trofalaxis (probably misspelled). It's basicly what birds or koalas do to feed their babies although in a diffrent form. Koalas feed their young their shit which containes the needed vitamins and bacteria to make it possible to eat those poisonous leafs.

 

[pakitane16]

I think jackjumper or jumping ant works better. They're related to bull ant, but they can jump. My idea is that they can jump to enemy's backrow, then attack from behind; or they can jump and latch onto large critters and sting them. This will provide ereptor a way to disrupt backrow and mess with range unit. These species relies heavily on eyesight so it should be fun if they gain big field of vision in fog of wars, or their range of attack is wider than other ants.. Because they're solitary hunter in real life, a group of more than 7 may not follow marker order and tend to wander of.

 

[Gherks]

I think jackjumper or jumping ant works better. They're related to bull ant, but they can jump. My idea is that they can jump to enemy's backrow, then attack from behind; or they can jump and latch onto large critters and sting them. This will provide ereptor a way to disrupt backrow and mess with range unit. These species relies heavily on eyesight so it should be fun if they gain big field of vision in fog of wars, or their range of attack is wider than other ants.. Because they're solitary hunter in real life, a group of more than 7 may not follow marker order and tend to wander of.

I can just imagine everyone yelling at them to get back to the marker as they meander off on their merry way.

 

[A cool guy]

Well ants are quite intelligent. Some of those species did already exist...

I guess all living creatures are intelligent in their own ways.

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

An ant is not intelligent, but ants are intelligent. In the same way a brain cell is not intelligent but a brain is.

</iam12andthisisdeep>

 

[Flameal15k]

I think jackjumper or jumping ant works better. They're related to bull ant, but they can jump. My idea is that they can jump to enemy's backrow, then attack from behind; or they can jump and latch onto large critters and sting them. This will provide ereptor a way to disrupt backrow and mess with range unit. These species relies heavily on eyesight so it should be fun if they gain big field of vision in fog of wars, or their range of attack is wider than other ants.. Because they're solitary hunter in real life, a group of more than 7 may not follow marker order and tend to wander of.

I'd prefer turtle ants (can't actually jump, but can glide, so maybe a little fudging with their biology would be acceptable). Granted, this might be because I live in America and want to see an ant native to the states in the game, but can you blame me? Plus jack jumpers get all the hype.

*goes back to working on thread I made for Turtle ants and their missions*

 

[VarmintLP]

Granted, this might be because I live in America and want to see an ant native to the states in the game, but can you blame me?

Well if you do some research on google you might actually find, that there are ants just like those in the game which are native to america. They usually are the same but look diffrent or only have a slightly diffrent behavior.
And of course I can't blame you.