[Balance] Wood

[Gabriel_Braun]

Does 6 wood per wood wall piece seem a little excessive given that it's only 4 metal per metal wall segment?  Wood takes longer to harvest than metal deposits take to mine and I end up ignoring the wood economy stage in favour of just using it for furniture?

[Kalrirr]

But wood is a renewable resource, metal is not.

[Gabriel_Braun]

You're right of course but it still seems a little off balance for the early game when wood should realistically form the first 'tech level' of the colony but it's currently quicker to mine metal than it is to cut down enough trees.  I suppose given the renewable nature of wood that it's better in the long run but not efficient at the start of a game

[Kalrirr]

Yeah I see what you mean. Also, don't forget that your mining speed and tree cutting speed is all skill related. So mining wouldn't always be as fast as chopping trees, depending on who your colonists are. =)

[_alphaBeta_]

I think it would also help if trees were automatically harvested if they're in a tree growing zone (like vegetables). This would allow the process to be more automated for the player, and provide the beginnings of an industry.

[Gabriel_Braun]

+1 to that alphabeta that's something that might be worth posting in the suggestions thread!  I hadn't thought of that but if that were the case then it would form a preliminary basis of a self-sufficient economy model-  Trade the wood you gain by tending the plantation for metal with the industrial traders?  It would give the game a deeper economic layer without any imbalance in work/reward ratio.  It's actually cool lore-wise too:  How many fertile worlds can there be that have an outpost selling quality timber?  Overall when asteroid mining of metals would provide metals for construction wood would be so much more a luxury item!  I'm not saying it should be traded at the same price mind you, traders are greedy and overheads always apply.  Lol

I'll let you post that in suggestions if you'd like to do the honours, it's your idea

[superpirson]

This is a difficult thing to balance, because in the real world wood is bolth a luxury and a low cost material.
Materials like plywood and particle board are ultra-low-cost alternatives to metal, and about just as ugly.
Properly cut Hardwood on the other hand is a true luxury.

Once wood prossessing is re-introduced, we could have a system that allows for the production of large quantitys of low cost wood for cheap structure, or at the expence of time and raw log, small quantitys of high quality wood for nice furniture.

[Tynan]

The wood economy seems reasonably balanced to me. There's no equivalence between resources. One potato is not meant to match one silver or one metal or one uranium or one wood or one meal. So it's all right.

It'll all get rebalanced later when the economy is redesigned entirely with some sort of substance system. No real need to try to super fine-tune it now.

I'm also moving this to Suggestions.

[ApexPredator]

I think it would also help if trees were automatically harvested if they're in a tree growing zone (like vegetables). This would allow the process to be more automated for the player, and provide the beginnings of an industry.

This many times over.