Re: Bugs in SG2

I've been thinking back and forth about aliens, bug behaviour,
turning bug behaviour into algorithms, Heinlein's Starship Troopers, 
and stuff like that.

You know what would be a wild idea...

What if the "bug army" was led by scouts who left pheromone scents on
the
ground?  The guy playing the bugs would drop a cardboard counter on the
table to represent those pheromone scents every time his scounts or
leaders moved, and the "bug squads" following those scents would be
required to follow the "orders" that those scents represented.

The scouts start off by leaving "move forward" pheremone counters every
move, and the "bug squads" would follow them in column formation.

When the scounts find an enemy force, they leave an "attack!"
pheremone counter on the table, and then turn left or right. 

When the "bug squad" comes across an "attack!" scent, it changes to a
dispersed formation and runs forward.

These pheremone counters would have to wear off quickly, say in 1 or 2
turns, otherwise the table would get filled with counters.  But when a
squad leader bug comes across one of the scouts' pheremone counter, it
should be able to drop its own identical pheremone counter to reinforce
it
for the following squads.

Just another half-baked idea...

Rick Rutherford       rickr@digex.net	    The above opinions are mine.
"It seems to me that the nearer painting approaches sculpture the better
it is, and that sculpture is the worse the nearer it approaches
painting."
					     -- Michelangelo