Fix endless forest spreading

[Kurson 189]

As it is right now, if an area is left unattended for extended months of time, any meadow like grassy areas are slowly taken over by surrounding trees - as you can see this happening on elevation. In my opinion it's a real shame and I would like to see trees spreading looked at. I was thinking a possible solution is a 4th stage of grass level beyond 'wild' that creates a tile that cannot be sprouted on by a nearby tree. Or maybe just configuring tree spreading in a different way that still provides some change over time but not necessarily resulting in shrinking and dissapearance of grass land areas.

[Oblivionnreaver 5,174]

definitely, forests across the entire map suck

[Jeston 316]

nature will always reclaim, even our magnificent concrete eventually gets overtaken by roots

[Kurson 189]

Just now, Jeston said:

nature will always reclaim, even our magnificent concrete eventually gets overtaken by roots

Thats not what I'm afraid of - I'm specifically talking about the meadows created on server start

[Skatyna 432]

i agree too. least make it so the trees spread slower... numerous times i had to clean cut areas 3-4 times to get rid of the trees/bushes.. its annoying.. you clear cut the 100 by 100 tiles area in a week or so just to realise that where you started cutting, half of the area is regrown... so you start over in the area again and again... 

[armyskin 930]

Steppe is life

[TheTrickster 2,279]

Aye, grasslands should not simply be slowly swallowed by woodlands.  Maybe when a tree ages and dies it should not be a guaranteed respawn of the tree based solely on that single tile.  Maybe use some basic rules like Conway's cellular automatons.  

[Williamscott 14]

This could probably done by a biome feature where if it is defined as a forest the trees should keep coming back, but if it is a grassland or rolling hills, then it would only naturally grow trees so often.

[Wilczan 2,048]

 

 

 

[Idlamn 297]

I was on Xanadu when it started and I remember those vast beautiful grasslands. I never played until recently and now I see everything covered by woods.

 

Though then again this is kind of the way this happens in real life from what I hear.

 

5 hours ago, Williamscott said:

This could probably done by a biome feature where if it is defined as a forest the trees should keep coming back, but if it is a grassland or rolling hills, then it would only naturally grow trees so often.

We should still be able to line our roads with trees without affecting this slower natural spread of trees.

 

[TheTrickster 2,279]

On 6/2/2020 at 3:10 PM, Wilczan said:

 

 

 

 

I like this notion of environments that are stable, apart from endless trees.  I am not so sure about it being time based, though.  It's a way to go, and I think could be workable.  I am just not sure if it would make environments too static. 

 

I am warming more to the idea of simple Conway style cellular rulesets.  For instance, absent  artificial terraforming, a tree will sprout depending on its previous tile type AND its neighbouring tiles, whereby the more tiles of another type exist the lower the chance of a non-tree tile sprouting a tree.  It could create environments that are stable but not static, with edges/boundaries where the the terrain types intermix - from thick forest to sparse to open meadows.  

[Kelody 333]

On 6/2/2020 at 3:10 AM, Idlamn said:

I was on Xanadu when it started and I remember those vast beautiful grasslands. I never played until recently and now I see everything covered by woods.

 

Though then again this is kind of the way this happens in real life from what I hear.

The great plains in central US would beg to differ. The winds from the Rockies pushed trees back to the Appalachians. Wurm needs wind, trees only spread downwind.

[Muse 2,216]

In the UK, we had the opposite problem - trees weren't returning to open areas, and even carefully planted ones died off - the issue was caused by the native deer eating the saplings and young trees.  The older trees were high enough to survive but new trees were decimated leading to isolated forests with large areas where none would grow.  In the end foresters trialled fenced off areas, and the trees returned to these areas.  Perhaps some animals in Wurm should have a chance at eating certain kinds of young trees, thus opening out clearings in the midst of forests.  It's always going to be about balance.

[TheTrickster 2,279]

In Oz, if you don't want a young tree eaten then fencing it off is a must.   It is still fairly common to see a tree surrounded by its own little square of split-log walls.

 

I think this all shows that it isn't simply a case of trees will grow wherever there is space.  It is more complex than that, with animals both restricting and spreading trees, depending on the animal and on the tree as well as weather and topography.  All too complex for a game like this to model, but approximations are possible.  

[Idlamn 297]

You are right about this. I had in mind the fact that  like 2 centuries ago there were woodlands all over my country (Romania), kind of like how they are all over Xanadu nowdays.