Ant's Life Studio Research and Play Gang

[untold thunder]

so im charging up new batteries

and i'll swap them in tmr maybe

[latent cliff]

Yeah I’ve noticed I have about a day from when the sound goes warbley

I think get about 2 weeks on a charge

It probably depends on how much you have the backlight going and how often you interact with it.

Sometimes I feel like I’m constantly feeding them, they devour food so quickly

[untold thunder]

BRUH

THAT WAS SO SCARY

I didn't know you had to press reset on the ALS after reinserting batteries for it to turn back on

I thought changing the batteries killed it

Cause it wouldn't respond at all

But I didn't wanna press the reset to delete my data

And only tried it as a last resort after nothing made the ALS turn on again

And my data was all still there after pressing it

Jesus christ

[lunar crane]

Button is a soft reset. You have to go through the menu to hard reset

https://tenor.com/view/our-flag-means-death-gif-gif-25919947

[untold thunder]

oh good

thank god

fer

fear

[lunar crane]

got home from my walk just to watch a spider instantly pounce on one of my babies and eat it

😭

[untold thunder]

nooooo

[lunar crane]

the sad little noise the unit makes is heartbreaking

my ant

[untold thunder]

I'm beginning to suspect the cookie is a strength up only

I've been feeding exclusively cookies after I unlocked them

And before that I fed sugar and dried fish

I've left my ants alone, deliberately ignored three attacks, and all three times the ants fought off the predator on their own

My queenhas not laid anymore eggs

But I still have 8 ants

After multiple attacks where I didn't do anything

Have I accidentally made stronk infertile ants

[lunar crane]

I feel like max number of eggs depends also maybe on total size of nest

Like maybe how many chambers there are? But the blog does mention birth capacity up

[untold thunder]

Ohhh that does make sense

I'll keep feeding cookies

[latent cliff]

Any ideas why sometimes I feed my ants and they immediately drag the food off screen?

Day 9 but I think I’m actually getting further than my last run where the queen died at day 18

[untold thunder]

Wow I've never had that

[untold thunder]

left them alone all day they're still fine

They're just sucker punching all the spiders in the face or sth

[wooden shuttle]

I wonder if they really do have a hunger stat afterall

Wonder what happens if I do a 0 food run 😂

Just scare away predators

no feeding

[untold thunder]

But they would hunt on their own

What if u kept them permanently sealed

[wooden shuttle]

ooooh

yeah haha would be interesting to see what happens

[lunar crane]

What items are you feeding when you get that?

[latent cliff]

You can use the broom to sweep away anything they hunt before they get to eat 🫢🐜

[latent cliff]

This morning it was the cheese! They weren’t having it, marched it right off the screen lol

[lunar crane]

That's so weird. I wonder if different runs have like different likes and dislikes of food. My guys are aight with cookies but LOVE banana??

I haven't had them clear anything off screen yet

[lunar crane]

Yo uh what the hell kind of corpse did my girls bring back today?!

[lunar crane]

Of note: I finally unlocked the Live Caterpillar item after deterring 90 attacks, so I'm not sure the blog was correct on what unlocks it. It's also not a straight up food item. It moves very quickly and the ants have to attack and kill it before it gets off screen.

[latent cliff]

Interestingly— I blocked my ants in last night before bed. Usually it takes them a good 12-16 hours to get out.

This time I accidentally left two out of the nest and the dug out in about 2 hours.

Maybe it goes much quicker from the other side?

[latent cliff]

It looks like a beetle maybe? 🪲

[lunar crane]

It's really big! Like it definitely only got like half the body on screen at most

So maybe it was!

[latent cliff]

Can you please remind me, what is the difference between birth ability, birth capacity, and fertility? Have we figured that part out yet?

On my next run I might try just using a food that does just one stat only and use that food exclusively to see how that affects things.

[untold thunder]

I've been feeding only strength foods actually

So I can keep doing that

So far what has happened is my ants sucker punch any predator

They only seem to die from age

ALTHOUGH I get a LOT fewer attacks than Milynnial does

I barely get any attacks even if I'm near the device all day

[lunar crane]

We don't know yet. My assumption is

Ability - the queen's rate of laying eggs when the device determines there is room for her to lay eggs (my current theory is there's a base capacity set determined by the physical size of the nest). So if someone dies, how long it takes for her to lay an egg to replace it

Capacity - the total amount of eggs and ants allowed in the nest at any given point. These foods might slowly increase the capacity beyond its base value

Fertility - maybe tiny itty bitty increments of both?

[odd fulcrum]

sorry if this isn't the right place to ask -
i'm going to get an ALS shipped to me soon but it doesn't come with the original charger and i'm afraid the part that plugs into the wall won't fit since i'm in the US.
where can i get a charger that i can use for it?

[lunar crane]

It's actually been suggested to us by @/Yeah Right Sure to not use the wall charger anyway because there is some anecdotal evidence that they eventually fry the units, possibly from US voltages. Batteries are better

[odd fulcrum]

OH does it take batteries?? that's actually better for me! do they take AA or AAA?

[lunar crane]

3 AAAs

[odd fulcrum]

tysm! that's actually so good for me bc i have a bunch of rechargeables from running like 6 meets at once lol

[maiden arch]

MY ANTS ARE ON THEIR WAY

so happy

i got ems so it better get here by next week

[untold thunder]

MORE ANT FARMERS AYY

join us in the "we don't have any idea what's going on and because there are no visible stats for anything we probably won't know what's going on any time soon"

Too much RNG in an ALS for proper experimentation

[untold thunder]

??

Y'all what is this white tumor at the bottom of my nest

It's not the queen she's still wandering around

There's like an ant stuck in it too

U ok bro

WAIT THAT DIRT PATTERN

I THINK it's an earthworm attack!!!!

It trapped one small ant and killed a soldier ant

That white tumor is the body

Yep it killed an ant

[lunar crane]

Nooo, gruesome that ant got stuck next to her sister's body

[untold thunder]

Turns out two ants got trapped and one of them just died too

Maybe age

[lunar crane]

[untold thunder]

Ohhhh new prey

Beetle?

[lunar crane]

Fly!

I think

That's how I've been recording it anyway

[main siren]

aaaaaaaaaa

that feels expensive?? idk

[lunar crane]

I paid 190 after shipping for one in worse packaging

[untold thunder]

Some ants perished

Smhmh

[maiden arch]

that isnt the worst ive seen

it seems in prestine shape

one just a few hours ago sold for like

50 bucks

[main siren]

it's out of my budget for now sadly😭 but hey it's on mercari if anyone else is looking for one!

[meager shoal]

no... i shouldn't. lol

[lunar crane]

We're finishing up screen 1

[untold thunder]

Ayooo

[lunar crane]

I think I had a worm attack

based on that upper right chamber

[untold thunder]

Worm attacks make me anxious

No way to prevent them

Just pray your queen aint in the way

[lunar crane]

i thought someone said tapping can still deter them

[wooden shuttle]

Yeah definitely a worm did that

[wooden shuttle]

Yep, tapping will deter the worm. Just usually takes a lot

[lunar crane]

https://tenor.com/view/jack-hammer-construction-working-shaking-viralhog-gif-13854226

me with my ant's life studio being attacked by a worm

[wooden shuttle]

haha

But Teethy may have meant there's no way to prevent worm attacks from happening. Which is true

[lunar crane]

I think I might have just thought about and maybe figured out the pebble

[wooden shuttle]

It's annoying too because from my experience, as the nest gets older, the worm, attacks happen more frequently. From like once a week, to like once every couple days at age 80+

[lunar crane]

You can only have two things on screen on any time. I think you can place it to prevent your ants from hunting

[wooden shuttle]

Ooooooh

shit that's a good idea

[lunar crane]

maybe to control stat distribution better

[wooden shuttle]

best theory I've heard so far

[latent cliff]

Now we have to figure out what stats the different hunts trigger 🤔😵‍💫

[lunar crane]

That's gonna be a LOT harder. Quantifying any minute changes plus the RNG of what they bring back on a hunt...

