Growing Forests

The players’ goal in Arborlands is to develop land into a habitat for their Arborins. This is accomplished by two basic tasks:

1. Growing – planting trees so that you can have forests to inhabit
2. Inhabiting – Assigning your population to move into a forest and live there permanently

Today I’ll be talking about growers and the growing task.

Growing

Growing is a foundational ability of your little animal society. In order to grow trees on the land you must assign a troop with the growing ability to a land that is sufficiently fertile to support tree growth. Your main game piece, known as Troop One, and grower troops can both use the growing ability.

In its current state of development, the game supports the concept of biome and land fertility. Not every tile of land has the right biome or fertility to support growing a forest on it.

The forest gauge shows you what level of growth the land tile can accommodate. Yellow pips show the fertility level (from 1 to 5). As the forest growth increases, the yellow pips turn green to show growth level. Progress towards the next growth level is shown via the white circle on the inner circumference of the gauge.

When you use the growing skill, a troop will spend time on that land and increase the growth level of the land. when the pips on the forest gauge turn from yellow to green, you have gone up a level!

Grower troops

Growers are the most basic profession of the game. They are tasked with creating forests for you to inhabit.

A player can barely progress through even the early game without growers. The number of grower troops and their skill level will determine the early rate of growth in your game.

Growers move slower than most other professions, only being faster than builders. However, they will rarely venture outside your main inhabited forests, so speed is not as much of a factor to their performance.

Lore: Arborins marvel at their ability to grow and nurture plants. This pride is as profound to arborins as the harnessing of fire is to humans. As a result, growers are seen as foundational to arborin society and are often the most traditional of all professions. However, this does not mean that growers are not adaptive or experimental. They are constantly seeking the best mix of plant species and breeds to strengthen arborin habitats in a wide range of environments.

Future Abilities to be developed

Growers are still in development, so the following attributes have not yet been implemented.

Once your forests are grown to their natural capacity, growers can use their skill to cultivate forests beyond the natural capacity of the land. Via composting, water storage, and hybridization, they can increase the number of trees on the land. If you wish to increase your population via enhancing your forests, you must rely on growers to establish and maintain the enhanced habitat.

At the current state of the game, fertile lands are easily viewable to the player. In the future, troops will have to assess a land’s fertility before can see this information. Growers will be able to assess fertility, but not other attributes of the land. Rangers, as the primary information gathering profession of the game, will be able to assess all attributes of the land, including fertility.

Thanks for reading! 😄