14 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

Can I make it? Probably not. I have no programming skills. Would it have 3d graphics? No, I vision this more 2d like Sim Ant...more simple graphics. Maybe even rogue-like style graphics, or simple art like Dwarf Fortress (not ascii, but just pictures that move around. Do a google search if you don't know what I mean.). If it had 3d graphics, it lag too much and too much would need to be taken away. Is it possible to make even? Probably, if you find the right game engine and know how to do it.

 

(skip to the bottom for a summary).

 

So onto the idea.

 

I really liked Sim Ant's backyard where you could conquer territories. That was fun, except I wish for it to be VASTLY larger in scale. And Sim Ant had only two ant species. In real life, there are ten thousand and more ant species.

 

So first, take something like Google Maps, which would be the base of what the game map would be from. It wouldn't look like google maps, but more 2d graphics like Sim Ant or DF (like I said). 

 

Let me explain.

 

Imagine you are looking at the entire world. You have so many different regions and climates to choose from. You zoom in on an area you want to start in (it could be in North America, South America, Russia even, Australia...everywhere on Earth). The view is far zoomed back, you can barely make out cities. You zoom in, and zoom in until you can see what the terrain/region looks like (and you could zoom all the way onto the ground to see ants/insects and stuff). Now it could just have different zoom levels, so it wouldn't be entirely "smooth" zooming in, making it easier to design. Now little bubbles pop up of all the different ant species (native and non-native) in that area. It could have one (if an invasive ant has killed everything in that particular area) or it could have hundreds or thousands to choose from. 

 

So, lets say I wanted to be Forelius pruinosus/mccooki and I wanted to start at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego California. I'd go to that area, find the ant species bubble of Forelius, and that is the one I'd choose. Or I could choose Camponotus, Formica or choose to be a wasp, bee colony or a termite colony.

 

That is pretty much how the map would work.

 

So, I decide to choose Forelius at Torrey Pines. They are my favorite ant. I have the safety of the semi-arid land near the Ocean. Down below however, like in real life, are hordes of Argentine ants. 

 

Forelius of course do great in dry climates, so in a dry climate they'd get bonuses living there. Maybe they have more numbers, or they are stronger. If I managed to spread my Forelius colony somewhere that is wet (by a river, a swamp/marsh or just in an urban irrigated area) they'd get negative penalties (maybe less numbers, less strength). So, lets say my colony developed alates and flew all around. And most alates will die of course, but lets say one managed to find a patch of land in a nearby urban area. Its a small dry spot, but all around is grass and a lot of Argentine ants. Its not likely I'd live, but if I did live...eventually I could possibly spread from many miles up into Torrey Pines and connect a massive colony up. Because any alates that start colonies in my own colony would be friendly to my main colony and I could play as both colonies at that point (not entirely realistic, but makes more fun gameplay). 

 

However, if my Forelius colony found another Forelius colony that wasn't my "bloodline" (so to speak) there would be outright war.

 

However if my colony got large enough, I'd get many bonuses (a supercolony bonus) and I'd be able to produce vastly more numbers of ants. But, humans WOULD take notice and start spraying pesticides and trying to kill me off.

 

Or I could choose an ant like Camponotus, or a species that isn't seen much (like a subterranean ant) or a species that generally has really small colonies. Camponotus would tend to live in wood (but not every species does). Or if I chose a species with a small colony, I'd PROBABLY never really get big enough to do anything (unless I got lucky), but I could do cool things like steal brood from other ants and disrupt mating flights and kind of take an "espionage" style approach. But what if I got lucky and managed to take on a termite colony (which would have many numbers and amazing defense), and I managed to win? Well termite bodies would GREATLY increase brood production and "health" of a colony.

 

Or what if I wanted easymode. I'd choose Argentine ants. They have their difficulties of dealing with humans. They also deal with other supercolony of Argentine ants, as it isn't entirely 100% one colony anymore in California. However, any native ant would be no threat. Except, Argentine ants VERY quickly die off in dry climates and would produce vastly less ants and have a very hard time colonizing any place without a source of water. However, lets say I got lucky and a queen and a group of ants with her, survived in a desert. That would turn into a harder gameplay, as there is a very strong risk of losing, but its possible to live off (or in) cactuses and what not.

