History Main / FirewoodResources

* ''VideoGame/TzarBurdenOfTheCrown'': Lumberjacks transport a single log over their shoulder. The log is almost as big as the worker himself.

* ''[[VideoGame/TzarBurdenOfTheCrown Tzar: The Burden of the Crown]]'': Lumberjacks transport a single log over their shoulder. The log is almost as big as the worker himself.

In {{strategy game}}s, wood is a [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas common resource]]. However, when workers gather it, it's always shown as tiny bundles of wood.

In real life, this would only be useful as firewood, not for building structures. The main reason for this trope is that it would be much harder to animate several workers hauling logs than it is to animate single peons working by themselves. Alternatively, it might be because you need miniature planks to make [[ClownCarBase all those tiny buildings]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'': Harvested trees instantly turn into small neatly cut logs. {{Averted}} in a more literal sense, however, as firewood is a separate type of resource that has to be made from ordinary wood.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': It pays homage to ''Warcraft'' by having many quests that involve collecting those neatly stacked piles of lumber, ostensibly for construction purposes. They are usually represented like that in the inventory too, although some do make them look like cut boards, not firewood. {{Justified}} to an extent by the Goblins who, not to be outdone in the efficiency department, use machines called Shredders that can automate the chopping and sawing of wood until they spit out a nice collection of perfectly formed boards. Until they break down and explode, or go berserk and start killing people.

* ''VideoGame/MonBazou'': {{Justified}} since most of your income (at least early on) comes from selling firewood to your brother, but building the sugar shack to start maple syrup production just involves stacking pine logs in a designated area until the titular shack pops out of thin air, none of the log being long enough to make the walls depicted in-game.

See also SpaceCompression, when large territories can be crossed in short timespans, and UnitsNotToScale, when the sprites for stuff are shown very big on the map.

[[AC: Unsorted]]

* ''VideoGame/CastleStory'': A tree falls apart into three logs when cut. Each of those logs is as tall as a Bricktron when cut down and placed, but for transport, it's easily put in a sack the Bricktrons carry on their backs.
* ''VideoGame/TzarBurdenOfTheCrown'' also has lumberjacks transporting a single log over their shoulder. The log is almost as big as the worker himself.

* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite'': The wood becomes piles of planks, and it looks like long logs while being carried.
* ''VideoGame/{{Caesar}}'': You play the governor of a Roman province/city that has Timber Yards that produce planks. The only use for these planks is making furniture or exporting them. Which makes you wonder just what the heck the city is being built out of.
* In ''VideoGame/CastleStory'', a tree falls apart into three logs when cut. Each of those logs is as tall as a Bricktron when cut down and placed, but for transport, it's easily put in a sack the Bricktrons carry on their backs.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': In ''A Realm Reborn'', you can harvest logs from trees, which generally have to be processed into lumber before they can be made use of. (This presents a different kind of weirdness, however, as it takes multiple individual logs to craft a single piece of lumber.)
* ''VideoGame/TheSettlers'':
** After the woodcutter chops down a tree, he strips it of branches and carries the log ''on his shoulder'' to his house. This is carried by other settlers all the way to the Carpenter's house, where he cuts the log into planks, which are then carried off to wherever they are needed. Half the uniqueness of the game comes from actually animating all those things, which most games don't.
** Much of the other half comes from the gameplay implementation of those animations. Nifty animations aside, the fact that your little animated settlers actually ''carry'' resources from A to B forces you to organize a transport network that can handle the flow of resources without getting into traffic jams. This game averts EasyLogistics ''hard'', to the point where logistics is the main source of challenge in the game.
** This also produces the weirdness that one tree turns into one log turns into one unit of planks; the same amount of planks can be used to build either the frame of a small house, a rowboat, or the handle of a spade.
* ''VideoGame/{{Stronghold}}'': The wood becomes planks that are at least as tall as the worker and sounds a great deal like the settlers above.

