maiden geyser
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3726327418
https://mod.io/g/timberborn/m/tree-of-life2#description
Adds a growing tree with evolving attraction around it's base.
Care for it and it will become a blessing for your colony (and plants). Let it die and it will curse your beavers.
current version is preview still - models and colliders for lvl 3-7 are incomplete / missing. 8 to 14 work fine though!
still only for Folktails.
will add IronTeeth support next week.
hope i can manage to add Fruit of Life too (but animating the flowering is time-consuming..). kinda missing this wonder-aspect still.
wished i could fix some of the leafs and models too, but likely not before deadline. so this has to do for now.
current features:
starting from lvl 5/6 the tree provides some boost to plant and yield growth (faster).
biggest tree currently is 13x13 and 8 high. i kept it so you can put things below and reach those still.
tame sphinx
Hey grauschweif. It's looking great, can't wait for the full mod. Care to take a look at the mod I'm working on? https://discord.com/channels/558398674389172225/1504792837244325960 I think they go very well together..
maiden geyser
had a look at it. really like it! going much further than my decorations or seasons mod - so many inspirations 🙂
was really surprised to see you put out something this ambitious !
tame sphinx
Looks like my nature mod causes yours to crash when you try to place the tree of life for the first time. Worked when I turneed my mod off. Will investigate that. Do you have any harmony patches on creation of naturalresourcespec and such?
Also, I'm having trouble keeping the tree alive 
Is the path/entrance supposed to be under water too?
I tried putting the whole thing under water, but then it said it was flooded and also died
maiden geyser
Looks like my nature mod causes yours to crash when you try to place the tree of...
not sure how you select them. it's a reduced naturalresource (oak minus TreeComponentSpec and unavailable forester).
next update will remove the TreeComponentSpec if that helps - makes it vanish from the menu.
maiden geyser
I tried putting the whole thing under water, but then it said it was flooded and...
it needs water under the bridge
this should work. (if you dev-mode place it it might not work - just remove the tree and it will re-plant)
tame sphinx
I'll give it a try. Could it be that your mod misses the water if it's not there right from the start?
maiden geyser
i wonder. need to investigate it - there'e no tick between the exploding ground and planting, so it might not update terrain column
tame sphinx
Sorry, I tried the setup you suggested but it still said it was drying out.
maiden geyser
does it still say so when you dev-mode remove the tree?
(not the grounds, just the tree)
tame sphinx
ArgumentException: Can't set Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject on Top, there should be null, but is Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject
Timberborn.BlockSystem.WorldBlock.ValidateSetBlockObject (Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject newBlockObject, Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockOccupations blockOccupations, Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject expectedBlockObject, Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject currentBlockObject) (at <74787eac0ca943ee95196027c7cd41d6>:0)
Timberborn.BlockSystem.WorldBlock.SetBlockObject (Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject newBlockObject, Timberborn.BlockSystem.Block block, Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject expectedBlockObject) (at <74787eac0ca943ee95196027c7cd41d6>:0)
Timberborn.BlockSystem.WorldBlock.SetBlockObject (Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject blockObject, Timberborn.BlockSystem.Block
... goes on for longer
Got this exception, same as before. I thought this was caused by my mod, but it wasn't on during this test.
was able to place the tree of life this time, and deleting the tree itself looks like it worked. It's green now and the ground say it's healthy
Got another exception right after that though, about empty spots being 0. I think maybe a beaver was trying to go in to use the building
maiden geyser
Got another exception right after that though, about empty spots being 0. I thin...
that's a nasty one.. the attraction is modified with each level and there seems to be something i overlooked
maiden geyser
ArgumentException: Can't set Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObject on Top, there sh...
can't tell what this is about. never seen it yet
did you place it very high up on the map?
tame sphinx
no, level 4 or so
maiden geyser
not close to an edge either? (not sure it would allow it)
tame sphinx
I don't think so. There was a water seep about 5 tiles out from the entrance, that's about it
maiden geyser
it not minds. it has much occupation on a 13-wide (15?) circle in 4 and 5m height, but only the 5x5 square on the ground level
i'll keep that in mind, but not sure i can reproduce it
if only there weren't sooo many odd situations that make it crash 😅
at least no breaking game updates in a while haha 
tame sphinx
I know what you mean 🙂
maiden geyser
InvalidOperationException: No unassigned slots left out of total 0 at TreeOfLifeOccupier(Clone)
Timberborn.EnterableSystem.Enterer tried to enter.
hmm. indeed broken rn.. darn..
oh, looks like i forgot to update the blueprint. it indeed wants 1 spot when it has none. easy fix 🙂
maiden geyser
tame sphinx
Good stuff, had no trouble building it this time and it looks like it doesn't take visitors in the first phase anymore
Is there a way I can speed it up to test the next stage?
maiden geyser
editing the blueprint
there's a DaysToMature for each level and the usual GrowthTimeInDays for the seedling
tame sphinx
Can I edit that directly on hd?
maiden geyser
not sure with steam (might sync it over?), but mod.io copy yes
hadn't had the time to make a dev-mode button to edit it. might make sense too, yet might be abused 🤔
it's TreeOfLife/TreeOfLife.blueprint.json
tame sphinx
Got it, thx. How do the blessings work?
