Colony of Giant Ants

This is an excellent idea. I like the idea of an AI-centered mob instead of another of those giant things that just want to eat you.

 

Looks really nice, I think if the sprites were improved to fit into starbound's style it could be an amazing addition to the game.

 

This is amazing, it looks like a lot of research and time was put into it! The backstory behind them is pretty interesting, the sprites are really cool, and the whole idea of exploring a giant ant nest full of these monsters sounds fun! Even if the monsters themselves don't win, the devs should definitely consider adding nests of hostile creatures to the game.

 

no you did not just 'blow my mind' i was merely mentioning that ants have been used in numerous other games (e.g fallout [i could go on but it's like 100 and i really just want to go to bed] etc). No need to get defensive, i dont know why you are its not even your submission

 

The art work and concepts and everything are really cool.... but in all honesty wasn't very orginal. I mean, giant bugs, o wait a minute a COLONY of giant bugs, yea.... ummm... It just, doesn't seem very orginal to me, I believe I've seen things like this in other games before as well as few movies.

The art work is pretty and everything, but just adding on "organized" to it doesn't really sell it to me very well. Its like replacing an organized group of say goblins or humans with ants is what it seems like to me.

I'm sorry if I may offend some of you, but I really don't buy this very much, it just seems to simple and unorginal to me. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see this in the game, but for the contest, I've seen/read some better concepts and ideas.

 

It is based (at least somewhat) on real life ant structure, but that's a whole other story. What's interesting about this is the AI and the way the ants are organized. Also, goblins and humans are way overused and would never win this competition.

Some things that it does better than humans and goblins:

• I don't think they have wings or people who block passageways with their heads.. (Then again, only select few ants have wings irl.)
• They're just cool to look at.
• It wouldn't make sense for humans or goblins to grow up from babies as fast as ants would.
• It's not replacing goblins and humans. They wouldn't be the same or have the same AI. In fact, they would probably be better.
• Alien ants fit better with the theme of Starbound.

Therefore, I still think this is a wonderful idea and hope that either it, my own, or that third one I looked at win.

 

Shouldn't your siggy actually say "If Chuck Norris could chuck norris, how much norris could a Chuck Norris chuck?" ?

 

I think that you missed my point. I wasn't comparing them to goblins or humans, I was comparing them to pretty much anything that can be organized. Giant spiders, worms, over bloated chompers, anything really. The AI isn't the monster, and the AI can be done with several other things besides just ants you know? I think you're looking more at the concept of what it will and can do rather than the actual monster. The monster is a giant ant, oooooo, my mistake... a COLONY of giant ants.... real orginal.
Also, you didn't really explain why you think its cool, all you legitally said from that list which supports your claim is "They're just cool to look at" and "Alien ants fit better with the theme of Starbound" which I disagree with because so many other monsters fit in just as well. Just because it has a system to it doesn't really make it a better monster. Anything in the game can have a organized AI to it.

 

TRUTH

They should make instead of ants, it should procedurally generate creaturs.

Maybe the Ahs 'Khrata species are grey chitins, red skin and spiky chitins, while the Borhin species are yellow all around and gooey. Maybe the Ahs 'Khrata Queen is fat, while the Borhin Queen is skinny.

They could be beetles, insects, or even robots. My point is, ants are BORING, we could easily use other creatures like Dynafols said to make it cooler.

 

I wouldn't cancel out ants though, they are cool though, and a classic. Just because its already been done though at times, doesn't mean they should be neglected.

 

I agree. That is certainly nothing mind banding here, I myself think there are plenty of more unique ideas in this contest so far. The main reason why I decided to put so much time and effort into this, because I personally like the idea of monsters working together, and effecting player's actions in a long run, that is beyong "I see group of humanoid monsters doing something together, I slaughter them, I move on"...

I try to suggest that player can either:

1) Kill ants like they are basic monsters, considering every class of ant has special abilities that work very well together with other classes, so I imagine it would be quite challenging and fun.
2) Make it to the Queen and to ask her to work together, or force her to make her hive work for you, alone with many other possibilities of options that you can come up with.

If player finds out that there is ant colony on a planet, they will have to find out what is personality of that colony, are they gonna expand and wipe everything in their way? I they very strong? Or are they friendly, are they trying to acomplish something on the planet, can you help them, should you stop them? Can you use them to your own advantage?

You also can capture queen larvae from a colony that you really like and move the larvae to different planet to start new colony that also might help you there.

Again, its not the ants that should be exciting, but all the possibilities of the mechanics that are involved. And I suggested tiny fraction of what you can do with colony, there are hundreds of quests, mini games, breeding systems, riding system that you can come up with little effort.

