Insects MOD (Discussion & unit preview)

[Stormrage]

Eeewww... Oh, well, to each his own..

I like your version of the ant.

 

[Flamand]

Yeah, seeing the natural ones I like yours better too... But I wouldn't want to stand behind him when he's feeling gassy...

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Hey! I've got an idea for one of the Land barbs: an Antlion larva (also known as a Doodlebug)...

And that has nothing to do with the fact that I could use an Antlion as an advanced barb unit in the FF mod

 

[Stormrage]

Hey! I've got an idea for one of the Land barbs: an Antlion larva (also known as a Doodlebug)...

And that has nothing to do with the fact that I could use an Antlion as an advanced barb unit in the FF mod

Whoa... wait a sec.. those thing are for real?

 

[The Last Conformist]

What did you think they were, futuristic pillbugs from Pluto?

 

[Supa]

Antlion ? Yeah, of course, they're real. I don't know FF's Antlion but if Hikaro is interested in one from this mod, I guess they're pretty similar.

Good idea, the Antlion btw. I might do that.

 

[Stormrage]

Well, FF antlions are about as big as a house, so I figured they must be made up

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Whoa... wait a sec.. those thing are for real?

Yup! but the real ones are only about 3/4 of an inch long, and thier sand traps are only about as big around as the end of your big toe.... My brother and I had fun with the ones living in the drier areas of our yard... We'd go and catch ants and other small bugs and drop them into the sandtraps to see if the antlion would grab 'em and drag them under....

Edit: Yes, the FF antlions look pretty much like the real ones, which is why I suggested it.

 

[Stormrage]

You know, I knew about the sand traps, but never saw the thing that made the trap This thread is proving to be very informative

 

[Kyriakos]

I love this idea!
I volunteer to make cities for the ants
Any ideas of themes for the 'cities'?

 

[Supa]

Do you know the mounds built by Formica rufa (English common name is wood ants, I think ?) ?

Another image and another

That's what I have in mind for the Ants. I can probably find another pictures if you want.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Ants = Anthills of varing size and number... In my own home state of Pennsylvania, there are some anthills over 3ft accross, and up to half a dozen of these over a fairly large area... You see, the Red and black ants (red head and thorax, but black abdomens) have multiple queens, so as long as no major natural disasters kill all the queens at once, the colonies keep going on forever, hence the huge sizes they obtain.

Bees = Hornet's nest for town, Hollow log for City and Dead, hollow tree for metropolis.

Termites: Termite mounds in increasing sizes (I have a photo on my computer that I took of an active termite mound outside of Darwin, AU that's a whopping 3 Meters high )

Edit: Cross-posted with Supa: The Formica Rufa are EXACTLY what I was talking about... They also are found in the NE US, and as I said before, due to the fact that they have about 4 queens per colony on average (not all queens and drones swarm when a new crop hatches), so theoretically their colonies could go on forever (unlike most other ants, where all the young queens and drones leave upon maturity, and the entire colony dies off when the single queen dies).

 

[The Last Conformist]

Some African termites can apparently build mounds seven meters high!

Here's a pic of some more reasonably-sized ones:

 

[Supa]

Termite mounds can be quite impressing :

http://hjem.get2net.dk/niels_quist/termite.jpg

 

[Supa]

Edited
Uncertain informations I need to double check first.

Checked.

Formica rufa can be both polygynous and monogynous, it varies according to its geographical range.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Edited
Uncertain informations I need to double check first.

Checked.

Formica rufa can be both polygynous and monogynous, it varies according to its geographical range.

Well, ours are.... There are some anthills that have been around at least 20 years near where I live (and the longest a queen lives is 10-15), and have grown to gigundo sizes, as well as a number of fairly large sattlite hills popping up around the main one....

 

[Kyriakos]

My idea is to base them on the firaxis euro terrain

 

[Bluemofia]

I'll definetly play it. It's soo cool looking!

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Please make the mod and release the units, I know I'll use them in Heart of Destiny...(Genetic Engineering anyone? )

And the mod sounds like loads and loads of fun.

Personally I make it a point never to needlessly kill anything...

 

[Blue Monkey]

I used to love to play SimAnt, even though it was such a simple game. This would be awesome. There should be some kind of Swarm unit, an air-mobile settler.