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.
About The Experiment
The board starts with a handful of ants following simple instructions. They paint territory, revisit their own trails, collide with other colonies, and eventually spawn more ants once they claim enough fresh ground. The result is less like a game and more like an ecosystem of small feedback loops.
Original Intent
Show how tiny deterministic or semi-random rules can create highways, dead zones, and violent border churn once several colonies share the same board.
What You Control
Preset selection, simulation speed, colony count, and extra ants. The board itself does the rest once the run starts.
Board Notes
200x200 cells
Large enough for readable fronts and late-game swarms without losing the broad colony shape.
Scenario Dossiers
Two mirrored Langton ants start close enough to interfere with each other.
Best for seeing ordered highways emerge from a balanced opening.
Three colonies with different instincts contest the center from different angles.
Shows how deterministic and opportunistic movers create asymmetric fronts.
Four colonies start far apart, then spiral into collisions as they expand.
Useful when you want frequent spawns, crossovers, and unstable borders.
System Rules
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.
Why The Board Escalates
Claiming fresh cells is both scoring and reproduction. Once a colony starts finding new ground faster than it loses ants, the board can tip from quiet loops into a rapidly multiplying swarm.
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.