How does the Taiga biome work?

[Beefcake4000]

very confused bout this distance from cities stat and the rugged stat. I understand most biomes pretty well by now except this one

[kory]

Most of rugged is explained in the tooltip if you mouse over the ruggedness you see at the top when you are looking at taiga.
For distance, note that it is counting tiles, not hexes.

[BigAlzBub]

Rugged is raised by placing predators (+2) or by minerals (+2) or by raising a mountain (+1 for each patch created, so typically 3), Biotica which has base food lowers the ruggedness by 1, so if you place a predator that has base food then it only yields a +1 ruggedness (+2 for being a predator, but -1 for food for a total of +1). If the Biotica yields food as a secondary effect (either as a synergy or from say the Sage) then it doesn't have any effect on ruggedness. If you place down the Nightjar bird, then all fruits tagged food will produce 3 ruggedness (or +2 if they are food bearing), but other food sources such as potatoes don't get this bonus.

Lost increases the distance between the city and things between the city and the tagged item, so take blackberries, normally they need to be 3 tiles (4 empty patches and placed in the 5th or further patch) away from a city to get the Synergy, but if you plant two fir trees between them and the city, the synergy will activate, even though technically they are too close.

[Kotli]

Actually the fir tree can be in the same tile as the blackberries and still count.
This means a skunk which add +1 lost only need to be 2 tiles away to get it's bonus.

[Rithrin]

I believe Distance to Nearest City counts only tiles, not individual patches. I could never tell if Lost biotica affect everything in the whole biome or only if they are 'counted through'.

[Kotli]

Originally posted by Rithrin:

I believe Distance to Nearest City counts only tiles, not individual patches. I could never tell if Lost biotica affect everything in the whole biome or only if they are 'counted through'.

Lost add +1 tile/patch count to the tile/patch they are on (and as such any tile further away also gets +1). Its pretty easy to see this is the case in free play mode with skunks as they count patches and are also lost tagged.

[Rithrin]

Originally posted by Kotli:

Originally posted by Rithrin:

I believe Distance to Nearest City counts only tiles, not individual patches. I could never tell if Lost biotica affect everything in the whole biome or only if they are 'counted through'.

Lost add +1 tile/patch count to the tile/patch they are on (and as such any tile further away also gets +1). Its pretty easy to see this is the case in free play mode with skunks as they count patches and are also lost tagged.

Possibly, but it just says "+1 distance per Lost tag" or something like that, and it always seems like once I place a single tree I've never failed to trigger any single distance requirement. But maybe that's a separate topic for discussion - everything with a distance requirement seems to need only 3 or so, they even trigger on tiles right next to cities, especially since so many things in Taiga have the tag. That's why I've never really been able to confirm it. If you play Taiga then you are probably putting a tree down as first placement and then that's all the Lost you ever need (aside from Sequoia adjacency).

I think it would have been more interesting if distance requirements for some powerful biotica wanted to be 10+ away, so we'd really need to spec into Lost for them.

[Ares]

Originally posted by Kotli:

I think it would have been more interesting if distance requirements for some powerful biotica wanted to be 10+ away, so we'd really need to spec into Lost for them.

Some of the ultimate resources in the Taiga does. Uranium gets a bonus at 12 distance, and Natural Gas gets multiplied by the distance (so the further the better).

[Rithrin]

Originally posted by Ares:

Originally posted by Kotli:

I think it would have been more interesting if distance requirements for some powerful biotica wanted to be 10+ away, so we'd really need to spec into Lost for them.

Some of the ultimate resources in the Taiga does. Uranium gets a bonus at 12 distance, and Natural Gas gets multiplied by the distance (so the further the better).

Haven't unlocked Uranium yet, but have used Natural Gas a lot. Can definitely hit over 1000 curio easily. What I mean is, I think it would have been interesting if there were more biotica like that that didn't need 3 star upgrades. Like Skunk, what if it needed to be 10 away, but it's bonus was multiplied by 3 from where it is now? You'd have to make an interesting decision, do I invest draft picks in lots of Lost biotica? Do I instead expend some border expansion charges to force a wide area? Etc.

[Will]

For anyone who is still confused by how distance is calculated, here's a guide that explains it in more detail.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3265340752

[esculapio]

Originally posted by Will:

For anyone who is still confused by how distance is calculated, here's a guide that explains it in more detail.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3265340752

The link is asking fir permission.

[Will]

Originally posted by esculapio:

The link is asking fir permission.

It should be working now.

[Rithrin]

Very helpful guide, thanks!