Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
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Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
A while back, I was randomly thinking about how amazing it would be if RTS games could become Massively Multiplayer. This is next to impossible to do of course, since it would have to utilize a system like the Total War games of recruiting armies in an overworld and only battling with them when they met enemies or invaded other nests, not to mention the logistical nightmare of multiple enemies mobilizing at once. But it's still a fun concept!
The idea, of course, was an ant RTS. People would pick a species to play as and chaos would ensue as colonies grew, shrank, and died in the never ending conquest for resources. But then I wondered how a game like that would play if people could also choose termites, bees, and wasps/hornets. It would add extra depth in that everyone has to be concerned. Bees have larva and honey aplenty that hornets and ants respectively want. Hornets need to worry about retaliation with their relatively low numbers, and so on and so forth.
And then, one night, the idea hit me. What would it be like for termites, a famously defensive group due to their vegetarian diet, to utilize large, domed heads as a defense, blocking entrances from invaders with thick, chitin covered shields to buy time for the workers to seal off as much as they could of the larva and the royal chamber. This caste would be next to unable to fight, sacrificing biting power to dedicate their heads solely to being a shield that would take seemingly endless gnawing to chew through. Then I wondered how ants, for example, would be able to crack these defenses open more efficiently. My thought was a ridiculously large caste with thin, hooked jaws. They would be able to find a small gap somewhere between the termite and the surrounding earth and hook behind the shield to yank them out with brute force and let the swarm rush in.
And that really got me pondering. What would a game like that be, with various traits that could be evolved to facilitate different play styles, and the need to evolve new traits as your enemies change, and new ones appear to provide whole new challenges. How do hornets respond if bees evolve toxic hairs that they fill the sky with, forcing the hornets to land to try and groom and leaving them vulnerable to be swarmed and stung, dropping one by one? Perhaps a thicker armor that, while making them more cumbersome in the air, will allow them to shrug off the stings as they groom, requiring a lot more to take them out and giving them time to get back into fighting condition and slaughtering bees. How does a colony of ants respond to rivals with thick armor that their mandibles can barely penetrate? Evolve a caste that sprays acid, melting their foes thick exoskeleton away and incapacitating them, leaving them vulnerable to be ripped apart, or alternatively, evolve a caste of larger, stronger soldiers which simply break open the thick-armored enemies like a nutcracker does a walnut.
I simply wanted to post this to see if the AntsCanada community could come up with their own ideas, as one mind can only come up with so much! It can be anything, be they taken from existing species or something completely original. I may even draw cruddy concept art for some of them down the line if this takes off (which it probably won't), if someone else doesn't (which they won't).
The idea, of course, was an ant RTS. People would pick a species to play as and chaos would ensue as colonies grew, shrank, and died in the never ending conquest for resources. But then I wondered how a game like that would play if people could also choose termites, bees, and wasps/hornets. It would add extra depth in that everyone has to be concerned. Bees have larva and honey aplenty that hornets and ants respectively want. Hornets need to worry about retaliation with their relatively low numbers, and so on and so forth.
And then, one night, the idea hit me. What would it be like for termites, a famously defensive group due to their vegetarian diet, to utilize large, domed heads as a defense, blocking entrances from invaders with thick, chitin covered shields to buy time for the workers to seal off as much as they could of the larva and the royal chamber. This caste would be next to unable to fight, sacrificing biting power to dedicate their heads solely to being a shield that would take seemingly endless gnawing to chew through. Then I wondered how ants, for example, would be able to crack these defenses open more efficiently. My thought was a ridiculously large caste with thin, hooked jaws. They would be able to find a small gap somewhere between the termite and the surrounding earth and hook behind the shield to yank them out with brute force and let the swarm rush in.
And that really got me pondering. What would a game like that be, with various traits that could be evolved to facilitate different play styles, and the need to evolve new traits as your enemies change, and new ones appear to provide whole new challenges. How do hornets respond if bees evolve toxic hairs that they fill the sky with, forcing the hornets to land to try and groom and leaving them vulnerable to be swarmed and stung, dropping one by one? Perhaps a thicker armor that, while making them more cumbersome in the air, will allow them to shrug off the stings as they groom, requiring a lot more to take them out and giving them time to get back into fighting condition and slaughtering bees. How does a colony of ants respond to rivals with thick armor that their mandibles can barely penetrate? Evolve a caste that sprays acid, melting their foes thick exoskeleton away and incapacitating them, leaving them vulnerable to be ripped apart, or alternatively, evolve a caste of larger, stronger soldiers which simply break open the thick-armored enemies like a nutcracker does a walnut.
I simply wanted to post this to see if the AntsCanada community could come up with their own ideas, as one mind can only come up with so much! It can be anything, be they taken from existing species or something completely original. I may even draw cruddy concept art for some of them down the line if this takes off (which it probably won't), if someone else doesn't (which they won't).
