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Author Topic: Movable Saplings  (Read 1004 times)

Northstar1989

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Movable Saplings
« on: June 18, 2020, 04:02:21 am »

The ability to move, and replant, saplings is crucial to arboreal management in real life, and I think Dwarf Fortress would benefit from this as a feature.

Include a command that allows players to move Saplings to a specific location, or move any sapling to a location (both are useful).

The first of these would make organized fruit/nut tree orchards possible (right now you can sort of create an orchard by chopping all tree species but the one you want, but due to the RNG on where Saplings spawn, it's kind of a pain to do...)

The second would make organized tree farms (for growing limber) easier- particularly when just trying to bring Saplings inside a walled outdoor area from outside the fort, for safety.  Right now tree farms require we leave large areas unpaved (and just trust in mature to plant trees) to maximize efficiency, and saplings grow at random- this would let us plant saplings into organized rows, with paved paths in between.

So, a specific move option, and one that just grabs the nearest sapling (from some designated area, or anywhere but an excluded area), possibly with the ability to specify a species for the latter.
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Leonidas

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Re: Movable Saplings
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2020, 10:49:58 am »

It's not a bad idea, but it doesn't seem urgent. It would be nice to make an orchard or tree-lined avenue. I would add a topic to the Nature category called Forestry, and then use that to unlock what you want.
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SixOfSpades

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Re: Movable Saplings
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2020, 02:17:51 am »

As Learning becomes a more important dynamic, this seems like precisely the sort of technology that dwarves should have to learn about from elves first.
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knutor

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Re: Movable Saplings
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2020, 11:58:17 am »

Perfect suggestions. Especially for the nature ability used by druids. Cannot think of a better job for a sickle swinger than to defend an activity zone with 0 death of vegetation, saplings with lethal force.
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Movable Saplings
« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2020, 07:58:36 am »

The ability to move, and replant, saplings is crucial to arboreal management in real life, and I think Dwarf Fortress would benefit from this as a feature.

So, a specific move option, and one that just grabs the nearest sapling (from some designated area, or anywhere but an excluded area), possibly with the ability to specify a species for the latter.

People's replies to book learning aside (I dont know how people got onto the topic, I think they are just hungry for more features), this is easily one of the better suggestions to how to combat the problem of sporadic tree growth without resorting to hoarding inedible seeds. Even if its ruduminentary and none specific, i think players can probably bodge a adequate solution using burrow workzones for picking out particular ones for a prototype system if Toady was to add it into the next few releases as a side feature.

There are more than simply singular applications than production i can think of off the top of my head.
  • You can make shaded decorative areas to help with sunlight or rain exposure
  • Moving saplings away from archer towers walls & roads without resorting to destroying them if there will be future consequences to it.
  • Moving saplings for a indoor tree orchard with some sunlight access or just for decoration
Would these apply to fungi also? Though i think there would be some limitations here then in this case.

Fungi particuarly is very helpful to making raised structures since its flat surface can be built upon and wall-block supports wedged onto the ceiling so the building doesn't collapse if the cap was to fall down suddenly. I can definitely imagine players constructively using fungi for ready-made archery platforms or safe little cavern exclaves on yet to be secured & FB infested areas.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2020, 08:03:49 am by FantasticDorf »
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