Motivation
I liked the way trees can grow in the ancient mod tree-farm-lite but I did not like other parts of that mod. I wanted tree growing independent of the remaining parts (farms in particular).Then I noticed that there are also mods which add tree expansion, but these two concepts did not work together: The tree expansion mods just created mature trees instead of saplings.
So I created my own version of the tree lifecycle two combine this.
Description
The Tree Growth family of mods consists of a core module, tree provider modules (currently only a sample one: tree-growth-scaled-trees) and currently two acting modules.The purpose of the core module is just to coordinate everything, in particular transport the definitions from the provider modules to the acting modules and to define events. Currently the growth stages can be weighted, the time can be specified and they can be filtered based on tiles. Similarly reproduction can be filtered based on tiles.
A provider module uses the api provided by the core module to define how a tree can grow or reproduce. For example tree-growth-scaled-trees adds scaled versions of vanilla trees which grow from the sapling to the orginal tree. It also defines that the original tree can spawn saplings.
The two acting modules are responsible for growing (tree-growth-natural-growth) and reproducing (tree-growth-natural-expansion) trees. Growing is done by fetching the definitions from the core module and replaces small trees with larger trees after the configured time. Reproduction means creating new saplings near the mature tree.
Currently these four mods need to be used together.
Future
I will probably add more acting modules in the future, I am currently thinking of something construction bot powered to plant and cut trees, similar to tree-farm-lite.I am also thinking about adding seeds and a building to convert seeds to saplings to allow the player to plant trees.
I would love to see contributions and suggestions, in particular to the tree definitions. Also nice tree art featuring saplings would be nice.