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
I love the idea! a while back I was browsing to find games about ants (no reason why other than my obsession of them) but I could not find a good game, this sound great. It would be a good idea for the species making to be like Stellaris (if you ever heard about it) where each person has a certain amount of trait points and the good trait cost more and you can even chose bad traits to get more points (EX. the trait adaptive to tropics -3 points while very small is +2 to your point value)
Then you can change how your ant looks where your options given to you reflect your traits. Then you would join the game in a random area in your preferred climate and start as a newly mated alate queen (just so you can chose your nest site exactly where you want it and then once you dig your nest somewhere then you can do total war style. over all I love the idea and wish it would become a reality.
Then you can change how your ant looks where your options given to you reflect your traits. Then you would join the game in a random area in your preferred climate and start as a newly mated alate queen (just so you can chose your nest site exactly where you want it and then once you dig your nest somewhere then you can do total war style. over all I love the idea and wish it would become a reality.
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
- Ant Care Sheets
Queen Hunting
How To Identify Ants
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
oh forgot to mention mabey for the point value thing the game will give you a random number (within reason) so you can have just speceis with better traits (exhibit A red imported fire ant ).
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
- Ant Care Sheets
Queen Hunting
How To Identify Ants
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
you could always make this like a home made table top game instead of a total war typish game. Maybe like a risk meets total war meets D&D?
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- Posts: 77
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Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
Well, Evolution does have a trait exchanging system so maybe I can do that for the needing to evolve. Hummm, interesting idea...Either way, I'd need a massive list of traits for each kind of insect before I could consider it. Bees won't exactly have any need for the ant's hooked jaws trait, nor will hornets find use out of a shield head trait for termites. Plus I'd need to find out what to do should multiple people want to be ants, or bees, or wasps, or even termites.
Last edited by dinoman9877 on Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
if youd like id be willing to put some sort of time into something like thisdinoman9877 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:41 pmWell, Evolution does have a trait exchanging system so maybe I can do that for the needing to evolve. Hummm, interesting idea...Either way, I'd need a massive list of traits for each kind of insect before I could consider it. Bees won't exactly have any need for the ant's hooked jaws trait, nor will hornets find use out of a shield head trait for termites.
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- Posts: 77
- Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:03 pm
- Location: Covington, Kentucky
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
No it's fine, but I'll certainly figure out the logistics of it when I have the time. Right now, I need ideas for those traits if I'm going to make this a thing.
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
i've already got the traits I imagined them before reading this
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
- Ant Care Sheets
Queen Hunting
How To Identify Ants
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
trait effects
polygynous - gets +2 queens
nomadic - no permanent nest
slavemaker - can capture other brood
large - gets bonus in fighting and defense
small - gets less fighting power and defence
slow developing -adds 1 month to developing brood
long developing - adds 2 months to developing brood
fast developing - ants developed 2 weeks less time
strong - bonus in fighting
weak - disadvantage in fighting
hard exoskeleton - additional defense
non adaptive - less XP or science points if there are any
adaptive - more XP or science points if there are any
polygynous - gets +2 queens
nomadic - no permanent nest
slavemaker - can capture other brood
large - gets bonus in fighting and defense
small - gets less fighting power and defence
slow developing -adds 1 month to developing brood
long developing - adds 2 months to developing brood
fast developing - ants developed 2 weeks less time
strong - bonus in fighting
weak - disadvantage in fighting
hard exoskeleton - additional defense
non adaptive - less XP or science points if there are any
adaptive - more XP or science points if there are any
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
- Ant Care Sheets
Queen Hunting
How To Identify Ants
Re: Fun Concepts for an Imaginary Game
i like where youre headed but maybe somthing like this?antnest8 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:57 pmtrait effects
polygynous - gets +2 queens
nomadic - no permanent nest
slavemaker - can capture other brood
large - gets bonus in fighting and defense
small - gets less fighting power and defence
slow developing -adds 1 month to developing brood
long developing - adds 2 months to developing brood
fast developing - ants developed 2 weeks less time
strong - bonus in fighting
weak - disadvantage in fighting
hard exoskeleton - additional defense
non adaptive - less XP or science points if there are any
adaptive - more XP or science points if there are any
trait effects
polygynous - Doubles egg production
nomadic - no permanent nest
slavemaker - can capture other brood
large - more health
small - less health
slow developing -takes 2 turns to develope
long developing - takes 4 turns to develope
fast developing - takes 1 turn to develope
strong - 2 dice when attacking or defending per ant
weak - 1 dice for attacking and defending per 5 ants
hard exoskeleton - adds one dice on defensive rolls
non adaptive - less XP or science points if there are any
adaptive - more XP or science points if there are any
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