Drongo
Administrator 
Posts: 98
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Post by Drongo on Aug 4, 2017 8:05:09 GMT
I believe that a great system would be where soldiers and workers can be transferred from one nest to another, but for a cost to prevent it being abused (eg: send a big army to nest A, then back to nest B and back to nest A again depending on the needs of the alliance).
Perhaps limit it to members of the same alliance of ants that share an "ally pheromone"... encouraging players to group into alliances rather than being free anthills.
Also food can be transferred of course, but nobody can build your nest for you, only your own workers (although you can get a huge workforce transferred to you in order to speed up the work).
Workers, like soldiers, require food to feed them (even if they're away on a hunt or attack or whatever), and so it remains impossible for a tiny little ant nest to have a massive monstrous army lurking inside it (at least, for long).
Thoughts?
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biter
Xenomorph
Posts: 18
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Post by biter on Aug 5, 2017 23:36:24 GMT
Would this include honeypot ants?
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Drongo
Administrator
Posts: 98
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Post by Drongo on Aug 6, 2017 0:13:32 GMT
Honeypot ants would only be a caste of a specific species of ant... maybe with the benefit of being able to move their food capacity from one nest to another (if a player has multiple nests for example)... or, as you say, trade them with other players.
Army ants for example do not have honeypot ants, so their food capacity would be defined by something else - maybe a larder chamber in their nest for eample. Which, obviously, can't be moved or traded with other players or nests.
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Post by Flatnose on Aug 6, 2017 19:12:52 GMT
so I think being colonized should do a lot more then it does like you colonize an ally and you can actually DO SOMETHING with it rather then be waiting for someone to crash into that ally and have you die what a great system that is hahahah
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Drongo
Administrator
Posts: 98
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Post by Drongo on Aug 8, 2017 11:04:39 GMT
Yep I agree. Many options should open up to you when you colonise another nest.
You should be able to control their army of workers, for example. You should be able to decide what is built in the nest, maybe even sabotage it a bit.
But we need to be careful that a colonisation does not equal having your whole nest reduced to rubble... that would suck the big meatball.
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Post by Sammas on Nov 26, 2017 1:58:08 GMT
As far as the "cost" of doing this, I use to play another game in which the upkeep was double that if it was at home. that seems reasonable.
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Drongo
Administrator
Posts: 98
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Post by Drongo on Nov 9, 2018 10:30:22 GMT
With Pheromones being a decided resource which is accumulated by each ant over time, and expended on any action that is commanded to any group of ants (relative to the size of the group being commanded), it stands to reason that this pheromone can also be spent grouping together nests to form super-colonies, just like in the real world. Alliances, in other words.
This (as with the real world) will allow these new combined forces to treat each other exactly the same as if they were genetically related, which means that while there are benefits to being in an alliance, there are also costs. As alliances (ie: super-colonies) grow in members, the cost also grows. That means that small members cannot join into really large established super-colonies for protection, but must instead band together with other smaller members, while large super-colonies are guaranteed to consist of very large individual players by default.
It also means that there would be a diminishing return for players to band together to form really large alliances, and so forming smaller alliances with better quality members becomes a much higher priority than forming large alliances with many members. So players would begin seeking out active and skilled players, and the alliance system would become in itself a very strategic thing.
Regarding trade, it is possible for players to send food and water. Water forms part of an ant's body and is consumed by the ants from their environment but can be traded by sharing fluids ant-to-ant.
Pheromones and the less well defined "Fear" or "Honour" resource generated by combat cannot be traded. Only accumulated or spent.
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