You can't pick two actions. I'll treat the second one as a Focus vote unless you say otherwise.
Trees release pollen, pollen attracts bees, bees sting invaders. I see no bugs - erm, problems - here.
Welcome! I look forward to watching you optimize!
Raising Kittens joined my quest!!!
On the one hand, this Forest is just beginning to dabble in the Psychic arts. On the other, you can certainly try to connect to a particular animal - but there are no guarantees that you'll get what you aimed for.
As the Forest gains experience, I'll ask for specific votes (like the "which Special Tree to grow" vote now), but for now - just write in the request to a post, as plain text, and I'll increase the weight of that particular result a bit accordingly. That goes for anyone who tries to connect to an animal, as you wish.
Technically, those of you trying to connect to other sapient minds could also do the same thing... but between greater range, mentally-stronger targets, and less-familiar-to-Forest targets, the final result of this action is pretty much sheer dumb luck for now.
So to be clear here if we have 1 Collector Tree, then we get 1 auto success every turn the Consensus vote is for a Growth action, and no bonus on other turns?
So to be clear here if we have 1 Collector Tree, then we get 1 auto success every turn the Consensus vote is for a Growth action, and no bonus on other turns?
That is correct. However, as you increase the magnitude of the forest, you'll get additional consensus actions every turn. So, with a size 4 Forest and all 4 Focus actions devoted to growth, a single collector tree will effectively give you 4 automatic successes in a single turn.
TL;DR: Collector Trees get better the bigger the forest is.
Addendum: It is probably best to specialize in either Collector or Wise Trees, and plan to throw most of the Focus actions at that category.
12 dice - 7 successes - into: [X] Research Clever Trees
10 dice - 7 successes - into: [X] Grow the Forest
8 dice - 4 successes - into: [X] Store Resources Against Future Need
4 dice - 4 successes - into: [X] Connect to Local Wildlife (Psychic)
2 dice - 1 success - into: [X] Reach Out to Minds (Psychic)
2 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Release Annoying Pollen
2 dice - 1 success - into: [X] Brace Yourself
2 dice - 1 success - into: [X] Research Lens Trees
Well that was above-average. On the off chance any of you have been hacking random.org - congratulations!
The Forest has labored in steadily, solemn, contemplation - one of your favorite pastimes, actually. But this time, you are working on a common project: helping the Forest think more clearly. You are almost a quarter of the way through this project, you think. Enough to guess at the outline of what you are trying to create…
Meanwhile, the Forest has burst into leaf and bloom this spring! Dozens of saplings have taken root; at this rate, you might double your size before summer begins! You are quite certain your growth wasn't this fast in prior years - but, then, you haven't often worked together before this year; perhaps that explains some of it?
Some of the efforts of the Forest have gone into rebuild reserves, depleted by winter, of nutrients and water and energy. Ah, how the growing sunlight feels. You always love spring (save a few grumpy cedars).
A pair of Trees tried to reach out to the wildlife of the Forest, and build a connection with them, based on how the Trees of the Forest communicate with each other. They were… mostly just trying to connect to something, as no Tree in the Forest quite knows how to manage a connection like this with an animal. As it so happens, they succeeded. One of them managed to connect to one plucky young squirrel, among a litter that were born and raised in its boughs. The other determined Tree puzzled out how to convince the squirrel how to cooperate - nuts, naturally.
(You now have an agent that will let you scout the outside world! A very small, fragile, young and inexperienced agent. Unless clearly specified otherwise, this squirrel will stay within your Forest until Turn 5, and will stay fairly close to your Forest until Turn 9. It will be full-grown around Turn 12.)
An attempt to reach out to any Minds, anything that can think at least as well as your cleverer Trees, has yet to show results. You are fairly certain that nobody is invisibly living in your Forest, but beyond that you sense only flickers.
The Forest puts its small - but growing - overall attention into building a Tree to further speed Growth. It is only a shoot now, but one day it will be magnificent.
One Tree puts in effort to minimize disruption of the Forest, if anything terrible happens. Similarly, since this is spring, one Tree gets the idea to imbue Intent into the pollen you release, hoping to drive off any and all invaders. As nothing - that you can detect - invades or damages the Forest, nothing much happens in result. Except a young squirrel sneezing once, after poking its tiny nose into a strand of oak-pollen.
One Tree makes a small bit of progress into the age-old question of all Trees: How to get more sunlight. It has started manipulating tiny bits of its own sap into small, transparent, light-bending things. It's not much progress, but it is a start.
