thinner birch, and intermediate tree stage, and other small tree species.

[Nagahiro]

I know there are some large birch species, but it would be nice to have most of them be the size and thickness of the fruit bearing trees, just significantly taller. Would be nice to see an entire birch forest of it in autumn.

It doesn't have to be exclusive to birch either. It could work for other tree species as well after it grows from the sapling stage. Maybe dot the world gen with these young trees, and maybe some other small shrub or tree species. The thin wood you get from it is easier to work with, turn it into handles, stakes, firewood, etc. 

This would of course change how birch is used and processed into planks, but there's probably an easy work around for it on grid crafting. maybe until the introduction of workbenches will we be able to cut and saw wood according to their size and shape and whatnot.

Thinking about it now, Vintage Story would benefit with more tropical species like coconut, palms, or maybe even papaya.

[Thorfinn]

I suspect fruit trees and fern trees and the like are the archetype for future forests. That is, yeah, I think that's where it's headed. The question is going to be can one scale an entire forest on the fruit tree model without making massive lag.

I think the deal is they wanted to make a woodlot practical instead of realistic. If instead of a few days to full maturity, it took several years to make it worth harvesting your woodlot for firewood, let alone planks, like it does with fruit trees, bye-bye old growth forest. 

[Alonso7]

I would also love to see dynamic ecosystems where trees continue to grow over time, meaning that the longer you wait, the more wood you get. The older the tree, the higher the likelihood of beehives, mushrooms and sap appearing.

[Nagahiro]

15 hours ago, Alonso7 said:

I would also love to see dynamic ecosystems where trees continue to grow over time, meaning that the longer you wait, the more wood you get. The older the tree, the higher the likelihood of beehives, mushrooms and sap appearing.

like acorns falling out of oak trees, pine cones out of pine trees. or even their branches or deadwood. it would honestly be cool.

On 10/25/2025 at 12:52 AM, Thorfinn said:

I suspect fruit trees and fern trees and the like are the archetype for future forests. That is, yeah, I think that's where it's headed. The question is going to be can one scale an entire forest on the fruit tree model without making massive lag.

I think the deal is they wanted to make a woodlot practical instead of realistic. If instead of a few days to full maturity, it took several years to make it worth harvesting your woodlot for firewood, let alone planks, like it does with fruit trees, bye-bye old growth forest. 

I think the only draw back I could think of this idea is that it would make trees take longer to grow. which I'm honestly not against, the way I play is clear an area and just plant trees and wait for them to grow anyway. I like the idea of a woodlot method. for what I was thinking, it's that the tree would just grow like how it currently grows, just with an added phase that is similar to how fruit trees grow from cuttings. so it would be seed, to sapling, to fruit tree cuttings, to logs. it would scale just as much as the current system scales I think.

I don't necessarily want it to be "realistic", but rather for it to be more interesting and dynamic. I love how the world is simulated and kinda want to see it grow and change, even for a tiny bit so it doesn't get resource intensive.

[Nagahiro]

I actually have another idea related to trees. I play with landslides/soil gravity on, and whenever there's a landslide on the side of a mountain or hill with trees, the tree will just float mid-air. I was thinking maybe the logs would have gravity. it wouldn't destroy the tree necessarily, just make the tree fall and leave the blocks intact, so the player can't cheat their way out of not crafting an axe to chop logs by digging the soil beneath its roots.

speaking of roots, an alternative method so they don't look out of place floating on the side of a mountain is to just prevent the landslide in the first place, like soil near trees should stay intact because tree roots are holding them in place, and such.