Self Replenishing Forests

[CharlesM]

They do change over time. I've seen it myself. It takes a LOT for the change to start showing. However, once it does show up, it can spread fairly quickly.

Since other biomes spread through terraforming I think it would make sense to have forest biomes spread too in a random manner.

For example having random saplings appear on all biomes, bringing different biomes to other areas. Although I don't know how they could make it so the forests don't endlessly spread and eventually cap at a certain size.

[TeckXKnight]

They do change over time. I've seen it myself. It takes a LOT for the change to start showing. However, once it does show up, it can spread fairly quickly.

I do think that random saplings should appear on all biomes though, bringing different biomes to other areas. Although I don't know how they could make it so the forests don't endlessly spread and eventually cap at a certain size.

I don't see why the spread can't be limited by biome and have proximity parameters. Perhaps the more dense the trees are in an area, the more likely trees are to grow and to die so forested areas stay forested and sprawl outwards slowly. No matter what they'll eventually hit a boundary with the edge of their biome so the world won't just turn into a giant jungle.

[MagicManICT]

In real ecology, you have things like weather and drainage that define where forests will grow. Forests tend to need both of these to be favorable to grow (whereas grasslands will pop up almost anywhere with favorable soil conditions and enough light). It can take centuries or millennia for this change to be noticeable without mans intervention. This may be too much to ask for a game design, though (SimWorld was pretty fun and did it, though, and that's from.... 1992?)

Fact: the Amazonian rain forests may never regrow where they've been clear cut and burned for farmland because of the delicate balance rain forests have to sustain the diversity of flora and fauna. On the flip side, the mountain forests and such that are typically clear cut for lumber will eventually regrow over time assuming weather doesn't cause things like massive soil erosion leaving poor or little soil for seeds to take root in.

[colesie]

Yes