Wood ants AI need some fixing (probably will happen after the fire ant update release)

syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I've been trying to get the wood ant workers in 2.1 and 2.2 to stop attacking the nearby tiger beetle larvae or any other enemies in those missions so that I could harvest resources for so many times now.
But it is no use and so I constantly have my resources go to waste because of the ants keep on attacking the bigger and stronger enemies and get themselves killed even though I disabled attack. Also the other wood ant AI colony in the extra level called "Babysitting" should also receive some fixing too, Its quite hard to even achieve victory in that extra level.
 

MedinB

Colony
I'm not a developer here, so I'm quite clueless on how the AI of the ants work. What I do know is that ants will not attack enemies if attack is turned off, unless they are provoked. The narrator will state, “The ants must defend themselves!”. Meaning, they will only attack if disturbed. However, this thread makes it seem that the AI for the Wood ants is broken in some form.

With the babysitting level, I agree, it's a very difficult level that could use some more balancing. Although, can you specify what exactly needs fixing? I'm sure it could have more food, or fewer enemies, but I'm not sure what's needed. I haven't played that level in a while.
 

WaffleGuy

Colony
You really can't avoid this. Your best bet is to just swarm the resources with workers with attack off. And your not alone, even I struggle with the beach levels (I typically take 20 attempts to do one of them on insane compared to 5 for rainforest/log levels). They are difficult because they require speed, especially at the beginning of each level. Oh, and Baby Sitting is hard if you haven't learned it yet. Here's a small tip I used to speedrun the level: you can use groups of lone workers to attack different groups, sort of 'activating' them before the AI can. And most importantly, remember to leave food for the AI so they can grow their army.
 

syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I'm not a developer here, so I'm quite clueless on how the AI of the ants work. What I do know is that ants will not attack enemies if attack is turned off, unless they are provoked. The narrator will state, “The ants must defend themselves!”. Meaning, they will only attack if disturbed. However, this thread makes it seem that the AI for the Wood ants is broken in some form.

With the babysitting level, I agree, it's a very difficult level that could use some more balancing. Although, can you specify what exactly needs fixing? I'm sure it could have more food, or fewer enemies, but I'm not sure what's needed. I haven't played that level in a while.

The attack off button works in a way to prevent the selected group of your AI ants from attacking any creatures or other ants they see. And the ants won't attack any creatures based off of what the narrator will say. And for babysitting, I think the only thing it needs fixing is that the other wood ant colony does not exit out of their nests too early and just wait for the player to help them out so that they don't run out of food.
 

WaffleGuy

Colony
And for babysitting, I think the only thing it needs fixing is that the other wood ant colony does not exit out of their nests too early and just wait for the player to help them out so that they don't run out of food.
I think this could be helpful on easier difficulties. Either this or just give them a greater supply of food.
 
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