I am sorry that I picked Ants. Yep ants, been used everywhere since forever, but I just happen to like them, they are fun to watch in real life, and they have very interesting behavior and life spawn, from scientific point of view, and they sure as heck can be made more interesting in a game where anything is possible. In fact, as I mentioned before in my other respond to similar post, in most games and even movies, ants are just a generic enemy #XYZ, they attack people, then they get killed, no one ever goes into details of showing how they work behind the scene.

You might not care about the whole organized colony idea, maybe all you see are just bunch of bugs that you gonna kill in the game without giving it a second though, and that is totally fine, we all have different tastes when it comes to everything, so what might seem to be awesome for one person, can be completely boring for another, just fact of life I suppose.

I appreciate your honest response and you certainly not offending me by saying something like that, in fact I like people who have balls to stand up and say what they think without been a dick about it. Tipping my hat to you sir!

Well I had to pick a monster to describe my idea, ants are pretty fun imo, especially when I suggested so many different kinds, each with their own unique abilities. , and they fit perfectly well with the colony/hive/organized group concept.

If developers pick this idea, and fully take advanate of it, then hell yeah, I don't see any reasons why they can't use same code to make other creatures to work the same way.

 

Ah, sorry. I thought you were comparing them. I need to actually read posts I want to debate with >.<.

Well, the ant works with the Splicer theme and it represents ants in real life. I agree that perhaps something more original could have been created, but it's already said and done. Most of the attacks that the ants use wouldn't work with other things. And those things definitely wouldn't have queens, unless bees were used.

Also, we seem to be genuinely disagreeing about what this contest is about. My monster is a giant stripy shark, and if you don't look past that, it looks boring and average. But if you actually read the giant wall of text I wrote, you could see that it's a shark that can fly and that you can raise yourself. But some entries look epic yet barely have any info on what they do. Is that what this is about? That's beginning to lean towards it being an art contest, despite what the developers said. Without AI, the monster is boring and you can't make it any more unique except by better art. For example (and my examples are complicated), if person A makes an awesome drawing of a dragon, and person B makes a dragon that is horrible art that you can't see but have unique, AI-based battles with you and have spiny scales, who would win? If you looked past the AI, Person A would win. But if the AI was the main factor, B would win. Which one would you want better to be implemented into the game?

*prepares to have example smashed into bits because it was worded bad*

 

Indeed, I think people are looking as ant's more as creatures by themselves instead of them as a cohesive colony. I think it would be quite interesting to encounter the ants on planets or asteroids where they have a colony and have potential interactions with them such as making alliances or perhaps sending them to a planet that I don't like or need terraformed. There's just so many possible gameplay mechanics that to simply not like them because you think the idea of ants is unoriginal is ridiculous. Power to the ants!

 

Ahhh thank you! A breath of fresh air in the sea of the lost.... I knew someone had to have an idea how things should be working in contest like this.

Fortunately for us, its not members of the forum who will be picking the winners, and I am pretty positives the Developers have pretty good grasp on what exactly they are looking for in a strong entry.

 

That's really the contradiction. Nobody knows what the developers are looking for. Is it the concept of the monster, or what the monster actually does?

If it's the concept, then this thread (and probably my own) is finished.

 

Indeed but I think a monster with gameplay mechanics on how it works and interacts with the worlds is much more interesting than a monster who simply pops up on worlds and attacks you and that's the only interaction you can have.

 

Well, in the rules it clearly states that you will not be judged by your artistic skills. All they need is a basic idea of what monster looks like, so the Artists from Chucklefish can sit down and make it awesome, and bring it to life. I think YOUR in-game mechanic and AI behavior will be one of the most valubale pieces, if you can come up with something either funny, challenging or interesting, it will have pretty good chance of making it into the game.

But you are right, no one really knows 100%. All I can say that if you put enough thought, time and effort into your work, something good will come out.

 

Hmm...obviously this problem needs to be cleared up. Perhaps I could ask a developer directly and then report back. Or one of you could.
Either way, people will get hammered by the decision. We have people with epic ideas for monsters with no info on what it does, and we have people with monsters that aren't too original but do very original thing. Perhaps it is open to both.

Wow, we got carried away, didn't we? I'll PM a developer or admin and get this cleared up. Meanwhile, let's let people who actually want to discuss the idea talk.

 

Well, instead of queens the other species could have "Mothers" or "Breeders" but generally in most cases, Sci-Fi hiveminds have a Queen, references:
Starwars: The Clone Wars
Starcraft
Starcarft 2
Something

Well then I need to work on my AI, and tell SAO to do that too

 

WelshPixie has been asked about the contest. Probably won't get a response for a while, but the deed has been done.