[suggestion] Tree Saplings

[Libervurto]

There is only one element of the game that uses RNG: tree seeding. I think this is a shame and dilutes the otherwise perfect knowledge strategy of the game. Yes, trees are not a huge part of the game but they can be important and whether a tree seeds or not can sometimes decide a game.

One idea I had to solve this is to introduce saplings. When a tree seeds it will be a sapling, a smaller tree, and will not contribute to seeding any of its neighbours. On the next turn, all saplings grow into mature trees.

Randomness is removed, so if there are two mature trees neighbouring an empty hex, a tree will seed there 100% of the time on the next turn.

[yiotro]

Hmm, I have one question about this idea:

What will be the point of building tree sapling (from player perspective)? If you want to get more money then it's just better and easier to place a farm. If you want to annoy your opponent then it won't really do that because it's very easy to get rid of trees.

[subchannel13]

@yiotro I think @Libervurto is suggesting to show where trees will grow next turn. Not to give player an ability to produce trees.

[yiotro]

Oh, got it.

Well, that's an interesting idea, but do really trees have that big impact on balance? For me it looks like random map generator has much bigger influence on final result.

[Libervurto]

Let me clarify. If there is a hex where a tree could spawn, then on the next turn it will spawn a sapling instead of having a random chance of spawning a tree. Then on the turn after that, the sapling will grow into a full tree. Saplings do not count as full trees when looking at neighbouring hexes to see if a tree should spawn. So this removes the random chance involved with tree spawning but the spread of trees is slowed down because every tree must first go from a sapling to a mature tree before it can spread.

Yes, this is not of huge importance but it makes trees behave predictably, and since no luck is involved anywhere else in the game I feel this makes trees more cohesive with the rest of the game.

Here is a diagram to show how it would work. "." is land, "T" is mature tree, "t" is sapling. [Edited because I figured out how to represent a hex grid with text.]

Turn 0
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . T . . . . . .
. . . . . . T . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .

Turn 1
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . T t . . . . .
. . . . . t T . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .

Turn 2
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . T T . . . . .
. . . . . T T . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .

Turn 3
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . t . . . . . 
 . . . . t T T . . . . .
. . . . . T T t . . . . 
 . . . . . t . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .

Turn 4
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . T . . . . . 
 . . . . T T T . . . . .
. . . . . T T T . . . . 
 . . . . . T . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . . . . . . .

[yiotro]

no luck is involved anywhere else in the game

Hmm, what about random map generator?

[Libervurto]

Hmm, what about random map generator?

That is part of setup. You may be given a random map but you can strategize based on that. I am talking about things during play that cannot be planned for, like the tree spawning or in some games attack success is based on dice rolls.

Having some randomness is not necessarily a bad thing, I just noticed that trees seem to be the only thing that behave randomly during play so that seemed a bit out of place to me.

You could go completely the other way and have many random events going on all over the map to shake things up. I wish it was easy to throw these ideas together and test them in the game.

[yiotro]

Well, I never thought too much about trees when I planned my actions ahead :)

You could go completely the other way and have many random events going on all over the map to shake things up. I wish it was easy to throw these ideas together and test them in the game.

I also don't like when there is too much randomness in game. For example, I hate when in pixel dungeon I miss 3+ times in a row. But trees have so little impact on anything that it doesn't really matter in my opinion.