I’m not certain how the terrain generation is going for the Nothern Alliance territory, but I assume it won’t have as many trees as Darkmoor Forest. One way to compensate for this would be to have a new resource pop from digging: Peat! It’s a traditional fuel source that seems like it would be a perfect fit thematically. Perhaps it could be a new vein that only occurs in the dirt layer as opposed to the rock layers of the mountains. That way you could have lower numbers of trees to reflect an “above the treeline” existence and still make your iron weapons.
Perhaps there is a ‘tell’ in the terrain that will help folks know where the peat is, like… the cattail model! Looking at terrain generation as it stands now, I don’t think it’s possible to spawn a specific entity, since it’s randomly generated but it may be worth the time. @Fornjotr 's charcoal idea got me thinking and I didn’t want to crowd his idea thread with my own.
I love the idea of peat bogs as a terrain feature – not just as a source of fuel, a peat bog would be in a lower part of the land (i.e. away from the nice defensible mountains) so it creates a different gameplay choice – do you settle in the higher regions and send hearthlings out on the long trek for fuel, or do you settle closer to the fuel and then have to build more of your own defences?
There’s a lot of potential for peat bogs to be a unique “mini-biome” within the NA’s setting, like how the RC have their oases and mesas and how the Ascendancy have a choice between plains (and forests), hills, mountains or trying to reach between all of them.
This is really an awesome idea! Personally i CANT wait for the Northern Alliance… Being from Scandinavia i really want to feel more at home in SH!
I would absolutly love to build up an peatmoss buisness with my heartlings, bringing it up the narrow mountainpaths in my MOVING CARTS, and extraction the iron for the blacksmith and fireing up the fireplace in the longhouse, so the cook could roast the newly home brought deers and in that way feed the warriors that went out to battle the titans at dawn! While the sheperds stayed home on the lowest mountainslopes to keep an eye out for the sheeps, goats and cattle. That cheese from the milk gives good energi when the weavers craft the most remarkble tapestries and warm clothing…
Being from Scandinavia i really want to feel more at home in SH!