Planks first toughts

[yubyub96 68]

I open this topic so we can discuss what you guys thought about planks.

I'll start saying that i love this new addition to the game, it has some thing that have to be polished, for example, they cant be destroyed with an axe or a saw, you have to use a pickaxe.Also the amount of planks needed to do something is freaking huge!! i wanted to build a fancy wall on stone-age and i had to clear almost an entire forest, a saw will only make that half a forest,not that much difference.

I think this feature is really great, im really happy with it but it still has some minor flaws.

Tell me guys, what do you think about this feature?

[Biodigious 211]

I'm board with them already.

[zoran 31]

Yes, I agree that it takes a lot to do much with them, however it still only takes 4 to build a whole block so that helps when you're in a pinch. Also, you don't need to fill the entire block, 1 plank thick walls work just fine!

[puxapuak 232]

I'm board with them already.

*groan*

I played with it briefly this morning before an irritating final. Seemed pretty cool... I look forward to having the time to make stuff.

Yubyub, did you mean takes a lot of wood because you are using a stone axe? I don't think that's a bad thing... like the changelog says, push here was to get away from using stone axes. In reality they're horribly inefficient... it really wood take a forest to make a wall! But yeah I'm sure it will only get better with future adjustments. It's pretty interesting and unique feature (though I have to redecorate my giant fancy mansion now....)

[yubyub96 68]

*groan*

I played with it briefly this morning before an irritating final. Seemed pretty cool... I look forward to having the time to make stuff.

Yubyub, did you mean takes a lot of wood because you are using a stone axe? I don't think that's a bad thing... like the changelog says, push here was to get away from using stone axes. In reality they're horribly inefficient... it really wood take a forest to make a wall! But yeah I'm sure it will only get better with future adjustments. It's pretty interesting and unique feature (though I have to redecorate my giant fancy mansion now....)

Yeah i meant with an stone axe, do metal axes have a better plank yield? because one axe gives you 3 and a saw 8, not much difference,

[Pakislav 120]

I must admitt that I was expecting plank placement to be different.

Like 3 planks for one block wide surface, instead of, like 8?

Point is, planks should be wider, making them a better building material.

[Kimbblesrath 503]

Yes. There should be maybe.....they should be 16 x 4 pixels. So it takes 4 planks to fill a block. But I still LOVE it now.

[zoran 31]

Yeah, I thought it was going to be the actual size of a plank in the texture

[weylin 36]

Wouldn't it make more sense if they were as adjustable as chiseled stone? If I recall correctly, stone can be chiseled by two pixels at a time.

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

Wouldn't it make more sense if they were as adjustable as chiseled stone? If I recall correctly, stone can be chiseled by two pixels at a time.

stone is connected to it self amorphously (when it's actually stone and not a mineral) and therefore can be chiseled any which way you choose, but as wood is attached in fibres, chiseling it is much more difficult unless you go with the grain of the wood and makes it much more fragile, so no, it would not make more sense.

[Pakislav 120]

But do you guys consider making placable planks wider? At the very least twice as wide as they are. It feels more like placing sticks now, then placing planks.

[LtChae 13]

But do you guys consider making placable planks wider? At the very least twice as wide as they are. It feels more like placing sticks now, then placing planks.

I second this. They need to be wider. It takes forever to make a wall as it stands.

[Pakislav 120]

Yeah.

I think that planks should be twice as wide as they are now, making them as wide as the texture on planks block indicates.

It will make them a more effective building material, and will limit it's aesthetic uses as well, making players use wood chiseling more often.

As it stands, four planks make one entire planks block, but it takes 8 to cover only 1 block space with them.

If they were twice as wide, fitting the texture, it would take four for one block, the same amount as it takes to make an entire one planks block.

But this also creates issues when we would like to place planks vertically, as a mechanism to determine in which direction they should face, as they would be 1x2.

Here's a screenshot in case you need visual aid:

Planks: Left one as is, right one as in my humble opinion, should be.

The issue of placing 1x2 planks: Which way should they face when placed?

[Viper3369 6]

But do you guys consider making placable planks wider? At the very least twice as wide as they are. It feels more like placing sticks now, then placing planks.

