Merging logs and planks

[Muramas]

I tried both builds before and after the planks. I found that planks slowed my initial build and things went a lot better when lumber was removed.
I found building some later structures like metal walls too too much resources to make anything sizable (and on my map there was not enough stone to build a underground structure) and my guys could not mine fast enough which made things take forever.

[vagineer1]

I tried both builds before and after the planks. I found that planks slowed my initial build and things went a lot better when lumber was removed.
I found building some later structures like metal walls too too much resources to make anything sizable (and on my map there was not enough stone to build a underground structure) and my guys could not mine fast enough which made things take forever.

I have to agree with you on metal. I don't know why but on the Alpha 4 series it seems harder to get metal and there seems to be not as much of it in ore veins as there used to be.

[Muramas]

Oh and I forgot to add that tree farms need some love. I planted some trees when I started and they were not even half way done after a few hours of play.

[Battlemage15]

I understand why logs and planks were merged, I just hope planks make a comeback someday.  Maybe once the endgame becomes clear and the difficulty curve can be properly balanced, there will be a place for the saw again.  Or even have using planks be a cost-saving measure; if you use wood, you are, in essence, paying full price.  But if you use planks (which, let's remember, was 10 logs -> 25 planks) you pay the same cost.  However, because you now used 10 planks instead of 10 logs, you have saved 60% of the cost in logs.

Just a suggestion that might get the saw back in the game sooner rather than later; instead of having planks be required, have their use be preferred by the game engine and have the fact 10 logs worth of planks can build 2.5x more be the reward for going through the trouble of building a saw and processing the logs.

You could even do the same thing with metal; put a furnace into the game (made of stone and metal; uses power) and have it process 10 metal into 25 alloy and use the same mechanic.  50 metal builds a battery, but so does 50 alloy... and that 50 alloy only cost 20 metal to make.

This kind of system would make resource refinement A) optional, B) new researches to work towards [Lumber Mill unlocks the electric saw; Metal Refining unlocks the furnace] and C) a way to have resource refinement without slowing down player progression.  Also, refined resources sell for double the price of their basic counterparts, making them very attractive to use in trade for silver.

[sparda666]

not sure if this is the right place to talk about this. But after playing a while, Ive found it easier for me to completely ignore wood alltogether. My base tends to do better when I ignore my starting area and just relocate my base to the nearest area that has a good amount of metal ore visible. Im not sure if the design is to make us want to use wood before metal, but at the current point, wood is too fragile and takes too long to harvest and develop. (cutting down trees seems to be less efficient than mining metal and metal doesnt need to be refined to planks for doors).  If we are supposed to want to use wood, there needs to be some advantage to using wood early game over metal. Either wood needs to be easier to use, or metal must be more difficult. Right now, other than from an aesthetic point of view, Im not seeing an incentive to use wood tech

[spatula]

hmm, I like the direction Tynan is suggesting with the many materials being made into any object with different properties.

I think the whole key is that is should be totally easy to intuit. Like, pick an object and pick a material type.

Would be neat if each material has just a quality (item hp/durability of material) and a property (item effect/buff).

In terms of just making turrets, you could think in these terms:
potato: weak hp, slows enemies
agave: weak hp, heals/repairs over time
berries: weak hp, increase happiness
metal: strong hp, increased damage
wood: weak hp, knock out (incaps)
stone: strong hp, knock out (incaps)
uranium: strong hp, radioactive (poison)
boomrat: weak hp, fire dmg
human corpse: weak hp, reduces happiness/chance to flee
squirrel: weak hp, fast
centipede: strong hp, increased accuracy
muffalo: weak hp, random effect

But beyond guns and turrets directly benefiting from these properties, it still makes sense for other items...  please don't sit on that chair because it's made of boomrats and will explode if damaged... oh, and did I mention all the doors in this base were made from raider corpses? I wouldn't go near that table... it's made from muffalo and we don't know what it does yet...
Maybe making a lamp out of a potato works but if you try and make it out of boomrats, it explodes when powered.
Maybe carpets made of berries increase happiness, but pavement made of metal gives damage bonuses to those who stand on them, while colonists standing on wood floors would have increased chance to be incapped over killed. Good, the raiders are taking cover right beside those sandbags we made out of uranium... now it's only a matter of time...

I think this idea has legs! Legs made out of potatoes!

EDIT: Ooh, also, the cool thing about this is that modders could focus on creating new exotic materials with interesting properties. You can make walls of logs, or build the sawmill and make planks, or research a wood/metal hybrid. Antimatter, Plasma, Carbonite, Dilutium... there could be all kinds of new materials to build your base from and perhaps in a more complicated version, some materials might have multiple properties, pros and cons, upkeep requirements (ie. antimatter) or reactionary effects (ie. a wall made of anti-matter creates darkness if powered).