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[Solitarian]

This mod overhauls antmen, giving them mandibles (and an associated attack), antennae, thicker chitin, larger bodies, and civilizations. Antman anatomy was changed, removing many of the vertebrate organs to reflect ants' invertebrate reality (and open circulatory system). In the mod, queens lay hundreds of eggs, and antmen are adult upon hatching (though they only live 5-8 years). They have 2 legs and 4 arms, meaning they can wield 4 weapons (or 2 2-handers, or 1 2-hander and 2 shields, etc.). Their mandibles can crush bone, but they only use this attack when unarmed. Like in reality, they can walk up most surfaces, so don't rely on walls much.

 In vanilla, the chitin exoskeleton of antmen was pathetically weak, so I made it far stronger. Previously, a single punch from a kobold could destroy ant man limbs, but now even several good thwacks from a dwarf won't totally destroy them. Don't worry, though; only antmen have this chitin. All other insect(oid)s have vanilla chitin.

 When wearing metal armor, antmen are now very tough. And wear metal they can, as they hail from underground (and also can make tunnels). They use arms and armor inspired by ancient Greek hoplites (to fit the mod's name). Only they can manufacture this equipment, so be sure to take it if you survive a siege. Their subterranean origin is reflected in their use of cave creatures (mostly trolls and elk birds). Their site populations are also increased, allowing many hundreds to occupy one site.

 I also modified goblins, making them eventually die of old age and need food and drink.

 The mod isn't huge, but it should add some !!fun!! to your game. Included with the download is a save where dwarvenkind is almost destroyed and you are its last hope against the combined onslaught of goblins and antmen.

                                                                        http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=11532
To install, download the files from this link and copy the .txt files into the Dwarf Fortress/raw/objects folder. I recommend making a backup first. Put the save folder in Dwarf Fortress/data/save.

While created for Dwarf Fortress 42.03, it should be compatible with most past versions (and future ones, barring drastic changes to antmen).

[Meph]

It sounds very interesting and the name is perfect.

Suggestions: Make different versions based on real-life ants, castes that are normal, red/fire ants that have poison, giant marabunta ants... Dont add flying ants, because their AI is broken, invaders that fly are trouble.

You can also make a new metal, named CHITIN, and only give them access to that one, this way their weapons and armor are made of it. It would make them more interesting looking, because chitin armor is more evocative than iron/steel armor.

Since you called them Myrmidons, maybe go with greek-style weapons?

I would NOT give the civ any civilian clothing, especially since they have 4 arms. Lots of items hurt FPS, so if 50 Antmen attack, that means 200 gloves on the battlefield, 100 shoes, 50 trousers, 50 shirts, 50 caps. 450 items, that are of no use to them. Give them minimal armor, breastplate and helmet, maybe greaves, and let the natural chitin do the rest. It also means that your haulers have less to clean up after a siege.

[Solitarian]

Reducing clothes was a good idea. Done.
I didn't know fliers were a problem. I removed the wings from drones.
Having them use stuff made of chitin seems quite cannibalistic. Would humans use stuff made of human bone? If I did add chitin, would I change [METAL_PREF] to [CHITIN_PREF]? How could I make them prefer a specific metal?
Greek styles is an excellent idea and would give them fun flavor. Working on it.

[Meph]

Maybe call it "carapace" instead of chitin? Or make their natural armor that good, that they dont need normal armor.

You would remove the mining and smelting labor/skills from the entity file and give them a reaction that makes a bar of metal. The chitin I suggested for the armor would be a metal called chitin, its to trick the AI into using it. If they cant mine/smelt, they cant make metals, but the civ has access to the reaction you gave it, that makes a bar of specific metal.

CHITIN_PREF does not exist as tag, that wouldnt work.

[Solitarian]

So I can't make custom tags? I want them to use metal, though. Besides, I can't imagine chitin being sharp.
I've made them really tough in 1v1 combat, but I can't make them wage wars (and win them) in worldgen. They tend to spread as far as possible and then wait until some enormous human/dwarven crusade obliterates them. How can I make them more belligerent, and how can I make them win wars?

[Splint]

Well, winning wars is kinda hit or miss. To make them more belligerent, ethics play a major role; an opposition to plant harm, accepting cannibalism and slavery, and in egeneral making hem as savage as possible without them being goblins I guess. Plus something that may or may not help is giving them some manner of active antagonism (stealing shit or babies.) If they value skill at arms highly, who knows, maybe a civ is more likely to be belligerent. Doubt cultural values affect wars though.

[Solitarian]

Will increasing their combat effectiveness make them more viable in wars? In worldgen, would a civilization of bronze colossi always beat a civilization of kobolds? That would be fun to test...
Giving them the modifiers to steal items removes their ability to siege, I think. Is that correct?

[Splint]

Not according to Mr Frog's Spawn of Holistic. [ITEM_THEIF] and [SKULKING] are entirely separate.

[Solitarian]

Excellent. I'll add those tokens. Also, I replaced goblins with rocs, and they always immediately obliterated everything. Probably something to do with megabeasts seeking places to destroy. Make antmen megabeasts? hmm...

[Splint]

Skulking will tie attacks to theft amount. Just add the item theif token by itself.

[Solitarian]

Done. I think I have a satisfactory mod now. I can't seem to make antmen always take over the world, so I kept simulating worlds until it happened and included the save in the download.

[Meph]

SKULKING also means that they barely show up and players wont see much of them. Just like kobolds, they will only send invisible thieves that flee. (until they steal enough stuff, but that barely happens)

[ThothTheScribe]

Oh man. Is there any way to make them playable? I'm not 100% on how egg-layers will work in fortress mode, but I would LOVE to be able to build my own ant colony.

[Solitarian]

Queens lay 400-500 eggs at once, so they would fill your fortress immediately. If you want to play as them, go to the entity.default.txt file and move [SITE_CONTROLLABLE] from dwarves to antmen. No guarantees on functionality, though.

[ThothTheScribe]

The functionality was more my question, as egg-laying civs had problems in the last version and I wasn't sure if you had some kind of workaround in place. I know how to slap a playable tag on the raws and hope for the best.