RuneScape Forum Archive | ~Woodcutting Rework~

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Introduction

I’ve created this thread as I feel that the Woodcutting skill as it stands today is outdated and unenjoyable to train when compared to other gathering skills. The ideas put forward here will be on a similar level to the changes we saw in the Mining and Smithing rework, hence I’m under no illusion that it would take some commitment by Jagex for these changes to come to pass.

As ambitious as this update may seem, we can look to other ambitious projects such as the Mining and Smithing rework and the Archaeology skill as major successes. They may have taken a lot of resources to create, but the effort has paid off. It’d be great if Woodcutting could get a similar level of support.

Please note: I am not going to go into any detail regarding level changes, XP rates, GP rates, or anything like that. Whilst changes to these can be included in an update, I have focused on the premise of how Woodcutting could function. Not all ideas put forward need to be implemented, but I’ve tried to convey ideas that will complement each other, i.e. if one part of the idea is implemented, it would make sense for associated ideas to be included too, but they’re not necessary.

Please feel free to add your own ideas or constructively criticise what I am putting forward

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:38:09

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Current Problems with Woodcutting

Woodcutting falls into two traps. It has both low XP rates and low GP reward. These could be easily fixed by adding new methods that are more rewarding, but this risks making other content redundent.

Another major issue is that it’s not very fun. I know this is a personal preference and I understand that there are people who will enjoy the skill as it is right now, but from my point of view there is much that can be improved on. It has annoying features such as:

> Trees falling at random times.
> Rare birds nest rewards which barely last any time at all and are far from noticable compared to Seren Spirits and Blessings (both of which would fall into the same category as birds nests).
> Constant tap-tap-tap noises with little variation (for those that play with Sound Effects turned on for the audio clues, this can get annoying. Archaeology noises are far better as there is more variation and is softer on the ears).
> Tree locations are not necessarily close to banks meaning long journeys to bank resources. Yes, porters exist, but the value of the logs in the majority of cases is far lower than the cost of the porter charges.

Another issue is that it’s simply not realistic. I know this is a fantasy game, but the process of hitting a tree with an axe until the tree disappears and a log appears in your inventory, before the tree magically reappears again can still be improved upon. With this in mind, I feel that any update to the realism should incorporate a bit of education, and there is plenty of scope for that in Woodcutting. After all, I’m pretty sure most of us could answer that question in school: “Which two metals are used to create the alloy Bronze?”

The suggestion below aims to tackle most of these issues.

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:39:40

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The Main Suggestion

For this to work, it’s likely that each tree will have to be instanced based - i.e. each tree will be personal to each player.

Each tree will have a health bar. When you approach a tree with a hatchet, you will start to “damage” it. Each time you swing your axe, you will gain XP. Once the tree hits zero health, it will crash to the ground. At no point during this process does anything enter your inventory. This will be a high XP reward activity.

Once felled, you have two choices:

- Chop the tree there and then for various components
- Let the Lumberyard cart collect the felled tree

Option 1 - Chopping the tree on site:

The felled tree will contain many resources, not just the logs that we know today. When you chop the felled tree where it fell, you will obtain these resources in varying amounts. The felled tree will disappear once you have collected 30-50 resources. As such, it may take multiple bank trips or porters to render a tree fully empty.

Option 2 - The Lumberyard Cart:

Roaming the frequently visited forests of Gielinor, these beast drawn carts and their drivers will collect any felled tree that you have left on the ground and take them to the Lumberyard. There is a potential for a fee to be applied to this service that can be reduced / removed with unlocks. The advantage of using this service over chopping the tree on site is that you will not be limited by your inventory space at the lumberyard.

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:40:41

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Resources

Trees are not just made of logs. Here’s a list of other components that could be obtained, as well as a few ideas for useful implementation:

> Logs: Firemaking, plank-making
> Planks - from logs: Construction
> Branches: Fletch into bows, Construction
> Knots: Druidic Herblore/Magic/Crafting
> Leaves: Herblore, Cooking, Firemaking
> Twigs: Kindling for Firemaking
> Bark: Cooking
> Nests: As we know them now
> Special Resources: Higher quality versions of the above. These allow for better quality produce and higher XP rates.

Of course not all of the above is required, but I think it’s important to note that certain parts of trees are more useful in certain applications than other parts of the tree. By diversifying the material gathered in Woodcutting, skills secondary to Woodcutting may see more benefit in what can be created.

To allow for storage of this wider array of materials, there will be a Wood bank at the Lumberyard(s).

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:41:22

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The Lumberyard:

This will be the main place to earn your GP. The gathered felled trees will be waiting for you here, and you will be able to carve the trees down into their constituent parts using the machines on offer around the yard. This will be a faster process than doing it by hand at the tree-felling site, and also deposit the resources directly into the Wood bank via conveyor belt.

In order to be able to fletch your branches into bows, for example, this Wood bank should be accessible via the bank interface. Alternatively or additionally, it may be possible to add smaller lumberyard sites around Gielinor.