[untold thunder]

I can't even think of how to do this aside from like

Doing mass algebra

We all have to repeatedly do runs without feeding

Let them hunt, tally up prey counts

Then somehow time egg laying frequency, test strength????? Somehow

[lunar crane]

Yeah and digging speed

[untold thunder]

This toy is impossible

[lunar crane]

We have visibility on the second screen, folks

I have 7 ants and 5 eggs

[maiden arch]

lol

[lunar crane]

3 weeks to get to second screen. I feel like my few hiccups of almost everyone dying really slowed me down

it'll be interesting to see how long it takes everyone else

[maiden arch]

what happened again

it seems like such a slow process

[lunar crane]

It's very slow! There are two screens for the nest and I'm just now getting to the point where they're digging into the second screen. I had two mass die offs due to negligence where I was reduced to one worker and the queen for a day or so

I'm currently apparently sitting at a max capacity of 12 ants. I have 7 alive and 5 in eggs, so I'm hoping once I get to 12, things will pick up

[maiden arch]

oh wow

amazing what im learning

hopefully my studios arrive soon

im def not gonna try juggling both

but i will see even if i end up deciding to keep both

its a really neat device im excited to try

[lunar crane]

Did they catch a flea? A mite?!

I got a hunt call and checked in and a single ant casually brought this on screen and dropped it

[untold thunder]

i've been doing a low effort run and completely ignoring most predators

so my ants be dyin

im slowly making my wayto the second screen tho

[lunar crane]

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS

[latent cliff]

Your ants are WARRIORS 🐜🥷🏼

[wooden shuttle]

Damn that's a huge catch

[lunar crane]

I know!! I wish I knew what the hell they dragged in. My friend was like, "That's just a wholeass bird corpse"

hahaha

[maiden arch]

ANTS IS IN LA

ALMOST HERE

[lunar crane]

Anyone know I keep the data if the batteries die?

[untold thunder]

u do

I swapped batteries like three times cause I realized I swapped in a half dead set the second time lmao

My ants are down to 2 cause I've been ignoring them

But yesterday she laid FIVE EGGS

So we'll see how they're doing lmao

[lunar crane]

Ty! I plugged it in briefly to change em anyway.

Got up to 12 today but I'm back down to 9 with two eggs

I had two die of old age and one from a spider

[meager shoal]

mesmerizing

[lunar crane]

buggins bein bugs

[lunar crane]

D: I just deterred a worm attack

It took about the same level of taps as a high-end spider attack for me (low end is 4 taps, high end is upwards of 12 to 15)

[lunar crane]

Has anyone been raided by multiple enemy ants at once? It was hard to tell just now but I had two ants being flung around at the same time

Can one enemy ant interact with two ants at once? The raider(s) died, but they may be on the same location on the surface, it's hard to tell with the way corpses fall

[wooden shuttle]

this is so mesmerizing

What day are you on now?

[lunar crane]

24!

[wooden shuttle]

Daamn time flies

[lunar crane]

Beeg

Strong girls

That's apparently what that huge haul was the other day before it got dismantled

[main siren]

it looks like a??? cicada or a grub or smth??

[lunar crane]

Playing Phasmophobia with this on my desk and my over the ear headset on. My dog sleeps under my desk and started having puppy dreams and I thought my unit was making the little WOOP WOOP sounds that ended up being her barking in her sleep lmao

I was like, "I JUST PUT NEW BATTERIES IN, WHY IS THE SOUND GETTING WEIRD?!"

My friend heard the noise over mic and thought it was making a water drop noise lol

[latent cliff]

Day 20 and I’ve kind of stalled, my queen struggles to keep up laying eggs.

Most deaths have been due to old age actually, but she’s just not replacing them fast enough.

[lunar crane]

Have you been attempting to feed for fertility?

I had a mass die off this weekend but I'm struggling with being out of bed at appropriate times

and I didn't bring it with me to my nightstand

[main siren]

some kind soul posted a link to an ALS on yahoo jp auctions so I am patiently waiting four days to see if I can win it🙏🏻

[lunar crane]

omg good luck!!

[main siren]

thank you!! send me your positive bidding energies🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[maiden arch]

honestly ive gotten lucky on yja before

so lets hope!!

[main siren]

I'm trying not to get too eager too early and drive the price up lmao

[latent cliff]

🙏🏻🤞🏻 Good luck!! 🍀🍀

[latent cliff]

I have been! But if I’m honest I’m not noticing much of a difference between the different food types 🤔 They have previously had a very varied diet though.

I won’t take mine to bed with me, if I’m really busy I use sticks to lock them in the nest which does seem to slow them down a bit.

[maiden arch]

GUYS GUYS

OKAY SO

from everyones experience

does anyone actually use the ac cable

i wasnt too sure if like using the cable will ruin the device

[lunar crane]

No, @/Yeah Right Sure suggested not to when I loaded mine up

so I only use batteries

[maiden arch]

okay so i started it up

and i guess it isnt like a full reset

how do i hard reset

[lunar crane]

Open the menu wheel with the a button, go into the tool looking menu, and then the ⚠️ sort of icon

[maiden arch]

thank you

ANT

[lunar crane]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpPx7E27Bc8

[maiden arch]

just to clarify this one isnt even the piss yellow one

even though i have very warm lighting in my room haha

this one is very whitr

[lunar crane]

I can't wait for that one LOL

mustard

[maiden arch]

its like a alt color

so is there like a navigation i can use

im trying to figure out the menu

[lunar crane]

#1070091712325767268 message\

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/611442617485492234/1067980614965395546/image0.jpg

whoops that's what I meant to link

[maiden arch]

No way to mute huh

[lunar crane]

tool icon, first icon is speaker

select that and there's an off and on

[main siren]

so is the fishing game a way to collect more ants?? or just a way to unlock new items and stuff

[lunar crane]

Unlock new items. You can literally keep picking up the same ant over and over once it leaves the screen and comes back lol

[main siren]

aww ok, I was getting hyped for becoming the world's greatest ant fisherman lmaoo

[lunar crane]

Hahaha

[main siren]

auction update: someone else wants this als as much as I do, price is up to 6750 yen and we have 3 days to go😭

[lunar crane]

[maiden arch]

thats honestly stilla. steal

other vpet als go up to like 150 on the american market

and dude let me just say

this thing is so much smaller than i thought lol

[main siren]

true!! I'm trying to keep it from getting there😭 I could probably do up to 100, I'm not the highest bidder rn but I'm gonna wait and place a bid when it's closer to the end

[maiden arch]

smart move

thats how i secure mine

[lunar crane]

Looks like my queen died. Not sure how it happened.

[latent cliff]

That’s what happened on my first run, the queen just randomly died on day 18.

I wonder if there is a hidden stat tied to health, maybe food related or depending on how many eggs she lays?

[lunar crane]

Yeah maybe! She did die this time after I had another mass die off over the weekend.

I made it to day 28

[latent cliff]

Yeah in my first one she was chronically laying eggs and I really struggled to keep the predators away, especially at night I’d wake up to an empty nest each day. It made me wonder if that is what killed her.

I’m a bit luckier this time overnight but if I have one complaint it’s the overnight attacks, I won’t bring it to bed and lose sleep, but it makes it difficult to keep up.

[lunar crane]

It really does. I'm about to build a damn robot to tap the stupid unit at the sound of that chime LOL

[latent cliff]

I just had my first earthworm — you have to tape quite a bit to get rid of them! And of course my queen made a beeline straight for it and refused to move out of his path 😵‍💫 Luckily scared him away just in time.

[main siren]

for the tapping, would...anything that vibrates work as "tapping" the screen?🤔🤔🤔 because I'm having a particular thought rn about this

[lunar crane]

Each unit seems to have a different sensitivity. I have to tap with my knuckle directly over the sensor. It also triggers if I set the unit down haphazardly. I think Jackson has to shake his lol

[main siren]

okay I'm sorry but if I get mine I'm trying a massager~ on it I gotta know

[lunar crane]

https://tenor.com/view/asthma-attack-laugh-pete-davidson-giggle-oxygen-mask-gif-14276804

LMAO i'm dead

[main siren]

ITS FOR SCIENCE

it was the only "robot" I could think of when you suggested the idea

[latent cliff]

I had a thought — I wonder if the food is less about the Queen and more about what kind of workers the eggs hatch into?

Am I correct that they hatch either into workers (smaller) or fighters (fatties) which dictates what they do?