* ''VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'' shows Lumber as cargo this way, though the Prime Timber resource bonus on map is indicated by a large tree.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' has logs go directly into carpenter's workshops and be used directly in constructions -- even if the construction is a smooth flat road. Further, when logs are used for constructing things like walls you can disassemble it to get the log back and then turn the log into a bed/door/etc. In the 2014 major content patch, trees are given variable sizes instead of one log from each tree, and the speed at which the log is transported back to the stockpile varies according to the mass of the wood; oak logs are noticeably heavier than something like willow, for example.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': While wood bundles obtained from chopped trees are most commonly used to make fires, there are a few quests that require you to gather them for construction.

* ''VideoGame/{{Autonauts}}'': Trees turn into logs when chopped down, which can in turn be further chopped into planks, then poles, then fixing pegs.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'': Coal cuts down on wood costs, implying they are used for fuel. Wood is still used for construction in the game though.
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'': All logs obtained via the Woodcutting skill are a bundle of three logs.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'':
** Units go through the trouble of chopping down trees and then forming them into nice little logs for you before actually bringing them back to the lumber mill.
** In the first two games, they're obviously carrying long planks.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' pays homage to this by having many quests that involve collecting those neatly stacked piles of lumber, ostensibly for construction purposes, although some do actually make them look like cut boards, not firewood. Justified to an extent by the Goblins who, not to be outdone in the efficiency department, use machines called Shredders that can automate the chopping and sawing of wood until they spit out a nice collection of perfectly formed boards. Until they break down and explode, or go berserk and start killing people.

!!Aversions

* ''VideoGame/{{Pharaoh}}'': Entire (small palm) trees are carried by lumberjacks back to the mill, where they turn into planks when sitting in your storage yards.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}}'': Lumberjacks always carry a single log, the tree they just cut down. They are still taken further by teamsters on wheelbarrows and need to be taken to a lumber mill to be turned from raw logs into useful planks of wood. Lumber can be exported, but it's further useful when taken to a furniture factory...

In RealTimeStrategy games, wood is a [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas common resource]]. However, when workers gather it, it's always shown as tiny bundles of wood.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'': The wood, softwood, and hardwood resources harvested from trees appear as small bundles of three log wedges, of the kind one might make to use as firewood, despite these are used to make items such as wooden furniture -- including furniture visibly made from whole, un-split logs.

* ''VideoGame/ClockworkEmpires'' has the basic wood resource depicted as a stack of three logs. Those logs are used in the construction of some basic buildings, but most others require cutting them into planks in the Carpentry Workshop.
* ''VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'' shows Lumber as cargo this way, though the Prime Timber resource bonus on map is indicated by a large tree.
%%* ''VideoGame/{{Cultures}}''
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' has logs go directly into carpenter's workshops and be used directly in constructions -- even if the construction is a smooth flat road. Further, when logs are used for constructing things like walls you can disassemble it to get the log back and then turn the log into a bed/door/etc. In the 2014 major content patch, trees are given variable sizes instead of one log from each tree, and the speed at which the log is transported back to the stockpile varies according to the mass of the wood; oak logs are noticeably heavier than something like willow, for example.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'': Maybe, it could be interpreted as logs since scale is questionable.
** However, the backstory behind the endless bundle of lumber artifact, which provides the owner with one extra wood each day, says it's a small bundle that the person who found it first mistakes for firewood.
** An expansion of the fourth game has you command an army of militant elves who are categorically opposed to cutting down trees and even launch an anti-human genocide because of it. lumber is gained via a scripted event, that gives the player a small amount of wood every week... Along with the explanation that the player character spent his free time collecting fallen twigs. That's right. Twigs.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'': Units go through the trouble of chopping down trees and then forming them into nice little logs for you before actually bringing them back to the lumber mill.

** ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' pays homage to this by having many quests that involve collecting those neatly stacked piles of lumber, ostensibly for construction purposes, although some do actually make them look like cut boards, not firewood. Justified to an extent by the Goblins who, not to be outdone in the efficiency department, use machines called Shredders that can automate the chopping and sawing of wood until they spit out a nice collection of perfectly formed boards. Until they break down and explode, or go berserk and start killing people.

