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I was playing a game with dense wooded areas and lots of biter colonies before getting tank and was doing a lot of chopping to clear paths through passable areas thinking how good it would be to have a bulldozer or tree harvester that could make a path through trees that the car could later pass along, and keep the wood that it knocked down, which the tank with bulldozer front does not do, so it can be used for fuel and crafting.

It would have to be after engine but maybe the same research as car, bit more expensive to make, bit less inventory space. Slower than car or tank, unarmed and open to attacks, of which ranged variety can hit avatar inside the cab, but good for clearing trees.

Something like this?
ExplorationVehicle

You better should just pass rather slow through woods on foot instead of being blocked, maybe just when the player sprite is covered by leaves, so you don't need an elaborate animation.

If you're only interested in clearing wood for a path, not harvesting wood, grenades are a great tool. I had to do a lot of it in my current run.

Grenades are available sooner than the car (typically) and even at the base damage level, 2 will clear a nice wide space.

Woods can be horrible at the beginning, when you still dig ore with your hands. But of course you can't start with a AT-AT and blast everything away.

Factoruser wrote:Woods can be horrible at the beginning, when you still dig ore with your hands.

Why would you do that? The only time I ever dug ore with my hands was when doing the Lazy Bastard achievement. In a normal start, you have enough iron plates to make two basic pickaxes. Use those to clear enough trees to power your iron mine and furnace, then make more.

nljr wrote:

Factoruser wrote:Woods can be horrible at the beginning, when you still dig ore with your hands.

Why would you do that? The only time I ever dug ore with my hands was when doing the Lazy Bastard achievement. In a normal start, you have enough iron plates to make two basic pickaxes.

"With your hands" meant pickaxe. It doesn't dig by itself, you know...

But you need copper ore, iron ore, coal... so you have to run first between the deposit patches, and if there are woods between them, it's horrible. You get stuck again and again.

And my/the better solution is: you are just running slower through the woods, maybe automatically walk around trees if you are walking (by foot). A harvesting machine is hightech of course you can't have much earlier than a personal roboport.

Factoruser wrote: But you need copper ore, iron ore, coal... so you have to run first between the deposit patches, and if there are woods between them, it's horrible. You get stuck again and again.

The first recipe that requires coal is either hand grenades or plastic. Either way, you'll have electric mining drills and conveyors long before that. You do not need it in the early game.

Your problem is also your solution. Direct mining of ore or coal is almost always a waste of time. Chop trees to fuel your furnaces. Pick the trees that are in your way first. Chopping a tree gives 4 wood and takes less time than digging up one coal. That's 16 MJ of energy in less time than 8 MJ of coal energy.

The biggest pain in the ass early in the game is actually stone. Find one big rock and mine it. That gives enough stone for 4 furnaces, MUCH, MUCH faster than digging "with your hands". Convert half to burner mining drills. I use the first pair for more iron and the second pair for copper. All the time those are working, chop trees. Somewhere in those trees, you're likely to find another big rock. That gets you 4 more furnaces or burner drills, one of which can start mining stone for you.

None of this works if you're doing Lazy Bastard of course, but that thing takes a lot more patience anyway.

nljr wrote:The first recipe that requires coal is either hand grenades or plastic.

You use it for operating burner mining drills, furnaces and boilers...

You do not need it in the early game.

Well, if you would have a tree harvesting machine in the early game... I won't suggest to relinquish coal as a fuel...

Your problem is also your solution. Direct mining of ore or coal is almost always a waste of time.

Like chopping trees. But you have to remove the jungle to get from one deposit to the other.

The biggest pain in the ass early in the game is actually stone. Find one big rock and mine it.

It was, but now you can mine it with a pickaxe and IMO that's going much too fast. Previously you've have to shot it with your guns for instance.