 

Now eventually, as Forelius...I could take over all of California like I could with Argentine ants. Now imagine that as a REAL WORLD ANT game. You are zoomed in so close to the ground, and can go anywhere in California (so the map is huge). And then take that on a global scale. The game would be real time (like dwarf fortress), and things would be going on all over the world. Except, if you weren't zoomed into that location of the world/area/region, it would be running in the background otherwise it wouldn't run on any computer.

 

The game would play a lot like Sim Ant as well, in the way you get food (but it shows as actual food, be it a hamburger, insect, termite or whatever. Not gross pea looking things) and walk around a region. A bit dwarf fortress-like in that regard actually.

 

Would you ever be able to take over the entire US and Mexico as Forelius? Nope, because that's way too huge. It would take so many years in real life to even get close to that point. You could speed up time though like in Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings 2 from Paradox games. But taking over a state or large region would take long enough, even going full speed. And eventually, humans will want you dead too and sometimes your colonies bloodline is no longer the same or changes over time and your colony splits up slowly. Or diseases/inbreeding etc will kill you off a lot (like what happens to Argentine ants). And if you consume so much food as a supercolony, you'll eventually run out and starve. But the map wouldn't likely be the entire of earth. It would...but you'd need to zoom out and select another region. Kind of like "instances", but they are all active in the background like they are in Europa Universalis.

 

Now different species get different gameplay. Army ants never settle down in one area, but go in and do raiding. You could raid an urban area, but humans don't like that. However, one gameplay for many ants could be to chase humans out of entire towns or cities. Army ants may have an easier time of this than other ants, but at this point, you could take over entire cities. But if you do this, other insects and life will also take advantage of lack of humans. So, one big issue are spiders. Lets say an apartment complex is abandoned from too many ants. Spiders then populate the abandoned buildings, and there could be hordes of hideous spiders. Even as a strong supercolony, the area pretty much becomes a wasteland even for you. 

 

Or leafcutter ants of course have their own unique gameplay. Growing fungus, harvesting plants (but can't harvest too much in one area!) and what not. Or Pogonomyrmex eat seeds and insects mostly, kind of a more typical gameplay style for ants and have their own strengths. But are very hard to play if you start in an area surrounded by invasive ants (like Argentine ants or Solenopsis invicta or even Pheidole megacephala or whoever lives in the area).

 

And like dwarf fortress, there would be seasons. Fall and Winter being negative seasons, spring and summer being positive seasons. Except, if you chose lets say Southern California by the coast or a desert area, even winter isn't an issue except for the winter storms that come by. But you never have to deal with snow and having to hibernate or hide underground. But summer has thunderstorms and own issues to deal with.

 

So to leave off. The game would play very similar to a mix of Dwarf Fortress, Sim Ant and a global real time strategy game like Europa Universalis. Graphics I vision more like modded DF graphics with a mix of Sim Ant style.

 

That is what I want in an ant game. Not like empire of the ants where it is just lame single story maps. That was super lame compared to Sim Ant. But a global ant game where I can choose any ant (that is known) in that region, play as it and conquer and spread over a whole bunch of land and getting into massive wars with other ants, insects (like termites) and maybe even kicking humans out of buildings, urban areas or entire cities. And while having each ant be unique would be nice that would be a lot of work. Many ants could probably be grouped together as similar game style. Like all the Fungus growing ant species could just be grouped as one (you can still choose the different species, they'd just have the same gameplay style for the most part, except maybe one gets less workers than the other).

 

I'd imagine that take a lot of work, but that would be the only ant game I'd want to play lol. Start in a forest, start in a desert, on a mountain or just start in someones front lawn...how epic that would be

Edited by Vendayn, July 10 2015 - 2:31 PM.

[Vendayn]

This would work more on the dwarf fortress engine, since the game does a lot of what the ideas are. But, it doesn't do it on a global scale (not sure if its possible on that engine). Like europa universalis, you can choose any country in the world during that time frame the game takes place. That is about how the map would roughly look zoomed out, but then you'd zoom in until the map looks like a DF map, but you are really small and everything around you is huge. So sorta like sim ant in that regard.