Personally I think the sizes and uses are awesomeness, and the chisel on a block great. You can remove things (only tried with an axe, took too long perhaps, is there another way).

The quantity you get don't make sense, how about:

1. One log -> 3 / 8 planks (axe / saw)

These are otherwise unchanged in all recipes, however when laying down in the new construction mode you get a 1x4 plank, instead of a 1x1.

2. One plank -> 2 / 4 "fourbyfour" (axe / saw).

Crafting: Place saw/axe and one plank in crafting grid, as per logs to planks. Axe only gets 2, saw gets 4.

I chose "fourbyfour" because that's approximately the right size (1m block, 1/8th of that is actually 5 inches... whatever).

These are what you get now when laying a "plank".

So what we have as a plank currently is essential 4 fourbyfour's laid down like so "xxxx".

That way the maths adds up: One log can make 2 log blocks (using saw), or 8 planks (which can make 2 log blocks by crafting), or 32 4x4's (with saw).

Using an axe is less efficient in all cases. Also laying down 32 4x4's only gets you a half block, not a whole block - you could imagine that a log block is actually hollow, which is more accurate in terms of wood volume, plus wastage.

I'd also like it if laying fourbyfour/stair/cubic modes where interchangeable; ie. you could chisel a stair, add a fourbyfour then chip away (or any combo). It's unfortunate that slab's are 1/10th's - otherwise that being interchangeable would be good.

Breaking a cubic/plank/fourbyfour work should be a little easier, though I'm not sure what it should produce - probably a reduced number of fourbyfours and/or plank mix by volume? Eg. If you chisel away half a block you might get 1 to 2 planks or 4 to 8 fourbyfours (or a random mix). Essentially calculate the volume of remaining block, and give 25% - 50% of that volume back randomly.

Also perhaps you can "glue" fourbyfour's back to planks (like planks to blocks). Not sure if "glue" should actually be part of the recipe (perhaps from bones and flesh)?

However, again, I love these new construction features - even if they remain as is. I'm currently building a small "test" bridge to see how it all works.

Perhaps laying planks/fourbys should require nails? Of any tier 1 or higher metals (tier 0 are too soft?). Perhaps supports require them too. If so, you should get a *lot* per ingot (more for higher tier nails perhaps); 32 or 64 per ingot, and perhaps need 4 per plank, 2 per four by? That's probably too realistic though.

Random thoughts...

[Hezaru 3]

I really like the planks, they make for really cheap windows when you first start out.

[zoran 31]

Hmm, maybe planks should be 2x4 pixels wide, and if the wood coloured sticks are added (I believe they have been sitting in the textures for a while) they could make the 2x2 pixel wide bits.

[Biodigious 211]

The sticks for each type of tree were added but removed almost immediately after. Considering how the reasoning for taking them out was written, it is unlikely they'll return.

[renadi 258]

I think, nothing, I shouldn't post I haven't downloaded the most recent version.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

I think, nothing, I shouldn't post I haven't downloaded the most recent version.

Errr... Then why you posted?

I'm okay with the planks as they are right now, personally; haven't used them that much anyways, so i fail to see the problem... o.o

[renadi 258]

I was a little off last night, I think we shouldn't get any planks from using an axe, at most it should split the log, it'd solve our problems by moving in the other direction and be the first step to making building a home something you won't do the first night.

[Biodigious 211]

I was a little off last night, I think we shouldn't get any planks from using an axe, at most it should split the log, it'd solve our problems by moving in the other direction and be the first step to making building a home something you won't do the first night.

How would you make the planks, to make the plank blocks, to make the crafting table, to make the scribing table, to make the saw blade plan, to make the saw, to make the planks?

[renadi 258]

Obviously it would require a cascade of changes. I've been saying we need to get rid of the crafting table myself for a while, and it'd be quite easy to change the recipe to anything we'd need. That's not a real problem unless you think there's a reason the crafting bench is the way it is for TFC, I think the crafting bench is the way it is simply because that is how it was in Minecraft.

[XelNigma 11]

Iv thought for a long time now that van minecraft should do away with the crafting bench and replace it with more specific work blocks.

Eventually theres going to be so many craftable items that there going to have to make a second crafting table block.