maiden geyser
simple area effect (need)
range and points-per-hour increase with level
the attraction below the tree gives the biggest effect though
should your tree die it will give a curse instead (same area, same strength) and the attraction will stop
tame sphinx
It seems pretty punishing, especially with it dying after 1 day of drought
maiden geyser
yep. planned to make it have significant replant cost (science points) too, but was convinced to make it just 50 per level (counting after mature)
maybe i played whitepaws too much 🙂
to be fair: the seedling and early levels just take a little well-being and have almost no effect.
only the late tree curses are meaningful
tame sphinx
Out of curiosity: what is your goal for the curse, in terms of user experience design?
maiden geyser
annoy them
tame sphinx
lol fair enough then
maiden geyser
to make them replant the tree
i imagined the sad beavers walking past a dead tree they cared for and spend time with and it just felt wrong to not be mean a little
tame sphinx
Do with this what you will, but personally, I think I would enjoy it more if it scaled gradually. That is.. weak tree that grows quickly in the beginning and dies easily, then longer growth times and more drought resistant later. Otherwise I would just savescum or cheat to keep the tree alive, you know?
because you have to invest for such a long time to get it maxed out
maiden geyser
yeah, if i have time for it i might add that
originally i planned to make it a water seep from some level onwards. but not enough time i fear
(ignoring badtides of course)
maiden geyser
Do with this what you will, but personally, I think I would enjoy it more if it ...
now i need to come up with a good growth curve?..
so given i still want 15 levels which is 300 days right now for full sized tree ..
and say 60 days for the last level it might work out from that.
on the other hand it's a normal growth rate as is looking at other trees, so not much faster for lower levels, like still 8-12 days for seedling to mature maybe
it should still be frail to die quickly.. so no more than 3 days even with later levels. player should care of them, not forget about it (which i do for almost any tree in game tbh, given how resilient they are).
now i have to tune that too.. it should be fun and feel right
tame sphinx
Sounds nice, I think that will definitely pay off
maiden geyser
so, i did adjust that to about this curve
LVL Days TotalDays DryResist
1 7 13 1
5 13 54 2.1
10 31 150 3.6
15 53 358 5.2
20 99 749 6.3
so it will roughly take a year to reach the highest current level
and only grow range and plant growth boost more very slowly after
it will be a little more resistant to running dry too
but no more resistant to contamination
what i still debate is making it a water seep after a certain level. 10 maybe.
i want it to be a challenge too (well, no real hurdle i guess - just levee some and add a fluid dump and it's safe)
yeah.. little benefit in working as a water source itself..
yet maybe nice flavour? 
can't decide 
tame sphinx
I like it, I think this will work well. What's your motivation/goal with incorporating the water seep?
maiden geyser
making it spread moisture, making the drought proofing and resist contamination better - a seep would put some pressure against badwater
would give water for 10s beavers too
maiden geyser
I like it, I think this will work well. What's your motivation/goal with incorpo...
thank you for the feedback on it!
tame sphinx
I think those sorts of flourishes are a good opportunity to make it more thematic.
So if you can give it a narrative meaning, that could really shine. If it turns into a water source itself, then it drives players to use the tree as a central point to spread life throughout the map, that makes perfect sense lore-wise.
maiden geyser
yeah, also it forces terrain all below too
tame sphinx
From that perspective, you could also consider forcing the player to build the tree on or near water sources
maiden geyser
spreading a growth boost to plants, giving some moisture to farm, shrouded in mist haha.
really needs the flowers and fruits now..
tame sphinx
growth boost works great too, yeah
maiden geyser
From that perspective, you could also consider forcing the player to build the t...
doesn't work out sadly, given how hidden or far they are
tame sphinx
true
maiden geyser
growth boost works great too, yeah
it has some from lvl 5 onward. fitting the grounds starting to grow grass, than flowers
tame sphinx
I was also thinking about some ways that your work could interact with mine. The question could be: is the tree of life something that spreads life in the level, or does it flourish because there's life in the level?
Or both
maiden geyser
both kinda i guess
tame sphinx
You could say: if you turn the entire map green and lively, that empowers the tree to grow faster
maiden geyser
yeah, might be fun. for now the boost is disabled for any but seedling.
hmm.. wouldn't be difficult to add it though if there was an interface
currently there's a modifier component on any plant in my scriptpack that can boost growth, dry resist and yield growth
but can fetch modfier from somewhere else (like your mod) too if present
am doing that for timbercommons already
tame sphinx
Yeah definitely.
I've done some prep work to make my level analysis system easier to poll from outside the mod. Could be improved upon a bit more, but should be quite doable.
maiden geyser
all i need is a float exposed and maybe some EventHandler to attach to updates
hmm. just checking but my code not exposes the full thing easily either.
