Pōhutukawa Tree
I recently got Adventure Awaits, and while looking through the debug items, I found a tree called "NewZealandChristmasTree"; debug items are not things you buy in build/buy - so it's sad that one has to go through the debug route in order to place it.
Upon placing the tree on my lot, first I noticed that I couldn't really look at the tree, it fades out of view at such a great distance! Then I noticed that the leaves went brown and died in Autumn/Winter. Aotearoa New Zealand only has "ever-green" native trees, so this particular tree doesn't lose its leaves in the cold months - it's always green. It flowers from Spring to Summer: beautiful crimson flowers the bees love!
The game tree itself is very generic, and doesn't quite look like what it says it should be.
So I decided to fix the tree, and try make the changes I thought it needed, and making it available to buy through the normal Build/Buy catalogue.
It's kind of a small thing, one item, one swatch - but I spent a lot of time trying to get it right, so I neeed to share it!
I've never done a tree before, and there isn't always much information online about how things work; so I did a lot of trial and error to see what different parts of the file mean, and how they work.
My new tree's leaves don't brown, instead they just cycle in different shades of green with the seasons. In alignment with the game's seasons, it flowers from Spring to Summer. And towards the end of the season, the flowers darken, then slowly disappear into Autumn.
Naturally, of course, down here our seasons are opposite to the Northern Hemisphere - this means that the pōhutukawa is flowering in the height of Summer at Christmas time. The green and red look like Christmas colours, so the British Colonists probably thought the name "New Zealand Christmas Tree" was apt. These days, I think it's just a footnote at the bottom of a history.
Note: with the seasons, leaf colour changes on a gradient, so the above pictures are just a snapshot.
Pōhutukawa are protected species in Aotearoa, and therefore there are a few examples that are known to be hundreds of years old. Their trunks and boughs fatten and sink, and the trees often look asymmetrical. The game tree is virtually symmetrical, with a generic up and down trunk.
Our new one has a more asymmetrical look, with a big heavy bough on one side. It has a small patch of moss on the trunk (because it's old!); and, you can zoom right up to the thing!
The debug trees are very big, and I've kept that size, but you can shrink and enlargen it with your square bracket keys ] / [ (or whatever you use to make things bigger or smaller)
My only gripe is that in Sulani, Summer seems to be perpetual: so, in Winter, the tree stays flowering. I have no idea if it's possible to override this (one would probably have to create whole new tuning and animation states).
Base Game Compatible Seasons EP needed for the seasonal change §1840 (IYKYK) Located in Build>Outdoor Plants>Trees
Download my Pōhutukawa tree here!!
enjoy!
Pōhutukawa trees at Cornwallis Beach - via WikiCommons
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