Tree Branches and Blocks

In Terraria, you could drop sand on top of trees and it would sit on top, looking kinda awkward like it was just hovering above the leaves.

I was wondering how the developers will handle physics-enabled blocks and trees-- Will the trees work like furniture items so that other objects can be supported on top of them (like the Ewoks' forest homes) or will sand and such simply fall through the branches? I saw the video on the sand physics and I'm thinking that the sand projectiles could be pushed away from the tree graphic (particularly the trunk, for sure), but will it look weird with sand piled up on both sides of the tree? If the trees are background objects, could you build background walls and place furniture in front of them?

 

Trees bend in the wind, so most likely they will not support anything ontop of them.

 

Yes it's indeed more likely to not support anything like that. Now I'm wondering if we put some trees inside our house, with large windows or such... Will it bend in the wind?
Inside houses there is no wind.... Mwahaha Physics are getting challenged.

 

In that case can we plant trees in the background so that we can build 'ewok-like' tree villages around them, while still be interactvie?

 

Doubt it. There will be planets with tons of trees in the background though. I think I read somewhere that they'll match the foreground tree also.

 

that sounds like a perfect compromise

 

if i plant a tree in the water, will it still bend with the wind?
and can i grow an upside down tree?
and can i open doors blocked by sand?
and can i plant trees on sand? and if i do, what happens if the sand falls??

 

I'm not a dev, so I wouldn't know.

I doubt you can do any of those. I'm thinking it'll be very similiar to the terraria style, though. Perhaps we'll have trees with different requirements?

 

I really want upside down trees now...

Grzzz

vlamer12

 

That's probably just the graphic moving, I imagine the actual location of the tree-object doesn't move. Like those gears in the tutorial Mollygos posted, they are animated, but the actual object doesn't move. Of course, idk exactly how the wind animation works (it seems a bit different than other objects animations). Of course, the wind would make it look even more odd if blocks were supported on top of them.

 

Well, there's going to be floating blocks yes, but I really doubt sand-like blocks will stay on trees like those. I mean, some don't even have any leaves on them.

 

well now that i've been thinking of it...
the fact that sand blocks collides with trees in terraria is just dumb programming
even both being solid objects, just put trees 1 layer behind blocks and don't allow the collision between them. problem solved!
i doubt the devs will allow for such a weird behaviour in starbound...

 

Have you guys seen the floran villages? Not exactly background trees, but...

 

Yeah, my first thought was "Yay Ewoks!"

That and you can make Yggdrasil, the Norse world tree, on your new home planet for your base!

 

Some men just want to watch the world burn...

 

Not really the engine must be capable to handle that. If the rain does, not that hard make trees grow inside our house, without being affected by the planet wind physics. :alien:

 

Hm... If the tree isn't exposed to wind, then it probably isn't exposed to rain or sunlight. Wouldn't the tree shrivel up and die?

 

I'm assuming it would if you didn't care for it yourself. Make a greenhouse, start a business of... trees... yes...

 

And what about when you cut them down? Will you get the actual tree trunk block, that when placed, looks like the tree it was cut from, or do they magically turn into planks like they did in Terraria?
I wanna be able to cut down a planet of trees, and rebuild from the same log blocks a single massive tree, made of the exact same stuff as the original trees, not magical insta planks. :I

 

I imagine they will be logs of some form. Since the Florans can build trees, I suspect that you either need to refine the logs in some way, either into planks or into the trees that Florans can build or whatever. The thing is, the Floran tree buildings aren't really much like the natural trees. They don't sway in the wind or have generated branches, but are made of blocks that simulate the appearance of tree bark and leaves.

As for the original logs you get from chopping the tree, I doubt you will be able to place them back down and have them look like the original tree. That would be kinda silly, like being able to chop up your buddy, Joe, put his limbs in a backpack, then snap them back together an hour latter and have him be right as rain. There are many children's movies about how you can't just instantly repair the damage caused by chopping down a forest. Still, it would be nice to get seeds or acorns or something so you can replant them, obviously.