Actions:
Communication:
[ ][Action] Reach Out to Minds (Psychic)
-Successes sort-of stack. You're not sure how difficult this will be. Better results if more successful. Possibility of finding "there's nothing within X miles" - but even something like that will be good to know.
-1 success banked.
[ ][Action] Connect to Local Squirrels (Psychic)
-You have successfully connected to one squirrel; how about making friends with more?
[ ][Action] Connect to Local Wildlife (Psychic)
-Wolves - scouts? Bears - heavy combat? Deer - trimming invasive plants? You know you've seen all these; you have only vague ideas on what to do with them.
Research:
[ ][Action] Research Lens Trees
-1 of 30 successes; Lens Trees will give a permanent Growth Bonus
[ ][Action] Research Clever Trees
-7 of 30 successes; Clever Trees will give a permanent Research Bonus
-Due to the unusual requirements of integrating Clever Trees with the rest of the Forest, you may build a maximum of 1 Clever Tree per Magnitude of the Forest (currently 1). Each Clever Tree will give +10% bonus to all Research successes. You aren't sure how much they will cost.
[ ][Action] Research Thorns
-0 of 10 successes; unlocks a Defense action to build up a stockpile of Thorns that will damage any invaders
Survival:
[ ][Action] Store Resources Against Future Need
-4 stored; this will function as a spare HP pool against anything that gets through your Defense, and may be useful for other things
Defense:
[ ][Action] Brace Yourself
-Not a terribly effective action, but it does more-or-less work; I suggest you build a Shield Tree as soon as reasonably possible. Like most defenses, this does little to nothing if you are not attacked.
Growth:
[ ][Action] Grow the Forest
-7 of 25 successes to Magnitude 2
[ ][Action] Grow <Treename>
-Replace <Treename> with the name of a Special Tree from the Front Page. Variable cost. You can have up to 10 Special Trees per Magnitude of the Forest.
-1 success banked on a Collector Tree.
Offense:
[ ][Action] Release Annoying Pollen
-Not a terribly powerful attack, but it could annoy invaders, at least. Like most attacks, this does little to nothing if you have no nearby enemies.
Focus
Choose any one action from the above for the Forest to focus on. This are voted upon by the entire group, and is in addition to the individual actions taken by each member.
[ ][Focus] Action Name
This Action will receive a number of automatic successes equal to the Magnitude of the Forest (currently 1) and any bonuses from other sources.
Squirrel Name
Choose a name for this squirrel, that your Forest has connected to. This is a consensus vote, but I will give @Pyro Hawk and @Daviush two votes each in honor of being the Trees that connected to this tiny-for-now agent.
[][Name] Write-in
Squirrel Actions
Choose what to ask this squirrel to do during Turn 2.
[][Squirrel] Train itself
[][Squirrel] Explore your Forest
[][Squirrel] Try to figure out a favorite food
[][Squirrel] Help your Trees connect to other Squirrels
[][Squirrel] Write-in
Another riot tree quest! I found the other one too late to participate much so let's try again!
[X][Tree] Mind Tree
[X][Tree] Root Tree [X][Action] Research Clever Trees
[X] Grow Collector Tree
[X][Name] Arthur
[X][Squirrel] Try to figure out a favorite food
[X][Focus] Research Clever Trees
The squirrel is young so I want it to have fun. It can help more when it's older.
Also, out of curiosity, why do people prefer Collector Trees over Wise Trees?
Edit: I realized that we have a LOT more Mind Trees than Root Trees so I'm switching.
[X][Tree] Mind Tree
[X][Action] Research Lens Trees
[X][Focus] Research Clever Trees
[X][Name] Arthur
[X][Squirrel] Help your Trees connect to other Squirrels
I am guessing that a chunk of the reasoning, is due to the fact that they were rather overpowered in the quest that inspired this one. The reason they were so overpowered was largely because Growth had a lot more bonuses than Research - though it was also relevant that growth trees could create growth trees, whereas research trees could not create more research trees.
In this quest, I am willing to explicitly reveal that Growth has several opportunities for bonuses - generally more opportunities for bonuses than Research.
In this quest, I am willing to explicitly reveal that Growth has several opportunities for bonuses - generally more opportunities for bonuses than Research.
[X][Tree] Root Tree
[X][Action] Grow Collector Tree
[X][Focus] Grow Collector Tree
[X][Name] Scrat
[X][Squirrel] Help your Trees connect to other Squirrels
