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[GlyphGryph]

A bit of background - Kauri trees are positively giant trees. These trees are second only to the redwoods in size. Due to overharvesting, they are also protected and cannot be chopped down.

Yet there is still a Kauri wood industry in New Zealand. How do they get the wood?

They dig for it.

Many trees, especially Kauri trees, end up growing in bogs, living to tremendous size, and getting buried. The wood, however, is still perfectly usable even after many years. A kauri tree I saw being proccessed to make tables just yesterday was over six thousand years old.

And I thought to myself - What could be more dwarven, as far as wood gathering methods go, than digging for trees? Even if giant trees aren't included growing on the surface, they could be a reference to times long ago when they grew and be discovered while digging underground, providing a heap of wood - maybe 6-8 per tree, and if you're in an area of the right biome and soil type, you might be able to find a bunch of them.

Which leads me into my second suggestion.

Giant trees. I'm talking trees multiple z-levels tall, with wood that fills multiple squares. Or, at the very minimum, trees that when felled provide more than a single wood. Right now every tree provides enough wood for a couple baubles, or a single chest. I'd like people to consider not just "I need trees where I'm going" but "I want these awesome, giant, valuable trees to fuel my furnace."

[Demonic Gophers]

Size related to age would be nice, too.  A tree might be big enough to harvest after a few years, but contain more wood as it gets older, so that it would be more efficient to wait a while before cutting it.

[Warlord255]

If for nothing else but elven cities, trees large enough to use dirt-tile mechanics would be spectacular.

You'd have to have appropriate cave-in mechanics to fell them sideways, however...

[MMad]

If for nothing else but elven cities, trees large enough to use dirt-tile mechanics would be spectacular.

Now that's an awesome mental image.

[Footkerchief]

Bogs would be really cool, and they could preserve corpses, items, etc. as well as wood.  The game already has peat, but it's not very interesting -- it can't be dried for fuel or "mined" for bog iron, though both of those could maybe be modded in.

Multi-tile trees are in the dev notes, but mostly in the context of elves.  Despite the ambiguous size of an individual tile, I think even a sapling should probably occupy multiple tiles.  Building a tower that rises out of a forest of giant oaks would be amazing.

[ogion]

Bogs would be really cool, and they could preserve corpses, items, etc. as well as wood.  The game already has peat, but it's not very interesting -- it can't be dried for fuel or "mined" for bog iron, though both of those could maybe be modded in.

Multi-tile trees are in the dev notes, but mostly in the context of elves.  Despite the ambiguous size of an individual tile, I think even a sapling should probably occupy multiple tiles.  Building a tower that rises out of a forest of giant oaks would be amazing.

Well, we already HAVE limonite....

[Cles]

I think Toady mentioned giant trees for elves in one of the stories.

[Footkerchief]

Well, we already HAVE limonite....

Whoa, you're right.  Hmm, I wonder if it would be realistic to just add [ENVIRONMENT_SPEC:PEAT:CLUSTER_SMALL:80] or something like that to the limonite entry.