Tier 4/Fire ant update: Analysis

Rensy

Colony
This is just for fun and is going over everything that has been revealed for the fire ants yet. This can possibly reveal some stuff you didn't know about the update. So lets get to it



Tier 4 creatures:

There is a bunch of creatures revealed for the fire ant update, which i will show all of them in this section.

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Venus flytraps are one of the first creatures revealed for the fire ant update, they will be inhabiting the swampy area's of north carolina, the same spot the fire ants will be placing their nest in. No model or abilities of this creature are revealed yet, but it will for sure capture bugs and other critters roaming around these places, which is what the venus flytraps are known for.

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Bombardier beetles are another creature that was revealed for the tier 4 update, just like the previous creature, there has been no leaked image of a model or any abilities for this creature, but beware! This beetle creates chemicals in its abdomen to create a boiling hot liquid at its interrupters, which will burn our unfortunate fire ants to death, these are the true fire insects.

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Red velvet ants, although named ants are actually a species of solitary wingless wasp, and will be living in the north carolina swamp the fire ants so desire to live in too, these so called "ants" have a nasty sting that have excruciating pain, which any weak ant colony will meet their demise from the painful stings of the red velvet ants. The developers has not shown any models or abilities of the red velvet ant.

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The six spotted tiger beetle with its jule like spots will be racing around the swamps of north carolina in search of prey, and unlucky fire ants are no exception. Unlike the last 3 creatures mentioned, this creature has a leaked image of a model from the developers themselves, Animations of the furious tiger beetle have also been shown, but i will get onto that later.

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The great blue skimmer will be hovering above with is long wings searching for nutritious food, and if any vulnerable fire ant have been caught in the eyesight of the dragonfly, the skimmer will dash down to scoop up its meal. This creature is the first titan creature to be revealed for the fire ant update, which means this should be a hard creature to take down. Again, this creature has been shown a leaked model by the developers themselves, Matt is the talented creator who makes these awesome models. The great blue skimmer has also been shown animations, but previously mentioned, i will get onto that later.

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The little black ants will be another species roaming round across the swamp in north carolina, and are territorial, battling out any fire ant colony that dares to enter the territory of this little species. This ant species will perhaps be the smallest of them all in the game, even smaller than the fire ants. It has a leaked image of all the castes they will have in the colony, it's a reused model of the fire ants colored differently.

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The final creature that has been revealed is the big headed ants, which will be another ant species walking through the swamp of north carolina and battling out with fire ants! It has a leaked image of all the castes they will have in a single colony, Which is just one of many Great models created by one of the developers Matt!

Animations:

This section will show all animations of creatures which the devs have revealed the animations of.

Fire ant animations
These are the animations of the one and only, fire ants.

Six spotted tiger beetle animations
The animations of the jule like six spotted tiger beetle.

Great blue skimmer animations
Lastly but not least is the animations of the titanic great blue skimmer.

Fire ant abilities:

I would have titled this section the "creature abilities" but i don't think the developers revealed the abilities of any other creature besides fire ants. So lets get into it.

This ability will be what the fire ants are going to be known for besides their burning stings, its that they can for bridges on a body of water to cross locations they normally wouldn't have been able to get across to. This is a video link of fire ants forming bridges in the game (currently going under development) Fire ants making bridge in Empires of the undergrowth

Fire ants will also be able to do venom damage when they sting, making for a good defence.

The last ability i will show is the unit options, which i will show here.

Pervasive - if pervasive soldiers are selected, hatching new soldiers after the previous ones have died will be free if the egg has been on the soldier tile for a set period of time. The exact time will be down to balance, so we'll decide on that when we're in a position to properly test them.

Vigorous - soldiers with this option will have a buff to their stats (attack damage, speed and health) for a time after they are born. Again, the exact time and buffs will be down to balance.

Features and map leak:

This section will cover a few new features the fire ant update will have including a level leak of the fire ant update.

Aphid relocation will be a feature in the fire ant update, allowing fire ants and possibly the other ant species in the levels to relocate aphids to a more suitable area to farm honeydew so you can use it as food to expand your colony. I'm also pretty sure this will be another species of aphid instead of the ones from tier 2.

Titan climbing is another feature that will come with the fire ant update allowing your ants to climb up titans and continue to damage them from a different angle. This won't only be available to fire ants in the update however, after tier 4 is released, the other ant species too will be able to climb titans so you can further damage them.

There was a level map leak released on the latest newsletter, it is however undecorated with swamp flora and other stuff yet and is still bland, but that doesn't stop the fact that this is an actual fire ant level leak.aos.PNG

And there it is, the tier 4/fire ant update analysis. Took me a while to create this!
 
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pakitane16

Colony
This is a good summary, not an analysis.