LevelingNaturalResourceGrowthEffect.Effect has the growth boost modifier delta of the tree.
and LevelingNaturalResourceGrowthEffect.NaturalResource.EffectRange for range (square range, 2d).
not sure that's very helpful - overlapping tree ranges don't add too, only max of either would be used.
maiden geyser
I've done some prep work to make my level analysis system easier to poll from ou...
does your mod calculate using 2d-maps or actual (connected) terrain ranges?
tbh i'm not a fan of the game using 2d range for anything, assuming there's no vertical terrain at all
well, i'm using game logic here too to conform with user experience. just not happy with it
tame sphinx
I'm using multiple layers to understand the world. First I do a full analysis of the surfaces of the whole map to find 'regions'. Then I divide those regions into chunks of 4x4, and those keep track of what the environmental conditions and objects within their area are. The regions are updated on event basis (terrain created, destroyed, etc), and the chunks are updated on a cycle divided over a number of ticks.
Long story short, your mod could read that chunk data directly and ask it what the local environmental conditions are for any tile. I don't really do map-wide analysis yet, but that would be easy to add, the raw data is already there.
Oh and I did do a bit of ground work into how tiles with different heights interact, but I haven't fleshed that out yet.
Short version is: if they're the same height, they're automatically in the same region. If they have 1 point height difference, they can be connected
you can take a look by the way, I added some visualizers for the system as debug overlays if you use alt+shift+x
let's you see the most important data that it's tracking
maiden geyser
sounds too much to look into before competion 🤔
tame sphinx
yeah agreed
maiden geyser
will have a look into it after for sure, especially to see if seasons can shift some or take advantage of data (it's currently missing analysis features - only can tell if tile is rain exposed (i.e. air above))
maiden geyser
looks like making something a water source is a breaking change.. (the entity loader will crash if it wasn't a water source before!!)
now how to fix that.. darn.. is there no way but to deprecate the existing tree ??
oh.. i could harmony patch the load game part? maybe? hmmm
tame sphinx
what about clearing the tile below the tree and spawning a water source there
maiden geyser
oh, the source itself works fine
it's only the savegame must have a watersource entry or it will crash
new games work fine
but i want to continue my game.. so i will just harmony-patch the WaterSource.Load thing and ignore the crash (it's just devs not bothering to add the check)
happily spawning water here
(testing - final version wont have this until high level. want to indicate that in some way too.. hmm)
tame sphinx
It could also be really interesting if you made a special map with a hill in the middle, and your district center is the tree of life. The only water source is the tree, and you have to upgrade the tree to get more water.
maiden geyser
sounds fun, just not happy with maintaining map mods (got 3 maps broken for it and there's few playing them either way)
given i use specs for almost anything it would be configurable easily actually
including the level and water source strength curve
hmm currently it would take 19'701 days to bring it to level 48 with a full 0.5 source strength (the default value) haha
tame sphinx
how does the water factor into the growth?
you mean the more water it gets the faster it grows to the next level?
maiden geyser
the higher the level the more water it puts out
to make it not replace a water source too early
(since it resists weather effects)
growth is stronger for low levels and it's barely any increase later (after 500+ days)
tame sphinx
I hope you don't mind if I'm brainstorming a bit, but: have you considered flipping it? Meaning, as the tree gets bigger you have to feed it more and more water?
maiden geyser
it would need to consume the water..
dry out the world..
not sure about that direction. can't imagine it right now really
sure if it was a giant thorn out to dominate all
tame sphinx
I think it would work on a lore level: it's a really large tree, so it makes sense that it needs water to sustain itself. And it would add an interesting challenge for the player: How can you bring in water sources from all over the map to feed it while also managing the rest of your colony.
And the reward is that you get an awesome centerpiece for the colony that makes the beavers happy
It would motivate the player to form their whole strategy around how to feed it
maiden geyser
sure. slaves to the tree? 
would be a very different direction and likely more complex
tame sphinx
Haha I was thinking more like caretakers.
Anyway, I don't want to overstep or anything, I was just throwing some ideas out there.
maiden geyser
for now it is just a cozy decoration. it takes care to get the most out of it, but not very demanding or critical to settlement
maiden geyser
Anyway, I don't want to overstep or anything, I was just throwing some ideas out...
i like ideas. just trying to keep up with too many rn. and want to make more decorations and curious for those animals you hinted at and more ambient ideas rather
also want to add more depth to my seasons mod after the competition
so likely will keep the scope for this mod limited and let others use it if they want a challenge out of it
your feedback so far helped a lot to make it more fun i believe. now only need to add the models and colliders that it misses and hopefully a fruit to bring a grand finale to it
hmm. dry resist is off.
the water source messages are confusing too, but that's not for now
at least everything seems to work as intended - and it can't be abused easily to irrigate far-off parts of the map
oh. 80% is right here. it's 1.8 days vs 1.0 for seedling. alright
tame sphinx
You mentioned fruit a couple times by the way, what's the plan for that?
maiden geyser
i want to animate a particle system and make the attraction give out the fruit for the last level (14 currently, might add 15th maybe).
the fruit would be a one-time consumable boosting life expectancy (doubling?) and give some minor boost to speed, carrying and well-being maybe.
maiden geyser
i want to animate a particle system and make the attraction give out the fruit f...