I feel like my ants spend so little time digging and much more time wandering around the surface doing nothing.

[lunar crane]

They seem to all grow up into large ants

Maybe.

There have been several points where only my youngest are small and every other ant is big

[latent cliff]

Oh that’s good to know, drat…! I was hoping I might be into something !

[lunar crane]

Day 2 after the queen died and the workers are still trundling on. I keep thinking I should reset but I feel bad and want them to live their natural lives 😭

[untold thunder]

Hfsjhfhjdd I've been so busy

My queen also died

I have 1 ant left

[meager shoal]

can you only ever have 1 queen in ant's life? seems like there should be a way to get a new queen lol

[lunar crane]

this sent me on a deep dive about the ant species this unit is based on, Formica japonica because I wondered if nests IRL will adopt a new queen. This subspecies is actually mildly polygynous, which means that nests will sometimes adopt extra queens and support multiple queens!

As for on the unit, if you take really good care of the queen you apparently stand a chance to spawn a fertile winged queen, but I'm not sure how that affects gameplay

(source: https://bioone.org/journals/zoological-science/volume-15/issue-3/zsj.15.409/Polygyny-and-Monoandry-in-the-Ant-Formica-japonica-Hymenoptera/10.2108/zsj.15.409.full)

https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Formica_japonica

Ant wiki says they form close relationships with Lycaenidae butterflies as well. It would be neat to have the unit show that too

(source: https://nl.pensoft.net/article/68993/)

[meager shoal]

that would be so badass if you were getting attacked and then a bunch of butterflies flew in and murdered ur enemies.

[lunar crane]

hell yeah

[meager shoal]

it's just weird to think that if your queen dies your nest is basically just doomed. you'd think it would have a way to be infinitely self-sustaining lol

interesting research btw

[lunar crane]

I think there are various ways nests deal with the death of a queen irl, but I get maintaining a gameplay loop with a queen death. Most other Bandai v-pets have an endgame thing for poor care so they probably designed what was familiar in the context of a very unfamiliar type of unit

[meager shoal]

ah that's fair

[main siren]

als update: me sweating nervously w 1 day 19hrs to go... me highest bidder😬

https://tenor.com/view/nervous-sweating-sweating-bullets-sweating-gif-17507069

[lunar crane]

https://tenor.com/view/you-can-do-it-gif-25785014

[obsidian herald]

I didn’t wanna come in here cuz I didn’t wanna see how cool this really is andddddd I want one

[lunar crane]

https://tenor.com/view/cult-the-craft-ritual-gif-11800002

[main siren]

YEAH THEY GOT ME

I'm like "no real ants, but digital ants??😎"

digital ants with an incomplete care guide?👀👀👀👀👀

[lunar crane]

hahaha

[obsidian herald]

I kinda like the mystery of it. And idk always liked the idea of ant farms but gosh I hate real ants 😂

[odd fulcrum]

i dont like real ants either but having a virtual one sounds interesting and fun

[maiden arch]

queen laid 2

now what do i do

OMG A WORM CAME

WHAT DO I DO

[lunar crane]

Worm only bad underground

Worm on top ok

[lunar crane]

you gotta wait like a day for them to hatch. Until they hatch, nothing much to do but look lovingly at ur ant

ant, my beloved.meme

[celest cipher]

GUYS GUYS

IT HERE

I have no idea what to do, imma spend the afternoon reading

[main siren]

NICEEEEEE

[lunar crane]

She's gonna lay eggs and you won't be able to do much except stare at it until those eggs hatch in a day or so

[latent cliff]

Woohoo! 🐜

[celest cipher]

no eggs so far, I think 😭

[lunar crane]

She has to dig for quite a while. If you hit the A button and scroll to "data" you can see the eggs count go up when she lays them. They're really small and faint at first

But over the next day or so they grow bigger and into little wiggling pupae, and then the unit will chime and they'll turn into small adults

[celest cipher]

ye no eggies yet

[celest cipher]

thank you!!

[lunar crane]

No probs!

[celest cipher]

why is this so cute 😭😭

[lunar crane]

It really is, it's my favorite vpet so far!

[main siren]

I kinda love how its very much in real time, like if you told me this is based on the actual timeline of this species of ant building a nest I would believe you, it seems so detailed

[untold thunder]

heh i need to restart now

since my queen perished

actually

im going to test sth

and see if the queen actually needs food

cause i wonder what killed my queen last round

im going to restart, immediately seal the queen in once she has 2 eggs

and keep it sealed forever

if i remember

[maiden arch]

we are around the same since i just started mine a few days ago heh

[latent cliff]

I’m keen to see how this works out

[lunar crane]

Day 31 and I STILL have four ants

these guys are stupid hardy

YOUR MONARCH IS DEAD. YOUR SOCIETY CRUMBLES.

Where will you run to hide from DEATH

[latent cliff]

Are you still feeding them and scaring away predators?

[lunar crane]

Nope!

[maiden arch]

so theres a spider crawling around ontop

do i tap

OMG

DID I excessively TAP TOO MUCH

i think i killed an ant

[lunar crane]

So it will pass back and forth across the screen. You tap until it changes direction and leaves the screen with a sort of "ahhh" noise

How do I explain that more clearly

[maiden arch]

hmmm

i heard a noise

[lunar crane]

It will make passes and if you successfully deter it with your tapping, it will change direction during one of its passes

and then leave and chime

[maiden arch]

okay i think i did it then

i heard a chime

but one of my ants died

[lunar crane]

yeah, the spiders are brutal

[maiden arch]

also i cannot explain hard i have to hit mine

like what does it mean by tap

[lunar crane]

I use my index finger knuckle on the top right corner. If it registers the tap you will hear a swoosh noise, your ants will sort of jump upwards for a frame, and dirt will rain inside the nest

the swooshing noise is your tell for how hard your unit wants you to tap

you can tap outside of an attack as well to test

[maiden arch]

thanks the knuckle helps

im ngl

i was like this

https://tenor.com/view/baby-slap-cute-adorable-angry-gif-17449849

but the knuckle is super effective than me like full palming it

[lunar crane]

hahaha

I saw someone say using a pen to tap the top corner worked for them. I tried that it wasn't registering, so I tried the handle of my tama screwdriver. Still didn't work well. Knuckle has worked the best for me so far

[maiden arch]

and the random animal noises dont correlate with anything right

also my other ants is finally in the states. tbh if i dont see myself using both i might just sell the other one

[lunar crane]

No, they don't! They're just random little nature noises.

I think there is one nature noise that might correlate to an event, a sort of "wind in the trees with a smaller bird chirp" but I've never been able to see what's happening when I hear it. I've either been in Teams meetings or in a different room lol

The two bird chirps or two owl hoots are just ambiance

scared the shit out of me the first time I heard it though

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/611442617485492234/1068237324388925481/ezgif-3-982ba4d022.gif

I made that after I experienced it lol

[latent cliff]

I just pick mine up and shake it, so much easier for me than trying to “tap” it.

[valid garnet]

You guys are making me want an Ant's Life!! Wtf!!

[main siren]

I lost the auction 😭😭😭

I'm bummed abt it but also the price had jumped up to $90+ usd and I don't uhhh have that on me rn😬

[main siren]

if you decide to sell hmu👀👀👀

[untold thunder]

Hfhshdhdf

I feel like all our "research" threads are just accidentally giving the entire server FOMO

Apologiesbdjsjdhhssjz

[celest cipher]

GUYSE 2 LIL EGGIES

[latent cliff]

It’s always so interesting to see everyone’s nest layout!

[celest cipher]

right? it's always so unique 🥹

[lunar crane]

Day 33, five days without a queen and 0 help from me. I still have three ants holding on.

[maiden arch]

i will certainly

it should be coming to me soon

but be mindful it would be my piss yellow one

gahhaha

[main siren]

I will survive that experience hahahah

[main siren]

idk how easy the units are to open up but I could always try to lighten the yellowed shell🤔 I've watched enough restoration videos on yt to know its possible lmao

[lunar crane]

They are not easy to open. They're internally fragile. Apparently when you open them, it commonly screws up the screen

[main siren]

alright alright ok I'll just put up with it then😭

it's a ~patina~

[latent cliff]

I’ve got a weird layout going on, with two entrances into the bottom screen forming.

