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[scourge728]

ptw

[Meph]

Don't remove farming. What would the leafcutter-ants pile up in their farms to grow mushrooms?

[brolol.404]

Don't remove farming. What would the leafcutter-ants pile up in their farms to grow mushrooms?

I don't currently plan on using dfhack for this mod, so I won't be removing farming. The question is what plants (if any) can be planted and farmed. Without farming, ants would be required to forage and hunt for food though.

[brolol.404]

These are my planned soils (and as far down they go). I am going to try to make these produce "stones" from mining. The organic matter is very small pieces of plant matter normally found in soil (not entire leaves). I could potentially rename these to be "leaf bit" or similiar.

bark (top soil)
leaf (top soil)
pine needle (top soil)
twig (top soil)
humus (sedimentary)
loam (sedimentary)
peat (sedimentary)
chalk (all layers)
clay (all layers)
sand (all layers)
silt (all layers)

These are my planned undiggable stones (and when they first appear when digging down). They will appear is small clusters and have to be dug around.

sandstone (metamorphic)
siltstone (metamorphic)
limestone (igneous intrusive)
shale (igneous intrusive)
obsidian (igneous intrusive)

These are my planned metals (and when they first appear when digging down). They will be represented as single tile metal flakes in the soil (e.g. "copper flake") that can be mined out and turned into metal at a smelter.

aluminum (metamorphic)
copper (metamorphic)
gold (igneous intrusive)
iron (metamorphic)
lead (metamorphic)
nickel (metamorphic)
silver (igneous intrusive)
tin (metamorphic)
zinc (metamorphic)

These are my planned gems (and when they first appear when digging down). Instead of traditional gems, they are items that could be found in dirt and reasonably dug out by an ant. These are very small objects. They are closer to a single drop of sap turned into amber, not a large dinosaur fossil.

amber (metamorphic)
fossil (igneous intrusive)
petrified wood (igneous intrusive)
shell (sedimentary)

[Meph]

There are five main types of agriculture that fungus-growing ants practice:[5] lower, coral fungi, yeast, generalized higher, and leafcutter agricultural systems. Lower agriculture is the most primitive system and is currently practiced by 80 species in 10 genera.[6][7] Coral-fungus agriculture is practiced by 34 species by a single derived clade within the genus Apterostigma.[7] The coral fungus farmers underwent a switch of cultivars between 10 and 20 million years ago to a non-leucocoprineacoeous fungus, which makes its choice of cultivar different from all other attines.[8][9] Yeast agriculture is practiced by 18 species of Cyphomyrmex rimosus. The C. rimosus group is hypothesized to have evolved growing fungus in a yeast form between 5 and 25 million years ago.[9] Generalized higher agriculture is practiced by 63 species in two genera and refers to the condition of highly domesticated fungus.[7] The fungi used in higher agriculture cannot survive without its agriculturalists to tend it and has phenotypic changes that allow for increased ease of ant harvesting.[9] Leafcutter agriculture, which is a more highly derived form of higher agriculture, is practiced by 40 species in two genera and has the most recent evolution, originating between 8 and 12 million years ago.[9] Leaf cutters use living biomass as the substrate to feed their fungi, whereas in all other types of agriculture, the fungus requires dead biomass.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%E2%80%93fungus_mutualism

Since you also have honey around in DF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_ant

[brolol.404]

There are five main types of agriculture that fungus-growing ants practice:[5] lower, coral fungi, yeast, generalized higher, and leafcutter agricultural systems. Lower agriculture is the most primitive system and is currently practiced by 80 species in 10 genera.[6][7] Coral-fungus agriculture is practiced by 34 species by a single derived clade within the genus Apterostigma.[7] The coral fungus farmers underwent a switch of cultivars between 10 and 20 million years ago to a non-leucocoprineacoeous fungus, which makes its choice of cultivar different from all other attines.[8][9] Yeast agriculture is practiced by 18 species of Cyphomyrmex rimosus. The C. rimosus group is hypothesized to have evolved growing fungus in a yeast form between 5 and 25 million years ago.[9] Generalized higher agriculture is practiced by 63 species in two genera and refers to the condition of highly domesticated fungus.[7] The fungi used in higher agriculture cannot survive without its agriculturalists to tend it and has phenotypic changes that allow for increased ease of ant harvesting.[9] Leafcutter agriculture, which is a more highly derived form of higher agriculture, is practiced by 40 species in two genera and has the most recent evolution, originating between 8 and 12 million years ago.[9] Leaf cutters use living biomass as the substrate to feed their fungi, whereas in all other types of agriculture, the fungus requires dead biomass.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%E2%80%93fungus_mutualism

Since you also have honey around in DF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_ant

Very cool. I will add farmable underground coral fungi and yeast and I will add honeypot ants

[brolol.404]

soils/stones/metals/minerals are done
plants are next

[Enemy post]

I like the ant sprites.

[brolol.404]

I like the ant sprites.

Thanks

They replace the dwarf 001 sprite. I'll make one more for the civilized spider to replace 002. These will probably be the two races at release with more coming after.

[Meph]

Will you do rhino beetle, wasp and centipede semi-megabeasts? Maybe an ant-eater as megabeast?

[brolol.404]

Will you do rhino beetle, wasp and centipede semi-megabeasts? Maybe an ant-eater as megabeast?

I can make the rhino beetle a semi-megabeast. I can also make the tarantula, emperor scorpion, stag horn beetle and hercules beetle semi-megabeasts too.

I will probably just make wasps regular creatures though. And, I want to keep centipedes regular creatures too to make the caverns a bit more terrifying, but I could make a giant centipede a megabeast.

An anteater is too big for this mod lol It would basically be an unkillable unidentifiable giant mass.

[LargeSnail]

Maybe an ant-eater as megabeast?

The Aardvark Age was a time when the aardvark Nuggad Deathtongue was the only great power in the world.

An anteater is too big for this mod lol It would basically be an unkillable unidentifiable giant mass.

Hey, Forgotten Beasts/Titans are massive and (with luck) killable by mere dwarves. An army of skilled soldier ants with good armor and weapons should be able to take down a deadly pangolin.

[brolol.404]

A black ant weighs 1mg and an anteater weighs 90lbs.

That's 41 million times larger lol

[Meph]

Oh yeah, sorry. I meant hornets, not wasps.

Maybe a megabeast thorny devil? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorny_devil) They also almost exlusively eat ants. But maybe it's too large too... much smaller than an ant-eater though. (Who could be a dfhack-added deity)

[brolol.404]

Here are the black ant and wolf spider sprites (001 and 002).

Oh yeah, sorry. I meant hornets, not wasps.

Maybe a megabeast thorny devil? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorny_devil) They also almost exlusively eat ants. But maybe it's too large too... much smaller than an ant-eater though. (Who could be a dfhack-added deity)

I'll add hornets as semi-megabeasts and a thorny devil as a megabeast