It seems herbs don't strictly abide the rules of the Game of Life anymore?

[mewmew]

Recently I saw a few stabilized 4x4 square patches or patches whose future behavior I predicted (I use a little program for it :3) destabilized and had some weird behavior. I don't remember that stuff from p20. Did somebody mention it too? It's annoying because usually it leads to losing your herb farming spots (not like I'm heavy into herb farming, but still).

[SirTheta]

4x4 squares are not stable and disappear in three steps.

It's common for spider webs to interfere in herb growth in the big room - is that what happened?

[biomateria]

Yeah, off the top of my head a 4x4 square would instantly lose everything in the middle, followed by some dissipating borders. Maybe they stabilize, but I bet it would take a lot of room. Perhaps you wanted a 2x2 square? Those are stable, even if you remove a single square.

[mewmew]

I meant 2x2

I'm not sure how spider webs could make those squares to grow additional bushes, they don't work as seeds, i think?

[Arbot]

Monsters with breath attacks as well as vorticies can destroy herb bushes, perhaps if you had a couple 2x2 patched close together but otherwise stable removal of a single herb could send the whole garden into a death spiral

[Sardaukar]

Two 2x2 herb squares with one space between them do not stay stable. I have seen this happen few times in recent games (p23).

I mean e.g: XX XX
.................XX XX

[mewmew]

Hm, actually, IIRC in one of these cases it were two 2x2 squares with a single tile between them, and they spawned a larger pattern.

Edited:
It checked, it's not stable

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[Drifted]

Hm, actually, IIRC in one of these cases it were two 2x2 squares with a single tile between them, and they spawned a larger pattern.

Edited:
It checked, it's not stable

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That is correct way according to Game of Life.

Pattern with two 2x2 bushes with single line between is only stable if you pick herbs like this.

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You have to pick outer herbs. If you pick inside ones like in your example the pattern gets unstable. If you want stable 2x2 herb patterns you need to make sure there is at least 2 empty lines before next herb bushes.

[sylph]

Working as expected, and it's always worked that way.
In fact, this is exactly what I like about getting that pattern...

You can move then from row to row...


and even double them up