Getting Wood

(the hard way)

Two Irishmen were walking along a road through a forest and saw a sign saying 'Tree fellers wanted'
"What a shame Paddy isn't with us," said Shaun to Mick, "We could have had jobs here."

There are four types of trees in the game:

1. Huge trees which you can't cut down.
2. Big trees with bracket fungus which need a machine to cut down.
3. Small trees which you can fell with a hammer.
4. Trees and bushes which you can walk through and the only thing 'cut down' about them is your vision.

Dealing with them in reverse order:

The saplings and bushes

There's nothing you can do with these (yet). A tool for getting rid of them has been discussed though.

Small trees (the hard way)

Hit them several times with your hammer. The tree will be felled and will break up into logs. Continue hitting the logs and they will be converted to beams. Press and hold 'E' on these and they will be processed to scrap wood blocks. You'll need to hold 'E' for about 7 seconds. Each beam gives 10 scrap wood.

Rather than processing each beam with 'E' you can use the autocrafter to make a 'collector' which will gather 20 logs (Fant collector) or 25 logs (standard collector) and which can then be taken to a refinebot which will process them for you.

Making a logging machine

It can be tedious logging by hand but fortunately you can make a vehicle to do the logging and processing for you. It will even deal with any bots which get in the way. It will happily deal with both small and large trees. Here's one in action:

Want to make this? Here's how:

Place your lift down in an open area and on it construct...

I've left part of the left side incomplete so that you can see where to place bearings. Complete both sides, they are symetrical apart from the position of the middle saw blade and the hole in the floor where a vacuum pump will fit. The middle saw blade is one block lower than the other two saw blades. This helps it cut split logs.

Add a 'dashboard' made from wood 1 and on it place a switch. Add a suckOmatic above the central saw blade. Use 'Q' to turn it towards the front when placing it. Add a driver's seat level 2 and connect it:
Seat to switch to sucOmatic
Seat to each of the steering bearings

Add two more switches to the 'dashboard. Add two level 3 gas engines. Add a block of four wood 1 and on it mount a vacuum pump aligned with 'Q' so that the circles face the driver. Add two smart chests and a gas container.

Connect up the engines as follows:
Connect the seat to switch 2 to the left engine to each of the saw bearings. Make sure the two front saw blades rotate in opposite directions to draw trees towards the central saw. Right click the bearings to change the rotation direction.
Connect the seat to the right hand motor. Connect the motor to each of the wheels. Right click the wheel bearings to change the direction that the wheels rotate so that the arrows turn the wheels forward.
Connect the seat to switch 3. Connect switch 3 to the vacuum pump.
Connect the gas storage can to each of the engines. Put a small amount of gas in the can. No more that 2 gas at the moment. You can right drag fuel cans to transfer a single unit. Press 'E' on each engine and set the power level to '3'.

WARNING! If you accidentally delete the seat from this point the vehicle may take off at speed without you in it!

At this point select the lift in your hotbar and click on an empty space. This removes your creation from the hotbar. You can now sit in the seat by pressing 'E' on it and test that the AWDS keys turn the steering and move the vehicle forward and back. Pressing 1 should turn on the suckOmatic. Pressing 2 should start the saw blades turning and pressing 3 should activate the vacuum pump and allow you to right click on the circle to set its direction (Up arrow.) It might also be useful to set an 'exclude' filter and prevent the vacuum pump sucking up water if it accidentally enters water.

Now place a refinebot and three collectors positioned at the back of the vehicle. Attach a chest to the refinebot. The refinebot has a single collection slot and will stop working if it is full or a different material such as a haybot arm is collected. Adding a chest stops this from happening.

You'll find the suckOmatic very useful BUT never have it switched on when felling trees or you'll find the entire vehicle will be thrown about. Use it only when there are a few scattered logs to process.

Possible improvements

• Adding a beacon will help you find the logging machine if you get lost in the woods.
• You have room to add a bed so that you can respawn on the logging machine if you get killed.
• You could add extra vacuum pumps
• You could add a fridge to store food

Giant trees

You can't obtain wood from these trees. Think of them as decoration. I suppose it would be possible to create a tree house in one.