Ok, here is the problem. I am making use of relatively large images in a game (larger than 32x32), for a lot of things.
Since I am lazy I basically made a quick function that will place all the parts of these large images together, so I don't have to do it manually (creates an object, gives it appropriate icon, icon state and location). One of the main things I am using it for is trees, these trees consist of 9 pieces and placing lots of them would be slow and annoying.
Anyway, having a few trees, and even a few hundred isn't much of a problem. They are created, and look nice! But here is the problem, what happens when I have a FOREST?
Like http://www.byond.com/members/TheMagicMan/files/TREES.png
As you can see, a map like that has a lot of trees, and each tree consists of 20 (5X4) objects. That map has exactly 1670 trees in it, that means there is 33400 objects JUST on that one map, which is something like half of BYONDs object limit.

As you can imagine, I cannot use a method like this, because in 2 more maps I'd hit the limit for objects, which is not good.
Is there a better method of doing this that will not make me hit BYONDs limits really quickly? Turfs wont work because only 1 turf per location is allowed, and the trees cannot over lap and look natural that way.
Could overlays or images be a viable alternative? or will I just have to suck it up and make this game look not as great as I want it to look?