new ANT scenario

[biru biru]

Hello civ fanatics. My name is Bill Rudd. I am a long time civ 2 player, but am relatively new to scenario design. This is my first scenario, and was built over the last several months with help from designers at Apolyton. Anyway, please give it a shot, and let me know what you think.

There will eventually be another version of this scenario, with level-up terrain graphics, unit shields, and such. But for now, it should be considered finished (though I remain open to all comments, suggestions, criticisms and will certainly make changes where needed!)

There may be a few bugs left in this game! Let me know if I missed something.

Yours Truly,
biru biru

 

[biru biru]

Compete as one of 7 ant species for dominance of a regional ecosystem. Win by law of the jungle; Fight or Flight. Eliminate rival species or be the first to complete a mass-migration project to another region (note: spaceship .dll's have not been changed yet in this version, and if someone would like to help me with it... )

Take special care of your first queen, losing her will lead to the rapid extinction of your species. Likewise, killing an enemy first queen will eliminate that species.

Be careful of tough, barbarian insects and arachnids. Search out Happonashi, the Queen spider in the middle of the board for a shortcut to late-game evolutionary advances.

Good luck, and enjoy!

 

[biru biru]

And I'd like to post the sounds, but it looks like the file (zipped) is too large?

 

[biru biru]

Shoot. Poor first impression, but I can't get the file upload service to work. I will get this posted ASAP, but I'm using public computer labs as my coputer is down. Keep an eye on this thread!

Also, the error message I'm getting says that I should change my file name to all lower case, but the file name I'm using is 'ant'. I tried zipping it with winzip and the default Windows XP option on this computer. Does anyone know what could be wrong?

Thanks!

 

[biru biru]

Anyway, this should link to a link. Follow this link to another forum disscussion, and from there you can download the scenario. I can't link directly to the download from here, of course, until I get the upload to work.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=132582&pagenumber=2

 

[Joeb WK]

Saw this in development at Apoly a while a go Ill try to get round to playing it soon.

 

[kobayashi]

So what are the tribes of ants?

 

[biru biru]

So what are the tribes of ants?

Tribes of ants are based on a few of the more famous ant species around the world:

Leaf-Cutters (amazon, etc)
Bull dogs (viscious bites, from Australlia)
Army Ants (Nomadic, tropics etc)
Weavers (Larvae excretes a sticky silk that adults use to weave a nest)
Fire Ants (aggressive, succseesful species colonizing the southern states)
Carpenter Ants (USA, etc)

Note that cities (nests) are named after, in part, whole, or conglamoration, after the scientific names for species around the world. Capital cities are named for scientific name of the species in question. For example; Carpenters are out of Carpentriessi, Army out of Dolymorphus, etc. As a spoliler hint for the scenario, 1st queens are located in these capitals. Killing a queen eliminates the species, so it behooves to find them. Unfortunately, the names of the other capitals escape me at the moment, but I will post them soon.

I actually learned quite a bit about ants working on this project. Sort of fun, but a little creepy at night...

 

[biru biru]

and the Harvesters! a species with a legendarily potent sting, but utterly unnagressive. Currently acting as food for the fire ants in some parts of the states, feeds mostly on seeds.

 

[kobayashi]

what about farmer ants

 

[Catfish]

Bull dogs (viscious bites, from Australlia)

Although a bulldog ant's (Myrmecia spp.) mandibles look ferocious, I can tell you from experience that its sting is much worse than its bite. A sting from one of the larger species (we're talking 25 mm long here) feels like a red hot needle. Luckily the pain disappears rapidly. There are a few nests in my yard – not worth worrying about, though.

BTW, you have a grammatical error in your title screen. Drop the apostrophe from "it's".

 

[biru biru]

what about farmer ants

I haven't heard of farmer ants. I made my selections based on typing 'ants' into my google browser, and basically going with the first 7 or so to have a web page or two dedicated to them.

However, there are a few tribe-specific ants that have common names; and there may be room for one or two more units, or might rename the Harvesters special unit 'farmer ants' (poetic liscence here, farmers are probably not properly harvesters).

 

[biru biru]

Although a bulldog ant's (Myrmecia spp.) mandibles look ferocious, I can tell you from experience that its sting is much worse than its bite.

BTW, you have a grammatical error in your title screen. Drop the apostrophe from "it's".

@sting: Are these Jack-Jumpers? And why do they call them Jack-Jumpers, mate? I don't suppose that it's your jack is in jumping jeoprady?

@ grammar: Cheers, and thanks! There are two apostrophe problems then. Embarrassingly enough, I'm an English teacher.

Ants are cool!

 

[kobayashi]

my mistake, I was referring to herder ants breed aphids and bugs and milk them like cows.

