The High Elves and the Mad Kobolds (Upper Yard Ant Update)

[JustLikeAFruitPounder]

More high fantasy-themed names today, because I main Pete and Grounded is partly a parody of high fantasy.

I used to be an avid AntsCanada watcher back in the day, and the ants were the main reason I got this game. I always thought of the ants as rival species. Almost like tribes of goblins or orcs. Weak, numerous enemies that are absolutely EVERYWHERE. You can interact with them, raid their encampments, commit mass genocide, put on armor and become one of them, the list goes on. But sadly, they aren't as in-depth as I (and many others) want them to be. Obsidian is working on ant queens for a later update, but I still want more, especially in the Upper Yard, where a fascinating species became a half-baked nuisance.

First let's fix the Fire Ants before we get to the "High Elves" and "Mad Kobolds".

The Fire Ant Workers are strange. Instead of hatching from eggs, they spawn right behind you every X amount of time. The annoying bit is, the workers are too tanky and run like hell to alert the soldiers, which can overcomplicate things. Fighting ants should not be this common, especially since the Fire Ants are tanky, almost always spawn soldiers, always spawn near you and bite you in the butt after you got your butt kicked by larvae or beetles, and are always aggro.

Please for the love of god, make the Fire Ants like every other ant. Make them hatch out of eggs, decrease their health pool, and instead of always aggro all the time, only make them hostile when you are getting a little too close to their anthill.

Also please add more depth to them. Give the Soldiers a stinger, and a new attack to come with it where if you are stung, you get max sizzle for a few seconds. This attack is telegraphed like the Bee stinger, though.

Now for the first idea. The Leafcutter Ants, also known as Atta cephalotes or "high elves" in clickbaitspeak, inhabit the eastern upper yard. Their anthill is in the garden near Castle Moldorc. Leafcutters have strange anthills when compared to other ants. Their anthills can span for miles, and they have garden rooms where mushrooms are cultivated. The mushrooms these ants cultivate in-game are also quite strange. They function as tier 3 healbasas, healing way more health than an actual healbasa. This is due to the fact that these mushrooms are puffball mushrooms that were artificially selected by the ants for medicinal use in massive battles with lots of wounded. They also taste good.

Pete will actually call Leafcutters a "high elven kingdom". And due to these ants living off the land, chilling in gardens, and eating mushrooms, I have decided to give them a Spicy weakness, due to them being based off of elves, having a green thumb, and all that.

Here are their ranks:

Worker- Just your typical ant worker, but a bit tankier. The tradeoff is that these workers deal less damage than fire ant workers.

Soldier- Typical ant soldier. More health and less damage than fire ant soldiers. They have massive heads which make them deliver knockback to the player in their attacks.

Charger- Ant megamind. Even bigger than the soldiers, a Charger's head can block off entire chambers in their anthill, where they stay their whole lives. They never leave the anthill. Can fling you across the room with their high-damaging attacks. They have a bit more health than an Ox Beetle. 

Time for the second idea, the yellow crazy ants (or "mad kobolds" in clickbaitspeak, as well as in Pete's dialogue). They inhabit the Shed, its surroundings, the grasslands east of the BBQ spill, and a small part of the upper yard. Pete calls them "kobolds" because their anthill is a sprawling, cavernous dungeon deep down in the "Trenches of No Return" south of the shed, and also because they hunger for "lost electric magic" (the generator) because their "dragon queen" needs it to become a god, so they set up camps on the "Plateau of Doom" and "Mount Chair".

Pete would make a sick DM for sure, but that's beside the point.

The thing with kobolds is that it's never a kobold. It's lots of kobolds. The same goes for the Crazy Ants, which are faster than any other ant in the game. The Fire Ants beat them in health and raw damage by a fair amount, but the Crazy Ants win in speed and pack tactics. Crazy Ants don't spawn like any other ant. Their anthill is chock-full of eggs, simply because of their pack movements. With Fire Ants and Leafcutters, you only see 1 worker scouting and hunting most of the time. With Crazy Ants, you'll see 3.

Time for the ranks:

Worker- Weak, numerous, speedy. A true kobold.

Soldier- Pete calls them "dragonwrought sorcerers" for a good reason. These things patrol in pairs, and while weaker than any other upper yard ant soldier, they are very fast. They also can summon an electric aura for a few seconds. This aura makes them immune to all attacks, and will damage you if you try to attack the ant.

Crazy ants actually do this IRL. Their body coats itself in acid to protect from fire ant venom.

The crazy anthill is chock-full of sour wormholes and upgrade materials. Chewed-up wires zapping with electricity also run through the anthill. In the deepest depths of the dungeon, though, is the recipe for the Salty Staff, a staff that makes salt spikes shoot up out of the ground. Since crazy ants are weak to Salty, this is very useful when fighting them.

The crazy ant territory and the fire ant territory overlap. The leafcutter territory and the fire ant territory overlap. Since all of the ants attack each other on sight, this can lead to significant border conflicts.

And that is all. A block makes a difference, backyard dwellers.

 

 

[Jellyjar]

You my good fellow, are a genius 

[JustLikeAFruitPounder]

9 hours ago, Jellyjar said:

You my good fellow, are a genius 

Thanks. People really want these in game for some reason, it's got DOUBLE the views of any of my other posts. Scorpions, earwigs, water bugs? Nah, we want ANTS. And, frankly, I do too.

That's why I made a sort of "sequel" to this post.

Sequel Post