[lunar crane]

Yeah mine split when they got to the second screen

[celest cipher]

GUYSE

AAAAAA

question: does this mean there are 3 more eggs, 1 more egg or it's just the total of the ants? I can see three

[lunar crane]

You have one queen, two workers, and three eggs/pupae!

they're hard to see on the first day of the eggs existing

they grow up and start wiggling about after they age a day

[celest cipher]

I-
that's too much omg

[lunar crane]

(So three ants and three eggs)

[celest cipher]

ahh so that's why! I can't see them anywhere

[lunar crane]

yee

[celest cipher]

thank you so much

[lunar crane]

in your top pic, they look stacked in front of the queen's face

[celest cipher]

I mean I can see one

[lunar crane]

there can be multiples in the same spot

[celest cipher]

OOOOOOOOOOOO

that makes sense 😅

cuz I was just seeing that lil thingie and thought it was just 1 egg

[lunar crane]

they can also pick them up and slap them into side walls and ceilings as they get bigger

they're easy to miss until they're like long cylinders

[celest cipher]

I'm fascinated

thank you

[lunar crane]

I'm going to start writing up a guide soonish when my final ants from this run decide to give up on their futile attempt to keep their leaderless civilization going. When I restart, I'll have a chance to take a bunch of pictures n stuff for it

[maiden arch]

i know someone who did it without having to open it lol

they used a magic eraser

[main siren]

OH damn that's a great idea

keeping that in mind😎

[untold thunder]

This moment marks the day I seal my queen permanently

By the way you're not allowed to stick the nest until both of the first eggs have hatched

I tried

[celest cipher]

I just tapped my first spider and I feel awful because this looks like it's going to fall apart at any time

[lunar crane]

The nest? It won't. I was scared too haha

It does get a little messy around the edges sometimes but they clean it up really quickly

[lunar crane]

Two ants left.

Two ants enter. Two ants leave.

https://tenor.com/view/madmax-thunderdome-tinaturner-gif-5505388

[celest cipher]

yes!!! and the unit as well ☠️

[celest cipher]

survivors

[lunar crane]

I suggested to pork to use a knuckle on the top right corner of the frame. You can test how softly you can actually hit it to get it to register at any point, there doesn't need to be a predator on screen. When it registers, you'll hear that "woosh". I tap the front flat part but ymmv for where it's most effective. The sensor is on that corner

[lunar crane]

Can I use this image in my guide to show how small the eggs are? I'd give you credit directly on the image of course!

[lunar crane]

Hi @wooden shuttle, I don't mean to bother but is there a way to pin the beginning message to this thread since it's where all the links for the stuff I'm collecting is?

[wooden shuttle]

Oh yeah!

[lunar crane]

Thank you, scrolling all the way back up ages me one tama year each time I do it

[wooden shuttle]

LOL

Yeah, they really need a "go to top" button somewhere

[lunar crane]

And also maybe make a permission option to allow OP thread creator to pin messages in their own thread

[wooden shuttle]

Yeah for sure, that is one suggestion I've already submitted 😩.... twice

[lunar crane]

I'm working on a multi-piece guide that can be found here: https://milynnial.notion.site/Ant-s-Life-Studio-Guide-3fa0b1348df44f848901d4b1230937b7

[untold thunder]

Reporting back on my no food run

She was sealed in yesterday

Day 003

She has laid more eggs

[lunar crane]

interesting

[latent cliff]

Another log to throw on the speculation pile, but I’ve noted that when I change batteries all of my stick pokes disappear, along with the ants mess/food pile in their nest.

I usually seal my ants in every night but both times I’ve had to change batteries all the dirt blocking the exit magically disappeared.

Also, I’m really into this spring theme.

The giant grosshoppers(?) - not so much!

[maiden arch]

sadly 3/5 ants survived an attack

i lost 2

but have 3 eggs made so soon i will come back

[main siren]

what's everyone's longest run on these?

[maiden arch]

6 days so far

[lunar crane]

28 days with queen, 33 days with the remaining ants

I still had two left but I decided to restart

[untold thunder]

It's been a day but it hasn't rolled over yet so reporting back on no food run

[lunar crane]

I'm interested to see if they're able to make progress digging since they won't have anywhere to push it

And if this will slow egg laying by the queen

[lunar crane]

Am I okay to put this discovery in my guide?

[latent cliff]

Yeah of course!

[obsidian herald]

How do ya'll like take care of these, do you bring them with you wherever you go like a tamagotchi?

[lunar crane]

I work from home so it stays on my desk in my office. This unit can be fragile and I wouldn't recommend taking it places.

It's built to stand on its own on a stable surface

[obsidian herald]

Good to know! I was just curious how ya'll protect them during everyday tasks such as grocery shopping or just going out for a few hours to take care of something

[untold thunder]

I just kinda let them do their thing

The colony is capable of just vibing on its own

You will get slower progress as you lose ants to predators

But unless you get very unlucky and your queen gets punched by an earthworm you will keep progressing and your colony will recover

[obsidian herald]

Okay awesome, thanks for the info!

[lunar crane]

Earthworm is what I think did my queen in. I ignored an attack during a meeting

[untold thunder]

Same

[main siren]

I was thinking abt taking it to my office and home (if I can snag one lmao), so I should prolly buy a hard case if I do that🤔

[lunar crane]

I don't know that there was ever a hard case made tbh

[main siren]

oh sure! but I'm ok with adapting something to make it work

[lunar crane]

It's got some kind of weird proportions with its overall lean-back shape

[main siren]

actually I will be getting a bag in from a cool tamagotchi kickstarter so perhaps I can adapt it for comfy ant travel

oh does the lean back part not fold down or anything?

[lunar crane]

Maybe! I'm getting the same bag lol

No it doesn't

It stays like this, no folding

[main siren]

(omg I got the magic land one and I threw the coin purse in bc it's so cute😍)

[lunar crane]

I got the school and a melon soda for my friend and the coin purse too

[main siren]

huh! I really assumed that bottom piece was like a hinge, that's good to know

[lunar crane]

Nope! It just sort of leans in a backward shape

So from the side it would make a triangle if you connected the bottom of the battery area to the top of the screen

[main siren]

this is such a funky lil unit, I do love how unique it is despite some of its less convenient aspects haha

[lunar crane]

If that makes sense

[main siren]

gotcha! that makes sense, like it's got its own stand

[lunar crane]

I don't currently have a pic of it from the side but I can take one when I get home today

[main siren]

I'd love to see if it's not a bother!

[lunar crane]

Sure! I'll tag u with it later

[main siren]

found another listing that promises to decrease in price every few days, so I'm still on the hunt for my own unit lmao

[lunar crane]

😭

I was right there with you trying to get mine. I lost out on auctions on JYA

I thought it'd never happen. Dramatic lol

[celest cipher]

of course, no problem!! 💗

[wooden shuttle]

@lunar crane Please ping me whenever you feel like the site is finished. I'd like to just redirect the "Ant's Life Studio Guide" menu bar on my site to yours if that's cool

[lunar crane]

Sure thing, boss! :)

[wooden shuttle]

Bless you and Teethy 🙏

[wooden shuttle]

cat call

Also, why does your mousepad look like the carpet in a 90s arcade lol

I love it

[lunar crane]

it space

[wooden shuttle]

That's rad

[lunar crane]

It was a limited run of a Meyoco desk mat!

[wooden shuttle]

Oooo

[main siren]

oh this sucker is CHONKY

[lunar crane]

ya she thicc

[latent cliff]

I finally found a good place in my house to take photographs of the screen that aren’t all blurry and messy!

These buggers are slow though, I wish they would finish one screen before messing around on the bottom one! This is Day 29 btw.

