Better Than Wolves Forum

In times past I used to hate cutting down forests. I would always start a tree farm early since it was so easy and I didn't want to destroy the natural beauty of the first. In my last play through though my view has changed. With my hunger for fuel to smelt iron and dangerous wolves and how they make navigation so much harder I've really come to view forests not just as a resource but as an enemy to be conquered. I sometimes wish that there were a field of stumps to forever testify to my victory! :-)

How has better than wolves completely changed your view of a situation from vanilla?

Sarudak wrote:I sometimes wish that there were a field of stumps to forever testify to my victory! :-)

Hehe...I can hear that. A little while ago someone mentioned leaving the bottom block on all the trees they cut down to help act as landmarks as to where they've been before. Thought it was a very cool idea and made me wish such traces of mass deforestation were left more naturally within the game. Would really add to the industrialization vibe if the landscape looked more and more abused as you progressed through the tree.

You can always leave the bottom-most log standing on each tree. You might not get quite as much wood, but then again you would have your lovely field of stumps.
Ninja'd by FC. I feel privileged.

As for what has changed for me, personally, is something that seems to be rather common: I used to hate caving in Minecraft, all that inconvenience trying to go through the whole winding cave while mobs, which are really nothing more then a minor annoyance outside of Better then Wolves, spawn was just annoying. Especially when compared to branch mining, it felt like there just really isn't much reason to go caving.

And then I played BTW. I thought I would still hate caving, but now I love it. The darkness is genuinely scary, and could contain what is pretty much guaranteed to be your death if you're not careful. Going through and lighting up as much as you can before something crawls out of the darkness and tries to kill you is a unique thrill that I've never experience anywhere else, the slight adrenaline rush as your most dreaded nightmares- particularly skeletons and creepers- emerge from the abyss just adds a lovely occasional note.
The only times I don't enjoy it is those occasional times when the derpiness of underground feature spawning emerges, which seems to unfortunately happen rather often with mine shafts.

FlowerChild wrote:

Sarudak wrote:I sometimes wish that there were a field of stumps to forever testify to my victory! :-)

Hehe...I can hear that. A little while ago someone mentioned leaving the bottom block on all the trees they cut down to help act as landmarks as to where they've been before. Thought it was a very cool idea and made me wish such traces of mass deforestation were left more naturally within the game. Would really add to the industrialization vibe if the landscape looked more and more abused as you progressed through the tree.

Yeah, I think I saw the same post and started leaving behind stumps myself. It's so satisfying!
I made an arbitrary decision to never plant any saplings in my current world, and so instead I have chopped down every single tree in a large forest biome next to my base. Stumps all the way to the horizon! I'm now tearing down the nearby jungle, though that is slower and more dangerous work. I'm really looking forward to the day when I have cut down all the trees near me and I have to build distant logging camps to get my lumber.

Why build tree farms when the world is full of virgin forests to annihilate? :)

You know I thought about leaving the bottom block but the truth of the matter is that I'm a power gamer not a role player. So leaving the bottom block because people leave stumps when they cut down trees in real life is not really motivation for me. I would need the same motivation that people have in real life for leaving stumps which is of course that stumps are freaking hard to take out and there's not really much reward for doing so (unless you're planning to develop the land anyway). That's one of the reasons i love better than wolves so much. It gives me practical reasons to build in a way that makes logical sense in the real world. Roads are a perfect example of that.

Yeah, if I were to continue to invest more time into BTW, I think a gameplay motivation for stumps would be something I'd like to explore. I really like the idea of the world corrupting around Steve as he progresses, as you guys are probably aware :)

Anyways, these are definitely themes I can continue to explore and build upon in RTH.

That sounds a lot like Age of Empires. Hordes of village workers tearing through resources leaving nothing in their wake besides a few storage buildings and hundreds of stumps.

I hear ya! I actually play BTW with the stump rule... You cannot take the bottom of the tree but must leave it (unless you are building there)... I like the realistic feel of it plus you get to see how badly you have destroyed the world for your conquest :)... looks really cool too :D

If only trees would start growing a meter underground! Taking out the bottom would leave holes in the ground and a cost little more effort. Leaving the bottom stump would leave quite a mark :)

FlowerChild wrote:Would really add to the industrialization vibe if the landscape looked more and more abused as you progressed through the tree.

That was actually one of the things I liked about buildcraft quarries. You would get tons of resources but you would leave huge ugly and dangerous holes in the ground wherever you used them.

Next thing you know, Log Slabs.

I'd really like to see a field of stumps... Might anyone post a pic?

Larmantine wrote:I'd really like to see a field of stumps... Might anyone post a pic?

Arrobee is doing that in his videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHwobEVzQz0 (check at 9:10)

Actually, I find that a field of stumps is an incredibly effective landmark. When I see a field of stumps, I can usually immediately recall which base it belongs too and in which direction the base lies, because I remember cutting trees there. In contrast, when I come across a completely cleared portion of a forest with a generic landmark, I tend to instinctively assume that the area was naturally open, which makes it more difficult to recognize the area and recall where the landmark leads.

Granted, of course, the same could be achieved with a field of saplings. So typically, when I leave stumps, it's in areas I don't want to revisit (e.g. up a steep hill), or in areas that are a decent distance away from my base (I may designate a wood-collection area at the edge of the biome for this very purpose).

For me, Usually the first landmark I see coming home is a (packed) dirt slab path.

Taking the focus away from trees, my view on villagers has almost 180'd since the most recent updates. I used to treat them like dirt. They only served as a reminder of the fall of Vanilla Minecraft for me, and I hated them with a passion!
Thanks to the changes however, I have actually gotten useful things out them. Their tech progression also gives purpose to some of the less often crafted blocks.

I've been thinking about unlocking their cages and building them real housing units lately. (have I gone too soft?)

chaoticneutral wrote:

Larmantine wrote:I'd really like to see a field of stumps... Might anyone post a pic?

Arrobee is doing that in his videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHwobEVzQz0 (check at 9:10)

First, thanks for the promo! :P

Larmantine wrote:I'd really like to see a field of stumps... Might anyone post a pic?

Second, your wish is my command.
I live for the day I remove that whole forest from the face of my world.

Here is a pick of my current world using the "stump rule" LOVE THE EFFECT :)

If only the stump of a tree wasn't useful/hard to get, we might be seeing these forests of stumps everywhere. But i'm sure we can count of RTH having plenty of visual destruction and decay :)

That is a really cool idea. I am going to personally implement a self-rule that breaking the lowest block of a tree requires first breaking the dirt block directly beneath it (effectively "digging up" the stump) to encourage myself to leave stumps behind. :)