Castes of ants and battle

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DarthAce21
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Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

Rather than there being heaps of different castes of ants, maybe we could keep things simpler by having only a couple.

Things like:
Worker ants (gather food, dig new chambers, tend to larvae to allow ant numbers growth, etc)
Honeypot ants (food supplies for the nest... food storage capacity)
Soldier ants (basic battle unit, used both to defend workers in the nest and on the hunting field, as well as to raid other players' nests)

All of these ants (including workers) have an attack/defense capacity.

However the strength comes not from classes but from XP for these ants.
Let's face it, people quickly discover in a game like this the best value for money ant, and that's the only one(s) they build.

In Antzzz for example, it is basically young dwarf, young soldier, and tanks. That's it. Experienced players ignore most other ants because they don't represent the best bang for your buck, so to speak.

So do away with all those castes and just have basic castes that do basic jobs, but the real attack/defense strength comes from numbers and from experience (like in a real ant nest).

So a player that has built up and never had a fight might start off with:
1,000,000 level 0 workers (attack = 1 - total attack 1,000,000)
50,000 honey pot ants (attack = 0 - total attack 0)
250,000 level 0 soldiers (attack = 10 - total attack = 2,500,000)

Thus giving this virgin army at attack total of 3,500,000 (with a total of 1,300,000 ants) (for the sake of the below formula, this is now called "number of ants")

They get attacked by some midget army let's say 1,000 soldiers (also of zero experience).

So, as per the attack formula proposed in the Attack System thread... the attack might go as follows:

Attacker = [number of ants] x [modifiers for attacker]
Defender = [number of ants] x [modifiers for defender]

Attacker = 1000 x 0
Defender = 3,500,000 x 0

So round1 attack = 3,500,000 - 1000 = 3,499,000
Round1 counter-attack = 1000 - 3,499,000


Defender kills all of the attacker's ants, attacker kills 1000 of the defender's nest.

Defending ants (to a total number of say 1% of the total army, for example) go up a level in XP.

So the defender's new army now looks like this:
999,500 workers (half the deaths were workers)
50,000 honey pot ants (attack = 0 - total attack 0) - these guys don't XP since you can't multiply zero... also they're one of the last to die since they're deep down in the belly of the nest somewhere
249,500 soldiers (half the deaths were soldiers)


so 1% of the survivors are now at level 1, ranked up from level 0.

9,995 workers are level 1 (worth an extra 10% attack next time they are in battle)
2,495 solders are level 1 (worth an extra 10% attack next time they are in battle)

So if this player is attacked AGAIN by 1,000 ants of level zero, it would look something like this (assuming no more were laid in the meantime):

989,505 level 0 workers (attack = 1 - total attack = 989,505)
9,995 level 1 workers (attack = 1.1 - total attack = 10,995)
50,000 honey pot ants (attack = 0 - total attack 0)
247,005 level 0 soldiers (attack = 10 - total attack = 2,470,050)
2,495 level 1 soldiers (attack = 11 - total attack = 27,445)

Thus giving the now attack-seasoned army a total attack value of 3,497,995 (with a total of 1,299,000 ants)

So the defender is weakened by the attack, but due to having a huge surviving army, the XP effect is greater so the impact on their overall army is very small.

Conversely, if they had only 10% of the total ants in the original army then the number of ants gaining a level (1% of the survivors) would result in a much, much larger impact in the overall army because far fewer ants would XP up.

This sytem would be simple for the game to calculate, and would allow for ants to XP up forever, potentially, since in the next attack 1% of the level 0 ants go to level 1, 1% of the level 1 ants go to level 2, and so on.  Very old players with very huge armies could end up with ants that are level 10,000 or more (although probably very few of them in total).

What do you think?
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DarthAce21
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

Xenomorph said in the original thread wrote: There should be different types of ants you can be when you start the game...so you can choose if you want to focus on being an attacker or a farmer or whatever. Maybe some ants gets a bonus when attacking other types of ants and aren't as good vs another type?
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DarthAce21
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

That's a great idea. Omnipotentman mentioned a similar idea in another thread also.
We could research a variety of ant species and maybe offer 3 - 6 different species that a player could select from.

Examples might be:
Image
Pharoah Ant - Small ant that excels at finding food in urban areas.
Buffs: +25% food in urban areas, +25% larvae development in urban areas, +50% build speed in urban areas
Nerfs: -100% attack vs other Pharoah ant nests (they don't attack each other), +10% deaths from attacks by natural predators in Hunting Field

Image
Pavement Ant- a small but highly aggressive ant found in both urban and rural areas.
Buffs: +10% attack vs other small ants, +10% build speed, +10% attack speed
Nerfs: +10% deaths from poison random events, +10% chance of nest damage random events, +10% deaths from attacks by natural predators in Hunting Field

Image
Leaf Cutter Ant - specialists in Mushroom Chamber growth
Buff: Mushroom Chamber food source (-50% in urban areas), +10% larvae development speed, workers have an unusually high attack value compared to soldiers, +15% build rate
Nerfs: Reliance on mushroom chamber for food (mostly) can risk random events damaging food production

Image
Army Ant - a huge and very aggressive ant
Buffs: +15% attack value in any battle vs any ant other than army ants, +15% hunting field food gathering, very high attack for both worker and soldier castes, +10% attack speed
Nerfs: -10% larvae development speed, -20% build speed, easily susceptible to pheromone disruption random events (due to workers being blind).

Image
Carpenter Ants - unusual attack strategy - "exploding ants"
Buffs: -15% to any enemy's attack value in any battle (exploding ants), +10% larvae development, +10% build speed
Nerfs: +5% deaths in any battle (exploding ants)

These are just some ideas... there could be a whole bunch of very different types.
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DarthAce21
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

biter said in the original thread wrote: Exploding ants? That doesn't seem very realistic. XD
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

They don't actually explode like little fire-crackers.
They have a modified gland that runs down the length of their bodies and when they're surrounded by enemies and out-numbered this gland ruptures (killing the ant) and covering the surrounding ants in a sticky mess that disables them. Kamikaze chemical warfare. True story - look it up :) Read the link I provided above for Carpenter ants. 8-)
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

biter said in the original thread wrote: Haha i see. So not exploding ants. Just snot ants. XD
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

Flatnose said in the original thread wrote: I like the idea of starting the game and choosing to be a farmer or a fighter or whatever thats kinda what I did when I made the flatnose account in antzzz :P
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

Flatnose said in the original thread wrote: its also how antzzz HAS to be played you could never waste time at lower levels being stupid and learning the game or it was a wasted account and you were stupid
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

Ideally there would be balance between all the species, but different species would have different vulnerabilities and strengths. For example leaf-cutter ants and honey-pot ants could have a significant storage of under-ground food so that if a war broke out on the surface they could hole up until it passed over, while a more aggressive ant like Army Ants for example don't have this reservoir of food and so are forced to be always hunting and always attacking.
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Re: Castes of ants and battle

Post by DarthAce21 »

MrMEC said in the original thread wrote: I like the idea of a Caste system for ants, but I don't think it's a wise idea to lock players into these castes forever. If somebody needs to change their caste to fit their alliance's necessities or a new player chooses a caste contrary to their playstyle, thus could lead to quitting or at least multi accounting or switching accounts. My suggestion would be to allow caste switches, say, once per month with a 1wk waiting period while you complete the switch. Also, new players could begin in a neutral caste to allow them to explore the game without making a large commitment they will regret. This also allows them to consult with other players before choosing their initial caste.
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