[latent cliff]

Also managed a few better pictures of the Spring Clock screen and of the Grasshopper(?) attack

It’s much nicer than the Winter theme

[celest cipher]

just had a grasshopper attack as well, my fingers hurt so bad

[lunar crane]

My queen is still trying to lay her eggs after my reset but I'm surprised at the ambient sounds changing for the season too

Neat to go from bird chirps to cricket chirps

I wonder if summer will be cidcadas

[celest cipher]

I'm not sure if everyone has tried this before but I tried just shaking the unit instead of knocking on it and it still made the woosh sound and the sand was falling, so maybe it's less bad for your knuckles during attacks ? 🤡

[lunar crane]

Mine doesn't respond to shaking but it will woosh even when I gently set it down on my desk lol

[celest cipher]

it sensitive huh

[lunar crane]

Not sensitive enough to agree to be shaken, but too sensitive to be set down

It has standards

"do not shake me. hold me forever"

~~like a baby? ~~

[celest cipher]

(just like me as well ngl)

[lunar crane]

I prefer to be shaken, not stirred

[main siren]

missed another reasonably priced unit bc I was hoping the price would drop more

[lunar crane]

https://tenor.com/view/no-oh-no-no-way-damn-temper-tantrum-gif-14948497

[latent cliff]

I can’t get mine to register taps, it only works when I pick it up and shake it 😅

[latent cliff]

Hmm, my ants definitely prefer certain foods. If I put cheese or crisps down they drag them right off the screen super quickly.

[lunar crane]

Wow! That's so interesting!

[maiden arch]

mine doesnt respond to shakes

and yep i would say the same. i dropped sugar and that was gone in about 20 seconds lol and i dont even have alot of ants

but i dropped this other thing and it stood like for a few days even

[main siren]

and presumably that would change with each run🤔 unless yall discover that the favorites are all the same?

[lunar crane]

Mine was fine with the potato chip

[main siren]

I love that there are snack options equivalent to "child who found an ant colony on the playground" lmao

[maiden arch]

do you happen to know what that first food item is called

i cant remmeber

[lunar crane]

https://www.notion.so/milynnial/Food-Guide-V1-94db4927e21041f0b46467e40c9325fe

You should have two items. Sugar and pebble

[maiden arch]

PEBBLE

[lunar crane]

Pebble is inedible

[maiden arch]

I KNEW IT LOOKED WEIRD

IM DYING

[lunar crane]

hahaha

[maiden arch]

THATS WHY IT STAYED THERE

im like why arent they eating it

[lunar crane]

"please, children, you appear famished. why don't you eat this pebble?"

I need to update that guide because "Caterpillar" is a live creature like the Enemy Ant item. They'll eat it afterward but they have to catch it and kill it.

[maiden arch]

DAMN LMAO

[lunar crane]

Ants are savage

[celest cipher]

I HAD THE SAME REACTION ☠️

I'm so dumb, I swear

I even talked about it here before

but tbf I didn't have the unit back then ☠️

[celest cipher]

my unit reset. I'm so sad

[untold thunder]

No food run

I seem to be limited to six ants

I was capped at 8 last run but I did feed some food

I wonder if my cap will increase with time

Or if that increase to 8 was from food

[lunar crane]

They're still digging but they haven't finished another chamber so maybe your cap with increase once another chamber is finished

[latent cliff]

Interesting to know they can live for so long at least

[odd fulcrum]

my ALS are here
i'm busy this weekend so i only tested their operation but i'm excited to start playing it

[lunar crane]

Yay!!

[lunar crane]

You know, Teethy's experiment is actually giving us a lot more info than I initially thought it would.

Info we're receiving:

1. Do ants starve without food?
   a) If they do, how long does it take?
   b) If they don't, what is the natural lifespan of the ants without being attacked?
2. Does the number of chambers in a nest dictate the base population cap stat?
3. Can ants continue to dig without somewhere to put the displaced dirt? YES

Thanks for the cool run, @untold thunder !

I also updated the food guide with the info about the caterpillar. I think in some of the initial translations available before Teethy compiled that blog, it was translated as "Raw" instead of "Live"

which was really vague in its context, but now we know it's a living grub 😅

I'm gonna go around calling myself raw now

"I haven't heard from Lynn in a couple of weeks, is she still alive?"
"Oh yeah, she's fine. She's as raw as ever."

[odd fulcrum]

hi, im a raw human! c:

[latent cliff]

🎉🥳🐜

[latent cliff]

I hope this helps shed some light on what food actually does.

Actually what might be fun — @wooden shuttle has some videos of replacing the crystal in a digimon(?) with a faster frequency and watching it grow super fast.

I wonder if the same would work for the ALS to get information faster.

I might need to get a second one before I start unnecessarily soldering.

[wooden shuttle]

I'm 100% sure it would! I think I'd be too scared to do it though because the ribbon cable at the top of the ALS breaks SO FREAKING EASILY I WANNA SCREAM RN JUST THINKING ABOUT IT

😂

[latent cliff]

That’s why I would need a second one before starting to play!

Imagine those ants zooming around though, they’d have a nest in no time

[wooden shuttle]

haha yeah that'd be cool af

[untold thunder]

No food day 10

Nest seems to be going even faster than when I actively fed them???

Btw this is not just no food it's literally no anything I'm not even checking on it other than to replug the entrance before they get out

Slightly worried about earthworms but what can ya do

I haven't had a single death I don't think

The ants just live forever

It's either that or they're somehow dying without me noticing but I doubt it

Cause there aren't any bodies

No trash pile either which is fun

Another thing of note: not a single large soldier ant

My last colony I fed a lot of "strength" boosting foods

7/8 of my ants were soldier ants before my colony died

Do you think perhaps it's not a stat increase at all? Strength food just spawns more large soldier ants?

Instead of the small baby ones

We don't even know if the big ones are worse at food gathering or if they're just better in every way

[lunar crane]

Very true! It's interesting that they're digging the nest faster without food, but my guess is that they're not dying and being replaced so there's no time dedicated to growing into adults, preventing them from getting slowed by development.

Very strange there's no Big Workers. Interested to see if any appear at all

I'm beginning to wonder if that's not a trash pile but a food pile

when I feed mine, that pile definitely grows in size

[untold thunder]

The food pile is white

And very hard to see

So it's deffo trash

[lunar crane]

I've never seen it. The only white part I see is corpses.

[untold thunder]

Since they toss their dead bodies there

It's a separate pile! I have a pic

Hold on

[lunar crane]

kk ty!

[untold thunder]

Do you see that very pale pile

[lunar crane]

ohh shit

yeah I do

[untold thunder]

That increases right after I feed

And rapidly disappears when I stop

[lunar crane]

My screen's contrast doesn't seem that great and I don't have a back light

is this a separate chamber from the trash pile?

[untold thunder]

Ya it's near invisible without the backlight

Yep

[lunar crane]

Interesting!

[untold thunder]

It's the other tiny chamber

[lunar crane]

I'll have to squint and change angles when my team gets that far again

[untold thunder]

Mine doesn't have one cause they're starving

[lunar crane]

Starving or THRIVING?

[untold thunder]

Tho I think we can say food is definitely optional

[untold thunder]

BOTH

[lunar crane]

https://tenor.com/view/im-hungry-gif-25663167

[untold thunder]

After this I might do a pebble run

Pebble pebble to prevent hunting

Then remove pebble and feed only str foods to see if I get more soldier ants

I've no clue what fertility does

Maybe another run with pure fertility foods to see if I get more any capacity faster???

[lunar crane]

I might do a pebble pebble birth capacity up run?

[untold thunder]

Ohhh yes

[lunar crane]

and seal them in between feedings

[untold thunder]

Yaaa

Sounds like a plan

[lunar crane]

I'll have to do that one after this run. I'm using this one to collect pics for the guide for a typical run

[untold thunder]

Ya feel free to yoink my pics if u need them for anything

"Starvation run"

[lunar crane]

haha

thanks!

[celest cipher]

that would be so cool omg 😭

[untold thunder]

??? Overnight my ant limit increased to 10? She shat out 3 more eggs

This is higher than my 8 ant limit last time

[lunar crane]

huh

[untold thunder]

No new chambers were completed

[lunar crane]

Yeah I just sat and flipped back and forth between them and the only progress was that bottom tunnel

Well that blows my idea out of the water

[latent cliff]

Oh please keep us posted when they hatch. I very often have 7 ants and 3 eggs, but I've never had them hatch until some die.

So I've only ever had 7 alive at once so far. But that might just be bad luck or predators or whatnot.

[lunar crane]

On my last run I had 12 at one point

[untold thunder]

Bad pic but I'm outside atm

They hatched!

[lunar crane]

[untold thunder]

We've broken through to the second page!

