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[Sagus]

Yeah, the way I'm seeing it, their hivemind is a way the Queen connects with and encourage her subjects, a little reassuring buzz in the back of their minds. They aren't a super organism who all act as one.

As much as I love Tyranids, Xenomorphs and other eusocial monsters, I find this take on the hivemind concept really refreshing and unique.

[heydude6]

Anyway, I am currently trying to make it so that the queen lays 8 eggs every 2 seasons. I have currently encountered a roadblock. Currently I've been testing the queen features by increasing their pop-ratio and disabling the queen fighting interaction. This usually  makes me end up with multiple queens but that wasn't a problem till now. I now have to make sure that the eggs are coming from one specific queen since, if one queen lays 14 eggs and another lays 2, that still creates an average of 8.

Since we were going to do this eventually I think it's time to brainstorm ideas that give you a guaranteed queen on embark now.

[danmanthedog]

Can you do a reaction that turns a drone in to a queen like for mages?

[than402]

Can you do a reaction that turns a drone in to a queen like for mages?

yes. that's how you create queens. and it doesn't even need to be a drone, any wasp will do. the thing is, you have to sacrifice 10 wasps first, so it's not immediately available on embark. you'll have to wait for a migrant wave or two.

Anyway, I am currently trying to make it so that the queen lays 8 eggs every 2 seasons. I have currently encountered a roadblock. Currently I've been testing the queen features by increasing their pop-ratio and disabling the queen fighting interaction. This usually  makes me end up with multiple queens but that wasn't a problem till now. I now have to make sure that the eggs are coming from one specific queen since, if one queen lays 14 eggs and another lays 2, that still creates an average of 8.

Since we were going to do this eventually I think it's time to brainstorm ideas that give you a guaranteed queen on embark now.

ok, here are our options:

one way to make it would be to give the queen the PET tag. but that causes a whole bunch of troubles, from queen pets arriving with migrants, to queens being sold in waspen caravans, so it's out of the picture.

we most certainly can't work from the entity file, i already tried that.

brain essences are considered a tool. if we made them available on embark (i think it can be done from the TOOL tokens in the entity file), then the player could buy enough to make a queen before embarking (at an affordable price, but not very cheaply. wasps don't need a lot of stuff on embark), and then construct the Hivemind and immediately upgrade a wasp to a queen. you'll have to spend a few points, but it's the next best thing. we can rationalize the fact that the essences are made from things like spore wood by saying that this is actually where the essence is stored, not the actual essence.

this also has the advantage that it opens up another way to play the hive: rather than maybe taking enough for one queen and then expanding your hive by gradually receiving migrants and setting up industries, you can buy enough for 2 or 3 queens and rely on the steady swarm of wasps that they will produce rather than a standing army and war animals for your nourishment and protection. this will come at the expense of skill points, other tools and generally you'll have very few supplies. all in all, a hard but fun way to play the wasps.

you will also be able to order them from caravans later on, and so you don't have to continually micromanage which wasps to kill and which ones to preserve if you want to make a second queen, prolong the life of some skilled wasps or enchanted weapons (nobody raised any objections, so i modded in an enchantment system like the one i was talking about)

[heydude6]

the problem danmanthedog,  with that idea is that it requires player input. I need it to be automatic and foolproof.

Anyway I just got an idea. Since the wagon is currently considered a creature. I will give it the ability to perform an interaction that will transform one wasp into a queen. The Queen then has a global range interaction that prevents the wagon from using it's interaction ever again. Also I just figured out in my head how to instead give the wagon a single use interaction instead.

Is there anything wrong with this plan?

[Meph]

The wagons caravans bring are creatures, the embark wagon is not.

[heydude6]

oh, thanks for telling me.

New idea then: question one. What animals are the wagon pullers?

EDIT: A different idea. The wasps have a single use interaction that makes one wasp sterile. Sterile wasps cannot use this interaction. Eventually when all but one of the wasps are sterile the leftover fertile wasp becomes a queen.

And yes, I know how to make sterile wasps not use the interactions.

[than402]

the "slave pets" and some other large waspen creatures like the slugsnake and the worm (and i will remove the worm because starting with a free giant worm will be overpowered). before you continue with what you're thinking, i would like to point out that waspen caravans will also get dragged by queens.

[heydude6]

before you continue with what you're thinking, i would like to point out that waspen caravans will also get dragged by queens.

Why are they being dragged by Queens?

EDIT: to be honest, I find the image of wagons being dragged by wasp larvae hilarious

[than402]

caravans come with wagons, and wagons are pulled by wagon pullers. if i understand your train of thought correctly, you want to make the queen their only wagon puller so you start with a queen by default.

and come ooooon, larvae are barely larger than a rat  . although i guess they could be dragging it like a palanquin

[heydude6]

well actually I wanted to give the wagon pullers an interaction that turned one wasp into a queen. Although I already came up with a new idea now so we don't have to worry about the wagon pullers. Read the edit in my reply to meph.

[Meph]

Why dont you just do exactly what I did with the Warlock Overlord? One reaction, thats all it takes. Build your custom "hive queen chambers" workshop, add a free reaction, and make your unique queen. The queen blocks the interaction for all others, so any additional worker that would use the workshop wouldnt transform.

[than402]

Why dont you just do exactly what I did with the Warlock Overlord? One reaction, thats all it takes. Build your custom "hive queen chambers" workshop, add a free reaction, and make your unique queen. The queen blocks the interaction for all others, so any additional worker that would use the workshop wouldnt transform.

that should work, thanks Meph. so, what do you say, heydude? shall we do it like this?

[heydude6]

Well my only complaint is that it requires manual input on the players part to actually select and build the workshop and then run the reaction. And I was just hoping that we could make it automatic and therefore more polished.

If I could, I would make a Dwarfhack script that automatically transforms the matriarch into a queen.

Also let me put my new idea here instead

Spoiler: copied and pasted from an edit (click to show/hide)

EDIT: A different idea. The wasps have a single use interaction that makes one wasp sterile. Sterile wasps cannot use this interaction. Eventually when all but one of the wasps are sterile the leftover fertile wasp becomes a queen.

And yes, I know how to make sterile wasps not use the interactions.

So what do you think of it?

[than402]

yes, i've read your idea. my only question is, ok all but one of the starting 7 will be sterile, so the last one will be a queen. how about the migrants?

and why do you hesitate forcing the player to make a single reaction?