'animate' = make the tree blossom and fruit and maybe falling petals
tame sphinx
Awesome
maiden geyser
tame sphinx
Can't believe you were able to get all those secondary effects out so quickly tbh. I wasn't looking forward to prototyping all that for my own mod.
maiden geyser
it's mostly ready in game or made available in my scriptpack before, so it's only a few lines for each
would have taken days to make the ui parts and figure things out otherwise
tame sphinx
How close are you to a stable first version you think?
maiden geyser
currently working on colliders. than description texts and minor ui things.
it's pretty stable otherwise i would say
or well, ironteeth support is pending and i would like to add the fruits
3 more trees and 7 grounds models to supply with colliders 
why asking?
tame sphinx
I want to start a new playthrough to take my mod through its paces. Wanted to take your mod along for the ride if it's ready
tame sphinx
no need to wait for the colliders and such?
maiden geyser
depends on if you want to select the tree or see the latest models haha
will be out in 2-3 hours i guess
tame sphinx
I'll wait then 🙂
maiden geyser
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3726327418 updated missing tree models and colliders
will add colliders on attraction part and some rework on UI and texts tomorrow
tame sphinx
Awesome
maiden geyser
someone shared a weird one that might trigger with your mod and IronTeeth
about a random spawn causing this weird exception.
could your mod modify vanilla plants and one of them for IT be missing a spec?
08:05:30 Timberborn.EntitySystem.EntityComponent.Awake() failed after 00:00:00
First uncaught exception at 2026-05-18 08:05:30Z
InvalidCastException: Specified cast is not valid.
(wrapper castclass) System.Object.__castclass_with_cache(object,intptr,intptr)
Timberborn.BaseComponentSystem.ComponentCache.GetCachedComponents[T] (System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] results) (at <8807fc8a26d2416385ac376bd4506f25>:0)
Timberborn.BaseComponentSystem.BaseComponent.GetComponents[T] (System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] results) (at <8807fc8a26d2416385ac376bd4506f25>:0)
Timberborn.EntitySystem.EntityComponent.Awake () (at <099646c74f38481892231dd5408a5c9a>:0)
Timberborn.BaseComponentSystem.BaseComponentUnityAdapter.OnEnable () (at <8807fc8a26d2416385ac376bd4506f25>:0)
UnityEngine.GameObject:SetActive(Boolean)
Timberborn.TemplateInstantiation.TemplateInstantiator:Instantiate(Blueprint, Transform, BaseComponent)
Timberborn.EntitySystem.EntityService:Instantiate(Blueprint, Guid)
Timberborn.EntitySystem.EntityService:Instantiate(Blueprint)
MonoMod.Utils.DynamicMethodDefinition:Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObjectFactory.CreateUnfinished_Patch1(BlockObjectFactory, BlockObjectSpec, Placement)
Timberborn.BlockSystem.BlockObjectFactory:CreateFinished(BlockObjectSpec, Placement)
Timberborn.NaturalResources.NaturalResourceFactory:Create(Vector3Int, BlockObjectSpec, Boolean, Boolean)
Timberborn.NaturalResources.NaturalResourceFactory:SpawnNew(String, Vector3Int, Boolean)
Timberborn.NaturalResourcesReproduction.NaturalResourceReproducer:SpawnNewResources()
Timberborn.NaturalResourcesReproduction.NaturalResourceReproducer:TryReproduceResources()
Timberborn.NaturalResourcesReproduction.NaturalResourceReproducer:Tick()
Yeah that could very well be. I'll have to test with Ironteeth some more.
That is.. you're posting this under Tree of Life but I assume you were addressing me?
maiden geyser
got the wrong channel 😅
tame sphinx
Did they mention what they were doing when it happened or post a player.log?
maiden geyser
i don't know where this is from. random occurance and might have vertical spreading enabled. that's all i know
tame sphinx
Maybe we're both doing harmony patches on the naturalresources stuff. Would you mind sending me your harmony patch code?
maiden geyser
i not have a copy of that code (forgot to add it to git) only a working copy of a partial refactor.
it does patch
[HarmonyPatch(typeof(NaturalResourceReproducer), nameof(NaturalResourceReproducer.MarkSpots))]
[HarmonyPatch(typeof(NaturalResourceReproducer), nameof(NaturalResourceReproducer.UnmarkSpots))]
AccessTools.TypeByName("Timberborn.NaturalResourcesReproduction.NaturalResourceReproducer"), "CanReproduceAtCoordinates");
AccessTools.TypeByName("Timberborn.NaturalResourcesReproduction.NaturalResourceReproducer"), "AnyNeighborMarkedForDemolish");
which are all bool and not interact with anything in the error.
essentially all it does is add "can-spawn-to-here" to vertical neighbouring tiles
tame sphinx
It doens't look like mine either. The stack mentions a patch to BlockObjectFactory.CreateUnfinished and I don't patch that.
maiden geyser
me neither
i think? maybe.. need to check
nope, none of my scripts either
might be morelogs though or something unrelated
any chance it might even try and reproduce a 'fake plant'? do they have a ReproducibleSpec even? (or are NaturalResource?)
tame sphinx
My mod does do some funny stuff to enable spawning flora that normally belong to the opposite faction. It turns off the gatherability and plantability. I spawn mangroves for folktails so that they can be cut down for wood, but not planted.
