Classic Duel
2 colonies, 50% speedTwo mirrored Langton ants start close enough to interfere with each other.
Best for seeing ordered highways emerge from a balanced opening.
Watch for: order emerging from a balanced opening
About The Experiment
Classic Langton's ant is a simple grid-walking system: an ant reads the tile beneath it, turns according to a rule, flips the tile, and moves forward. This project stretches that idea into a multi-colony simulation where each variation paints territory, collides with rivals, and reproduces when it claims enough fresh ground.
What The Experiment Tests
How quickly local movement rules scale into readable global behavior once several colonies share the same territory.
What To Watch
Look for when loops harden into highways, when borders stay stable versus churn, and when a colony hits the reproduction threshold often enough to start snowballing.
Interaction Model
200x200 cells
The main route stays focused on the live board. Presets, rule selection, speed, reset, and colony edits live in a secondary drawer so observation stays primary.
Scenario Dossiers
Two mirrored Langton ants start close enough to interfere with each other.
Best for seeing ordered highways emerge from a balanced opening.
Watch for: order emerging from a balanced opening
Three colonies with different instincts contest the center from different angles.
Shows how deterministic and opportunistic movers create asymmetric fronts.
Watch for: asymmetric fronts and territorial pressure
Four colonies start far apart, then spiral into collisions as they expand.
Useful when you want frequent spawns, crossovers, and unstable borders.
Watch for: frequent crossovers, rapid spawns, unstable borders
System Rules
These are the simplifications that make the simulation readable enough to compare runs.
Spawn threshold
Every 100 fresh tiles painted by a colony creates a new ant.
Lifespan
Ants despawn after 300 moves, with collisions favoring ants closest to move 150.
Dead zones
An ant is removed after 10 consecutive steps on already-painted cells.
Tradeoffs And Limits
The board intentionally favors legibility over strict realism. Ants have a lifespan, reproduction comes from claimed tiles, and dead zones trim stalled walkers so the field keeps producing readable fronts instead of endless noise.
Spawn threshold: 100 fresh tiles
Rule Families
Classic Langton
Alternates between building and erasing its own trail.
Turns right on empty cells and left on its own color.
Observed effect
Creates long highways once early local noise settles.
Random Walker
Changes direction every step before painting a tile.
Picks a random direction regardless of the current cell.
Observed effect
Spreads territory widely but rarely forms stable lanes.
Right Turner
Keeps cycling clockwise while leaving a repeating trail.
Always turns right before moving to the next cell.
Observed effect
Builds compact loops and pressures nearby colonies quickly.
Forward On Color
Commits to straight paths once it finds painted terrain.
Randomizes on empty cells and continues forward on colored cells.
Observed effect
Can lock into corridors and convert rival territory into a runway.
Chaotic
Responds differently to empty, friendly, and hostile tiles.
Turns left on empty, right on own trail, and random on another colony.
Observed effect
Produces the most volatile borders and collision-heavy encounters.