It's the end of Lunar New Year, I don't have time to look up the source videos so feel free to correct me. Some information I recall from dev stream and SS posts:

- Velvet ant has weak bite and strong sting similar to fire ants. Its setae is said to deal reflecting venom-damage when attacked, similar to spiny crickets (they deal reflecting physical-damage).
-> Another annoying enemy in group.

- Spotted tiger beetle is confirmed to have different stats and abilities from beach variant.
-> Beach variant has AOE stun so I guess the new one may have bleed or knockback. It is probably faster and weaker than the prior (slimmer body, longer jaws, can open wings).

- Flagging is mentioned in little black ants' SS post.
-> Harvestman is said to stun enemies with a strong odor but they do a no damage strike that stun group of enemies ingame. I think little black ant may do a waving animation then do an AOE stun or confusion, which is stupidly annoying in group like the harvestman.

- Big-headed ant supersoldiers are said to have strong bites but are clumsy.
-> No clear info here but stunning itself after a strong charge attack may be a good idea.

- Basic abilities for fire ants includes: strong sting every 2-3 weak bites (total DPS will be roughly about black ants), bridge buiding and 2 eggs incubated on one tile at lv3. NO they DON'T have damage over time venom (the ereptor version on the othe hand...??).

- Their ability choices seem to favor 2 playstyle: pervasive favors long distance travel that need short burst of reinforcement while vigorous favors short distance self-defense.

- There is confirmation about other creatures walking on water, not clear if they are new ones.

- Things not shown in the videos above: When water rises, the bridge are disassembled and your ants all die. When water recedes, ants that find footing will try to go back to the queen; if they can't, they panic and die; those ending up on water die.
-> Yeah, making bridge doesn't mean your ants can lively float on water.

- Different aphid species is confirmed, the plant climbing system is needed to interact with them. You can move aphids between designated plant.

- All creatures bigger than tiger beetles are climbable. This will be implemented retrospectively to previous missions after 4th tier is out. Different species gain different bonus from mounting titans. Titans have various ways to kill mounting ants.
 

Rensy

Colony
This is a good summary, not an analysis.

It's the end of Lunar New Year, I don't have time to look up the source videos so feel free to correct me. Some information I recall from dev stream and SS posts:

- Velvet ant has weak bite and strong sting similar to fire ants. Its setae is said to deal reflecting venom-damage when attacked, similar to spiny crickets (they deal reflecting physical-damage).
-> Another annoying enemy in group.

- Spotted tiger beetle is confirmed to have different stats and abilities from beach variant.
-> Beach variant has AOE stun so I guess the new one may have bleed or knockback. It is probably faster and weaker than the prior (slimmer body, longer jaws, can open wings).

- Flagging is mentioned in little black ants' SS post.
-> Harvestman is said to stun enemies with a strong odor but they do a no damage strike that stun group of enemies ingame. I think little black ant may do a waving animation then do an AOE stun or confusion, which is stupidly annoying in group like the harvestman.

- Big-headed ant supersoldiers are said to have strong bites but are clumsy.
-> No clear info here but stunning itself after a strong charge attack may be a good idea.

- Basic abilities for fire ants includes: strong sting every 2-3 weak bites (total DPS will be roughly about black ants), bridge buiding and 2 eggs incubated on one tile at lv3. NO they DON'T have damage over time venom (the ereptor version on the othe hand...??).

- Their ability choices seem to favor 2 playstyle: pervasive favors long distance travel that need short burst of reinforcement while vigorous favors short distance self-defense.

- There is confirmation about other creatures walking on water, not clear if they are new ones.

- Things not shown in the videos above: When water rises, the bridge are disassembled and your ants all die. When water recedes, ants that find footing will try to go back to the queen; if they can't, they panic and die; those ending up on water die.
-> Yeah, making bridge doesn't mean your ants can lively float on water.

- Different aphid species is confirmed, the plant climbing system is needed to interact with them. You can move aphids between designated plant.

- All creatures bigger than tiger beetles are climbable. This will be implemented retrospectively to previous missions after 4th tier is out. Different species gain different bonus from mounting titans. Titans have various ways to kill mounting ants.

I do know that the little black ants have a unique gaster flagging animation, i don't know what i didn't mention it.

I also know six spotted tiger beetle has different stats than beach one, since they're different species it would make sense for them to have different abilities.

Yes, big headed ants are said to be clumsy, i heard it from them.

I never actually knew that you needed the plant climbing system for aphids.

Also yes, the devs confirmed one of the unit options will be having the fire ants buffing over time, it says it on the may/june newsletter, i just copied and pasted that text from the newsletter about the unit options. If you haven't, do read that newsletter.

Anyways, thanks for the extra information.
 
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