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:41:56

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Ecological Practices

As mentioned previously, there is plenty of scope for this update to be educational for the player base. Given the current real-world scenario we all live in, it’s important to make people aware that cutting trees down like we do in-game currently isn’t necessarily good for the environment. With this in mind, perhaps there could be a “Guthixian Gauge” attributed to each player. If a player takes from the world, it will shift down. If the player gives back to the world, it shifts up. It won’t do anything tangible, but it could be another attribute that players may be interested in.

Regardless of whether a Guthixian Gauge is implemented, the following ideas could be added to the Woodcutting skill.

> Coppicing:

Coppicing is the process of cutting a tree down near the base of the trunk to allow for other trunks to sprout from the same base. This allows for faster regrowth cycles, meaning more wood can be gathered, without having to fell more trees for the same amount of wood.

> Pollarding:

Pollarding is a similar process to coppicing, but occurs higher up the tree trunk.

Both of these methods will allow for players to gather resources directly from chopping trees on site, and requires no felling of the trees or taking the resources to the lumberyard.

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:42:48

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Interactions with Other Skills

Of course, with such sweeping changes to Woodcutting seen here, other skills will be affected.

Fletching:

Similar to how armours and weapons can be upgraded to +1 to +5 via smithing, bows should come in similar level bands but produced in a different way.

When gathering branches, it will be possible to find special branches. These are essentially higher quality wood that have a possibility of producing higher quality bows. To help reinvigorate the fletching/alchemy market, the better quality bows will be worth more in alchemy than their lower quality counterparts. However, the top tier bows should be fairly rare to maintain value in use in the ranged skill.

There is also scope for their to be extra special quality wood to be discovered. This would be used in the Masterwork equivalent for ranged weapons.

Firemaking:

Not all wood is good for starting fires. For this reason, it should not be possible to start a fire with logs alone. Fires need to start with twigs and/or kindling, and once it has started, any wooden material can then be added. As there is more skill to starting a fire than to keeping the flame alight, there should be more XP reward for starting the fire than keeping one burning.

Bonfires, such as that in the Worker District of Menaphos, and Braziers will be unaffected by this fire starting requirement.

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:44:09

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Construction:

There’s potential to add branches and logs to the construction repertoire, but I’m not going to go into major detail on this. Construction is a big enough nut to crack on it’s own thread, and there are many out there already going into great depth on this topic.

Farming:

Since Player Owned Farms were introduced, the value of tree seeds are nigh on worthless. With some of the ideas put forward in this thread, it may be possible to curtail the supply of tree seeds and reimagine how trees are grown and cared for in the Farming skill. For example, the ecological methods can be applied to farming tree patches instead of cutting the tree down completely. This would still give the same XP rates and timings as currently, but the need for new seeds would only be required if the tree dies. The farmer payments would probably have to change to be on a timer basis, such as per hour or per day.

Runecrafting/Crafting:

This is something that has been called on for a very long time, but with a rework like this I’m sure they’ll be considered. Allow us to find special logs from Magic trees so we can use them to make Magic Staves. This could work in a similar way to the Fletching idea, whereby the staves can be +1 to +5 but based on the wood found, rather than upgrading it like the Smithing rework does for melee armours and weapons.

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:45:06

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Advantages

- As the update is more interactive and has the possibility of rarer resources, it will make for a more interesting skill.
- No need for a “log box” as resources can be gathered efficiently at lumberyard sites.
- There is more educational content that many people will probably appreciate.
- A thorough fix to the skill will stand the test of time compared to patching a skill. The likes of Construction Contracts and the 2021 Divination update solved some issues, but created other issues, essentially shifting the problems around.

Disadvantages

- Time and resource required to develop this will be akin to that of the Mining and Smithing rework.

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:45:38

Nov

2003

A Cole

Posts: 14,682 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Further Ideas

This is simply a list of other things that can be added alongside this update or to trigger inspiration for further expansions.

> New higher level hatchets - based on the new metal ore tiers, and also the obligatory hero hatchet.
> New higher level tree types.
> Expansions to the Fletching, Firemaking and Crafting skills.
> Topiary carving as an extension to the skill. This could be similar to Construction Contracts.
> New race that specialises in Woodcutting and Fletching: Dark Elves (not2slay page 5, post 4).
> [Kopaka] Other materials depending on tree types: Sap, Amber, Nuts, Seeds, Fruits, Roots, Insects, Sawdust (page 5, post 5).
> [Si1vercloud] Woodcutting version of the fishing platform.
Faded Forrest. (page 6, post 4)
> [Adarajin] Invention item that makes hatchets more keen for a limited time/number of uses (page 6, post 7)
> [YOUR IDEA HERE]

~A~

04-Jul-2021 16:47:44 - Last edited on 16-Dec-2021 10:50:56 by A Cole

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~Woodcutting Rework~