Is there a way to make sticks?

[DeanF]

I sort of expected to be able to put firewood and an ax in the crafting grid and get sticks, but that doesn't work.  Maybe it should?

[DoctorSnakes]

There is no way to craft sticks without mods. A good way to get sticks in vanilla is to break "branchy leaves", which are the leaves right next to the tree trunks. It's especially fast when you have shears, you can break a lot of leaves at a time with them.

[DeanF]

Yes, I am aware.  But my point is that you can mass-produce boards in huge quantities by cutting down a small tree, yet you have to scrounge around for sticks.

[LadyWYT]

20 minutes ago, DeanF said:

Yes, I am aware.  But my point is that you can mass-produce boards in huge quantities by cutting down a small tree, yet you have to scrounge around for sticks.

Like @DoctorSnakes already noted, there's not a way to craft sticks in the game. The player will need to either scavenge forests for them, or use shears to clear leaves before chopping trees. The shears, I do believe, are the intended method for stick acquisition in the late game. 

As for why the player can't craft sticks, I assume it's due to a desire to get the player out and foraging in the early game, which is risky, rather than be able to make everything they did from the safety of a shelter. It might also be to help push the player towards building a beehive kiln for mass production of ceramics(pit kilns require a lot of sticks), but it could also be as simple as the devs wanting to move away from Minecraft-type crafting recipes. In any case, for those wanting to craft sticks, there's several dozen mods for that on the database, with new ones getting made fairly often.

[cjameshuff]

It's a bit silly. I find that you need to use the shears on the branches to get enough seeds to replant, which gives you more sticks than you can use unless you're doing a lot of pit kilns, in which case you're doing that just for the sticks and getting more wood and seeds than you can use. I'm constantly either looking for storage space for sticks or looking for more sticks. Meanwhile, I have tools and demonstrated skills that should give me more than one way to construct a stick-like object out of wood, but for some reason I can't do that.

[Byrnorthil]

Sticks are mostly an early-game resource and you should really only need huge quantities once, to fire enough bricks to make a beehive kiln. Once you have boards you can sub those in for ladders, and once you have a beehive kiln you no longer need them for ceramics.
No one else has mentioned yet: if you don't have shears yet, you can use an axe on the shrubs instead to still clear them out at a reasonable speed. 

[DeanF]

12 hours ago, Byrnorthil said:

Sticks are mostly an early-game resource and you should really only need huge quantities once, to fire enough bricks to make a beehive kiln. 

You kind of need a lot for wattle fencing, and wattle and daub, too.  It'd be nice if we could coppice or pollard trees, maybe, but that seems like it might be complex to implement.  Perhaps if you leave a one-block stump, a nest of branchy leaves grows?  For the correct types of trees, that is.  (Alder and willow might be decent additions to the game, for this.)

Edited 20 hours ago by DeanF

[Teh Pizza Lady]

2 hours ago, DeanF said:

You kind of need a lot for wattle fencing, and wattle and daub, too.  It'd be nice if we could coppice or pollard trees, maybe, but that seems like it might be complex to implement.  Perhaps if you leave a one-block stump, a nest of branchy leaves grows?  For the correct types of trees, that is.  (Alder and willow might be decent additions to the game, for this.)

That's a really nice idea, but unfortunately I don't think it will work for the same reason the devs made it so that only naturally spawning pine (and acacia) trees will have a chance to produce resin. They really do not want the players to be able to easily setup farms for specific resources outside of crops and animals.

Edited 17 hours ago by Teh Pizza Lady
forgot that acacia trees were a thing

[Thorfinn]

5 hours ago, DeanF said:

ou kind of need a lot for wattle fencing, and wattle and daub, too.

You think it takes a lot of sticks? Just wait until you see how much daub it takes.