Standalone Unified Panaquatic Growing Zone
(If you couldn't guess I was [i]really[/i] lost for a good name for this mod.)
So what's this about? I wanted to finally attempt a proper [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026235711]Merren[/url]-centered walkthrough, only to realize that its two cute plants are locked behind not [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2748889667]one[/url], but [b][url=http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2134308522]two[/url][/b], uh, content-quantity-exploding mods. I love VE series as much as the next person in the workshop, but with that amount of plants I'm bound to develop a new, never-before-seen allergy.
So I searched for a mod which might be adding an Aquatic Growing Zones on its own. I found [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217394931][LTS]Biosphere[/url], which looked nice enough until I realized that both Biosphere and VE lock their zones to freshwater.
"But nay," I cried, "what about my mermaid paradise built in the middle of a crescent island, surrounded only by the purest, most turquoise of brines?"
So I made this mod. First I've ever done.
Technical
I leverage the system of water body types (None, Freshwater, Saltwater, Other) used for Odyssey fishing. Luckily for us this data is part of Core so I can use it without making Odyssey a dependency. My logic is: water that supports fish should support plantlife, right?
Currently I connect that system to plant logic by simply adding custom terrain tags to both water tile defs and water plant defs on startup. However, I am a rookie at modding and that system may yet change. If you'd like to see support for more mods, including your own, comment and I should look at it.
All in all it's a small mod, but if you are curious you can peruse my [url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FFlia%2FPanaquaticZone]Github[/url][github.com] for code.
Features
The mod introduces two mechanics: the Panaquatic Zone itself and a "water preference" stat.
Water preference decides in which water bodies the plant can grow. Owing to the fact it's the same system used for fishing it's very simplistic, and allows for three main values: Freshwater, Saltwater or Salt- and Freshwater. The inspect tab will show you the full list of terrains corresponding to each type, it is dynamic and will change with your modlist.
The Panaquatic Zone and its corresponding gizmo function mostly like a ground Growing Zone does, and in fact should inherit mod changes applied to Growing Zones. However, depending on your installed mods and your assortment of available plants, it will ignore or cover ocean tiles, and when selected, the zone will only show you plants that can grow somewhere in the selected zone. And if it is indeed only part of the zone and not the whole zone that will be sown — for example, because you are trying to sow a freshwater plant where the river delta mixes with ocean tiles — it will warn you about it.
Now let's fill that plant list! Currently I overtly support these options:
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[*] [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026235711]Goji's Fantasy Race: Merren[/url], which has only two plants, Quackweed and Fibrekelp. However, I graciously allowed them to grow both in freshwater and saltwater. Because it made sense for merfolk agriculture. Oh and you do not require Vanilla Plants mods for them to show up anymore, I remove that requirement with a patch.
[*] [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2748889667]Vanilla Plants Expanded - More Plants[/url], which adds Taro, Water Chestnut, Watercress, and a crop variety of Lotus that is different from Odyssey's lotus. To keep with the original intent (and common sense) all of those plants only grow in freshwater. I also remove their zone gizmo so it won't crowd the menu.
[*] [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2963220393]Simple Algae - 'VPE More Plants' Addon[/url] is also supported. Same as Merren plants, it can grow either in saltwater or freshwater. You also do not actually require Vanilla Plants mods, although it will still appear as red in the modlist.
[*] [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217394931][LTS]Biosphere[/url] which adds Aquaflume, Cattail, Goblets, Red Rice and Mistveil. Unfortunately, out of those only Red Rice and Mistveil work out of the box — the other three require the sort of invasive maneuvering that may cause errors in the future. I will try to make a separate patch and/or help LTS incorporate it once they are back to modding. Same as VPE, they grow in freshwater, and I remove Biosphere's water zone gizmo too.
(UPDATE: I've published the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3699542111]patch[/url] which adds the three missing plants as new Defs. Using it may theoretically lead to (probably harmless) red errors whenever LTS fixes it on their end.)
[*] Yes, true to the preview, if you have Odyssey you will see its variant of Lotus added to the list. Unlike VE "Lotus plant", Odyssey's "Lotus" is purely decorative, with stats on par with roses.
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Possible issues
[list]
[*] Vanilla Cypress doesn't show up. I excluded it intentionally since, being a tree, there's a bit of quirkiness to how it's defined. I should return to this in the future since this will be a problem with modded trees as well.
[*] If you have no mods which add compatible plants, the gizmo will still show but you won't be able to select any water tiles. This is intended.
[*] Rarely you may find yourself being unable to change the selected plant. This may happen because all terrain inside the zone was terraformed to a type the zone cannot support; in base game, this should only happen if the zone becomes entirely polluted.
[*] In some edgecases the zone might show you potato as its current selected plant. Unless the reason was because you removed a mod and thus the plantDef that the zone had selected, please report those cases.
[*] Since my zone inherits from vanilla Growing Zone, mods which affect Growing should affect Panaquatic too. On one hand, this allows for Smart Farming to apply. On the other, right-clicking on Growing Zone gizmo and hiding or unhiding zones will also do so for my Panaquatic zones. If there's a lot of feedback that this is inconvenient, I will think about rewriting my code, but for now I am tired boss
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Saves
Safe to add? Most likely.
Safe to remove? I wouldn't recommend it, but: you may try removing all Panaquatic zones and all water plants you've sown, then remove the mod, might work.
Credits
Code by me. Images (icon and preview) also by me, incorporating an asset from Odyssey.
Thanks to Meme Goddess for taking her time to look over my code!
Also thanks to everyone in #mod-development at unofficial Rimword discord for tolerating my dumb newbie questions.
(...Did you know that "euryhaline" means an organism that can survive a wide range of salinities? I didn't. Would that have been a better name for the mod?)
