Alright first ever forum post (and that's in general) so sorry if I've missed some sort of general rule or courtesy, but I can't be the only one who enjoys the complexity of the early game stages to progress towards getting your first copper saw, only to find out that you can instantly make an insane amount of planks just by clicking a bunch in the 3x3 crafting table which kinda causes a buzzkill. Apologies in advance if this exact topic has popped up before or numerous times, and if so then feel free to delete.
I'm aware that woodworking and doing away with the 3x3 system is intended in a future update, and I'm not sure if this has been recommended before, however I would personally just like to spew out my idea for appreciating my hard earned planks more.
Similar to the claybuilding/knapping/smithing mechanic, you would use the saw to cut into your full block of wood that you have placed down. As a result you would chip away at your block in either of these fashions (depending what is more immersive and/or less tedious) by crouching and right-clicking to enter edit mode with the saw equipped;
- Clicking once to slice a cross-section out of the block, dividing the boards.
- Clicking once to remove a row of voxels with the intent of removing a full cross-section (a sawing noise would play for each click)
- Holding down click and dragging across the cross-sections to immitate a sawing motion
Obviously you would do this multiple times until you have it all cut out into individual boards from the one block of wood, and you would get the amount of planks you had carved out while the rest goes to wasteage (or as woodchippings which can be used for other intended updates like mushroom farming or farming in general). This way you advance from wooden blocks to having planks with a consequence of losing some of that original mass resulting in less planks, but (i guess) a better sense of gratitude towards your efforts as opposed to clicking in a crafting table and, in an instant, mass producing factory new planks ready for use.
Alternatively this system can also be used to make firewood or other wood structure blocks/items by selecting from a list of "carpentry recipes" open once using a woodcutting tool on a block of wood and following the guided grid.
Now code-wise I am completely illiterate; so I don't know if this is an easy task that nobody knows of, or an incredibly difficult task that everyone's already thought of and I'm just clueless AND late to the bandwagon. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult seeing as these mechanics already exist in the game and don't exactly require much fundamental reworking of the present mechanics.
Anyway, to end it off; thoughts? Is this a good idea? Is this dumb? Is there something I didn't consider? Is this something everyone was aware about? Just wanted to toss in my two cents on how I personally feel about, yes, using saws to craft planks (and other applications of this function).