Roads/paths

[Track355]

When we make paths or roads in game, will we have a tool to do that or will it generate naturally though the pathing of our villagers?

Will we also have the option of what type (dirt, stone, etc)?

[nuLoon]

@tom

One of my favourite is seeing the foot-traffic and the routes and pathways that are most popular with the civilians. This might be slightly off topic here, but I would love to see areas of high traffic, actually impact the environment, forging their own visible paths, even if no actual road is build. And doing so, travelling on this desire-path would be slightly faster than un-travelled road, but not a fast as an actual build path.

@UncasualGames

People already impact the ground they step and with time trails start to appear.

I would expect the answer to both your questions is ‘yes’!

[Track355]

Thanks

[Alex93it]

Paths for sure but roads is unlikely. Don’t know if there were civilizations who had a fetish for roads prior of the Romans

[Amygdala]

There were some who built some paved roads, but never to the extent in which the Romans used it. The Incans are probably the only other more classic civilization that came close. And the oldest pave roads if I’m not mistaken were made by the Egyptians, 4500 years ago or so.

So well yeh, we won’t be seeing much paved roads in the first installment of ancient cities I’d guess.

[Dernwine]

What about causeways? Those might exist.

[nuLoon]

@nuLoon

Will the game engine support terraforming? This would allow us over years or decades (if the villagers are willing) to construct earthen bank and ditch causeways, or ceremonial and burial mounds

@Uncasual

Land modification is planned, but hardly for the first release.

I had wondered about this too, and it might not be an option right away, unless the devs have a simpler implementation in mind.

[Dernwine]

A causeway needn’t necessarily be a “terraforming” feature per say. Burial mounds, ceremonial mounds (ala silbury hill) and causways could be construct-able as buildings in theory, just for a massive outlay of resources. But yeah, land modification would be one way of going about it, it would also enable irrigation/drainage projects like I’ve seen a few people ask for.

[Sargon]

I would assume that causeways would be easier to create if the devs just implemented a terraforming feature. Although, I guess you could do it any number of ways.

[Creak98]

@UncasualGames

People already impact the ground they step and with time trails start to appear.

I assume that the trails (if no longer used) will vanish after some time. This lead my to the question:
Will the nature be affected and regenerate itself again after for example a “desaster” occurred or i moved my settlement elsewhere?
Like slowly growing trees, plants and fertile or barren land, depending on what happened?

[nuLoon]

@Creak98

@Uncasual

Plants spread seeds and if that seed find a place and conditions are good, a new plant will grow. The same with trees. If you give them time forest will cover the terrain again. Seeds also come from outside the map with the wind. This way even if you cut every tree, eventually new trees will grow again.

Animals also enter and leave the map. If you hunt them all, more will come while they have free space to roam.

Other resources can be limited or virtually unlimited.

[Uncasual]

@Creak98

Will the nature be affected and regenerate itself again after for example a “desaster” occurred or i moved my settlement elsewhere?

Yes. Nature regenerates itself with time. New seeds reach the ground and new plants grow there.
Even if we would like to do it, at this moment we have not plans to keep track of maps you leave behind. If you think that every grass in the map is being simulated, you can realise how much memory that would be, not mention about simulating it while you are away.

[Creak98]

Thanks for the fast answer nuLoon. I haven’t seen that commend.

Sounds good so far, even more than i have expected.

Edit:
And no, not on “abdoned” maps, but on maps where i change things. (move buildings)
I mean if i destroy buildings, will the place look like before (without plants) or can i see, that there was a building (for example dirty ground) and be able to witness it regenerating (slowly getting green…?)
Same for a disaster like flooding river(?).

[Uncasual]

If you destroy a building remains will be there if not retired for a wile, how long depends of the remain type.
But Eventually nature will regenerate and cover that area too.

[Creak98]

Ah, thank you for the explanation.

[nuLoon]

@Uncasual

Even if we would like to do it, at this moment we have not plans to keep track of maps you leave behind. If you think that every grass in the map is being simulated, you can realise how much memory that would be, not mention about simulating it while you are away.

Klei’s Don’t Starve does real-time simulation for objects within a few screen widths of the player’s view and then switches to passive simulation with less frequent updates for objects that are far away. This technique might not be as useful for your main map (since it’s not camera locked). But for an older saved map, it might work to randomly seed updated content based on the cycles that have passed. So if a player migrates back to a previous map after 10 years, the area would estimate x cycles of growth and decay. Easier said than done and not a priority of course, but faking it would probably be good enough.

[Elfryc]

On their Twitter account by @UncasualGames there are two screenshots of a village where trees have begun to grow up amidst the huts when the village was left unattended for a few hours irl.

Both screenshots are dated 4th of June, if anybody missed that.

[DonBerkelear]

I would be great if there would be a timespam on dirt roads doe, so i comes there by itself if its frequently used and dissapeard if its not used for years.

[Marko]

See above, paths already appear on their own by frequent use

[badbear]

Myans created roads.