Ant Sieges/Outpost Defense Missions

[nameless_survivor]

So I was thinking that Ants need a new behavior. Given the right conditions, ants could come together into a swarm and assault an area. Maybe you just killed a bunch of them and they are hunting you, or their scouts found a lot of creatures in that area. Opens up possibilities for missions too. Defending a refugee center or NPC outpost, or exterminating a swarm before it can reach an area. Would make for some pretty awesome situations in my opinion.

[TheZoneWizard]

Not that I disagree with this idea at all. Rather nice in fact if done well. But they can already do this. Minus the NPC aspects.

NPCs are pretty useless at the moment and will often stand still while being torn apart. So unless that is fixed. Having an assault would end very badly for a static base =(

If you cull a herd of just about any mobs(run around them in a circle). You then run in one direction. They will tear apart many things in their way to get you. This is because the coding was never added to make them do anything besides crash through stuff to get their target. But…watch critters eat a car in their attempt to kill your toon.

[nameless_survivor]

But…watch critters eat a car in their attempt to kill your toon.

Yeah I know, running through the cab of a car and closing the doors behind me is a tactic I use to escape when I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.

I figured this would be something to supplement improvements to AI pathfinding that I assume are in progress. I was thinking that once certain conditions were met (ex: # of ants in a 25x25 square exceeds 10), swarms would begin to exhibit more organized behavior than simply mobbing together while chasing the target.

Some examples:
Targeting the weakest obstacles if no other path is available, rather than the ones obstructing the most direct route.
Encircling the target or cutting off escape routes.
Sending out scouts to find prey for the swarm

Basically, tactical behaviors like those employed by eusocial insects or pack hunting animals in reality.

[TheZoneWizard]

Sound and I completely agree. But the primary hurdle is similar to that of NPCs. Lotta crap is added to the game and left as the more in depth polishing is really daunting.

Plus it is a problem that many topics are not discussed and just changed instead of talked about here on the fourm. The devs tend to assume everyone goes to github and is happy with doing so. I come here as I don’t like having sift a crapton of code jargon to find a simple thread with a name of the damn topic in question. That annoys me…sorry >_>