[AntsTexas]

Can I make it? Probably not. I have no programming skills. Would it have 3d graphics? No, I vision this more 2d like Sim Ant...more simple graphics. Maybe even rogue-like style graphics, or simple art like Dwarf Fortress (not ascii, but just pictures that move around. Do a google search if you don't know what I mean.). If it had 3d graphics, it lag too much and too much would need to be taken away. Is it possible to make even? Probably, if you find the right game engine and know how to do it.

 

(skip to the bottom for a summary).

 

So onto the idea.

 

I really liked Sim Ant's backyard where you could conquer territories. That was fun, except I wish for it to be VASTLY larger in scale. And Sim Ant had only two ant species. In real life, there are ten thousand and more ant species.

 

So first, take something like Google Maps, which would be the base of what the game map would be from. It wouldn't look like google maps, but more 2d graphics like Sim Ant or DF (like I said). 

 

Let me explain.

 

Imagine you are looking at the entire world. You have so many different regions and climates to choose from. You zoom in on an area you want to start in (it could be in North America, South America, Russia even, Australia...everywhere on Earth). The view is far zoomed back, you can barely make out cities. You zoom in, and zoom in until you can see what the terrain/region looks like (and you could zoom all the way onto the ground to see ants/insects and stuff). Now it could just have different zoom levels, so it wouldn't be entirely "smooth" zooming in, making it easier to design. Now little bubbles pop up of all the different ant species (native and non-native) in that area. It could have one (if an invasive ant has killed everything in that particular area) or it could have hundreds or thousands to choose from. 

 

So, lets say I wanted to be Forelius pruinosus/mccooki and I wanted to start at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego California. I'd go to that area, find the ant species bubble of Forelius, and that is the one I'd choose. Or I could choose Camponotus, Formica or choose to be a wasp, bee colony or a termite colony.

 

That is pretty much how the map would work.

 

So, I decide to choose Forelius at Torrey Pines. They are my favorite ant. I have the safety of the semi-arid land near the Ocean. Down below however, like in real life, are hordes of Argentine ants. 

 

Forelius of course do great in dry climates, so in a dry climate they'd get bonuses living there. Maybe they have more numbers, or they are stronger. If I managed to spread my Forelius colony somewhere that is wet (by a river, a swamp/marsh or just in an urban irrigated area) they'd get negative penalties (maybe less numbers, less strength). So, lets say my colony developed alates and flew all around. And most alates will die of course, but lets say one managed to find a patch of land in a nearby urban area. Its a small dry spot, but all around is grass and a lot of Argentine ants. Its not likely I'd live, but if I did live...eventually I could possibly spread from many miles up into Torrey Pines and connect a massive colony up. Because any alates that start colonies in my own colony would be friendly to my main colony and I could play as both colonies at that point (not entirely realistic, but makes more fun gameplay). 

 

However, if my Forelius colony found another Forelius colony that wasn't my "bloodline" (so to speak) there would be outright war.

 

However if my colony got large enough, I'd get many bonuses (a supercolony bonus) and I'd be able to produce vastly more numbers of ants. But, humans WOULD take notice and start spraying pesticides and trying to kill me off.

 

Or I could choose an ant like Camponotus, or a species that isn't seen much (like a subterranean ant) or a species that generally has really small colonies. Camponotus would tend to live in wood (but not every species does). Or if I chose a species with a small colony, I'd PROBABLY never really get big enough to do anything (unless I got lucky), but I could do cool things like steal brood from other ants and disrupt mating flights and kind of take an "espionage" style approach. But what if I got lucky and managed to take on a termite colony (which would have many numbers and amazing defense), and I managed to win? Well termite bodies would GREATLY increase brood production and "health" of a colony.

 

Or what if I wanted easymode. I'd choose Argentine ants. They have their difficulties of dealing with humans. They also deal with other supercolony of Argentine ants, as it isn't entirely 100% one colony anymore in California. However, any native ant would be no threat. Except, Argentine ants VERY quickly die off in dry climates and would produce vastly less ants and have a very hard time colonizing any place without a source of water. However, lets say I got lucky and a queen and a group of ants with her, survived in a desert. That would turn into a harder gameplay, as there is a very strong risk of losing, but its possible to live off (or in) cactuses and what not.

