04-22-2015, 01:04 PM
Well, it took longer than expected, but we finally got the effect of grass worked into the simulation. We sample your colony and see where we find grass, sand, water, or some building or path. From those samples (and things like soil depth) we calculate the "grass fraction" — the portion of your livable land area covered in grass.
One thing we caught while working on this: even if you've designed your colony with no soil, we still show grass when you enter it. My friend (and High Frontier advisory board member) Al Globus advocates for omitting soil from early colonies, as he feels it's not worth the expense. So, in his honor, we'll also be making it so that if you have less than 0.25 m of soil in your colony, it's no grass for you!
One thing we caught while working on this: even if you've designed your colony with no soil, we still show grass when you enter it. My friend (and High Frontier advisory board member) Al Globus advocates for omitting soil from early colonies, as he feels it's not worth the expense. So, in his honor, we'll also be making it so that if you have less than 0.25 m of soil in your colony, it's no grass for you!
Joe Strout
Lead Developer, High Frontier