Colony Overmind briefing
A wide world of meadow, old forest, dune desert, reed marsh, badlands and mycelium grove. Colonies build what their ground allows: deep tunnels, thatch mounds, nests under stone slabs, and paper carton nests high in the trees. They rise, raid, age and fall. Storms, heatwaves, frost, gales, wildfires and earthquakes sweep across it. The world keeps going.
Colony report
Each system in Myrmidon starts from documented ant behaviour, then hands you a lever on it. Biology first, game second.
Ants are nearly blind. Each one samples volatile trails at three antenna points and turns toward the strongest. Outbound ants lay Home scent, laden ants lay Food scent, wounded ants release Alarm. Nestmates touch antennae when they meet.
Your brushes write straight into those channels. The Rally Beacon is vibrational: it travels through tunnels and over surfaces and overrides instinct for every combat caste.
Foragers carry nectar in their crop and share it mouth to mouth. Protein goes only to the queen and larvae.
Sugar keeps every ant moving and powers Sugar Rush. Protein and Genetic Points buy castes, evolutions and chambers.
Soil, water and climate decide where ants can live: harvester ants dig deep in deserts, wood ants pile thatch mounds in meadows and forests, carton-building ants nest in canopies, and fungus farmers thrive where fungi grow.
Meadow is balanced. Old Forest has tall climbable trees with aphid herds in the canopy. Dune Desert digs fast but scorches foragers at midday. Reed Marsh is food-rich but its water table floods deep tunnels. Badlands are rocky with many caves. Mycelium Grove grows renewable fungus and breeds Cordyceps.
Real nests regulate temperature: mounds catch the sun, stones store heat, deep chambers stay cool and safe, and arboreal carton nests keep brood away from ground predators.
Deep tunnel: winter costs less and raiders have far to go. Thatch mound: brood +30%. Under-stone: brood +15% and a tougher queen. Arboreal carton: beetles and centipedes cannot climb to it. Each biome also gives its colonies a trait.
Nests are zoned into nursery, granary and midden, and undertaker workers carry the dead out because corpses breed pathogens such as Ophiocordyceps.
Corpses left in the nest bloom into zombies. Build extra chambers: fungus garden, brood incubator, guard barracks, replete vault (honeypot ants) and a sealed midden.
Ant lineages differ in acid chemistry, cuticle armour, slave-making, food storage, fertility, sensory range, digging power and antimicrobial glands.
Eight lines with three tiers each: Corrosive Acid, Chitin Plating, Slaver Mandibles, Replete Metabolism, Royal Fecundity, Antennal Acuity, Excavator Mandibles, Metapleural Glands.
Slave-makers steal brood. Big colonies spread into satellite nests. In warm seasons alates fly out and mated queens seal themselves in to start new colonies. Kin scents drift apart over time.
Raid any hostile colony, found outposts underground, or send princesses to found daughter colonies. Kin keep a 5-minute truce. Queens age, and a waiting princess can take the throne.
Stag beetle larvae, wolf spiders and Scolopendra centipedes prey on ants. Food supply swings with the seasons.
Bosses telegraph their attacks and come for the biggest colony. Wounded ants may run home as messengers, laying a red alarm trail from the fight; their report sends free majors out to hunt the boss. Seasons change food, metabolism and the forest canopy. Soil settles and new root cavities open, keeping the endless world fresh.
Slave-making ants send scouts to find target nests before a raid; the scout returns and recruits the raiders. Food scouts lay a trail home that nestmates follow.
Scouts explore the whole map, keep a colony map of what has been seen, and report rival nests, food and predators. Colonies only raid nests they know about, and each has its own temperament: how many majors it needs, how much stronger it must be, how far it will march, its favoured season and whether it holds grudges. A good report can send the majors out at once.
Ants live by the weather. Rain washes scent away and floods shallow galleries, midday heat kills foragers caught in the open, cold stops them, and fog lets trails linger. Wood ants thatch their domes partly to shed rain and hold warmth.
Fronts drift across the map, weighted by season and biome. Deep nests flood when runoff pours down the shaft but stay cool in a heatwave. Thatch mounds shed rain but overheat. Under-stone nests seep and chill. Carton nests stay dry but chill in frost and tear in gales. After rain the soil digs easily, deserts bloom and mushrooms flush.
Lightning starts most natural wildfires. Mayfly emergences shower predators with protein. Earthquakes collapse burrows, and ants dig themselves back out.
Storms and dry heat throw lightning that sets canopies, thatch domes and carton nests alight; rain douses it and underground nests are safe. A colony whose tree burns digs a new nest in the ash. Quakes cave in tunnels and crush ants and brood (stone slabs shield the chambers below). Burned forests regrow. Summon any of it from God / Simulator.