Upcoming Lumberjacking Changes

[Halaster]

Lumberjacking is going to be getting an overhaul in the near future which we believe will make it more fun while preventing the over use of only a few areas.  From a crafting side not much will change, the main aspect of this is a change to how trees are chopped down and gathered.

Once this change goes live (a few days to a week from now) instead of going to rooms with Baobab or Agafari in the name, you'll instead look for actual tree objects in the world.  For example, you might find "a small agafari tree" in the world somewhere.  You'll go up to that tree and chop it down with lumberjacking axes, with "use axe tree".  How quickly you chop down the tree - measured in how many swings it takes - will depend on several factors.

1. Lumberjacking skill - largest impact
2. Strength - medium impact
3. A small bit of random luck - small impact

What this means is that instead of a random chance to just get a log show up when using the axe, you'll actually work on the tree.  So even people with no lumberjacking skill can eventually chop down a tree with enough effort.  It also means multiple people can work on the same tree together.

When the tree is cut down it will topple into a smaller section, how much/many depending on the size of the tree.  You will then craft that section into a log, branches, or whatever.  To simulate everyone having some chance of getting a basic log and lumberjacks being experts, there are at least two "recipes" for crafting this section.  The first one is a basic cooking recipe (because everyone has cooking) that can produce a log.  The second recipe is for lumberjacking and will produce a log plus a bit more stuff.  These toppled sections of trees are very heavy, and unlikely that you can pick them up.  But you can still craft them if they're in the room on the ground.

This means that larger trees can produce more than one log in the end.  But it also means once you've chopped down the tree object, you have to move on to find another.  Different trees will be found in different parts of the world.  There are helpfiles for all the trees now, but we plan to update those to be more descriptive about where to find them.

Finally the trees may have branches or other stuff you can pick or pull off them, so be sure to take a look at them before chopping them down.

So in summary the process will be like this:

1. find the tree
2. look at the tree, and pick or pull things off if you so desire
3. use axe tree, after some number of swings it will fall down
4. craft fallen object into log and possibly other stuff

A huge thanks to Aromit who masterminded this project.  And to Ath who's really done the heavy lifting of making all the objects and recipes.

[Ath]

I just wanted to take a quick mention to let folks know this will be an ongoing project and your feedback is going to be necessary.  A lot of thought, planning, and work has gone into this.  As someone that has played lumberjacks in the past, someone that has done a lot with wood, we have tried to take this heavily into account.  Also with the way we're doing this, if we notice that there are areas that are lacking, we can tweak it really easily.

I also wanted to toss out a quick thank you to Betweenford for helping me out with some descriptions I've asked of them as I have been building out all these trees.

As this has also already come up with as a question, we will be making different sized trees easier to spot from a distance, so you hopefully won't have to hunt around as much.

[Ath]

You all may start noticing more trees spawning in the world.  At this time you should be able to pick branches and sometimes pull other things from the trees.  The amount of trees can easily be tweaked and we're starting with a lower number as we also want to ensure there is no lag or issues caused by this with the game.

At this time we only want feedback on lag if you see it please.  The amount of trees will more so matter when we're ready to make the change to lumber axes.  We're going to be leaving Styrax alone for now due to all that is involved in Styrax, but there is going to have to be a new axe just for Styrax.  The plan the axe is that it will exist in Red Storm and also for it to be craftable.

[Halaster]

The first five types of trees are in game:  baobab, agafari, cylini, cyinpri, and pymlithe

All of the axes have been converted to the new type.  If you find a tree object and your lumber axe cannot chop it down, please wish up.

[Ath]

The first five types of trees are in game:  baobab, agafari, cylini, cyinpri, and pymlithe

All of the axes have been converted to the new type.  If you find a tree object and your lumber axe cannot chop it down, please wish up.

This only applies to the new trees, there will be some trees you won't be able to chop down because they are in public spaces or are more so, permanent fixtures in places.