I can see TFcraft doing away with it, I would rather it look like a actual table or bench my self. or even have it function like the food prep area where it is a transparent block on a surface of your choosing. (probably using the hammer to create it)

—

back to planks.

Right now if I want to make a wall of planks, its better to fuse 4 planks into a block, then chisel that block flat.

But I would never do that because I like having my chests and stuff right up against the wall on both sides of my house. Having a thin wall doesnt actually save me any room and makes things look funky.

Seems like planks are mainly just for added decor, something I dont tend to focus on much in TFcraft. But I still think its good. The more features the better!

[Woodledude 6]

The crashing I'm going through is getting progressively worse, but that's going to be fixed one way or another, I'm sure. So, as for what I think about how the planks have been implemented, I agree that having them be 2x1x8 or 4x2x8 or some other dimensions along those lines would indeed be far better suited to their purpose and their texture, as well as being more intuitive, and is frankly what I expected. I think perhaps we could consider changing the plank block in some way to make more sense, as opposed to how it is now, which is honestly odd in the first place. In real life, why would you make a meter-by-meter-by-meter block of wooden planks? Remind me what the point was in changing them to planks in the first place, if the logs the planks are made from are the same size and shape?

Anyway, enough of that. I'd also like to add that planks seem very useful for preventing cave-ins. I'm actually making a house out of Shale sand, and using Aspen planks to keep it together. I'm not sure if this was intended, though.

[stringburka 72]

Right now, this is the case, from an optimal viewpoint (with a saw, in other words):

1 log = 8 planks

4 planks = 1 plank block

1 log = 2 plank blocks

This makes me think that a plank block is not assumed to be solid, but rather hollow - since the 1 cubic meter of wood is enough for 2x 1cubic meter of planks. (EDIT: I don't know if hollow cubes of planks has ever been used for construction historically, but it's not like there wouldn't be benefits of doing that. Decent insolation from the stale air between the planks, broad as to make construction quite simple and them being walkable, quite high durability since it reinforces itself et cetera. Of course there are some huge penalties with it too, but I don't find them so outlandish as to be unbelievable.) Due to this, I think it's more fair to base the size of planks (which are solid) on their relation to logs rather than plank blocks, from a verisimillitude standpoint.

From a gameplay perspective, it would be nice if planks where more useful since right now they're very very small (2*2*16). It's nice if blocks are easy to place without getting weird; because of this I think it's preferable to have the same thickness even though it doesn't fit the normal view of what constitutes a plank (in other words, making them x*x*16 and not x*y*16).

Currently, there's 64 planks on one cubic metre, which IMO is far too many. If they where doubled in size to be 4x4, there'd be 16 of them on a cubic metre and you could fill one side with four of them - that seems acceptable to me, but still means you only get half a cubic metre from a cubic metre of log with a saw. While you lose some wood when you chop up a log, it's not nearly half (I've done this a fair bit myself due to my previous work). However, making them larger without breaking the "minimum of 8 per square meter" means they'll either have to be non-symetrical (for example 4x8 pixels) or not fit perfectly on a full square meter (for example 5x5 pixels). The former is unwieldy, and the latter is really really bad.

There is one additional option, and that is making them fit a full side; making them 2x16x16. This woud make them 8/square meter and make them useful, but I feel they might be TOO useful since most monsters don't care if a block is one pixel or 16 pixels thick. Giving them a useless explosion resistance might work but might not be that good idea still.

I guess my opinion is that there are three decent sizes for planks, ignoring changes in amounts gained per log

4x4 pixels - "wastes" quite a lot of resources, and makes less sense than the others, but is easy to place and gameplaywise probably the best.

4x8 pixels - makes sense resourcewise, hard to place, and feels the most like a real plank.

2x16 pixels - makes sense resourcewise, easy to place, but might be too good gameplaywise

Any of these three would in my opinion be large improvements to the current amount.

EDIT: I just realized there might be another option that might be superior to those earlier, if it is possible at all (no idea). It'd be a quite a radical implementation, but what if they where actually 4x4x32 pixels? Being two blocks long? It would feel like a good proper long plank (or more like a beam, but I feel that's fine), make sense resourcewise and be very useful for quickly getting up a lot of wood.