My suggestions/wish list (ant species, mechanics)

[Buster]

I don't know if its worth while to list suggestions/ wish list items on the steam forums but I will give it a shot, since I absolutely adore this game, and maybe some of the ideas I present are already in the works, or maybe thought of as good, and possibly used. I will split them into two sections, ant species and mechanics.

Ant species:

While its very easy to list dozens and dozens of ant species I would love to see make it into to the game, I've narrowed it down to just four, one that offers unique gameplay mechanics, and the others, a bit easier to implement since its foundation already exists within the game. I will start with the easiest one first;

Pheidologeton diversus/ Carebara diversa: The Asian Marauder ant: The short and sweet version, basically the predatory counterpart to the leaf cutter ant already in game. Yet offers more choice in ant behavior/customization, large highly aggressive colonies, with both stinging and biting workers, and super majors that rival even their queens, and often serve as mounts for the smaller worker ants. They also make very impressive attack swarms when taking down and processing large prey.

The harder one(s) to implement, but in my opinion worth while, is an ant species near and dear to me, since I actually managed to observe them in the wild.

Polyergus montivagus (Or just Polyergus in general): Dedicated slave raiding ants, members of this particular genus rely entirely on the capturing of slaves to function, the workers look very formidable, yet they cannot even feed themselves or their queen and rely entire on their chosen formica host to survive.

Furthermore Polyergus colonies do not start up in the typical way, the queen must find, and infiltrate a larger colony of formica and kill the current queen or else she will die, either due to the elements, or killed by the formica if the queen chooses poorly. Sometimes, the queens will infiltrate a smaller colony and allow the current queen to live until enough brood have been produced.

Game play wise, the player would have to balance to the needs of their colony for slaves, vs allowing the other colonies to grow so they can ensure they have a steady supply or slaves, or over raid that can stress a colony out and possible kill them, resulting in a loss of a source of slaves that they need to survive. (An example would be the choice of the player to raid a starting up colony for easy slaves, and risk killing the colony off, or raiding a larger colony, facing a concerted resistance, but allowing the smaller colony to grow up to a larger size before raiding them for easier rewards)

Off shoot species ideas:

Melophorus bagoti or camponotus inflatus: Honey pot ants

These offer unique appearances and game play, you need to gather enough food for repletes to ensure your colony will be able to survive the on coming dry seasons, furthermore honey pot ants are a favored treat for many animals of the outback, even people, to add further pressure honey pot ants will steal the repletes of other colonies to boost their own food stocks, further adding more aggressive play style options for the player.

I wouldn't be against seeing Solenopsis invicta as well but its not high on my list, but playing as a small, yet highly dangerous ant species could be fun as well. (Maybe the easiest to implement) <*Added into the game*

Mechanics: A bit more straight forward:

Seasonal pressures. This is partially implemented, with tides and such, but facing the changing seasons and the challenges/rewards they bring would be fun, for the tropical species, a rainy/dry season cycle, the rainy season brings an abundance of food, yet the risk of serious flooding. The dry season presents the opposite, along with possibly preventing nest expansion and applying temperature stress to your ants. This would also necessitate food storage/ and resource management.

"Boons" These are things that are really helpful to the player, and are often easy to get, they due to their nature should be rare, and have a random spawn chance. Some examples of boons would be:

A tap root: Uncovered by random digging, this gives your colony the chance to relocate aphids to an underground area in your nest for a large easy source of food.

Caterpillars, large sacks of food easily hunted down and killed, provide a large food/stat bonus.

Mealy bugs, another food similar to aphids, provide more food at a faster rate.

Nest/queen relocation, this ties into the first suggestion, being able to relocate your colony/queen if the current spot becomes untenable, either due to flooding, lack of food, or intense pressure from the other wildlife. Obviously this is a huge risk, since your queen will be vulnerable. Could also be used to introduce something cool like rafting that fire ants employ.

The queens of course should be slow and vulnerable.

Full colony cycle. This is self evident. But the primary goal of our colonies, should be to reproduce and spread our lineage to new lands. However this is not easy, since the alates are demanding on a colony to produce, since they require a lot of food, and protection since they are nearly defenseless, furthermore they should have a long development time and a possible food upkeep, until you kick them out to start new colonies.

Colony vs colony action. This is sadly lacking in the game at the moment, and no, im NOT talking about the queen of the hill mission. Im talking about launching full scale invasions of other colonies yourself, either to raid and plunder food and larvae.(Massive food boost for larvae and pupae) Or simply kill off the queens and claim the nest as your own. This was one of the fun things about sim ant, raiding that filthy red ant colony, taking all their stuff and eventually killing that pesky queen, or you could block their entrances and starve them out.(There is a species of ant that actually does that to buy time to get food before the bigger ones bully them off the food)

The point remains that ant combat between colonies have been studied by military staff around the world for their tactics and strategies.

Slight more realistic AI. One thing that ive noticed is that the wildlife/other ants never attack each other, while its not a major annoyance it would be nice if some maps were more realistic so to speak with the wildlife attacking everyone equally. This again, is only a minor irritation however since i appreciate the "gamey" aspects as well.

Swarming animation/mechanics. One of the captivating things about ants is watching them swarm their prey and completely cover them in ants, as they get butchered, this will be a cast iron pain to animate and implement, but I feel would add a great deal to the game, both cosmetically and mechanically. You already have climbing, this is the next step.

