Custom Game Colony Setting

This page shows the colony settings in custom games.

Settings

You can play with or without other colonies in custom games. You must choose a color and a team for each colony before you start a custom game. You can only have up to 4 colonies and 4 teams in a custom game.

Termite colonies always have miniature mounds on top of their nest entrances. Colony termites disappear 10 seconds after death.

Some colonies may have different headstart from story missions and extra missions.

Leafcutter ant colonies have nineteen-tiled queen chambers and start with 200 food.

Matabele ant colonies must start with some soldier brood tiles.

Fungus-growing termite colonies have nineteen-tiled queen chambers and must start with some lignocellulose storage tiles and some fungus storage tiles.

You can control temperament of non-player colonies: Docile, Timid, Balanced, Hostile and Aggressive. It affects their aggressiveness and unit composition.

You can also control how quickly non-player colonies make decision.

You can also control their cheat setting. Non-player colonies can start with prebuilt chambers and resources, spend less resources on building and upgrading, take less damage from swarm enemies early game, spawn units without requiring food or workers and receive food over time. Cheat is disabled when nest invasion is happening.

None: Small starting nest, small starting food amount, extremely rare free respawning

Headstart: Small starting nest, small starting food amount, rare free respawning

Underhanded: Small starting nest, medium starting food amount, slight cost reduction, slight damage reduction, rare free respawning

Cheater: Medium starting nest, large starting food amount, moderate cost reduction, moderate damage reduction, occasional free respawning and food receipt

Crooked: Large starting nest, large starting food amount, great cost reduction, great damage reduction, occasional free respawning and food receipt

Corrupt: Large starting nest, large starting food amount, great cost reduction, great damage reduction, frequent free respawning and food receipt

Non-player colonies aren't affected by upkeep and randomized caverns. You can control whether colonies can enter other nests.

Behaviors

Non-player colonies will send all units outside to gather food. Nanitic workers will stay inside after you have played for 10 minutes and are only deployed when non-player colonies don't have any other units.

Non-player colonies can only control up to 3 pheromone groups. They can be assigned with gathering food, taking aphids or attacking enemy colonies.

Gathering groups attack any enemies on the way when they are gathering food. Food gathering and attacking is disabled when they are taking aphids.

Gathering groups are kept inside if they can't find any food.

Non-player colonies will choose the weakest colonies in biomass as their targets after they have enough food. Attacking groups either follow their most recently placed pheromone markers or invade their nests. Food and aphid gathering is disabled in the process.

Attacking groups will be tasked with gathering food and retreat after they have taken enough casualties.

Attack frequency is affected by temperament setting.

Non-player colonies will retreat inside when nest invasion occurs or when water level is about to change.

Non-player colonies can attack nearby uber creatures when the victory condition requires.

Nest designs

Non-player colonies always start with the same predug nest and some resources. They usually work on 2 chambers at once. They prioritize upgrading storage and soldiers first and only upgrade workers after other building jobs have been finished.

Non-player colonies can decide building order on their own. They can only build hexagon chambers and can't build highway. Nest design and unit composition are affected by species choice and temperament setting.

Non-player colonies usually use the same nest designs for Balanced, Hostile and Aggressive.

Gene-thief ant/ Custom

Playable units are categorized into 3 groups: worker (green), small soldier (purple or orange) and large soldier (blue).

Playable units
Workers	Small soldiers	Large soldiers
Gene-thief ant workers Black ant workers Wood ant workers Leafcutter ant minors Fire ant workers Big-headed ant minors Little black ant workers Matabele ant workers Exploding ant workers Termite minor workers Exploding termite workers	Black ant soldiers Slave-maker ant soldiers Wood ant soldiers Wood ant shooters Leafcutter ant mediae Trap-jaw ant soldiers Army ant mediae Fire ant soldiers Big-headed ant majors Matabele ant medics Driver ant small soldiers Exploding ant minor soldiers Termite minor soldiers Exploding termite workers	Leafcutter ant majors Army ant majors Big-headed ant supersoldiers Matabele ant soldiers Driver ant large soldiers African stink ant soldiers Exploding ant major soldiers Termite major soldiers Exploding termite soldiers

Non-player colonies will randomly choose among the available units in the same group and build a chamber for each unit. Large soldiers are replaced with small soldiers if they aren't available. Small soldiers are replaced with workers if they aren't available.

Custom leafcutter ant colonies use the base leafcutter ant nest designs. Small soldiers replace leafcutter ant mediae while large soldiers replace leacutter ant majors.

Custom fungus-growing termite colonies use the base fungus-growing termite nest designs. Small soldiers replace termite minor soldiers while large soldiers replace termite major soldiers.

Other custom colonies have to use the base gene-thief ant nest designs.