Greetings, everyone!
I wanted to apologize to the half of the planet that is already enjoying their wednesday. IT’S STILL TUESDAY HERE, OK? 
In all seriousness, sorry about today’s delay! But here it is, better late than never, right? 
Today’s episode is quite simple! We’re talking all things Highlands! Well, not all… But almost all!
Without more delays, here it is! Hope you enjoy it and make sure to leave your thoughts! 
Transcription from the video:
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Hello, everyone! Welcome to another ACE Tuesday!
I’m sorry if I sound a little bit worse than usual this week, but I’ve had an exciting weekend which might or might not have been my birthday and as such I’m still a little… in recovery. -
That said, let’s go on with today’s video! This time around I’ll be talking about something that is rather simple but makes a lot of difference and is definitely one of the major additions of ACE: The new biome and home of the dwarves, the Highlands!
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Now, you’ve probably seen a lot of them in the previous videos - and we also talked about some of the new things coming with it… But now that it is almost feature-complete and has gone through a handful of tweaks, I’m confident that it is a good time to showcase - one by one - all the features of this pretty biome and ancient home of our friends, the dwarves!
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The highlands in our mod were highly inspired by the scottish highlands, both realistically and fantastically. This inspiration is not exclusive, however, as we also brought in several ideas and colors from different places. As you can see, the terrain is highly uneven and far more mountainous than the previous biomes, having small patches of flat land surrounded by tall cliffs rather than the mountain ranges and vast plains we’re used to. Additionally, the Highlands have a lot of water. All of this is meant to encourage a more underground or spatially-aware gameplay, overcome logistic challenges and play around with the new water tools and mechanics.
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So, let’s start with the highlands flora!
The most basic tree of the highlands - quite common on the lower levels - is the birch tree. Birches have a wider range of canopy color variations even inside the same season - not to mention their very recognisable trunk patterns - making them quite a sight to appreciate. -
Next to the birch trees we also have the Yew trees, which are very famous for their thick and sturdy trunks and their prized wood for furniture and weaponry. Yew trees are also an oddly shaped tree, which allows for interesting visuals and placement. Being an evergreen, Yews will actually display their colorful fruits during autumn instead of going dry.
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And finally, as you go up the hills and mountains of the highlands, you’ll encounter the Highland Pine. These mighty, tall and ancient beings of the forest are dramatically inspired by the Scot Pine, a very important and symbolic tree for Scotland. Reaching higher than regular pines and able to thrive alone, these will spot your landscape and give you beautiful, distant sights of the highlands!
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Another very important plant of the new biome are the vines. Vines will have a special behaviour unlike any other plant in the game, and will serve as an interesting gameplay element for this difficult terrain while also being connected to the more natural side of dwarves. They will be able to spread - not indefinitely, of course - but also up and down. And as you can expect, they’ll function as ladders! They’re not yet quite in, however - pretty much one of the last missing features of the biome.
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When talking foraging, we definitely start with the cherry bush. This new shrub is basically the same as a berry shrub and will provide pretty much the same levels of sustain for the early game - and tasty recipes for the end game like cherry tarts or pies. Although cherries are usually associated with, well, cherry trees - there are a couple of cherries that grow on shrubs like the plum cherries or the dwarf cherries. So, there is kind of an inside joke there. Dwarf Cherries… Since they’re are dwarves, it’s just cherries… Heh… Sorry.
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Other than the cherries, early game will also see a lot of use for the chanterelles, the forageable mushroom widely available across the Highlands!
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For herbs and flowers we have the Moonbells, which are beautiful little flowers with a natural moonlight glow on their petals. They’re very coveted for interior light sources since they do not produce smoke.
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The Marblesprout is a very unique flower that can be tamed and grown. It has interesting properties that, once dried, will harden and calcify - becoming a hunk of marble! Marble is the equivalent of gold dust for mason furniture. We’re adding new tiers of “ornate-like” furniture to the potter and the mason, something that seemed lacking considering that wooden furniture can be made so pretty and exclusive! For that, we created marble and the bone clay, used for potter’s porcelain.
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As a replacement for the source of early game fiber, we have cotton! Cotton can also be tamed and planted by farmers, becoming a steady and resourceful source of fibers just like silkweed is. But definitely more fluffy!
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And finally, as shown before, the Highlands have its own special collection of wildlife. Most of them are variants of already existing creatures, part of our effort to increase the diversity of the game - every biome has its own version of most animals now, like gazelle for the desert instead of deer or longwool sheep for the arctic. Exclusive Highlands’ creatures are the grasshopper and the Ladybug.
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But we also have some interesting variants around… The red squirrel. Gray raccoons. Gray bunnies. This cute blue and white DuckDuck. Deer and Caribous are moose here, both bucks and cows. The Highland Boar. Bighorn, fluffy sheep. Pastel-colored cute poyos. Oh, and here is something cool. A couple of weeks ago, after the Dwarven-themed ACE Tuesday, someone suggested the Final Fantasy approach for dwarves. I felt a bit bad because I really love Final Fantasy but completely forgot about their dwarven approach which is indeed pretty cool! We went down a more traditional fantasy road for their visual, but I felt like I needed to do something for this person, so-- hey! Here’s another cool animal from the Highlands. And no, that’s not what you’re thinking. Here, it says Ostrich. It’s an OSTRICH, ok? It totally is.
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And last but not least, we have a big and sometimes bad new resident to Stonehearth. Another member of the “Forest” faction, this creature shall be available in all biomes, usually as an invading enemy although it can be found on the wilds, and is a creature that every medieval or fantasy game definitely need! Very kindly and nicely offered to us by Team Firefly - we changed the model some and will probably tweak some things here and there… But here they are, bears! And yes, the black bear in the highlands is not a coincidence. I’m looking at you, Brave!
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Thank you for watching and I hope you’ve enjoyed our little ride through the Highlands! Feel free to ask anything you want and subscribe and follow us on our media channels to always stay tuned for more ACE news! Good bye!
