Suggestion: Alternative / Side Campaigns

TheRexYo

Queen
The idea behind this is that people can pick from multiple campaigns when they start a new story game, a feature that could perhaps be released as DLC, or simply as part of a post-release update. I know this is a long way off, but hear me out.

When the Other Foot level came out awhile back, I realized that it might be an interesting idea to have it as a full-on campaign. The Campaign is one of the more fun parts of the game, as it has the greatest feeling of progression, but it ends quickly and isn't very replayable. So the idea of alternative and/or side campaigns came to mind as a solution, as well as a second idea that I'll be posting soon after this one.

That aside, the alternative / side campaigns should be similar to the main one at first, because if they stray too far they will require much more resources and time to develop. Anything major should be released as DLC because - let's face it - it wasn't on the Kickstarter and it isn't a minor undertaking. Perhaps the first one could be based off of (like I suggested earlier) the Counterpart Colony. The player would have to choose between the two colonies when they first play the game, thus giving them the option to follow their own path, which I'd bet would leave a large impact on new players.

All things considered, this won't be implemented any time soon, but I think it'd be a good choice for DLC if the guys at SlugDisco ever decide to make any.
 

Durburz

Worker
I somehow feel this will be a natural update at some point, because the release of "The Other Colony" will need some mechanics to upgrade them if they are to become viable for long-term freeplays. If they add talent points to upgrade the individual ants for royal jelly, it's just a small step to make a variation on the Slave-maker, Trapjaw and both Army Ants. Meaning they essentially create a new campaign path for players with just small adjustments. What would be most interesting to me if you can choose between all the different ant species in the end, creating a fully customizable campaign run. It would also be interesting to see the Other Colony also have a different mix every playthrough. Maybe this is just decision for a niche player like me, in a niche game (how ant of me), but I really like running through the campaigns, get maximum royal jelly and then build a custom colony for Freeplay. I have about 14-16 different ant colony builds right now, with different talents and different design perspective to apply in Freeplay.
Game design suggestion to dev: Make a secondary royal jelly that goes into the overall account, that you can spend on the regular pre-set Black ant, Wood ant and Leaf cutters, making them more viable. 2nd suggestion: Melee only builds on freeplay have an incredibly hard time to beat the last waves, as they get perma stunlocked and just pushed into the queen slowly untill you lose. Even with upgraded melee only ants this is the conclusion. Maybe after a model gets stunned, there is a small cd on whether it can be stunned again in rapid succession?
 

person111

Colony
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I think the idea is great but each ant has different behaviors so sometimes the other campaigns wouldn’t really fit, unless it’s an all balanced map were all species of ants can use its abilities to the maximum. And yeah, it could be released as a DLC, I‘m not sure if it should have a cost or not. The idea that you can choose between 2 colonies is great, and it is true that it will impact the new players a lot. But I’m not sure how it is gonna be different aside from the terrain, is there going to be two different ant species or diverse enemies to help the player strategize easier?
 

TheRexYo

Queen
I think the idea is great but each ant has different behaviors so sometimes the other campaigns wouldn’t really fit, unless it’s an all balanced map were all species of ants can use its abilities to the maximum. And yeah, it could be released as a DLC, I‘m not sure if it should have a cost or not. The idea that you can choose between 2 colonies is great, and it is true that it will impact the new players a lot. But I’m not sure how it is gonna be different aside from the terrain, is there going to be two different ant species or diverse enemies to help the player strategize easier?
I'm not referring to the levels, I'm referring to the entire story, in case that wasn't clear. In other words, the player can select between two separate campaign storylines, so you can play as, for example, the Counterpart Colony in a full-on campaign dedicated to them. In such a campaign, the ant choices would change (assuming the developers don't take my 'ant choice' idea, which would otherwise ensure all ants are available to all campaigns - I still much prefer this idea since it would make the base campaign more interesting) to match the type of ants the player can play as in the levels (the same way the campaign only lets you play as the ants that are playable in missions). Most likely, the levels themselves would change (for example playing as Slave-Makers instead of Black Ants, Trap-Jaws and Army Ants instead of Leafcutters, etc.) with new mechanics (such as Slave-Makers having egg stealing as an objective), but that would basically force it to be a paid DLC due to the amount of work required to add such a thing. Other campaign ideas (such as a colony of Ereptors in the wild) could also be used, obviously.
 

MikeSlugDisco

Community Manager
Staff member
Community Manager
We're unsure if we'd go down the DLC route - we'll be assessing it as we complete the campaign.
 
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person111

Colony
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I'm not referring to the levels, I'm referring to the entire story, in case that wasn't clear. In other words, the player can select between two separate campaign storylines, so you can play as, for example, the Counterpart Colony in a full-on campaign dedicated to them. In such a campaign, the ant choices would change (assuming the developers don't take my 'ant choice' idea, which would otherwise ensure all ants are available to all campaigns - I still much prefer this idea since it would make the base campaign more interesting) to match the type of ants the player can play as in the levels (the same way the campaign only lets you play as the ants that are playable in missions). Most likely, the levels themselves would change (for example playing as Slave-Makers instead of Black Ants, Trap-Jaws and Army Ants instead of Leafcutters, etc.) with new mechanics (such as Slave-Makers having egg stealing as an objective), but that would basically force it to be a paid DLC due to the amount of work required to add such a thing. Other campaign ideas (such as a colony of Ereptors in the wild) could also be used, obviously.
Oh, I get it. I agree with the idea that it might have a cost, the main work would be to implement the system. Which would take a hefty amount of script, so releasing it as a DLC might help with processing a bit, since the code wouldn’t be implemented in the game yet. Especially for people with lower grade computers or laptops.
 
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