[lunar crane]

Holy shit, on Day 12?!

[lunar crane]

Has anyone else noticed a "POP" sound from their unit when their ants are dragging in a hunt or is my unit just borked for that sound?

[untold thunder]

YEAH

apparently the trick to playing the ALS is not playing at all

[untold thunder]

I get a sound that's definitely not Pop

But I dunno how to describe it

[maiden arch]

damn thats so many ants

[lunar crane]

It's usually like a little melody that plays right?

[latent cliff]

Yeah I get like an ominous tune when they have hunted.

[latent cliff]

Just goes to show how much time they waste wandering about the surface when they should be digging !

[lunar crane]

Guess I can look forward to the eventual death of the unit since the backlight doesn't work and the sound is getting weird even after a menu data reset

bummer.

[lunar crane]

Alright well it played the right tune again today, but it's definitely just been playing a "POP" noise from time to time when dragging back a hunt

[maiden arch]

which is which pile

i have a big dark pile

[untold thunder]

big dark pile is garbage

Theres a very hard to see white pile once you get your second tiny chamber

That's food store

If you overfeed them they stash the food there

Dead ants are also white and they will move the bodies to the trash pile

[untold thunder]

IKR I'm getting faster progress with this run than last run where I actually tried

Btw I still don't have a single soldier ant

All small ants

[untold thunder]

Two deaths! For the first time in 12 days!

No attacks

So I think the two ants that died were the oldest ants that were born first

Tentatively, ant lifespan is about 12 days after hatching

I'll see if I get more deaths in the order of birth these next few days

[main siren]

this is such an interesting experiment you're doing 👀

[lunar crane]

Wow, 12 days 📋

[maiden arch]

for me i had two deaths as well

[latent cliff]

How often do you have to lock them in? As in how often do they spend digging up instead of down?

[maiden arch]

thats a technique ive been trying to do

but sadly i always wanna feed em before i do it

so then i just let them eat the sugar

[maiden arch]

i know this is kinda more marketplace but this is kinda specifically geared to als players and such

so i paid alot for my second als with shipping included and all...and i was curious if it wasnt fair to charge what i paid. i am pretty fair with when i find flaws and such and so if i feel it decreases value i usually charge lower..just to like fully disclose..but at the same time i want my money back

like this thing with the light is pretty drastic according to what someone showed me the light should look like. i would even say my other one is still pretty low

[lunar crane]

A couple of things:

• Depending on what phone, camera, and lighting conditions the unit is under, the camera will compensate with exposure/f-stops and software "fixing" of an image, so from a photo there will be no real way to tell objectively how bright a unit will be in your hand. The only way to tell if you have a terribly faded backlight would be to compare it side by side with other units known to be at factory brightness. That being said, if you have two and the second one is considerably darker than the other, that's probably a good indication of the light fading.

• Making your money back is extremely reasonable and the units are in high demand right now. That really is a personal decision to make about what to sell it for. What I'm about to say should not seem like any sort of attempt to sway you in any direction, so please take it as a general statement of how I'd handle the situation. I'd personally take a hit on it and sell for less, but I have very strong feelings about how resellers have affected the market and how inaccessible some of these more unique oddpet experiences have become. I'd also only sell to collectors in a collectors' space, not on any marketfronts like Mercari and Ebay. But that's just me.

My unit doesn't even have a backlight and the sound is starting to get wonky on it, but I'm still okay with what I paid for it (about $190 after shipping). I do wish I would have paid around the $100-$120 mark for it considering I feel like I've only got a limited time with it before it dies completely, but it's been a fun and unique experience I'm glad I've had.

(Also, to be clear, I'd take the hit because I'm relatively financially stable and in the grand scheme, losing out on even like $100 of vpet money wouldn't make or break me. Everyone has different financial situations and I don't begrudge anyone for that. Five years ago I probably wouldn't have made that same decision.)

[maiden arch]

thanks for this feedback! i usually tend to only sell here so itll probably be through here...and id like to consider here a fun place to sell

[untold thunder]

Yes a third death!

I went from 2 ants to 3 ants

And then 3 ants and 3 eggs

So if I get three more deaths after this one in rapid sequence we will have confirmed ant life span

Tho uh this is ant life span with absolutely no food

I'm assuming that they don't actually need any so I'm not actually shortening lifespan or anything

I'm too lazy to get up and take a pic cause I laid down to do type on my phone before remembering

So let this message be a note that I had a third ant die lmao

Queen isn't laying eggs atm so slight concern

If the queen only has 10 shots in her before she needs food to make more I'm going to be very upset

[lunar crane]

O no

I pray 4 ur qween

[untold thunder]

my ALS seemingly died randomly overnight D:

[lunar crane]

like battery died or died died?

[untold thunder]

When I reset it does very weak flashes of the backlight and then freezes on this screen

[lunar crane]

NO

[untold thunder]

I will go out to buy some batteries to see if the batteries somehow perished

[lunar crane]

D:

[untold thunder]

I didn't do anything I just left it on the table

[lunar crane]

my first set lasted like 21 days before I swapped

[untold thunder]

It's possible the batteries just died cause I didn't have the audio on and therefore wouldn't notice it getting garbled

[lunar crane]

but it didn't die die, it just got warbly and I swapped

[untold thunder]

That sounds about right it's been like a month

Yeah I wouldn't notice warbly

Cause audio off

[lunar crane]

yeah

[untold thunder]

Pray it's just dead batteries

Else I can't figure why it would just die from being left on a desk for a while

It's weird that like itll freeze on that screen tho

tho I suppose it doesn't take a whole lotta charge to keep black pixels on a screen

[lunar crane]

if it is low battery, it's interesting that it's still got power going through both layers of the screen (the lighter and darker layers)

[untold thunder]

Yaaa

Whatever is happening I'll report back in a bit

If it truly died I only paid like 60 bucks so that's not too bad

Sad tho

[odd fulcrum]

praying for your als

[untold thunder]

IT WAS JUST DEAD BATTERIES

[lunar crane]

AWESOME, I will make note in the guide! I am sorry it was scary but it's good info to have!

[untold thunder]

WE'RE GUCCI

ALL IN THE NAME of science

Also my queen laid new eggs we're safe

Four deaths total now

I think it's safe to say lifespan of ant is around 12 days

They're dying in sequence of birth

[odd fulcrum]

btw, does als reset when it runs out of battery?

[lunar crane]

Nope, soft reset

hard reset happens via menu, and maybe a long time without battery

I can test how long without batteries will reset it soon

[odd fulcrum]

ooh nice to know! :3 i actually got 2 so i could give one to my bf and we're going to run it together once he finishes the busy days of his work
he was the one who asked me that actually haha

[lunar crane]

yay!

[latent cliff]

Mine hard reset when I took it apart to see what the inside was like, but I’m not sure, I may have accidentally hit that reset button loads of times trying to get it back into place.

My reset button was stereotypical black from pen marks (who uses pens on these?????)

[maiden arch]

What happens after I use the stick on the hole

[lunar crane]

It should block the hole and the ants eventually dig themselves out

Teethy has found they won't starve

So it will just prevent them getting to the surface and being attacked by surface predators

[untold thunder]

From yesterday

I forgot to send lmao

Progress slowed a bit which is probably cause of the mass old age die-off

But I have FRESH MEAT

[maiden arch]

dude closing it off helped me so much

i gained like 5 ants

[untold thunder]

Ikr now all you gotta worry about is the worm

It's just it becomes kinda boring cause u can't do anything

AFK ant farm

[maiden arch]

wormie

[latent cliff]

My Queen got out somehow 🤔🤨

[latent cliff]

She has gone back into the nest now.

[lunar crane]

I wonder if she got out via that diagonal pixel and couldn't get back in

[untold thunder]

Something of note: Enemies "defeated" by having the nest sealed do not count as enemies repelled

Now that I think about it that's also kinda obvious

[untold thunder]

FREEDOM

[violet depot]

reading through all this was such a ride but also this is so informative and i love stuff like this

sadly ALS is out of my price range for the foreseeable future but im gonna live vicariously through this thread, what a cool unit

[lunar crane]

Lookie-loos welcome

Just so everyone knows, I'm doing a no-touch run right now to see what happens without intervention

Next I'm going to compare it to a demo-mode run. Demo mode was mentioned by the user on the translated blog

[odd fulcrum]

finally started up my bf's als! i'm going to start mine up when i go back home tonight so we both have one with similar pacing

[lunar crane]

Ooh fun!

