Where to next? - 0.15.0

Lately I've been moving towards fatigue, sleep, temperature and exposure to the elements all needing to be much more important survival needs than they are right now. Let's put all of these mechanics under the umbrella of 'habitat'. Eventually, habitat will be almost as significant as food as far as survival and selection pressures go, one they will need to balance against seeking food in order to survive long enough to reproduce.

Unfortunately, I find the current vegetation model wholly inadequate to support my plans for this stuff. It has failed me for the last time. So it's time to take what I've learned, throw the whole system into a volcano, and build a cleaner, more elegant and far more ambitious replacement.

Here's the design goals for the new system, in rough order of priority:

The tree's need to be 3 dimensional structures.

Multiple 3d interaction points for fruit, foliage, shelter, perches and nests.

The tree types need to serve a purpose in the ecosystem.

Shelter tree's should not provide food and food tree's should not provide shelter. This will allow me to ensure the two do not generally grow in the same location.

The tree's need to be performant.

They're not the centerpiece of the simulation: their role doth not merit that they drink deeply from the fountain of FPS.

The tree's should evolve.

Evolving tree's is probably the second most requested feature, after flight. It was always planned, though never as a centerpiece of the game.

So, let's discuss!

You can read the rest of this post over here, on the development blog.