Underbrush, New tile type

[Proterus 0]

Right now forests have trees and some animals but it really doesn't feel like wilderness right now.  So the idea is to add underbrush tiles, every tile does a check to see if it should be underbrush or grass, to do this it counts the number of trees within a 2 tile radius, if there are >10 trees in a 2 tile radius (a 5x5 tile square with the tile in question being the center tile) then the tile will turn to underbrush.

Underbrush ranges from

Trimmed

Thin

Underbrush with no prefix

Thick

These numbers are arbitrary, but I feel fairly realistic, but obviously these may need to be tweaked.

Trimmed underbrush does not slow you down at all.

Thin underbrush slows you down by 20%

Underbrush slows you down by 40%

Thick Underbrush slows you down by 60%

A new item will need to be introduced, the machete.

The machete when equipped will allow you to go through underbrush much faster and after you go through it, the underbrush will be automatically trimmed.

The strength of the mitigation of the slowing effects of the underbrush will be dependent on the ql and woa on the machete and the players machete skill.

Horses are slowed by the same amount, will not run through thick underbrush and you cannot use a machete while on a horse.  This will annoy horse users, but I would also suggest that if implemented horses be able to handle slopes more reasonably.  Keep in mind with reasonable growth rates, many horses users will be able to use trails already cut.

This would allow you to track people without the skill and I think would make the forests seem realer.

Underbrush would replace the grass and also grow on tree tiles (not all trees just the ones with enough trees around them)

At a certain faith level fo followers get a spell that lets them run through without speed penalty and without trimming the underbrush at a certain level fo priests get a passive capability to do so.

It might sound like an annoying addition, but I think we would get some really great looking wilderness from our art team.  Some cool stuff can be done with the animal AI too.

Oh and I think this would best be accompanied by a much more aggressive and taller steppe, that would naturally replace most of the grass in the plains and non-forest areas.  So that really, only in our pens, pastures, villages and deeds would there be grass.  Because there the grass would grow to replace terraformed and cleared land and the underbrush would act as a barrier for the steppe.

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

+1 for realism, always keen for Wurm to be more realistic.

[Ratheden 56]

+1 for realism, always keen for Wurm to be more realistic.

[Redd 4,281]

+1, id like to see more thick forests with bushes rather then same old trees. Also love to see Ferns ingame (if you have ever seen a coniferous forest /w ferns they look nice)

[Buttercup 0]

+1

[Gradir 2]

+1 Yeah!

Also MOSS tiles should be created randomly in forests, it's not so important material really..

[Proterus 0]

Bump, though in hindsight these speed reductions seem excessive.

[Howitzer 0]

+1 for the added visuals for realism. Not sure about the machete system, maybe any blade would work. what about riding through it on horseback, any speed penalty then?

[Scribbles 1]

Fo should then get a spell that lets people walk though underbrush without speed penalty. Maybe tie it in with Morning Fog, which already fills a similar sort of role with Thorn Bushes.

Also, on the subject of forest realism, I always thought grass tiles within 1 tile of (old, very old, overaged, withered) trees should turn to dried leaves or pine needles. Forest floors generally do not have a lot of grass growing on them, grass tends to only grow on open spots.

The tiles should ofcourse still be foragable/botanizable.

Ferns could act like 'flowers' that grow on leaves, instead of grass.

[Saddist 82]

actually just make the fruit trees sub trees that can grow at a lower story in say a cedar forest so to speak....

so that would make maple, cedar, pine upper story trees, that could have any fruit tree growing under it..... and the old+ fruit trees could further have lavendar and oleandar for example growing under them makeing a 3 tier canopy with zero move ment until the lowest canopy is removed, 50% movement with lower and middle canopy removed and just collisions with the trunk with the upper canoppy intact.

[Ratheden 56]

actually just make the fruit trees sub trees that can grow at a lower story in say a cedar forest so to speak....

so that would make maple, cedar, pine upper story trees, that could have any fruit tree growing under it..... and the old+ fruit trees could further have lavendar and oleandar for example growing under them makeing a 3 tier canopy with zero move ment until the lowest canopy is removed, 50% movement with lower and middle canopy removed and just collisions with the trunk with the upper canoppy intact.

i like it