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[fillipk]

In this thread you can discuss special evolution for the ant colony game.

Things to discuss:
How many evolutions, positive or negative, it costs
It's benefit in game terms.
A name for it.

All evolutions will get looked over and I will have the final decision if they are used or not in the game, I linked the threads so if people are interested they can join the game.

Be creative, you can use real ant features or you can make them up.

Ant Colony

[DAPARROT]

Farming evolution
Counts as 1 evolution
Let's you convert burrows into farms,costing 100 food,then giving you 50 food every turn,needs 25 ants to convert a burrow into a farm,farm can't store anything(there is a species of ant that does this,growing fungus with leaves)

[escaped lurker]

Just to get the ball rolling~

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave-making_ant

Link says it all. And here some of us might have thought only humans would ply this particular trade.
(If one wants to include such an evolution, wholy another matter though. Then again, bay12 has done worse...)

[Megggas]

Ravage Evolution
-Requires Queen Level 2
-Costs (2 * level) Food per ant Evolved
-No additional upkeep (same upkeep as basic ants)
-Ants with the evolution count as (2 + Level) ants when foraging.  However, whenever a group of Ravagers forages at a tile, there is a (0.1% * number of Ravagers * Level) chance that the tile will become barren at the end of the turn.

Summary: Provides a cheaper alternative to Foragers, but is riskier to use, providing short-term benefits but long-term penalties as tiles become barren.  With 1000 level 1 Ravagers, any regular tile they forage will provide 3000+ food, but is guaranteed to become barren at the end of the turn.

[fillipk]

So what I'm seeing is farming ants, which I like the rules for, slave making ants which I'm going to say cost 2 evolutions and any non soldier ant that a slaver ant defeats becomes yours with whatever evolutions it had, and ravager ants which I already added to the game but I tweaked them a bit.

I like it, to keep the ball rolling

Oracle Evolution
costs 3 evolutions
Allows the ant to get vision over any tile, each tile costs 25 ants, but every tile after the first tile spreads out in a square from the first tile

Tiny Evolution
costs -1 evolution
For all purposes all tiny ants are half an ant, except in an area which it has a basic evolution
(basically an uber-specialized ant)

Flying Evolution
costs 3 evolution
doubles movement and allows you to cross the river and avoid monsters and hostile ants on the ground, has to land each turn

Pacifist Evolution
costs -2 evolutions
these ants have no combat strength

this is a discussion so if you don't like something say so and say why.

[Rolepgeek]

So, would Tiny Pacifist Flying Fast ants move 14 tiles, or 12? They would cost 1 evolution total, right? What level queen would they need?

Also, for evolving ants with evolutions that cost more than one evolution equivalent, is it all done on one turn? Does it cost what it would it if it had to be done over multiple turns?

How exactly do farmers work? Do they have to work the farms? Or are they used up in the process of making them farms? How many are needed to make a farm?

How much would ants with both ravager and forager gather? Would a Tiny Ravaging Forager 2 gather more from Forager since it's a basic evolution and ravager since it's a multiplier, but have less chance of turning a tile barren?


Also, I had some ideas. Not sure how much they should cost, though.

Hibernating: no additional upkeep, has zero upkeep during winter but is unable to be used during winter either.
Large: two evolutions, counts as two ants for all purposes.
[---] Queen: Ants born to this Queen start with a single basic evolution(or they start with the evolutions the queen has or something)
Cannibals: If victorious in combat, dead ants from either side up to (#Cannibals*LevelCannibal) are converted to food.
Stealthy: Able to travel underground at 2/3 tiles per turn; Digger evolution can increase this by 1 per level; undetectable, but give no vision while underground.

[fillipk]

So, would Tiny Pacifist Flying Fast ants move 14 tiles, or 12? They would cost 1 evolution total, right? What level queen would they need?

Also, for evolving ants with evolutions that cost more than one evolution equivalent, is it all done on one turn? Does it cost what it would it if it had to be done over multiple turns?

How exactly do farmers work? Do they have to work the farms? Or are they used up in the process of making them farms? How many are needed to make a farm?