 

Now eventually, as Forelius...I could take over all of California like I could with Argentine ants. Now imagine that as a REAL WORLD ANT game. You are zoomed in so close to the ground, and can go anywhere in California (so the map is huge). And then take that on a global scale. The game would be real time (like dwarf fortress), and things would be going on all over the world. Except, if you weren't zoomed into that location of the world/area/region, it would be running in the background otherwise it wouldn't run on any computer.

 

The game would play a lot like Sim Ant as well, in the way you get food (but it shows as actual food, be it a hamburger, insect, termite or whatever. Not gross pea looking things) and walk around a region. A bit dwarf fortress-like in that regard actually.

 

Would you ever be able to take over the entire US and Mexico as Forelius? Nope, because that's way too huge. It would take so many years in real life to even get close to that point. You could speed up time though like in Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings 2 from Paradox games. But taking over a state or large region would take long enough, even going full speed. And eventually, humans will want you dead too and sometimes your colonies bloodline is no longer the same or changes over time and your colony splits up slowly. Or diseases/inbreeding etc will kill you off a lot (like what happens to Argentine ants). And if you consume so much food as a supercolony, you'll eventually run out and starve. But the map wouldn't likely be the entire of earth. It would...but you'd need to zoom out and select another region. Kind of like "instances", but they are all active in the background like they are in Europa Universalis.

 

Now different species get different gameplay. Army ants never settle down in one area, but go in and do raiding. You could raid an urban area, but humans don't like that. However, one gameplay for many ants could be to chase humans out of entire towns or cities. Army ants may have an easier time of this than other ants, but at this point, you could take over entire cities. But if you do this, other insects and life will also take advantage of lack of humans. So, one big issue are spiders. Lets say an apartment complex is abandoned from too many ants. Spiders then populate the abandoned buildings, and there could be hordes of hideous spiders. Even as a strong supercolony, the area pretty much becomes a wasteland even for you. 

 

Or leafcutter ants of course have their own unique gameplay. Growing fungus, harvesting plants (but can't harvest too much in one area!) and what not. Or Pogonomyrmex eat seeds and insects mostly, kind of a more typical gameplay style for ants and have their own strengths. But are very hard to play if you start in an area surrounded by invasive ants (like Argentine ants or Solenopsis invicta or even Pheidole megacephala or whoever lives in the area).

 

And like dwarf fortress, there would be seasons. Fall and Winter being negative seasons, spring and summer being positive seasons. Except, if you chose lets say Southern California by the coast or a desert area, even winter isn't an issue except for the winter storms that come by. But you never have to deal with snow and having to hibernate or hide underground. But summer has thunderstorms and own issues to deal with.

 

So to leave off. The game would play very similar to a mix of Dwarf Fortress, Sim Ant and a global real time strategy game like Europa Universalis. Graphics I vision more like modded DF graphics with a mix of Sim Ant style.

 

That is what I want in an ant game. Not like empire of the ants where it is just lame single story maps. That was super lame compared to Sim Ant. But a global ant game where I can choose any ant (that is known) in that region, play as it and conquer and spread over a whole bunch of land and getting into massive wars with other ants, insects (like termites) and maybe even kicking humans out of buildings, urban areas or entire cities. And while having each ant be unique would be nice that would be a lot of work. Many ants could probably be grouped together as similar game style. Like all the Fungus growing ant species could just be grouped as one (you can still choose the different species, they'd just have the same gameplay style for the most part, except maybe one gets less workers than the other).

 

I'd imagine that take a lot of work, but that would be the only ant game I'd want to play lol. Start in a forest, start in a desert, on a mountain or just start in someones front lawn...how epic that would be

in someone's home, lol

[Vendayn]

Yeah, you could start in someone's home if there was a colony that was living in the walls/floor. And termites often would start in someones home too, if you chose an urban area for them.

 

You could probably even start on someones roof, if the city builds/allows gardens on roofs (I think parts of England do this and some cities in US? I'm not too sure. but I know its more popular having a roof garden in major cities.)

