How do forests work?

[Ell_man]

How exactly do they reproduce themselves? How often? Do they reproduce into adjacent squares to the NE/SE/NW/SW easier than to the N/S/E/W? Do they reproduce into fungus less often than they do unfungusy squares?

If anyone has an old post on forest growth or any other knowledge I'd love to hear it.

[CEO Aaron]

There's a random chance that any forest tile will spread into any adjacent non-terraformed, non-rocky tile each and every turn. It's a small chance, but over a series of turns with lots of forest tiles, it happens pretty frequently.

[PJayTycy]

I also remembered reading an unworked forest tile spreads faster than worked forest tiles. I don't remember who wrote it or where I read it and if it was backup with rigid testing or only "a feeling". So, this info might be wrong. :-)

[Chaos Theory]

Forest can also spread into tiles with condensors (and not farms), and the two stack, though this usually isn't that useful.

[Kataphraktoi]

They also expand unto boreholes,which is great because it looks nice. They have no extra benefit when stacked with condenser etc though

[Chaos Theory]

A condensor-forest stacks properly, though interestingly. Normally, forests produce 1 nutrient, which is increased by 50% by the condensor, yielding the same 1 nutrient. However, a forest tile worked by a base with a tree farm yields 2 nutrients, which a condensor will increase to 3, and a forest tile worked by a base with a tree farm and hybrid forest yields 3 nutrients, which a condensor increases to 4. Forests on the monsoon jungle yield similar effects, for up to 6 nutrients from a forest-condensor.

[Sikander]

I have always assumed (absent any actual proof) that the algorithm which checks for forest growth checks all legal tiles which are adjacent to forests. This means (if it's actually true) that it is better (assuming that you want to promote forest growth) to build forests where they aren't adjacent to any other forest tiles. I do this as much as I can. For instance when I am using 2 on the diagonal spacing I build forests on those diagonal tiles which seperate bases. Not only are they unlikely to be adjacent to forest, they are also the tiles I road (first) in order to connect my base grid together. This makes them perfect candidates for crawlers a little later on, as well as all the move & gather tactics one uses to distribute / concentrate crawlers during the game.

[Ell_man]

Thanks for the replies. I especially liked Chaos Theory's on the quirk with the condensors.

I've actually found it annoying when they expand into boreholes since if I haven't roaded everything my 2 move formers aren't able to cross forests in one turn with movement points left over.

I doubt anyone knows, but does anyone have any idea what the actual algorithm looks like and the probability of forests spawning?

Maybe I'll run some tests this weekend to investigate.

[xalien]

Forest can also expand into mirror tiles and receive +1 energy bonus.

Me too sometimes get annoyed by forests replacing fungus. With Folus Mutagen I often use fungus as a great defensive improvement, especially if I have an armored crawler on the borehole.