* ''VideoGame/TheSettlers'': After the woodcutter chops down a tree, he strips it of branches and carries the log ''on his shoulder'' to his house. This is carried by other settlers all the way to the Carpenter's house, where he cuts the log into planks, which are then carried off to wherever they are needed. Half the uniqueness of the game comes from actually animating all those things, which most games don't.

See also SpaceCompression and UnitsNotToScale.

In RTS games, wood is a [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas common resource]]. However, when workers gather it, it's always shown as tiny bundles of wood.

In real life, this would only be useful as firewood, not for building structures. The main reason for this trope is because it would be much harder to animate several workers hauling logs than it is to animate single peons working by themselves. See SpaceCompression, UnitsNotToScale.

Alternatively, may be because you need miniature planks to make [[ClownCarBase all those tiny buildings]].

!!Examples

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'': Small wood bundles were terrain items that gave your closest city an instant structure building bonus
* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'': The wood, softwood and hardwood resources harvested from trees appear as small bundles of three log wedges, of the kind one might make to use as firewood, despite the fact that these are used to make items such as wooden furniture -- including furniture visibly made from whole, un-split logs.

* ''VideoGame/ClockworkEmpires'' has the basic wood resource depicted as a stack of three logs. Those logs are used in construction of some basic buildings, but most others require cutting them into planks in the Carpentry Workshop.
* ''VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'' shows Lumber as cargo this way, though Prime Timber resource bonus on map is indicated by a large tree.

** However, the backstory behind the endless bundle of lumber artifact, which provides the owner with one extra wood each day, says it's a small bundle which the person who found it first mistakes for firewood.

* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite'': The wood become piles of planks, and it looks like long logs while being carried.
* ''VideoGame/{{Caesar}}'': You play the governor of a Roman province/city has Timber Yards that produce planks. The only use for these planks is making furniture or exporting them. Which makes you wonder just what the heck the city is being built out of.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stronghold}}'': The wood becomes planks that are at least as tall as the worker, and sounds a great deal like the settlers above.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}}'': Lumberjacks always carry single log, the tree they just cut down. They are still taken futher by teamsters on wheelbarrow, and need to be taken to a lumber mill to be turned from raw logs into useful planks of wood. Lumber can be exported, but it's further useful when taken to a furniture factory...

* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'': Harvested trees instantly turn into small neatly cut logs. {{Averted}} in a more literal sense, however, as firewood is a separate type of resource that has to be made from odrinary wood.

* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'': Not an RTS, but harvested trees instantly turn into small neatly cut logs. {{Averted}} in a more literal sense, however, as firewood is a separate type of resource that has to be made from odrinary wood.

%%
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires''
* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'' - Not an RTS, but harvested trees instantly turn into small neatly cut logs. {{Averted}} in a more literal sense, however, as firewood is a separate type of resource that has to be made from odrinary wood.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' for the default, unmodified game, has logs go directly into carpenter's workshops and be used directly in constructions - even if the construction is a smooth flat road. Further, when logs are used for constructing things like walls you can disassemble it to get the log back and then turn the log into a bed/door/etc.
** As of the latest major content patch we at least have trees of variable sizes instead of one log from each tree, and the speed at which the log is transported back to the stockpile varies according to the mass of the wood; oak logs are noticeably heavier than something like willow, for example.

