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[NTJedi]

Why would chopping down a tree end up killing the dwarf doing the chopping??  This makes zero sense... I guess the developer believes he could make the same mistake in real life.    So what's the safe way of chopping down a tree if there's falling logs which can kill you?

UPDATE:  I see inside the dwarf fortress wiki  -how it happened-  , but it's still illogical since the person cutting down the tree can choose the direction it falls due to the angel of his cutting.

[NTJedi]

Why would chopping down a tree end up killing the dwarf doing the chopping??  This makes zero sense... I guess the developer believes he could make the same mistake in real life.    So what's the safe way of chopping down a tree if there's falling logs which can kill you?

UPDATE:  I see inside the dwarf fortress wiki  -how it happened-  , but it's still illogical since the person cutting down the tree can choose the direction it falls due to the angel of his cutting.   

Maybe a lumberjack will start playing this game and be able to help the developers understand the logic.

[Saiko Kila]

In real life, I know of a case of lumberjack who died crushed by a tree he was cutting. He was hammering special wedges into the trees (used to make it fall in the desired direction), when either the wedge or the tree broke, and it all fell on him. He was airlifted to the hospital, but died there.

In DF, I don't know of such a case, and not because there are no helicopters. I have thousand trees cuts in the current fortress, and no death or injury yet.

[Maximum Spin]

As far as I know, this doesn't happen. You can, though, be crushed by logs falling out of a tree if they were previously deposited on it from another tree.

Of course, logging accidents are also perfectly realistic and happen all the time and therefore should clearly be implemented if they aren't.

[PatrikLundell]

As mentioned, logs from a tree cut earlier, stuck in the branches, is the typical cause of logs falling on wood cutters in DF. Another dangerous case is trees killed by fire kept upright by the branches of a neighboring tree. When you cut that tree, more than you'd expected comes down...

[Miles_Umbrae]

Every tree I've cut down in DF has fallen AWAY from the woodcutter.
The ONLY time an odd log has fallen anywhere other than away from the woodcutter and branching out from that has been trees cut down on a hill where trees on a higher level had branches above another tree which deposited logs on the branches of the lower tree, making those deposited logs not fall with the cut lower tree, but rather drops straight down instead.

[mikekchar]

I forget the actual term for this, but it kills lumberjacks fairly often.  Basically, when you chop down the tree, it can skip off the stump and hit you.  So imagine you are cutting it to your right.  It starts to fall over to the right, but at the last minute, it changes direction and the bottom of the tree (just above where you cut it) jumps up and hits you.  So when you are cutting the tree, what you are supposed to do is cut a notch on the side away from the direction that it will ultimately fall.  You stick a wedge in that notch.  That way, when you cut on the other side, it mechanically guides the tree in the right direction.  However, it doesn't always work and people still die cutting down trees.

[Loci]

Why would chopping down a tree end up killing the dwarf doing the chopping??  This makes zero sense...

Apparently you are unaware how dangerous woodcutting actually is:

"Based on the occupational fatality rate, logging is the most dangerous job in the country and about 38 times more dangerous than the typical job."

[Shonai_Dweller]

Why would chopping down a tree end up killing the dwarf doing the chopping??  This makes zero sense...

Apparently you are unaware how dangerous woodcutting actually is:

"Based on the occupational fatality rate, logging is the most dangerous job in the country and about 38 times more dangerous than the typical job."

And I imagine Urist equipped with only a battle axe and dabbling woodcutter skill would fair slightly less well than the modern day equivalent.

And that's before taking into account dorf hating wood spirits (who love being shaped into elven codpieces for whatever reason).

[Leonidas]

There's a reality TV series called Ax Men that shows the many dangers that lumberjacks face.

[Tinnucorch]

Why would chopping down a tree end up killing the dwarf doing the chopping??  This makes zero sense...

Apparently you are unaware how dangerous woodcutting actually is:

"Based on the occupational fatality rate, logging is the most dangerous job in the country and about 38 times more dangerous than the typical job."

And I imagine Urist equipped with only a battle axe and dabbling woodcutter skill would fair slightly less well than the modern day equivalent.

And that's before taking into account dorf hating wood spirits (who love being shaped into elven codpieces for whatever reason).

That's pretty much the issue here. Just giving an axe to Urist Mcbutterfingers should not make him automatically know how to handle it.

[Fleeting Frames]

There's no need for wedges and sequential cutting techniques yet, cutting solitary trees is 100% safe as long as they're not the only thing preventing the cavein of something else or don't have things or creatures on top of them.

It probably shouldn't be safe, as posited, but that danger isn't implemented yet.

As posted above, the issue is caused by widowmakers.

[Kat]

I forget the actual term for this, but it kills lumberjacks fairly often.  Basically, when you chop down the tree, it can skip off the stump and hit you.  So imagine you are cutting it to your right.  It starts to fall over to the right, but at the last minute, it changes direction and the bottom of the tree (just above where you cut it) jumps up and hits you.  So when you are cutting the tree, what you are supposed to do is cut a notch on the side away from the direction that it will ultimately fall.  You stick a wedge in that notch.  That way, when you cut on the other side, it mechanically guides the tree in the right direction.  However, it doesn't always work and people still die cutting down trees.

It's called kickback. caused by the branches of the tree acting as a spring when they hit the ground, and making the trunk bounce backwards. it's why the woodcutter's escape route when the tree starts to fall is at 45 degrees to the direction of fall.


Lots of other different ways in which trees can injure the person felling them.