How much would ants with both ravager and forager gather? Would a Tiny Ravaging Forager 2 gather more from Forager since it's a basic evolution and ravager since it's a multiplier, but have less chance of turning a tile barren?


Also, I had some ideas. Not sure how much they should cost, though.

Hibernating: no additional upkeep, has zero upkeep during winter but is unable to be used during winter either.
Large: two evolutions, counts as two ants for all purposes.
[---] Queen: Ants born to this Queen start with a single basic evolution(or they start with the evolutions the queen has or something)
Cannibals: If victorious in combat, dead ants from either side up to (#Cannibals*LevelCannibal) are converted to food.
Stealthy: Able to travel underground at 2/3 tiles per turn; Digger evolution can increase this by 1 per level; undetectable, but give no vision while underground.

Lotsa Questions Okay

14 tiles 1 evolution and a lvl 9 Queen

You can evolve an ant as much as you want on any turn but you have to pay for it and they can't do anything

They don't need to work it it's an automatic thing

Ravagers were changed you should check the ant colony op for details

I like hibernating, the Queen one is actually a lvl 10 Queen but I like the idea and might change it, cannibals is a yes, and stealthy is a yes, I might change it to half movement though

[Rolepgeek]

Oh yeah I just remembered the one I wanted to say.

I feel like Cold Resistance should be a thing. Like, ants move slower in winter because it's cold, unless they have cold resistance. But because they're adapted to cold, they have a slightly harder time in summer because it gets too hot. Or something. Like, they gather X/X+2 as much food in winter as they would normally, with X being the level of Cold Resistance, but gather 7(+X?)/4+X times as much food in the summer, instead of just 7/4 as much. Fire breathing seems a bit silly, and almost redundant if it gives you combat strength, which is already filled by a basic evolution.

It might increase your speed in winter (which would be 60% of normal rounded down, of course) by 10% of normal per level, of course, up to 120%(ice skates, don'tcha know but serioualy if they can just walk on snow or ice it's a much smoother surface so they'd be able to go quite straight to their destination, don't have to worry about predators, and so on)

[Ozarck]

I have some questions and comments on the current OP and mechanics

Spoiler: farmers (click to show/hide)

How many farmers does it take to run a farm? is it one farmer per 2 food? why do they get a separate action? I think they should be treated like foragers in terms of harvesting, with the only difference being that they do it underground in your colony.

Spoiler: cost for evolutions (click to show/hide)

Also, what is the cost for an evolution + turn upkeep? it seems like the evolutions cost twice, like this
turn 1 action, evolve 25 lvl 1 foragers, cost: 25 food.
turn 1 upkeep, 25 lvl 1 foragers: 50 food.
total cost: 75 food
cost for 25 basic ant upkeep: 25
net cost for evolution: 50 food.

Spoiler: forager effect (click to show/hide)

and the way you have the new OP worded, lvl 1 forgers count as 4 ants for foraging (basic ant + 2 extra + 1 per level)

Spoiler: oracle (click to show/hide)

and again, your description of the oracle and is a little outdated. Instead of saying that the vision expands in a square pattern (obsolete) say it expands in a clockwise spiral, starting with the tile to the north of the starting tile (or as indicated by the player?) for example: player states that he has 100 oracle ants looking at the tiles starting at tile 24.25. they can see three additional tiles (100 ants / 25 per tile = 4 tiles) - so they see tiles 24.24, 25.24, and 25.25, or if you let the player pick which direction it expands from, and the clockwise / counterclockwise rotation, say they pick south west and counter - then they'd see these four tiles: 24.25, 23.25, 24.26, 25.25

Spoiler: on writing style, some friendly advice (click to show/hide)

There are a couple other spots where I feel that the explanation is somewhat unclearly stated, though I understand the concept myself, from the previous game. Look over the OP, consider how certain descriptions can appear vague or misleading, and work to make them more precise. I think this will help your writing style improve.

Finally, good work so far! I am really looking forward to getting into the game again!