Given how scarce trees get along the way, it wouldn’t hurt to have a function not unlike the arborist but instead of tending fruit trees they’d be replanting forest within their area.
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Trees regrow over time. So this already happens on its own.
You’re not wrong but it happens slowly and randomly. A dedicated forester might be able to maintain a forested area with a higher lumber output.
I second that. Firewood & planks quickly becomes a problem
I’d rather have better trading and work camp logic (larger area, less micromanagement). Ultimately, also better logistics so that maintaining small out-of-town outposts is easier.
Having a dedicated person planting trees doesn’t really meshes with realistic medieval vibes - who the hell is going to work on replanting forests in a small frontier town? That’s a lot of hard and dedicated work that’s quite pointless as there are untamed lands all around instead. Even the arborist doesn’t plant trees, you know (your builders do).
If we’re talking realism, then you’ll want to combine a forester with hunting, free-range pigs in summer and autumn, and charcoal making – and having that forester oversee workers doing all of it, balancing the growth with the use.
I don’t think we’re going to see that level of realism in a simulation game anytime soon.
Yep. But note that foresters didn’t actually work on replanting forests (aside from very special and limited projects), but on simply letting the forest regrow (marking trees for cutting, protecting from illegal woodcutting, etc).
Personally, I blame Settlers on popularizing forester jobs as “the guy who walks around sticking tree saplings into the ground”.
That’s not 100% correct, though – but it’s probably too complex for a game such as this. You’d have the pigs upturn the soil and by doing so, spreading acorns and beechnuts, and thus helping the forest regrow. At the same time, you’d temporarily fence in areas of poor soil quality and graze livestock there in order to improve the soil quality for the forest.
It’d be awful complex for a game such as Farthest Frontier, though, which is why I’m suggesting some kind of simpler solution that might nudge tree regrowth to be a bit faster.
(I can’t say I’ve played Settlers but I do see what you mean. It might simply be a matter of having some bloke running around doing soil maintenance, and making trees grow back faster in maintained areas).
Sure, but the bigger point here - do we need faster tree regrowth?
Currently, there are ways to get your own wood even on the arid shrubland maps - sure, they are manual and pretty annoying, and I rather have something like this automated. But I think it should be automated via trade rather than a guy that makes trees grow. Otherwise arid shrubland would lose one of its more important points (wood scarcity) completely.
More forested areas (lowlands, alpine meadows) can support large towns (>300 pop) via work camps without much problems. Aside from work camp needing constant micromanaging because its work zone is way too small for the speed of 4 workers cutting trees.
I think so. You don’t seem to think so. Ultimately, all we can do is offer our opinions and let the devs decide. 
One option, though, might be including this in the difficulty settings (adjusting resource spawn – picking easy mode might mean faster tree growth). I can definitely see both sides of the argument here.
you can manually plant trees for 1g+labor each. and then wait for them to mature
but it would be awesome to have actual tree farming.
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I agree, the trees grow very slowly and seeing the growth of the town can become a problem. It would be great to add a forester or several that plant trees automatically and start cutting down if you don’t reach the shortage.
I just started a new map. Cleared out an area near town, it’s now year 12 and the trees are all back. That’s not really that slow imo.
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Exactly a forester dedicated to the trees would be great. the case of waiting 12 years to see new trees is not that efficient but getting the point
Possibly a compromise – somebody who removes stones, bushes, and dead trees in order to make room for new saplings to grow.
Tier 2/3 work camp should allow an option to “plant trees” aka increase regeneration of NEW sapling trees by 300/500%. No need to change growth rate or add animations, just speed up the existing mechanic within that area - simple.
Realistically? No, we don’t need faster tree growth.
Problem is, though, that the liberties the game takes in terms of how fast time passes relative to how quickly people move makes it difficult to exploit further resources effectively.
Worker is then 99% idle time lol. Best. Job. Ever.
I think the closest to reality would be changing how much logs one tree gives. This way we avoid a bit unrealistic forester building and are forced to expand to get more wood, but the expansion is slower and less painful for the player