But I've tried to target it to only do that to the base game flora, not other mods'.
maiden geyser
a mystery
since it is a Awake call and does query all components that might be an issue if you remove some components through code. if you removed them in a blueprint that should not cause any issue
tame sphinx
I load a few cross-faction blueprints at the start and remove the components I don't want.
and I have a patch for naturalresource because it would NRE if it fails to find one of its components (GrowableSpec)
maiden geyser
this will take a while to level to 42
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3726327418
1.3.1 CHANGES
+ fixed loading progress towards next level
+ fixed and repositioned many texts
+ made level-progress have green background
lol is that by design?
tame sphinx
I made the biome scores asymptotic too actually. Nice idea that they can never really reach the max and there's always a bit of growth potential
maiden geyser
lol is that by design?
basically
wanted to nerf the bonus on plant growth and range some for levels beyond the defined models (>360 days)
growth rates on those effects and especially range been a little strong with linear leveling
a lvl 50 tree can replace a full water source, cover a 60x60 chunk of the map with blessings and a ~40% growth boost
instead of 1'000 days it now only takes 24'191 days to reach this 🙂 (~80 years in game!)
should anyone really want to they wouldn't get much beyond a 50% growth time reduction and double water source strength even if the tree covered all the map with range
tame sphinx
Awesomeeee
maiden geyser
in terms of vanilla game it should be possible to have the tree in lvl 15-20 range around time of wonder
tame sphinx
There are always players who just like to keep going infinitely. Saw a youtube video from someone who was a couple hundred cycles in
I'm quite excited to have your mod work together with mine. Feel like brainstorming about that a bit?
maiden geyser
maybe after competition. pretty busy this week still
would be fun to have some additional effects with both mods enabled. or with seasons too
tame sphinx
What state is seasons in, would you say? in terms of completion
maiden geyser
hard to say really. it's working more or less so i have it on usually and enjoy the visuals.
visuals are very rough though and need a major overhaul.
effects are very limited too, just global effects and some rain on exposed (top-most) terrain.
it can change how much water / contamination comes from sources, change plant growth / yield / dry times, wind speed, moisture.. hmm
would say the feature it has are 50-80% complete, visuals 50%.
what it needs is some balancing and minor adjustment for those.
what it really misses is what your biome system does - split world into regions and apply slightly different effects on those
that's completely missing still
i want it to emulate temperature for snow (high levels) and maybe extra desert level (low, exposed flats)
tame sphinx
Ah I see.. That's a toughie. For me it'd be most intuitive to try and fold that sort of functionality into my mod directly as additional biomes. But I imagine you might feel differently 🙂
maiden geyser
yeah, that would make sense
would be nice to hook into it to adjust some seasonal modifier on your biomes and read out some visual indicators for my seasons.
would save me from writing a region mapping
tame sphinx
I have tried to make my mod extensible enough that other mods could add new biome definitions and behaviors, so you could use Keystone as dependency and make use of that.
Makes testing and bug tracking more complicated, but it's doable
But it would be easier if I add the biome definitions and you read them, I suppose
maiden geyser
yeah, i guess your mod not really would care about seasons - the effects it has already influence it enough
maiden geyser
But it would be easier if I add the biome definitions and you read them, I suppo...
i guess even with a shifting snowline over the year or shifting daylength it would not really need much interaction with your mod 🤔
beside having a snow-biome and maybe a desert-biome (hot + dry) would there be any interaction?
would your mod use a factor for "temperature" like that even?
if it had it would likely make sense my seasons would hook into it and shift values some. no reason for your mod to be aware of mine otherwise 🤔
maiden geyser
I'm quite excited to have your mod work together with mine. Feel like brainstorm...
what did you expect of the tree mod to interact?
tame sphinx
I don't currently feature the idea of temperature anywhere in my mod. It would fit, but would take a lot of work to adjust all the biome calculations so they take it into account properly. Also, Keystone is currently relatively fragile to radical changes in the environment. Which is by design to some extent. I want healthy biomes to quickly die off when they get badwater or contamination. But that weather mod that sporadically irrigates everything does have the potential to kind of mess things up
tame sphinx
beside having a snow-biome and maybe a desert-biome (hot + dry) would there be a...
Depends on whether we can have a clear model of where temperature is coming from I think. It's an unstable element that I don't know off the top of my head how to incorporate, but I'm curious to know what you think.
tame sphinx
what did you expect of the tree mod to interact?
