Prevent block placement destroying surface resources?

[ColdSpiral]

A regular frustration I have when foraging is losing track of my equipped item, especially if I've picked up some dirt blocks traversing a hill or something, so what I think is an empty hand turns out not to be. This means that when I see something on the ground, be it sticks, rocks, or surface ore, I'll go to pick it up and instead dump a block of dirt on it, erasing the item from existence.

It'd be great if placing a block on an item automatically breaks the item, allowing it to be picked up. Failing that, requiring that ground items be picked up before the block can be placed? 

[Professor Dragon]

Yes, please.

My use case is that I'll have items placed around my base, and I lose them instantly when placing other items.

• Place some planks on the ground under some vines you had for decoration on a wall - and the vine vanishes.
• Place a <whatever> on top of a stone you've placed on the ground, and the stone vanishes.

 

I understand that if you're building with full blocks out in the world, that you might not want to have to manually clear each piece of grass before a block can be placed.

But I think that some items - such as stones on the ground, or vines on a wall - should be protected from accidental deletion.

As ColdSpiral suggested, either have the item drop or prompt the "harvesting" action if appropriate, or block placement.

Picture of endangered items:

• The vine is at risk from the planks
• The stone on the ground is at risk from the watering can

Thanks.

[mew_]

I think a better solution would be to be able to always have a hotbar slot void so you can pick up whatever is on the ground. Maybe pressing X with an empty offhand will let you pick things up with your offhand instead of your mainhand. Or the ability to mark a hotbar slot as always empty so you can pick up items on the ground.