Hi everyone,
I have a new short news update for you and this one is about the new tree planting mechanic (finally) :)
At first I have to say - the community events update is nearly finished, but I have delayed the release of the new version a little bit again, because I saw that on 24 March there is the steam city builder & colony sim fest. Therefore I have decided to release the community events functionality in connection with the tree planting and other features in a combined major update shortly before the fest.
Planting Trees
This was since a while on my list and these days I have finally added it - the tree planting mechanic - which allows the player to regrow the forest and trees anywhere on the map.
Planting Spots
I have added a new button to the zone creation menu, which enables a similar functionality like for default zones to place tree planting spots in the world. But the difference to default zones is, that there is no visual zone created (instead it creates some signs) and that planting spots cannot be placed directly beside each other or beside a tree.
Saplings
In order to plant a tree, the player needs a special item - a sapling. At the moment, they can only be bought from traders or wanderers, but I was also thinking about that there is a small chance that when you cut a tree, that some saplings can spawn.
Forest Helpers
In connection with the new tree planting mechanic, I have also added a new event - the forest helpers.
This event can be seen as the opposite of the already implemented forest defenders event and is triggered when you plant a certain amount of trees. The value which calculates if the event gets spawned is the same as for the forest defenders, which means if you cut trees the value goes in direction to spawn the forest defenders event, but if you seed trees it goes in the direction of spawning the forest helper event.
A special property of the forest helpers event is, that the centipedes will help you against enemies, which also introduces the first case that an insect group can be allied with the player.
I hope you all have an awesome day and I'm looking forward to see you at the steam colony & city builder fest, Cheers!