Gnat Swarms

I'm not sure if someone else has had a similar idea, and if so I am sorry for not reading 13 pages of posts to find it.
As for the monster:

((Obligatory horrible art, now in gif form))



(picture expanded by a factor of 2, gnats would be about 1/2 this size)
MONSTER: Gnat Swarm or just Gnats
Named for the horribly annoying bugs on your home planet, these tiny insects are not terribly annoying when found alone. However, just like their namesake, they are a real pain in large groups. These little buggers will form small swarms and attack adventurers when they pass by. While each one doesn't hurt very much, find a large enough swarm and you will be forced to run for your life.

The real pain, though? It's hard to shoot a swarm of bugs. You'll need a melee weapon to effectively deal with these things. (This is assuming there are melee weapons in the game. If there are not then I see no problem with them being shootable. The idea here is that of "certain enemies are weak against certain weapons," you know?)

Depending on the planet, you might encounter fire gnats, ice gnats, electric gnats... or worse!

Single gnats (pictured above) could make for a good non-combat pet: perhaps some kind of vanity item that buzzes after you as you explore?

Specifics:
-partial defense to guns/normal bullets; weak against explosives, fire and melee attacks (unless trait interferes with a specific thing, like fire).
-A whole gnat cloud is one monster, AKA shared health and moves as a group (you probably don't want to have to track/kill 30 of these things at once, from a gameplay OR programming viewpoint that is a bad idea) Gnat swarm size is indicative of health and attack power, and harder planets have bigger swarms.
-Hurts small amounts in rapid succession (maybe a few hit points every half second, whatever works balance-wise), almost like a poison effect would. Contact with Fire gnats sets you on fire, with ice gnats slows you down... pray that you never run into explosive gnats!
-Gnat Swarms, being a SWARM OF INSECTS, cannot be blocked by a shield (because the way they do damage would not mesh well with the mechanic), but the damage is small enough that it doesn't really matter that much, and you can dispatch normal swarms before they become a serious problem.
-Non-tameable, or has a chance to become a vanity item
-hovers in place until approached, so you have time to prepare before diving into an angry swarm!

 

Omg. Amazing!

 

A

simple idea but I feel it has its merits
Not all life that we run into has to be bigger than a breadbox
In fact most life isn't

 

Very true...

 

Gameplay wise, I support this.
Hope we get a flamethrower specifically for singing gnats.

 

The Gnat Nape

 

I like the idea but the problem I have is it needs too special of a weapon to kill and if there as easily found as you say they are (unless the large groups are rare) in the beginning you have no way to beat them.

 

I had assumed that there would be melee weapons but this has apparently not been confirmed. If there aren't then I see no problem with shooting them, although it should still be a bit of a pain to do so.
Perhaps the HP is how many bugs are in the swarm? Let me edit my entry.

 

Nice.
But I'm more than certain there are melee weapons in the game - I swear I saw an energy axe somewhere (also, candy cane sword),

You know what we need?
Bug Spray!

 

or flyswatters

 

or a bug spray

 

That's what I said, lol!

 

haha didn't see it

 

You know what else would be good?
Flyswatters
XD

 

Interesting.

 

now I have seen yours ;p
As for the idea...It is a nice one...but the gnats just remind me of flying worms )then again, those would be grotesque as f***) xD

It is a nice idea, but then again, not super creative...

 

:<
Am I to assume you are basing that comment completely on the picture
I never claimed to have any kind of artistic talent but those are obviously flappy wings
I'm going to stop talking because I know I do not take criticism very well and this could get ugly

 

Oh no, I am not basing it on the artwork, the artwork is fine bra

its just that...well, swarms are a nice idea,...gnats, wellll...they aren't BAD, but I think they need some more in-depth info on their phsyiology and what not. Maybe add that some species shoot acid while others explode when touched...I don't know. But the info on them is lacking a little.

In my opinion, there are lots of entries with great artwork, but no info, vica versa, some with little artwork cause of skill, but great ideas and potential. I am just calling it as I see it. And we ALL know the entries do not depend on the art, that would be a bit biased...

 

This is a great idea, I support this

 

I left the info open so that it would be more malleable to incorporate into the game, not due to lack of information. I already mentioned exploding gnats, and I can't include all possible traits in here.
What kind of physiology info do you want on them? They are little flying bugs with wings, very tiny. Pixels wide.
Writing a whole encyclopedia entry on the things would limit what the game devs could do with them, which also goes against the idea. Although it might hurt its chances, I think it would be worse off as a completely pre-formed monster idea.