Well I see the tree of life concept as a kind of symbolic representation of the land. So it represents how healthy the land is and also makes the land healthier at the same time. So one thing that would be interesting is if you added barriers to building the tree of life based on how green the environment around it is. And that would be easy to do with my mod. You could ask my data layer how many healthy biomes there are on the map and use that as a gate for growing the tree to the next stage.
maiden geyser
Depends on whether we can have a clear model of where temperature is coming from...
i simply planned to make it height-dependend, like top-most 20% of map are below snow threshold
not yet had a good idea for heat sinks (i.e. a desert exposed to sun/ sky?). could work similar for lowest 20% of map to have increased evaporation & desert factor if exposed to sun.
either would adjust moisture basically (cold is wetter, hot is dryer) and plant growth (negative growth).
winter would shift this line downwards, summer upwards basically.
so shifting some snow- and desert-biome factor would be plenty here i guess?
tame sphinx
It would be a lot easier for my system to add snow/desert biomes based on local effects/modifiers than to have map-wide settings
maiden geyser
even if it was the height-value of the tile?
i mean increasing evaporation and desert levels on moisture calculation would work already for your mod to shift towards desert. might not need any additional feedback
just snow crawling down from the top .. i would still need a terrain map to transfer that onto your biomes?
or maybe i could add a harmony patch to inject it 🤔
could expose a snow-factor too, per tile. but that would mean your mod had to be aware of mine. or i wrote the snow biome and added it. hmm
maiden geyser
Well I see the tree of life concept as a kind of symbolic representation of the ...
this is more complicated.
i'll need to think more about it on another day.
what might work
tree could give biome boost with range itself. that might be easy and transparent.
dead tree would reverse that. all locally. (range being 5-15 tiles from tree - so likely little effect overall)
would be a player choice to place them close enough to wild areas still.
gate-keeping levels is a fun idea. i might add that if keystone is enabled.
tame sphinx
height value can easily be incorporated, yes. I think the main problem for me is that I don't have an efficient/elegant way of handling diagonal hills. My mod works well with reasonably large flat surfaces. It doesn't produce very good results with single tile planes. But that's something I could try to look into in a future version.
But if the biome values are derived directly from height, that's not a problem.
In my earlier message, the concerns I had were more about differentiating different areas of the map based on temperature or doing that for the entire map even. That would be trickier. Also because I've tried to make the most of the vanilla assets that I could reuse to decorate stuff. If we add a bunch more different biomes based on temperature, then making that visible and mathematically stable becomes more difficult.
maiden geyser
would agree on that. just going slightly towards big deserts growing cacti or bones or something might be fun.
same with sea biome or mountain top / snow biome for extreme height
keeping it simple often is most fun
tame sphinx
I know I ask this a lot, but: What is your design goal for the seasons mod? 🙂
In particular the desert area?
maiden geyser
ambient effects mostly.
also some meaningful, but not too deeply altering shifts in game behaviour over larger spans of time
maiden geyser
In particular the desert area?
flavour - with dry season there might be larger dead areas. having some bones and cacti around might be fun.
they should resist the occasional rain though
balancing rain would seem a major task on my side - to make it work better with your mod
maiden geyser
ambient effects mostly.
also some meaningful, but not too deeply altering shifts...
weather will change some too. there's monsoons in autumn, dust storms in summer, snow storms / blizzard in winter only.
lapan came up with much of it initially after the usual cycle of temperate followed by drought / badtide felt pretty boring pretty fast. especially with whitepaws who take around 60-90 cycles to build the wonder
tame sphinx
Interesting. In some ways it makes the same type of changes to the game as Keystone does, but with a very different philosophy behind it. I think it would be very hard to combine them in their entirety, but some parts are compatible.
I definitely understand the argument of drought/water/badwater cycles becoming predictable. Seems hard to combine that with the idea that winter would make it impossible to build crops though. If they hit/combine at the wrong time, it can cause a big spike in game difficulty.
maiden geyser
yeah, that's the point where it's on me to balance the winter. 50% less growth is managable - and it's predictable when winter comes and how long it lasts.
if i manage to add the height-relative-snow-level it might become more fun i hope, as low levels would keep higher growthrates than high levels. the other way round in summer - low areas might dry faster than high areas.
if i can balance it well with keystone in mind it might have interesting effects on it too. given a season lasts for 104 days it should be fairly stable for that part.
tame sphinx
yeah, having rather long seasons does definitely help.
I really liked your idea about adding sea/ocean biomes by the way.
Think there's heaps of unexplored potential in that for the game as a whole
maiden geyser
volcanoes too 😉
maiden geyser
working out 'native plants' (supported materials) to decorate the attraction with for both factions - why IronTeeth have so few flowers 
maiden geyser
yeah, doing weeds / grass is easy that way
just: i want flowers! a meadow style! that's more demanding with just ironteeth somehow
tame sphinx
there are also plenty of free unity asset packs if you want to go that route
maiden geyser
but i can use spadderdock model and put some eggplant or coffee or vertex paint on them
maiden geyser
there are also plenty of free unity asset packs if you want to go that route
i want it to look native and specific - which is likely complete waste of time for such a small detail 🙂
so IT will go with small corn and kohlrabi for grass - add canola flowers with a contrast of eggplant coloured spadderdock maybe
tame sphinx
Disagree! Attention to detail is what elevates these things from 'cool' to 'classic'. Go for it
maiden geyser
coffee-red is great too, just not too easy to use with flowers? hmm
tame sphinx
re-texturing is probably the easiest way to get more variation, yeah
maiden geyser
1.4
IronTeeth preview (full tree, limited attraction).