Full campaign mode: This is partially implemented in the game but could be improved on, since we never focus on the adventures of one main colony, rather jumping from colony to colony, this is not an overly bad things, since it allows the developers to highlight many ant species.

My suggestion would a campaign focused on our fictional ant species that those scientists seem to enjoy tormenting. It should begin after the player completes the entire challenge set that these scientists throw at you, eventually your colony can either chose to make a break for it, either with all your workers and risk discovery, or a small amount and increase your odds of getting to the wild, but it will be harder to get established, since your a foreigner in a hostile land.

Next step is choosing a nest, with various benefits or drawbacks, rotting log, under a rock, or simply in the soils.

Soil, benefits/drawbacks. The soil is the easiest for your colony to adjust too since that is what you were previously kept in. However its the most obvious choice, and the scientists will have an easier time trying to find and recapture you.

Under a rock. More sheltered, harder for the scientists to get to you, but less living space, and more vulnerable to weather issues.

Rotting log, this seems obvious but considering you were previously kept in a soil set up the scientists won't think to look for you in there, furthermore the living space is slightly restricted, and a rotting log is hot property in the animal world, so you will have to deal with increased pressure from other ant colonies, that will eventually become food once you get established enough.

Once your established, your next step is to gather up resources and expand your territory, how you go about this could impact your colony, for example going hard on leafcutter/other exotic warrior ants will draw attention from the public, scientists and possibly cause them to find and recapture you, however just producing your basic workers will buy you stealth but limit your combat potential, but may allow your numbers to increase.

Your final mission is simply create your reproductives and finally spread your colony out to conquer new lands, and this is the point where the scientists get their due justice, since now you have grown to the point where your colony can be a server pressure to the local wildlife and fully embarrassing said scientists, with the shame of allowing such an invasive species to escape a lab.

World conquest mode: Similar to SimAnt's conquer the yard and house, except on a global scale, take your chosen ant species(All the playable species that will be added into the game) and spread beyond its natural boundaries. This will include various "research" to help you survive and adapt to environments and creatures you would not normally meet.

Full narration for both this and the about suggested "full campaign mode" will help greatly with replay value.

Off the cuff suggestion, waaaay out there: get Sir David Attenborough to narrate some missions. ;)

Well there is my lengthy input, I hope at the very least people will enjoy reading it, and maybe it will inspire the devs themselves.

Of course i would be over the moon if some were adopted but I fully realize just how difficult game development can be, anyways do enjoy, comment or simply ignore, Ive said my two cents so to speak and hope they can improve the game in some way.

[Scyobi_Empire]

I hate the male scientist, I would love to escape.

[Spyder]

I would love to have a large ant that could act as a sort of "drop ship" where smaller ants could hitch a ride into battle.

I would also love honeypot ants as a mobile food storage, even if it's a bit unrealistic.

[Buster]

Originally posted by MasterAntlion:

I would love to have a large ant that could act as a sort of "drop ship" where smaller ants could hitch a ride into battle.

I would also love honeypot ants as a mobile food storage, even if it's a bit unrealistic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5YaihAtnC4

They can and do move the honey pot ants around, other colonies steal them after all.

Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbXS2VVXEc0
Its just bad music, so mute it, but the footage is amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSnNzjzQxF0

[Wolfium]

this is my faverout list so far

[Buster]

One very important thing I forgot to mention, and perhaps the devs can actually answer this, but will there be Steam WorkShop support?

As you all know its a powerful tool for modders to turn a great game into something beyond expectations, and heck sometimes even game developers adopt awesome mods into the base game.

So yes, also please add steam workshop support for this game.

[Wolfium]

that would be great but i dont think they're planning to

[Buster]

Another idea iv'e had, inspired by yellow crazy ants,(Which sometimes simply subsume smaller colonies and queens into their own, sometimes after a brief struggle) would be for the fornicarium and free play colonies only, to be able to capture an enemy queen and drag her back to your nest, with a max limit of two.

I will outline my ideas for balancing this feature, which if done right, could be amazing, but if done incorrectly can break the game

First, the capture process, this can be achieved in two ways, first you ants can attempt to drag the queen out of her nest, back to yours with full health, however she will resist and consistently kill the workers, so you will need a steady supply, of food and workers.

The benefit to this method is the capture process both goes faster and the captured queen will start laying her eggs faster.

the second method, is simply to knocker her out, and carry the body back, This will be the easiest to implement since the queens death pose is the same as if they were asleep, is simply attack her until she runs out of health, and then she can be carried back.

The draw back to that method is she will take time to heal, and as a result she will not lay eggs for a time.

Now balancing.

1. You cannot customize the abilities, brood types for captured queens, so you take what you get.

2. Captured queens require consistent food upkeep. i'd say at least 100 every few minutes,(Per queen) so you had better be well stocked.

3. Free space/territory points, your captured queens will not use brood chambers you construct,(Aside from the initial spot you place the captured queen) their brood must have the space to build as they see fit, based off your ant population.

4. Or if number three is unappealing, then perhaps her brood, can cost double/triple the normal amount of food, both to place, and replace, but then otherwise the brood behaves normally.

5. Captured queen abilities have a longer cool down than your queen.

This of course should be limited to our fictional formica species, or for free play.

[[1st MD]Atta]

plz make game able to have mods from workshop, alot can go wrong, but HOI4 is an example of what can go right

[tbcdaniel]

Regarding the "full campaign mode," I had the idea that after completing tier five, the colony could move to island 221 (without the male scientist, of course).