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[brolol.404]

The black ant and wolf spider creatures are done.

3 Wolf Spiders vs. 6 Black Ants:



1 Black Ant remains in critical condition.

[brolol.404]

I decided to keep more on the realism side for this mod, so I am going to make weapon and armor use possible, but not a ideal option. I have upgraded chitin to be as strong as brass and both ants and spiders have incredible strength so using their natural mandibles and chitin armor is a good choice.

I am going to make picks called "digging grit" and axes called "cutting grit". Basically small flakes of metal applied to the ants mandibles that helps them dig dirt or cut through grass (since they won't be able to dig/cut without a weapon).

I am going to allow the construction of different types of barding as well as spears and clubs, but ants will have a lot of difficulty leveling up their armor user and weapon skills.

I may then make leveling the bite skill easier and increase the weapon skill rust rates to incentivize natural weapon use.

I am going to make balls, crude rope and crude blocks for toys. (e.g. rye grass ball)

[delphonso]

Interesting ideas, here. PTW.

[brolol.404]

I am still working on the plants, but here is an update to the evil biome.

death cap (tree)
stinkhorn (tree)
dead grass (tree)
barley grass (tree)
rye grass (tree)
millet grass (tree)

dead moss (grass)

[Enemy post]

The new plants are great, they really sell the "small scale" idea.

[Meph]

What about ant Queens and eggs?

[brolol.404]

The new plants are great, they really sell the "small scale" idea.

Thanks almost done with the landscape and then can move onto the creatures.

What about ant Queens and eggs?

I just made the queen give live birth (to an enormous litter) due to the egg laying issues

[cyberwarrior]

I would love to see the wasps get access to paper for building. In real life wasps chew up plants for pulp, and use that to make their hives out of paper mache. So you could add a reaction that allows a single "log" make say ten units of "paper" For cheap and lightweight building. Finally you could do something similar for bees and their wax. Perhaps use unrotten foodstuffs in a reaction to produce a large amount of wax, which can be used as blocks for building?

[LargeSnail]

Working with pop ratios doesn't mean that at least two or more queens can exist in the same civ? Even you should be able to find two on the same fort (if they show up in a migrant wave or are part of the seven starting ants/bees).
You could add some site-level queen-only noble positions, to avoid using queens as regular workers. Maybe the baron, duke and count positions could be caste restricted to only allow queens.

How many civilized species you have already done or in mind?

[Enemy post]

I was curious, are you keeping strange moods? One the one hand it's not realistic, and you'll need a source of leather and bones, but on the other hand they're fun and the game will inevitably involve supernaturally-affected ants at some point.

[brolol.404]

I would love to see the wasps get access to paper for building. In real life wasps chew up plants for pulp, and use that to make their hives out of paper mache. So you could add a reaction that allows a single "log" make say ten units of "paper" For cheap and lightweight building. Finally you could do something similar for bees and their wax. Perhaps use unrotten foodstuffs in a reaction to produce a large amount of wax, which can be used as blocks for building?

I wasnt planning on making wasps a playable civ, but I really like this idea so I will add paper wasps as a civ.

For honey bees, I am planning on having pollen collectable from the ground which can then be turned into wax and honey.

I was curious, are you keeping strange moods? One the one hand it's not realistic, and you'll need a source of leather and bones, but on the other hand they're fun and the game will inevitably involve supernaturally-affected ants at some point.

I am not sure. I am not against it, but there won't be an easy way to get bones or leather. They will have to be from a megabeast (mole, mouse, finch, etc.) or I could possibly add some extremely difficult creatures (possibly semi-megabeasts) in certain biomes (like the small frog or striped newt). So, unless I turn them off you will lose some ants to moods.

However, I could possibly make a plant "peat" that drops bones and leather as growth (so sometimes bones and leather scraps would show up on the forest floor) but I dont know if this would actually count as bone or leather. (I assume it would with the correct material and stockpile tags though.)

Working with pop ratios doesn't mean that at least two or more queens can exist in the same civ? Even you should be able to find two on the same fort (if they show up in a migrant wave or are part of the seven starting ants/bees).
You could add some site-level queen-only noble positions, to avoid using queens as regular workers. Maybe the baron, duke and count positions could be caste restricted to only allow queens.

So, the black ant castes are: worker (technically a female), drone (the only males and required for mating) and queens (the only females able to birth new ants). These are invisible to the player (except that the drones have wings and the queen can only move 1kph). The drone and queen castes are extremely rare, but you could technically have multiple in one fort. I set the MONARCH to only allow queens and she should show up to your fort at population of 20. The other queen castes could be used as normal workers, but they are extremely valuable (being the only ants able to give birth), extremely rare and only move 1kph (so basically worthless as far as productivity). Your best option is to burrow them all in a room with stockpiles of food and water.

How many civilized species you have already done or in mind?

I have black ants and wolf spiders done.

Black Ants: an underground race that can farm fungi and yeast. They are exceptionally strong and incredible miners. They live around 12 years and require a queen and a drone to reproduce, but reach population cap quickly with litters of 30 to 50 ants. Children reach adulthood after 1 year.

Wolf Spiders: incredibly fast and incredibly strong, wolf spiders are stealthy hunters. They are carnivores, but only live 2 to 3 years. With litters of 20 to 30, they have a constantly changing population.

I am planning on adding:

Honey Bees: a race of winged insects that can use collected pollen to create honey for food and wax for building. (I wiill try to make them die if they attack).

Papers Wasps: a race of winged insects that can make paper out of grass trees used for building and book making.

I am considering adding (but am not sure about) termites (as a cave and possible item thief).

[cyberwarrior]

Honey Bees: a race of winged insects that can use collected pollen to create honey for food and wax for building. (I wiill try to make them die if they attack).

I believe Bees only die if they sting something too tough, getting it caught in a persons skin for example. If they are fighting another insect or a small lizard, its flesh may not be strong enough to keep hold of the bees stinger. Besides, its only really honey bees that do this, most bee species dont.

[brolol.404]

I believe Bees only die if they sting something too tough, getting it caught in a persons skin for example. If they are fighting another insect or a small lizard, its flesh may not be strong enough to keep hold of the bees stinger. Besides, its only really honey bees that do this, most bee species dont.

Good point. They would also be terrible in combat if they died on attack lol

[Meph]

I completely forgot the most evil of all insect-like beings.

Take your advanced worldgen, set demons to 0.

Create a new creature with DEPTH:5:5, which means they populate hell.

Then create... Solifugae. Aka camel spiders.

A cool invader civ or yet another megabeast could be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis ; while necromancers could be replaced with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis a fungus that mind-controls ants. It would fit oh-so-perfectly for reanimated ant corpses.

Sorry if I'm making too many suggestions. ^^

[Ulfarr]

Wolf Spiders: incredibly fast and incredibly strong, wolf spiders are stealthy hunters. They are carnivores, but only live 2 to 3 years. With litters of 20 to 30, they have a constantly changing population.

I got to say I love the idea of a rapidly changing population but with so many of them dying every couple of years wouldn't it create a spacing problem due to the extensive needs for burial grounds/slab gardens? Is there a way to prevent any spider-ghost from spawning that I am missing?