* Units in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' go through the trouble of chopping down trees and then forming them into nice little logs for you before actually bringing them back to the lumber mill.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' - coal cuts down on wood costs, implying they are used for fuel. Wood is still used for construction in the game though.
* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' - maybe, it could be interpreted as logs since scale is questionable
** However, the back story behind a certain artifact called endless bundle of lumber, which provides the owner with one extra wood each day, says it's a small bundle which the person who found it, first mistakes for firewood.
** An expansion of the fourth game has you command an army of militant elves who are categorically opposed to cutting down trees and even launch an anti-human genocide because of it. lumber is gained via a scripted event, that gives the player a small amount of wood every week... Along with the explanation that the player character spent his free time collecting fallen twigs. That's right. Twigs.
%%* ''Cultures'' series
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'' - Small wood bundles were terrain items that gave your closest city an instant structure building bonus
%%* ''Virtual Villagers'' and its sequels.
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' - While it's not a RTS, all logs obtained via the Woodcutting skill are a bundle of three logs.
* ''VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'' shows Lumber as cargo this way, though Prime Timber resource bonus on map is indicated by a large tree.
* While wood bundles obtained from chopped trees in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' are most commonly used to make fires, there are a few quests that require you to gather them for construction.

* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite'' - the wood become piles of planks, and they look like long logs while being carried.
* ''VideoGame/TheSettlers'' - always shown as planks.
** Actually, first the woodcutter visibly chops down a tree, strips it of the branches, and carries the log ''on his shoulder'' to his house. This is carried by other settlers all the way to the Carpenter's house, where he cuts the log into planks, which are then carried off to wherever they are needed. Half the uniqueness of the game comes from actually animating all those things, where other games are too lazy or too abstract.
*** Much of the other half comes from the gameplay implementation of those animations. Nifty animations aside, the fact that your little animated settlers actually ''carry'' resources from A to B forces you to organize a transport network that can handle the flow of resources without getting into traffic jams. This game averts EasyLogistics ''hard'', to the point where logistics is the main source of challenge in the game.
*** This also produces the weirdness that one tree turns into one log turns into one unit of planks; the same amount of planks can be used to build either the frame of a small house, a rowboat, or the handle of a spade.
* ''VideoGame/{{Stronghold}}'' - the wood becomes planks that are at least as tall as the worker, and sounds a great deal like the settlers above.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Caesar}}'' games, where you play the governor of a Roman province/city has Timber Yards that produce planks. The only use for these planks is making furniture or exporting them. Which makes you wonder just what the heck the city is being built out of.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' may not be a RTS but it does avoid this trope. Breaking a tree gives you "log blocks" which have no other real purpose than to be crafted into four "plank blocks".
** Later on, the ability to smelt wood into charcoal was added.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}}'': Lumberjacks always carry single log, the tree they just cut down. They are still taken futher by teamsters on wheelbarrow, and need to be taken to a lumber mill to be turned from raw logs into useful planks of wood. Lumber can be exported, but it's further useful when taken to a furniture factory...
* ''Tzar: Burden of the Crown'' also has lumberjacks transporting a single log over their shoulder. The log is almost as big as the worker himself.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: A Realm Reborn'', you can harvest logs from trees, which generally have to be processed into lumber before they can be made use of. (This presents a different kind of weirdness, however, as it takes multiple individual logs to craft a single piece of lumber.)

* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'' - Not an RTS, but harvested trees instantly turn into small neatly cut logs.

* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'' - Not an RTS, but harvested trees instantly turn into small neatly cut logs. Actual firewood is basically just a recolor of it.

* ''{{Pharaoh}}'': Entire (small palm) trees are carried by lumberjacks back to the mill, where they turn into planks when sitting in your storage yards.

* ''RiseOfNations'' - coal cuts down on wood costs, implying they are used for fuel. Wood is still used for construction in the game though.

* ''AgeOfWonders'' - Small wood bundles were terrain items that gave your closest city an instant structure building bonus

* ''RuneScape'' - While it's not a RTS, all logs obtained via the Woodcutting skill are a bundle of three logs.

* ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' - maybe, it could be interpreted as logs since scale is questionable

%%* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires''

* ''Cultures'' series

* "Virtual Villagers" and its sequels

* ''VideoGame/TheSettlers'' - always shown as planks

* ''{{Pharaoh}}'' - although they turn into planks when sitting in your storage yards.