Changelog

Version: 1.16.4
Date: 2026-05-30
  Bugfixes:
    - Tree Seeder shortcut now correctly appears greyed-out (unavailable) until
      the Tree Seeder technology is researched. Previously technology_to_unlock
      locked it on new games but existing saves or mid-session loads would show
      it as active. A new sync_seeder_shortcut() helper now fires on on_init,
      on_configuration_changed, and on_research_finished to keep the shortcut
      state in sync with actual research, matching the behaviour of the Pellet
      Placer shortcut introduced in 1.16.1.

Version: 1.16.3
Date: 2026-05-30
  Bugfixes:
    - Blueprint seed ghosts can no longer be placed on natural resource patches.
      Previously the resource check only fired when a robot fulfilled a ghost, so
      the ghost itself would appear over ore and sit waiting for a robot. Now the
      ghost is immediately destroyed and the seed refunded when placed over any
      resource entity, preventing robots from ever attempting fulfillment there.

Version: 1.16.2
Date: 2026-05-30
  Bugfixes:
    - Tree seeds and tree-seed sites can no longer be placed on natural resource
      patches (coal, iron ore, copper ore, stone, oil, uranium, etc.). Attempting
      to place on a resource entity now cancels placement, refunds the seed to the
      player or robot, and shows a "Can't place on natural resources" flying text.
      Robot placements are silently refunded. The same guard applies to all three
      placement paths: player, robot, and script-revived entities.

Version: 1.16.1
Date: 2026-05-30
  Bugfixes:
    - Pellet Placer shortcut now correctly locks until the Nitrate Pellets (soil-crystal)
      technology is researched. technology_to_unlock handles new games; a new
      sync_placer_shortcut() helper also fires on on_research_finished, on_init,
      and on_configuration_changed so existing saves and mid-session research
      completion both show the shortcut at the right time.

Version: 1.16.0
Date: 2026-05-30
  Changes:
    - Mod description updated: reflects Nitrate Pellets (not Soil Crystals), and
      lists all major features including Dynamic Rain integration, Sapling Soil
      Enrichment, Restorative Rains, Enduring Nitrates, and compatibility mods.
    - Removed colored pellet absorption mechanic (treez-crystal-colored-absorption-rate
      setting, crystal_colored_absorption_rate local, and its settings change handler).
      Colored pellets are pollution-neutral — neither emitting nor absorbing. The
      setting was hidden and the absorb_amount variable was computed but never applied.
    - rain-cloud-source.png moved from graphics/icons/ to source-art/ so it is
      retained as a reference image without being shipped as a mod asset.
    - Removed orphaned rain-started-tracking locale key (polling path was removed
      in 1.15.90; the key was never cleaned up).
    - Removed storage.dr_polluted_chunks (legacy polling storage, unused since
      1.15.90 when the event-driven path replaced polling entirely).
    - Updated stale comment above emit_crystal_pollution to reflect that colored
      pellets are pollution-neutral and rare pellets no longer exist.

Version: 1.15.x
Date: 2026-05-09 through 2026-05-30
  Features:
    - Tree seeds grow through animated growth stages (200 steps, fast/smooth speed options).
      Active growth cap starts at 2 and doubles with each Sapling Growth research level (max 128).
      Queued seeds show an acorn marker and start growing automatically as slots open.
    - Seeds and growing trees respect biome: Alien Biomes species are matched by sampling
      nearby trees. Cleared land falls back to the tile's native species list.
    - Tree growth delayed by pollution: chunks with more pollution cause longer delays between
      growth stages. Trees in growth also have a chance to upgrade the tile beneath them.
    - Sapling Soil Enrichment (6 levels): each growth stage has a cumulative chance to upgrade
      the tile under the sapling, using distance-weighted random selection to produce organic halos.
    - Nitrate Pellets (formerly Soil Crystals): craftable items that upgrade degraded terrain one
      step per firing, active at night after a configurable delay. Work on vanilla and Alien Biomes
      tiles. Cannot be placed on hard surfaces or rails.
    - Colored pellet variant: fires as a chain catalyst, advancing nearby normal pellets.
      Catalyst research chain unlocks probability, abundance, and reaction strength upgrades.
    - Pellet Placer and Tree Seeder area tools: drag a selection to queue robot ghost placement
      at a chosen density. Robots fulfill from the logistic network automatically.
    - Enduring Nitrates (3 levels): cumulative 10%/20%/30% chance a normal pellet survives
      firing and re-queues for the next night.
    - Cloud Seeding (6 levels, requires Dynamic Rain): seeds are automatically scattered in
      any chunk where rain removes all pollution. One seed per level per cleaned chunk.
    - Restorative Rains (requires Dynamic Rain): while it rains, nitrate pellets accumulate
      in pollution-cleaned chunks and fire the coming night. Toggle in mod settings post-research.
    - Dynamic Rain: trees grow faster in rain (halved stage delay). Both features gate off
      Cloud Seeding / Restorative Rains research respectively.
    - Winter Is Coming compatibility: tile changes raise set_tiles events so WIC updates its
      warm-tile snapshot correctly.
    - Blueprint Shotgun / script-placement compatibility: script_raised_revive and
      script_raised_built are handled identically to player and robot placement.
    - Space Exploration compatibility: seeds and pellets blocked on scaffold/asteroid surfaces.
    - Pellet trample: players walking over pellets destroy them (configurable radius). Biters
      attacking a pellet destroy it instantly. Robots unaffected.
    - Randomise upgrade paths (off by default): pellets pick a random destination tile from
      the same colour/base-type group rather than following a strict linear chain.
    - Pellet pollution emission: placed pellets emit a small, configurable amount of pollution
      while queued. Colored pellets are pollution-neutral.
    - Research gates: Seeds tech auto-completes after cutting 10 trees; Tree Seeder requires
      Seeds; Forest Management auto-completes after planting 1000 seeds.
  Bugfixes:
    - Rare nitrate crystal mechanic removed entirely (simplified to colored/normal only).
    - Seeds and pellets can no longer overlap each other at placement.
    - Seeds blocked on ore patches (resource entities) in rain/cloud seeding paths.
    - Acorn markers correctly cleaned up in all edge cases via spatial search at placement.
    - Growth stage sprites use a square-root curve with a 5% floor so saplings are visible.
    - Various crash fixes for Space Age icon validation, load-order issues, and stale
      storage values across mod updates and save migrations.