As opposed to leaf cutters which are commonly caled the farmers

see the bottom of

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2004/4/antfarmers.cfm

 

[biru biru]

I was referring to herder ants breed aphids and bugs and milk them like cows.

As opposed to leaf cutters which are commonly caled the farmers

[/url]

Nice url reference. Thanks!

At the moment the Leaf-cutters, Weaver, and Carpenters do not have a special unit with the discovery of 'exotic ants'; instead they have unique access to a couple of wonders to compensate. However, in the next version, I would like to add special ants for these tribes as well.

I really like the idea of farmers. The Leaf-cutters will have a super-settler (engineer spot is already in use unfortunately) called a 'farmer ant'! Carpenters will get a decent flying ant. No idea at the moment for the Weavers, open.

Re: aphid farming: I thought this was very cool when I read about it! At the moment, all tribes can eventually build aphid farms (improve farmland). Also, with the discovery of 'insect husbandry' the wonder 'Domestic Insects' (Adam smith's) can be built.

All tribes share most of the tech tree. At the moment, there are only a few special units (each tribe a warrior and most tribes a super-star) and a couple of reserved wonders, and a tribe-characteristic city improvement in the first city, to distinguish tribes. So, unfortunately, there is no tribe that deeply specializes in just herding. However, a suprising amount of personality did make it into the game.

Kobayashi, if you have time, please play a couple turns of this. I would appreciate your further ideas!

 

[Catfish]

@sting: Are these Jack-Jumpers? And why do they call them Jack-Jumpers, mate? I don't suppose that it's your jack is in jumping jeoprady?

Bulldogs and Jumpers belong to the same genus: Myrmecia. The ones I described were bulldogs (see attached). I don't know why the name Jack is used. It was probably coined by some inbred out in the sticks. The ants do, of course, jump and skip erratically.

There was a story about Jack Jumpers on a TV programme over here recently, specifically on incidences of anaphylaxis (severe and rapid allergic reactions) in Tasmania, resulting from stings. There have been 4 recorded deaths there in the last decade or so. I performed a quick search: this site gives a good summary.

@ grammar: Cheers, and thanks! There are two apostrophe problems then. Embarrassingly enough, I'm an English teacher.

I don't see another – unless you're referring to the single quotation marks. Single or double? That depends on which part of the globe you're in. BTW, I'm not a grammar Nazi (hated English at school), but in this case it was in your title screen.

 

[biru biru]

Thanks for the links and pics. I think I've got the same bulldog saved on my hard drive. Or anyway, I did, while I still had a hard drive couple months ago. Unfortunately, I'm on public computers at the moment.

Related, when I get my machine working again, I'll be sure to post units. The Jack Jumper came out pretty well with the long, scary mandibles. I admit that I thought they were biters until I followed your link just now. Turns out they lock onto target with mandibles then bend to sting.

Anyway, in the meantime, if you have time, play a couple rounds for me and let me know what you think. my first you know!

N_ice to meet you!

 

[biru biru]

...why the name Jack is used. It was probably coined by some inbred out in the sticks. The ants do, of course, jump and skip erratically.

Um, the obvious connection being that they move like jumping jacks, of course. But maybe your inbred was a poet, and cleverly covered two meanings with his/her nickname...

 

[Catfish]

Anyway, in the meantime, if you have time, play a couple rounds for me and let me know what you think. my first you know!

I don't have MGE. I'd have to convert the scenario over to ToT. From a playtesting perspective, gameplay would be virtually identical, but there are significant technical differences between the formats, eg, sound mapping and graphical layout. CivConverter (the ToT conversion utility) doesn't convert perfectly, either. When offering any advice, I'd also have to try and remember what you can and can't do in older versions of Civ2 – MGE is not as capable as ToT.

Um, the obvious connection being that they move like jumping jacks, of course. But maybe your inbred was a poet, and cleverly covered two meanings with his/her nickname...

Aside from the ants, I'm aware of 3 definitions of 'jumping jack': around here it's the name of a type of fire cracker; it's also an American term for an aerobic exercise, known in this neck of the woods as a 'star jump' and it's also the name for a type of string-operated toy (probably also of American origin). Then again, is it Jumping Jack Flash? It just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? My comment was made in jest – and my answer remains the same: I don't know why they're called Jack Jumpers. It's probably bush slang. The origin may or may not be related to one of the above, bearing in mind that the name Jack is as common as muck.

 

[biru biru]

I don't have MGE. I'd have to convert the scenario over to ToT.

I've visited you homepage, so I suppose I should have realized you specialize in TOT.

I am currently looking for TOT and the next version of this scenario might be in that format (although my graphics skills do not warrant the increased color options yet, I am interested in the additional units slots and possibly in increased events space). Anyway, keep an eye out... Next year probably there will be a TOT version.