[Suggestion] wood processing

Quote from RawCode

you want 5 machines (basically one more blockid) just to make batboxes?

I want 5 machines to be able to automatically process lumber like I can with mining, I want a wood for creating batboxes, for making sticks, for making charcoal, for constructing.

The ability to grow, cut down, process, and create using machines is what industrialcraft is all about, why neglect the lumber industry? People highly underestimate how much wood they use ingame (I myself have suffered a shortage from it even with my automated tree farm using Minefactory, and I'm not even BUILDING out of Wood, just using it to make Sticks and Redstone Engines)

I currently use a Miner to harvest, a Macerator to grind, and a Furnace/Induction Furnace to smelt, why is Lumber any different?

The Planter/Fertilizer/Harvester combination is currently found in Minefactory (a mod that was abandoned then updated by another person to be 1.8.1 SMP compatible). Truthfully the gathering of Bonemeal to grow the trees is the hardest part of it (we're trying to find a skeleton spawner for a drowning chamber currently to automate that process). Truthfully you would end up with an infinite source without bonemeal (albeit a slow one) but it would still consume power quite ridiculously (think about Miners and how much power they consume effectively). Use a chainsaw to make Harvester, consume power everytime it cuts a log, vula.

harvester shoud use rocket chainsaws to harvest lumber (and everyone else in range).

basically lumber is not point of IC, its about machines, reactors, energy, not about wooden cottages.

Quote from RawCode

harvester shoud use rocket chainsaws to harvest lumber (and everyone else in range).

basically lumber is not point of IC, its about machines, reactors, energy, not about wooden cottages.

That's a silly way to look at it, Lumber and Mining are two foundations of modern society, processing of such materials is the basis for society as a whole, and technology as well know it. Modern industry is driven by A) acquisition of resources and B) processing of said resources.

Industrialcraft is the bringing of modern technology and automation to the world of Minecraft, it is the procurement of resources and processing of said resources into modern equipment. The addition of new machines based around the acquisition and processing of lumber in no way go against the theme of IndustrialCraft as a whole.

Quote from nOtime

absolutely agree to shadowclaimer on this one, wood is one of the most basic ressources. you cant go "well, we got steel, carbon fiber, n nano lasers, who needs wood then?" cuz minecraft doesn't suddenly turn into a sci-fi movie all of a sudden, when ic2 is installed. no, its just an addition to the world. an addition that is supposed to give the players a better
taste of what the world actually has to offer. i think thats the main concept.

That and automated wood harvesting works well with BC's quarries for providing raw resources for factories =D