How do I know I'll be able to wall my village?

[Tamalak]

My village is growing and it will soon be time to make a wall. How far away from the shore do I have to build for a palisade to be possible? I remembered something vague about not being able to pave all the way to shoreline to avoid illegal hearthvaults?

[MagicManICT]

Right up to the shoreline. Just try paving a spot and see if you can. That'll tell you how close you can build. Not only that, it's really only considered a "Hearth Vault" if nobody can get a battering ram to the walls.

Personally, I hate building up right on a river or lake. It gives no room for buffer walls later and it's pretty easy for greifers to spot your settlement. (Not only that, you can't use a cart to haul materials around for repairs.)

[Tamalak]

Yeah, I wanted to move further inland, however the soil is the best closest to shore.

Thanks for the answer!

[MagicManICT]

The soil only helps to get crops up to middle levels faster. After that, you're just like the guy on q10 soil. That, or you can use the higher quality soil as an excuse to not bother with raising farming and be happy with your crops being capped by the soil. It's supposed to be helpful in tree planting, but the wiki isn't clear on how that all works.

[Sevenless]

Wiki isn't clear my bodacious bottom

Quality for planted trees depends on the Pot Q, Soil Q, Water Q, and your Farming skill

(((Soil+Soil+Soil+Soil)/4)+Pot+Water+Seed+table)/5=Tree Q

You need to look under treeplanter's pot to find that formula. Basic way to explain it is the quality of your soil contributes 1 point of tree quality for every 5 points of soil quality. If the net quality is higher than your farming skill, the resultant tree Q is averaged with your farming skill. Unlike farming plants, which has a random variable involved, tree farming is entirely limited by the quality of your inputs. After you get enough generations to reach your max quality based off your available resources, you'll never be able to increase it further without some outside input.

There is a small ambiguity about "planting" the tree. As far as I can tell in game, this is based off of who puts the items into the pot. It's their nature skill that determines sprout time / sprout chance and their farming skill that determines quality.

Once it's sprouted the tree will die after a certain amount of time. But planted in soil it will never die, though its growth may be stunted by objects within its 5x5 growth area.

[Valten21]

I think he was saying that the soil you plant your tree in might affect it's quality? In your example that doesn't appear to be the case.

[Jackwolf]

The QL of the soil it's -planted- in doesn't matter. Only the QL of the soil put into the pot.

[MagicManICT]

Wiki isn't clear my bodacious bottom

Quality for planted trees depends on the Pot Q, Soil Q, Water Q, and your Farming skill

(((Soil+Soil+Soil+Soil)/4)+Pot+Water+Seed+table)/5=Tree Q

You need to look under treeplanter's pot to find that formula. Basic way to explain it is the quality of your soil contributes 1 point of tree quality for every 5 points of soil quality. If the net quality is higher than your farming skill, the resultant tree Q is averaged with your farming skill. Unlike farming plants, which has a random variable involved, tree farming is entirely limited by the quality of your inputs. After you get enough generations to reach your max quality based off your available resources, you'll never be able to increase it further without some outside input.

There is a small ambiguity about "planting" the tree. As far as I can tell in game, this is based off of who puts the items into the pot. It's their nature skill that determines sprout time / sprout chance and their farming skill that determines quality.

Once it's sprouted the tree will die after a certain amount of time. But planted in soil it will never die, though its growth may be stunted by objects within its 5x5 growth area.

For all the 'specifics,' it doesn't really explain how you get a q6 tree. Even with all q10 items, you should never get anything below q10 unless it's being capped by farming skill or the herbalist table. (No sense using anything less than a q10 seed since they're so widely available.) Although it is possible if you have a q1 pot and q1 table, it's not very likely. (The lowest q pot you could get would be 6 or 7 without using less than q10 fuel. The lowest quality table would be about 3 or 4.) I had q40 pot, q30 soil, and q30 water. Oh, and my farming skill at the time was something like 28. Doing the math, even with an 'unknown' table (table was actually about q20-- couldn't get better blocks yet), the tree should have still been something like q20. I'd say that's pretty ambiguous. This was last world. I was trying to get trees up for the usual things: tanning tubs, herbalist table, etc.

Remember folks: Not everything put in a wiki is 100% accurate.