I'll update with my no touch stats a little later today

[odd fulcrum]

interested to see what no touch results in!

also, thank you for the guides! they were super helpful already when we were trying to find the reset option in the menu

[lunar crane]

I'm nearing a slow-down point where the guides will be fully structured and all that will be left is collecting the data from our runs to confirm theories about how things work. Super excited to have a better understanding of the unit thanks to everyone's help!

[maiden arch]

MY QUEEN DIED

what do i do now

[lunar crane]

Oh nooo. Restart or let the workers burn themselves out and pass away :(

[latent cliff]

What day did you make it to? Do you know how many eggs she laid?

On my first run the queen just randomly died at Day 18 which apparently is normal. One of the goals is to try to figure out if there’s anything that contributes to her health — based on @untold thunder run, it looks like food doesn’t matter.

I wonder if it has to do with how many eggs she lays within a certain period of time. Definitely on my first run I was losing ants left right and center and she was constantly pumping out eggs.

[maiden arch]

i have been ireegular feeding her and locked in her for the past week

i think i might be around the 18-20 mark

but ill double check when i get home

[feral cairn]

i ordered an als!! i've wanted one for a while and my bday was on wednesday so i kind of splurged a bit lol. if it arrives at the warehouse on monday i may be able to get it by the end of next week!!

i love collecting data so i'm stoked to join in. i read the translated blog the other night, it was hilarious. i might have to read it again honestly.

[lunar crane]

Welcome to the club

[untold thunder]

My queen is dead!!

I was lucky enough to observe the entire process

It's Day 18

For the last three days she has wandered around SIGNIFICANTLY less

since this morning, she slowed down

as in her animation actually slowed down. And instead of standing up she was sorta pressed low to the ground.

Easiest way to describe it was droopy?

Then today at around 2pm a long tune played and she officially died.

So what have we learned? Nothing

I dont know what killed her because I was literally watching her the entire day

No earthworm attacks

What's interesting about the run is I did not get a SINGLE soldier ant

I suspect that any strength up foods actually increase the ratio of soldier ants in your colony

[latent cliff]

Interesting that yours died on Day 18 as well! I wonder if this is like a key day.

[lunar crane]

When I'm back home I'll be interested to look back on the blog and see how many days elapsed before that user's queen died as well

[obsidian herald]

What battery do these take and how many? Will need to know so I’m prepared for when mine comes 😎😍

[lunar crane]

3 AAA!

There's a Quickstart section of my guide that explains how to set it up and wipe the previous user's data too :)

[obsidian herald]

Thank you! I'm looking through your guide and I just have to say you did such a great job it looks so nice!!

[lunar crane]

It's thanks to everyone here! I'm just trying to organize the info and make it intelligible to everyone else

[odd fulcrum]

my bf had an earthworm attack earlier today, but his nest was too small for it to damage it lol

[lunar crane]

Not sure what day she died on but the queen clearly died while I was out of town

[latent cliff]

Day 45 and the Queen randomly conked out on me 😢 She died standing up 🐜

The death music is pretty epic and happy sounding though, lol

[lunar crane]

Interesting! Are there any eggs present? Wondering if one will grow into a winged ant

[latent cliff]

I don’t think so — at least not registered when you check the menus. The music was quite upbeat though, like when a new egg is laid or hatched.

[lunar crane]

weird. Are you willing to let it run its course to see if anything else happens?

[latent cliff]

Sure! Actually I blocked the colony in the for night so they’ll keep ticking along.

[lunar crane]

For science.

I've never caught a queen death as it happened so I have no idea if that's a normal chime or not

my hope is that whatever chime you get on her death might be an indicator of care and possibly a new queen taking over

I really wish I had an unused room in my home like a guest room where I could set it up and stream it so we could capture stuff like that. Maybe rig a thing that could hit the button every so often to keep it on the nest screen

livin that small apartment life

[odd fulcrum]

would you use a lamp or something so the stream would capture it well? realized that it's kind of hard to see the screen well without the back lighting unless you shine light on it directly or something

[lunar crane]

yeah, if I had the ability to have a setup where only the sound of the unit would be picked up. As it is, we regularly use every space in the house so there is no unused space.

a light that clamps would suffice for my use

I'd also have to somehow rig something to poke a button regularly to keep the screen on lol

[odd fulcrum]

oo i see, something like a book light that you can clip on to something!
yeah i found it a bit annoying to have to keep clicking a button, wish it stayed on for a bit longer haha

[lunar crane]

I think it stays on for about 15 minutes for each button press? Part of me wants to say it's 20 but I'm not confident in that

[odd fulcrum]

ohh yeah i meant the blue backlight not the screen itself

but the screen does seem like it stays on for 15-20 mins

before going blank

[lunar crane]

ye

[odd fulcrum]

at first i thought it wasnt supposed to go blank at all

[lunar crane]

scary

I will add that to my guide!

[odd fulcrum]

so i was scared but... it's meant to be that way for some reason

[lunar crane]

it seems like it's multiple layers of LCD in there so I wouldn't be surprised if with the size, resolution, movement, and layering that the screen actually takes considerably more power than other more basic vpets

[odd fulcrum]

that is true! it's a lot chonkier than tamagotchi so i wouldn't be surprised

[lunar crane]

A note: I just got 34 days of play time out of Duracell Optimums

The last set of Power Boosts I used only lasted 21 days before a swap

https://www.reddit.com/r/batteries/comments/cx8qh2/testing_the_new_duracell_optimum_batteries/

I'm going to test out rechargables once my packages are empty

Also, I'm on Day 22 with 4 ants still. Somehow.

I imagine it was the dying batteries

They should be on 23 by now, I think

[latent cliff]

It’s been about 24 hours since my queen died. They dragged her body to the trash pile, but no new queens nor eggs yet

[latent cliff]

Just checking in to say that it’s been about 72 hours. I still have 8 ants; I additional deaths since the Queen died. They are happily plugging away and continuing to dig.

No new eggs or queen though.

[lunar crane]

Maybe it just is what it is

Thanks for checking. Don't let me hold ya back on enjoying a run!

I got two ants left on my no touch run

[latent cliff]

I’m in no rush! I’m happy to let them carry on — nice thing about this one is there is no real point, like starting over will just be the same gameplay anyway lol

[latent cliff]

5 ants left! Still doing their thing.

[lunar crane]

day 27 and still two ants, shockingly

wonder if you can't get below 2 or if they're just REALLY lucky

Also saw these neat dudes at the plant nursery

They got some Oyajitchi vibes

[feral cairn]

omg i love those garden ants!!!

[feral cairn]

going to review milynnial's guide before starting!

[lunar crane]

for a minute there I thought you meant like SCORE it like out of 10 or something and I was like PLEASE GOD NO, IT'S NOT DONE

and then I realized what you meant

[feral cairn]

haha!! in any case your guides a !! it's thorough and great. definitely appreciate your effort!

[odd fulcrum]

it really is!

[feral cairn]

it's so cute. i love watching her. she's doing her best!!
(i also made a sticker/decal haha )

[lunar crane]

OMG THAT'S SO CUTE!!

[odd fulcrum]

that's such a cute decal omgg

[feral cairn]

ty!! testing different sticker materials right now, but maybe something i can share with the ants gang in the future huehue

[main siren]

I WAS GONNA SAY that makes me even more interested in getting my own unit and not being worried if it's sunbleached

[latent cliff]

That looks great!!

[latent cliff]

Still with the 5!

[feral cairn]

thank you!!!!

what's the highest number of ants you've all seen?

[lunar crane]

I got 19 on one run

It goes higher. The unfortunate part was I had 19 with eggs and I was having a hard time keeping up with predators so I could have had 23 I think

[latent cliff]

Wow, 19!!

I’ve never had more than 10 on the go at once

[feral cairn]

oooooo! interesting! when i first booted up my unit i checked the data and it said the previous owner had 35 ants?? i forgot to get a picture, but the colony was empty.

tbh not sure if it was in demo mode since they didnt have any points in fishing and the nest was only 1 page big.