And if you chose to play as a bee colony, people often have urban bee hives. And if the place is abandoned or not maintained properly, I've seen bees living inside places like that...really HUGE bee colonies too.

 

And thinking about it...

 

The entire would probably be quite an undertaking. But different continents or regions could be released as expansions. But the game idea sounds like a really good ant game, and would even be a good strategy game.

Edited by Vendayn, July 10 2015 - 3:01 PM.

[Alza]

If I made a eusocial insect game, it would be based around the same things as "The conquerors" and "Civilization five" since that takes care of mound building, main bases, hunting, and the whole creating an army thing. and in both of these, depending on what resources you have, you can upgrade the soldiers you use. Which I don't mean the insects would have stats that are upgradable, I mean for the species that have majors. I also do believe that you should be able to take over states I'm the type that would play a game for a long time, and if there was a limit to the amount of danger I could do, I would loose interest. I like free roam games  by the way.

[Vendayn]

Yeah, same. I like free roam games as well. Not too much into the linear games. Which is what this game idea would be pretty much. Granted, there wouldn't really be a limit like I might have suggested. But like in the ant world, the bigger you get you run into new problems. Like Argentine ants running into too much inbreeding, too much food in-take and diseases (mostly from inbreeding). And humans take more notice of course. In the game, you could work around those problems of course. Like Solenopsis invicta don't really have that problem as far as I know with inbreeding, and mate with other colonies nearby.

 

But it would be harder in some ways, but easier in that you could take on pretty much any native ant. Other ants would be less of an issue than other things that come up. Until you run into another supercolony. Or someone may decide to not want a supercolony at all and just spread their species to new places.

 

Another thing that could be added later, as I think starting with a region the developer(s) know really well would be the best start. So start small, and then add over time. Is that you could hitch ride on plants or cargo ships (or even vehicles too). May not need graphics for that, but you could hitch a ride on a plant and you have a certain chance to survive and spread to an entirely new area. But, that area might be the worst area to start a colony at (or it could be amazing). Ants hitch ride on plants all the time.

[Ants4fun]

This would be an awesome multiplayer game, like clash of clans ,except, it's clash of xolonies.

[William. T]

How about using more dominant ant species, like Tetramorium SpE or T. Sessile. Camponotus aren't that good at conquering.

[Alza]

The game wouldn't be all about conquering, its about survival, defense probably being the most important thing. 

Edited by Alza, July 11 2015 - 10:14 AM.

[Roachant]

Holy crap! I'm actually working on a game that is exactly what you are all describing! It's in the very early stages as I'm learning code as I go along, and my spare time is very limited, but I have made a few breakthroughs. If all goes well, I may have a demo of it that I'll post on you tube at some point. In general though, I plan on having as many different playable ant species as I can, and each one will have their own different play style. I also plan on having a world map where you select regions and each region will have their own species.
It will be a kind of simant 2. But as I'm more or less alone in this, it will take some time!

[William. T]

The game wouldn't be all about conquering, its about survival, defense probably being the most important thing. 

Camponotus are utterly overrun by smaller ants, such as Argies. It pays to have ants with certain assets, like fast reproduction with Argies, or formic acid with Solenopis. It would be nice to have Pheidole, with the Super Majors acting as tanks, inflicting heavy damage, and the minors are good for swarming enemies.

Edited by William. T, July 29 2015 - 10:15 AM.

[AntsTexas]

play as a queen/worker/forager.....

[Roachant]

You would only play as a queen at the beginning, during founding stage. Unless you pick a species that is not fully claustral then you'll have to gather your own food, which could be dangerous.

Once you get workers, they can gather the resources you need which in my game is protein for larvae and sugars for adults.
You use the protein to grow more workers and then use sugars as a way to determine how many adults you can support.
It's kind of like the supply depots from Starcraft.

[stuhrike]

I mention it every now and then but there's a book out there, written near 15ish years ago, that I think you'd all like called Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber.

 

But they actually made a game for it as well that has a lot of the elements you're talking about.  
It's nothing like modern day games but it's still fun.

 

http://www.amazon.co...f the ants game

[Roachant]

I have that game and it was ok, but not what I was hoping for in an ant simulation game. The winner of that title still goes to sim ant for the Super Nintendo system.