Lumberjacking skill

[Carduus]

In the helpfiles for Lumberjacking, it says:  
"wield a lumber axe in a room with the appropriate amount of trees and type "use axe"."
Now why is there an "appropriate amount of trees" clause? My character can't carry more than a tree's worth of stuff on his person, why would he need multiple trees to cut? There are many times when I'd just like to chop down one tree object I see in a room, but I cannot, because there aren't enough trees in the room.

Would anyone mind explaining why the code is set up this way?

[Bhuff]

Perhaps those trees are too hard to chop?

Or Perhaps because those trees are illegal to chop.

You could always wish up for an IMM to come let you chop whatever ya want, but ya might not like what the IMM does.

[Anonymous]

I've just always understood that to mean that you have to use your axe in a room with enough trees to warrant the mass clearcutting that gets done.

If there is only 'a few' trees in a room then it doesn't make sense for dozens of people to be able to go there and chop chop chop.

[Lazloth]

I could be wrong, but I think the clause alludes to the room sector type.  (ie., you cannot use axe if you're in a room flagged as desert, regardless of whether or not you see an object An itty-bitty agafari stretches its frail limbs here.)

[Carduus]

But there's a single tree object in a room. Why can't I chop it down? To be honest, I guess I don't know how long it takes for a tree on Zalanthas to come to maturity, but I guess I figured, codewise, that objects were made to be interacted with.

[Lazloth]

Some are, some aren't.

You can always outline a spec proc on the item and send it away that makes this possible.

[Anonymous]

I'd pay more attention to the room desc than objects within it, personally.

A room with a single tree object in it, but whose background describes only sparse clumps of trees is still a room with only sparse clumps of trees.

Its the same principle that applies to a tavern.  A tavern whose room desc describes it as busy is busy whether or not there are two or twenty PCs in it.

[Carduus]

But a place with sparse trees still has trees. And considering the fact that I don't wish to clear cut it, just cut a tree down to attempt woodcutting, sort of makes it harder to justify traveling to dangerous locales to find lots of trees.

I understand the NPC argument, but sadly, NPC trees don't make my character any 'sid.

*chuckles* And I've used your argument more than once when I'm frustrated with a newbie, Lazloth, ala, if you want it that way, code it yourself, so I'll stop arguing. It's not that huge of a point. I was just hoping there was a way to be a woodcutter in the Scrub. It's sounding somewhat unlikely.

[Rindan]

But a place with sparse trees still has trees. And considering the fact that I don't wish to clear cut it, just cut a tree down to attempt woodcutting, sort of makes it harder to justify traveling to dangerous locales to find lots of trees.

It might have trees, but they might not be good trees.  You can't just chop down anything and expect it to be useful.  I think the idea is that you need to search around for a decent tree, and that can only be done where there is a relative abundence of trees.  Also, consider that sparse tree cover in Zalanthas might be very different then in the real world.

[Angela Christine]

But a place with sparse trees still has trees. And considering the fact that I don't wish to clear cut it, just cut a tree down to attempt woodcutting, sort of makes it harder to justify traveling to dangerous locales to find lots of trees.
. . .
I was just hoping there was a way to be a woodcutter in the Scrub. It's sounding somewhat unlikely.

I think the trees in the scrub are scruby trees.  When you use a lumber axe, the code only lets you look for thick, healthy trees, the kind that can be made into several stout planks, poles or blocks.  A scrubby tree could probably only make one pole, and couldn't make a big plank or block at all.  A scrub woodcutter would be using forage, rather than a gigantic axe, to collect wood.  A long or thick branch could represent a scrawny trunk of a scrub tree as easily as a thick branch from a large tree.  There are trees there, but they simply will not yeild the kind of stout logs you want.

AC

[Carduus]

That makes sense. I'll try that out and see. I had totally forgotten about foraging. Thank you.