Deciduous trees

[Porkbrick]

Is there any reason other than coding complexity or processing for deciduous tree species not losing their leaves in game? Fruit trees do it, but maybe a whole forest is just too much and would slow down the game?

[xXx_Ape_xXx]

Ooh I would love if the forest did loose its leaves during fall/winter.

[Brady_The]

That would not only definitely add a lot to the game, but in parts is already. Fruit trees work like that. I very much am in favour of applying this mechanic to all other (appropriate) trees, but before that happens, the "wood trees" require the fruit tree treatment, giving them proper parts, mainly supporting branches (roots would be pretty nice too (cheeky self-insert)), due to the fact that trees currently have no real shape, which would result in winter in looking at a landscape dotted by pencils.

There's also the consideration of bee hives. Do they despawn? If so, do they respawn? At the exact coordinates, on the same tree, in the vicinity? Is the bee hive replaced by an inlog beehive in the trunk of the tree? Etc.

[TamTroll]

my concern is that without leaves, the trees wouldn't be able to give saplings in the winter, meaning if you cut down any trees in the winter, there will be no way to replant them.

There might need to be a system of Trees dropping and planting their own seeds after being mature long enough. That might cause rapid tree overpopulation though, so it might also need to be a system where if a sapling detects X number of trees in Y area around it, then it doesn't grow. not sure.

[Porkbrick]

I wonder if maybe a first step could be to treat nut trees like extra large fruit trees. One of the things high on my vintage story wishlist is big oak, chestnuts, hickory, and walnuts that drop nuts in the fall. Real life large nut tees like these were incredibly important to Neolithic and hunter gatherer societies. The fall nut harvest would be a real boon to survival over winter. I don’t think they would need to “grow “ like apples, etc. but the branch structure and leaf drops as well as the fruit maturity system could be adapted. Obviously the trunk would be full sized and breaking the branches wouldn’t necessarily drop cuttings. Maybe mid sized branches could drop firewood as well as sticks. 
if deciduous trees did drop leaves in fall that opens up the possibility of having those leaves be a material with practical uses.