Hi! The main part of the game we've been updating for the last while is the tree display. Way back when the classic game was first released in 2006, and for some years after, trees were simply a single text tile, an up arrow for a pine tree, say, and you'd chop them down and get a piece of wood. As the game progressed and got a third dimension of terrain, this became insufficient, and we moved over to multi-tile trees. Even using text, growing and display these was a bit of a challenge. Here are our tree trunks from the text version: [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34693670/330deb45e76c232b3d894fca7a48b539b1650eb3.png[/img] Don't strain too hard if you don't see them, but spot the brown and white O's? Those are tree trunks down on the ground level. The first part we tackled was getting these displayed, and making sure they were distinguishable from the trunks of trees that had been chopped down. The artists accomplished this with foliage shadows and lively roots: [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34693670/9f2af8d3b404580bf3a939c732db65e6f99dfb19.png[/img] Now, once you go upward, the situation gets more complex. In Dwarf Fortress, there are thick trunks that can be climbed, heavy branches that can be walked across, light branches that can't be walked upon, and even groups of leafy twigs out at the very edges. Jumble all of that together in text, and you have the old display: [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34693670/33fc7d1a938bfc2557fe6a60647e769db7210b87.png[/img] This is one altitude level up from the previous text picture. All of those tile types are there, but it's difficult to parse, to say the least. We wanted to make that easier to understand. So let's take a look at one of our new trees: [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34693670/01efce18e7e3254194373ff5a048841c921f784f.gif[/img] We are going up and down the tree with the camera - the trunk branches north and south immediately, and then thins out as we move vertically, until only leafy twigs remain at the top. When we put it all together in a forest, and move the camera up one level, we obtain the following: [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34693670/275a77ee725d3b17edfa9c2f27a63a4a66a9369e.png[/img] There's still a lot to take in, but the trees can be distinguished from each other (the leaves of different trees don't touch each other. This is called crown shyness.) The 'trunk' tiles which cannot be traveled through all have a pillar to distinguish them. So if one of your dwarves is scared up a tree by a wild predator, you'll expect to see them clinging next to a trunk or sitting on one of the heavy branches. On the other hand, if they are using a stepladder to pick fruit, you'll find them in the leafier sections without heavy branches where the fruit grows. Don't forget you can sign up for these updates to appear straight in your inbox by [url=http://www.kitfoxgames.com/sendy/kitfox-subscribe]joining the newsletter[/url]. - Tarn