Fixed most of the attraction colliders.
Some cleanup on first half of attraction models.
I've tested my mod together with yours and some others for the past few hours. I'm pretty happy with the results
I think they could both really benefit from being coupled. That is.. if we wrote it so the tree's progression is gated behind having enough healthy biomes in the level, that would work well on both sides. It would give players an active way to contribute to the growth of your tree, keep them engaged with it. And for my side, it would offer a concrete reward to them for building more healthy habitats throughout the map.
No pressure intended by the way, you mentioned you want to finish other stuff first 🙂 Just thinking out loud a bit
maiden geyser
sure. will take time, but sounds fun.
decorations mod needs some overhaul too and could work nicely with this approach.
maybe can come up with some ideas to make seasons have more favourable impact on healthy biomes too.
so many options 🙂
for now i got 3 days to finish this one..
doing some update on the missing ground building models (especially for IronTeeth) and a little cleanup.
kinda want to go furhter and have the fake plants go dry and dead too.
no time for the fruit yet. . too bad for that..
tame sphinx
reckon you'll have everything you want finished before the deadline?
maiden geyser
but maybe i can fake some and go without the animation / particle system for those? 🤔 that might work out.. just put a fancy box next to the grounds and magic some fruit into them.. hmm
maiden geyser
reckon you'll have everything you want finished before the deadline?
nah. about 80% of what i wanted. but it will have to do. trying to tidy it up as best as can.
tame sphinx
you mentioned you were also working on decorating the grounds more?
maiden geyser
yeah, it's a split thing: there's a "building" that evolves as attraction that protects and plants the actual tree.
that part only has 80% of models for Folktails yet and 40% for IronTeeth.
tame sphinx
Well, I think it's a good call. It will go a long way to making it feel more alive
maiden geyser
feels too limited yet as it only offers real growth till lvl 6/7 while tree goes to 13
tame sphinx
not too bad, after a while the tree gets so big you don't see the ground anymore anyway
it pulls the most weight on the first few levels when the tree is very small
maiden geyser
i made sure it will have almost 4m below it free to access anything below it easily enough 🙂
tame sphinx
as in, water sources?
maiden geyser
but agreed. from lvl 10+ it's secondary given the tree grows very wide from there
maiden geyser
as in, water sources?
as in the trunk being almost 4m high for later levels and canopy only starting from there.
so while tree covers much from above, from the sides it's pretty nice to see and reach anything below still
tame sphinx
Oh I see. Yeah that's useful. Did you do anything with the terrain level chooser?
hiding the top of the tree?
tricky if it's one big model
maiden geyser
not yet... would need to make uncovered models for it.. and copy 45 collider definitions haha
tame sphinx
ugh :/
maiden geyser
not difficult, just will likely take 2-3 hours to do and test, so .. not seeing me do that before deadline
it's not that big anyway. not sure it's really needed
anyway: good night and
tame sphinx
Likewise 🙂
maiden geyser
oh, just got a nasty bug reported:
effectively meaning not more breeding allowed for all that enter the former range!
tame sphinx
yep that's harsh
maiden geyser
1.4.1
+ tree now removes curse on full range when revived
a major curse still takes up to seven days to lift for afflicted beavers
+ mist now clears on dying tree and vanishes on dead tree (lvl 10+)
I see you changed the color on the growth bar to teal instead of red. That's great actually, otherwise it keeps giving the impression that something is wrong when it isn't.
tame sphinx
What do you think of letting players name the tree by the way 🙂
maiden geyser
could be nice, but not yet know how to enable it
maiden geyser
hmm.. looks like my IT preview is not as stable as i wanted .. fix will be out later today..
(might crash on early levels due to misnamed need collection.. )
maiden geyser
todo-list for next two days:
* push fixes for ironteeth (testing now)
* add missing colliders (tree lvl 7 to 9) - looks like i lost them somehow 🙁
long-term:
(just for me to keep track of what i'm doing)
maiden geyser
1.4.2
+ made revive 'button' more visible
+ hid level progress for dead tree
+ fixed lost colliders for tree lvl 7-9
+ fixed ironteeth crash
+ add a few more ground model updates (1-6 for folktails, 1-4 for ironteeth)
+ tried to avoid a conflict with Adaptors mod (wont be able to test this, but might work)
looks like this is working - fake grass can turn yellow when tree isn't healthy 🙂
tame sphinx
Oooh! that's excellent. how did you do that?
maiden geyser
selecting the named child of active model and setting ?.SetActive(bool) on them depending on tree health
and in timbermesh i grouped the plants under those tags #alive, #dying, #dead
simplified what plants do
maiden geyser
ground is a building
that can plant a named template at a specific positions
so it can query if there's anything at that position
tame sphinx
Ah, so you're not changing how the ground tiles are rendered? You put something else over them?
maiden geyser
oh, that: the grounds have many models and iterate them depending on level
each of these models can have the plant children and toggle them depending on tree health - as part of the active model
yep, no terrain changed, just put something over the hole
there's a 2m water column below the tree (which floats in mid-air)
tame sphinx
Sounds like we're doing some similar things!
