New to Forums, with few questions re: game

Joined these forums today, and have to create one post and have it approved by a moderator before my registration is complete...so thought I'd ask a few random questions I have about the game, and in that way learn a few things and get the 'first-post moderation' part done at the same time.

Have played the game off-on since last year via 'Steam', but haven't done much with it...cpl. days ago logged in again for first time in 7 - 8 months and am going to get a few projects done. I am playing the game without any Mods, in 'survival' mode. My questions:

> Will trees regrow over time? Will the sm. trees grow to larger harvestable size if left alone long enough?

> Will trees grow into a grassland area over time (will forest expand)?

> Does the growth of trees, crops, etc., continue when I log out of the game (I'm playing private game, only player currently)? For example if I plant crops, and they would normally be ready for harvest in 2-hours (just using that number as example), does the 2-hour timer only run when I am logged into the game?

> Will the small stones I find on the ground respawn eventually, or once I pick up all that I can find in an area they are gone for good?

> Is it possible to find veins of ore underground while tunneling? I understand about looking for the reddish color on the surface to find iron ore, for example...but wondering if it's possible to find patches of ore way underground while digging a tunnel, that might not show an indicator on the surface?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

 

Yes trees grow, but they take more than a day of real time. Cut trees will regrow but they are supposed to stop if you remove the stump.

Forests are limited to specific voxel types. The ground will show you the border of the forest. Technically, all trees that will ever grow are created when the world is made. Some of them are in a pre-growth (invisible) state, some in a young sapling state, but most are fully grown. Interestingly the entire planet gets covered with trees (in data at least), then the trees in areas that aren't supposed to have them are prevented from being placed in the world.

If the game is not running then nothing is growing. We don't calculate growth based on clock time. The game world has its own clock that runs at real-world speed. This clock stops when you unload the world. Conversely, dedicated servers that run all the time are always growing things. This can make growing crops tricky if you are unable to log on during their ripe phase.

Things spawn on the ground all the time. The more time you spend in an area, the more stuff will pop up for you to find.

Yes and no. There are some ores that are centered around 16m depth. They are almost always placed next to surface deposits. Sometimes digging at the last bits of surface ore will reveal much more than you expect. There are a few isolated deep deposits. I'm not sure if our designers put them there by accident or to see if anyone ever finds them. I certainly wouldn't count on finding them without digging into the material maps. Looking with a shovel or pickaxe would be pointless.

 

Thank you for the reply and information.