[lunar crane]

It's possible it was a true run. We haven't yet figured out what affects digging speed. My most successful run population-wise barely got to the second page

I still have 1 ant on day 29. Little lady is really pushing through

[feral cairn]

very true!! i think when you keep ants irl small populations do better with cramped nests.

i'm rootin' for your lone ant. they're so diligent. haha.

a lot has happened for my day 2! ahh!!!
my first two nanitics emerged. i dropped some sugar, and unlocked bloodworms. one of them brought back what looked to be a small moth?

i also got attacked by an ant!!! idk if my motion sensor is faulty or worn out, but my hits don't really register very often.

the ant did leave, however i couldn't tell if i scared it off or it was just done terrorizing my friends... i lost one ant!

i currently have 2 ants + 3 eggs.

[lunar crane]

Tapping at what equates to about 215bpm gives me a woosh about every 6 to 8 taps and that seems to be maximized for my unit. I can get more spaced out wooshes but nothing closer together

Tested my normal tapping rate here: https://www.beatsperminuteonline.com/

Jackson has reported shaking works better on his unit

[feral cairn]

you rock tysm! i tried shaking, but it didn't seem as effective. i'll test myself, but it may be on par with your 6-8 taps.

can the queen lay more eggs while there are some still waiting to hatch?

[lunar crane]

Yes!

[feral cairn]

awwww yeah. i gotta name my queen.

[feral cairn]

i've decided to name her queen millet (of antalasia)

[lunar crane]

Aww, that's a cute name

My one ant caught a wholeass fly. Like wtf

[obsidian herald]

Please keep us updated on stickers 😍 I adore this so much and don’t have confidence to retrobrite the one I’m getting lol

[feral cairn]

your ant is a true survivor!!!

sadly, my second starter died last night. she was so good! she had to watch her sister die from an ant attack. survived multiple attacks from grasshoppers and spiders. she dragged back a moth and a butterfly for the queen. she eventually got revenge for her sibling and killed the enemy ant! but i guess they had the same idea and another ant struck while i was asleep! i tried to help her, but i was too late.

so currently i have the queen and 4 eggs... i hope they'll be okay...

[odd fulcrum]

i think my queen died today

day 14, and she left behind an egg so i'm not sure what it is that killed her

[lunar crane]

No earthworm attack?

[odd fulcrum]

doesn't seem like it, they only travel horizontally right?

[feral cairn]

kind of odd, but does the rock/pebble make eggs hatch quicker? i read that (irl) ants use rocks to generate heat from the sun.

[lunar crane]

Yes, afaik

[lunar crane]

That would certainly be something to test!

So far my supposition is that the pebble is used to take up one of the two slots to prevent hunting so you can just feed snacks to dependably affect stats without outside food

But that's just a guess

[odd fulcrum]

yeah it looks like she died, her corpse is on the right 🥲

[lunar crane]

What a bummer!

Did you struggle with keeping your population continuing to grow? Jackson has an idea that maybe the queen gets tired out and will die early if she's laying too many eggs constantly

[odd fulcrum]

not sure, mine was kind of an (unintentional) no touch run 😂
maybe i was losing ants from predators/other reasons and she kept pumping out eggs 🤔

[lunar crane]

day 31, still an ant

[latent cliff]

Day 55, almost two weeks after the Queen died, I'm down to 2 ants

[lunar crane]

They do a great job surviving without her but they die like crazy when she's alive

lol

[latent cliff]

Yeah! I'm not even trying to scare away predators anymore and they are still somehow avoiding them lol

It's like when the queen is around nobody wants to dig, now she's gone and they're all digging away

[feral cairn]

is there something i can do to help this ant? she got in a fight with an enemy ant. we were able to repel it, but i think she's injured. hasn't moved from this spot but her antennae are moving so i assume she's still alive?

[lunar crane]

I believe that means it will die eventually. I don't know if there's a way to help it but if you find a way please share

[feral cairn]

i'll mess around and see!

ants are insanely cool lmao. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/14/nursing-in-nature-matabele-ants-observed-treating-injured-comrades#:~:text=Injured ants call for help,carried back to the nest

one of the free ants carried the injured ant back to the nest

they're sharing the same tile right now so idk whats happening but i still have 6 ants

aw! she died!!

those enemy ants are the worst!!!

[lunar crane]

So nothing happens when ur last ant dies.

Unless like...there was a special sound I missed.

[feral cairn]

i think it just continues on as an empty nest. i was running the previous owner's empty nest for few hours and i was getting alerts for critter attacks.

i was wondering if you knew how could i view the original blog so that it shows the correct japanese text and not �?

i have some thoughts about the food guide (like strength = energy, and fertility up being the same as birth ability and capacity) but i wanted to check the original source.

i was going to ask my friend who might be able to give some more context or a better translation.

[lunar crane]

If you use Firefox, there's a setting to repair text encoding

That seems to fix the page :)

I'd agree with the "energy" being strength possibly but it doesn't change digging speed so finding the context of what that stat actually affects is still needed. I believe it may affect number of taps needed to deter enemies

[feral cairn]

maybe it relates to how often the queen can lay eggs? and fertility relates to the type of ants she hatches?

ty for the tip!! i'll try firefox

[lunar crane]

We'll have to eventually devise ways to test!

[feral cairn]

for sure!! after my first playthrough i'll break out the spreadsheet!

[latent cliff]

My last ant died this morning as well! Nothing really happened, but now the nest is empty

They died of old age in the depths

I thought maybe Fertility was how quickly she could lay eggs and Birth Ability might be how quickly they hatch.

But that’s just a guess.

Birth capacity never seemed to do anything.

[feral cairn]

imo fertility, birth capacity, and birth ability are the same stat.

in the blog, kobutaro only mentions 2 stats (diary entries 2007.02.28 and 2007.03.05). they say it effects the queen's strength and her ability to lay eggs:

そして「体力は上がるけど、タマゴを産む能力は下がる」とか、その逆もあるようなのです！！```
when looking at all the item descriptions they only list these 3 stat changes: 

「体力UP」 strength, possibly means stamina?
「産能力UP系」 production capacity
「体力＆産能力UP」 strength & production capacity

when using the enemy ant item they say it's 「産能力超UP!」; a huge boost to production capacity.

if you look at bloodworm, salmon flake and salmon roe, they all say the same thing: `「産能力UP系」`. 

ofc i could be wrong. haha
i'd really like to know about the actual numbers for stat increases/decreases, but i'm not even sure how to we could figure them out.

also, i'm still having trouble with detering enemies. i'm on day 6 and i've definitely made more than 5 enemies "turn around", but i have yet to unlock bananas!

[lunar crane]

i think those unlock guides for deterring attacks may be incorrect because I also didn't unlock one of them for deterring on my most successful run

where I had deterred about 95 attacks

[feral cairn]

hmmmm.....

[feral cairn]

◇"Biscuit".
You can get it when you succeed in chasing away a total of 10 foreign enemies.

could they mean just enemy ants?

i've only seen enemy ants a few times. and i've lost quite a bit to them. lol. i'll update if i unlock bananas.

[odd fulcrum]

my boyfriend unlocked bananas a while ago and i can confirm they're unlockable by chasing away predators other than enemy ants!

[feral cairn]

ty!!!

[latent cliff]

Alrighty, starting up again today!

[maiden arch]

omg bananas

[odd fulcrum]

did you unlock them?

[maiden arch]

no i didnt ahha

i want to

[odd fulcrum]

just have to be alert and keep chasing predators away LOL
they come every 2 hours or so it seems?

also, my bf has had his als for past the scary day 18! looks like all his work with chasing away predators is working lol

he also gives food to them pretty often i think, wondering if that's affecting anything

[latent cliff]

This is the really hard part so far, figuring if the food actually does anything and if so, what??

[lunar crane]

I think I found a way to test if particular food items affect digging speed. Keep it blocked except for a feeding time that happens directly after an attack. Allow the ants to eat everything and then put everyone away and seal em up again until the next feeding

Do not allow hunts by placing a pebble first

The problem is timing it

I'll have to figure out how long it takes them to dig out

[odd fulcrum]

ooo interested to know what happens if they just eat the food(s) given 👀