I was hoping you'd figured out how to change the water/terrain effects as well, I've been wanting to get into that but am a little scared 😛
Your decoration of the base looks nice by the way. When are you releasing the update you think?
maiden geyser
late tomorrow maybe. need to make the ironteeth flowers and the uv-mappings for dead and dying plants, fix some models still.
just made the script part ready for now to see if it was easy enough to put in still
tame sphinx
still 3 days left
maiden geyser
1,5 days technically 🙂
implementing an inventory is complicated.. where does the serializer come from? .. so many things needed for it..
looks like it would need to be a workshop .. which is .. no fun..
oh. there's a SimpleOutputInventory used by farmhouse and flags! awesome 🙂
tame sphinx
For the fruit I take it?
maiden geyser
hmm. works. gives logs each day. just .. i need to implement the visualisation and ui part too it seems... 😒
might manage the list in the panel. no chance for a small stockpile of logs / fruit crates for tomorrow though..
tame sphinx
For stuff like this I pretty much ask Claude AI to decompile the relevant code and dig through it. Usually comes up with a good solution that way. Fiddling at it from the outside, trying stuff, is very labour and time intensive. Do I understand correctly that you're trying to extend the clicked tree UI window to show not just the fruits it contains but also the icons of those fruits?
maiden geyser
oh, that ui part is simple, but takes some time. can copy & past it well from other describers
the tricky part is making a stack of crates and logs at the position and in the way i want them
within the model grounds
tame sphinx
Hmm.. dynamically spawn 3D objects on top of your tree/grounds model then? I think I would either add them to the base blueprint and hide them dynamically, or just work directly with Unity.
The animals I spawn in Keystone pretty much circumvent the whole BlockObject system and create free entities.
I suppose the former would be more elegant, but means you have to predefine the decorations.
maiden geyser
yeah, that's the plan
must be dynamically generated - i want to specify goods and locations from spec
there's logic for all the tricky parts, just the glue is missing
tame sphinx
hmm
maiden geyser
it's just a nice-to-have in the end. so it's gonna have to wait a day or two
tame sphinx
How are you feeling about your progress?
maiden geyser
unsure honestly. working too many things at once.
if i finish the last 5 ground models (mostly improving things) it's fine as is
just want the blossoming animation and good visualisation in still.. so will likely take a few more days to fix those
how about your keystone mod?
tame sphinx
I think you've done an amazing job, honestly. Am glad you went to the trouble, because I think it's a great fit for the game.
It's a funny thing, with the contest. On the one hand it's really fun to have some concrete reward to work towards, and I think it kind of connects the modders too as a community. And then at the same time it introduces deadlines and stress and competition.
tame sphinx
how about your keystone mod?
I'm very happy with the result, I got a lot done and I think the result matches my original vision quite well. Fun fact actually: I put an official 'advertisement' post on Reddit this morning and it's been pretty much a combination of 95% enthusiastic responses, and 5% hate because I used AI for the banner 😄
maiden geyser
looks odd in unity 🙂
maiden geyser
a year in the life of a tree (folktails edition)
1.4.3
+ finished ground models (12 stages)
+ added more spots for beavers to admire the tree
+ slightly more slots too, fitting an extra beaver for most levels
+ tree now provides logs from lvl 7 onwards
+ ground and tree level now match
+ ground decorative plants now wither and die with the tree
matching models for IronTeeth etc tomorrow.
Doing great!
maiden geyser
contemplating 
contemplating team haha
kinda happy with this
did i spend too much time on the vase? sure! haha
hmm. just realised the UI doesn't tell how many logs / fruit it provides per day or that it drops them at nightfall...
good thing i tested it again
1.5
+ grounds now visualize inventory (logs, fruits)
+ adjusted saturation and value of tree models
+ grounds UI now shows inventory
+ added fruit of life (lvl 12+) as a good
the blessing lasts a lifetime - only a major curse can take it away
(sadly not enough time for the animated blossoming yet)
+ added remaining ground models to IronTeeth
+ added a flower vase to table
1.5.1 added to grounds ui to inform about gifts
I got a bug report tonight that Keystone and Tree of Life together caused an exception on startup. I haven't tested the combination in a while. Haven't gotten the chance to look into it yet.
It probably has something to do with the fact that we both mess with standard specs on tree blueprints though.
maiden geyser
i just tested it and it worked
tame sphinx
Ah great. Maybe it was another mod in his mod list then
maiden geyser
just found a odd issue with the game crashing when a beaver was trying to block a spot at the tree while tree leveled up and attraction ui was open 🙂
i considered to ignore that one for now
tame sphinx
yeah, you're cutting it pretty close to the deadline 🙂
I've been too scared to update my version all day, lol
tame sphinx
You know, I've kind of been assuming that the Tree of Life could only be built once... but I guess that wasn't actually your intention, was it?
maiden geyser
initially it was. just it made more sense to not restrict it
rather now it would make more sense to plant multiple as they produce opnly few fruit
tame sphinx
I see
maiden geyser
NOTE: due to an oversight in last minute changes the competition version of my mod will need AppendVanillaResources mod to load with IronTeeth