TreeCapitator Mod Wiki

TreeCapitator is a utility mod that changes how trees are harvested. When you break the bottom log of a tree with an appropriate tool, the mod detects the connected logs above and fells the whole trunk at once, dropping all of the wood as if you had broken each block individually. This removes the tedious block-by-block chopping of tall trees and the awkward floating-log clean-up that normally follows.

The mod ships in two builds with slightly different capabilities. The ModLoader version works with vanilla trees only. The Forge version uses the FML CoreMod framework, which lets it fell trees added by other mods without requiring any edits to the vanilla Minecraft jar beyond installing Forge. The Forge build can also scan the Forge Ore Dictionary to automatically discover and register tree-related blocks that have not been configured by hand, so many modded trees work out of the box.

TreeCapitator is purely a harvesting helper: it adds no new blocks, items, mobs, or recipes. All of its behavior is driven by configuration, letting server owners and players decide which logs count as trees, how leaves are handled, and how the fell-the-whole-tree action affects break speed and game balance.

To fell a tree, break one of its logs with a tool the mod recognizes for that tree type. The mod then traces the connected logs that make up the trunk and breaks them together, yielding the same drops you would normally get from harvesting each log.

To reduce the power this gives the player, the mod can make the first log of a tree take longer to break. This is controlled by the treeHeightDecidesBreakSpeed option: when enabled, taller trees take more time to start chopping, so cutting down a large tree is no longer instant. If you prefer the original fast behavior, you can turn this option off.

Felling is meant to feel like a faster version of normal harvesting rather than an instant-clear tool, so the trunk is what gets broken; leaf handling is treated separately (see Leaf Handling).

TreeCapitator can also clear the leaves attached to a felled tree, but by default it is conservative about which leaves it removes.

By default the mod only destroys leaf blocks that have already been marked for natural decay. In vanilla Minecraft, a log block contains code that marks nearby leaves within a certain distance for decay, so those leaves are recognized and cleared. Some custom log blocks from other mods do not include this leaf-decay code, so their surrounding leaves are never marked for decay. In that case TreeCapitator, in its default configuration, sees that the leaves are not marked and leaves them behind.

This behavior can be changed with the requireLeafDecayCheck option. Setting it to false bypasses the decay check so that leaves are destroyed even when a modded log fails to mark them for decay. Leaf destruction overall is governed by the destroyLeaves setting; with it enabled, leaves connected to the felled tree are removed alongside the trunk subject to the decay-check rule above.

The Forge version of TreeCapitator has the ability to fell trees from other mods. Whether a particular modded tree works depends on configuration: the mod can only recognize a tree if its log and leaf blocks are registered, either through the bundled defaults, the Ore Dictionary scan, or entries you add yourself.

To improve automatic compatibility, the Forge build scans the Forge Ore Dictionary for tree-related blocks that have not been explicitly registered and adds them to TreeCapitator. For trees that are still not detected, you can add configuration entries describing their log and leaf blocks so the mod knows how to fell them.

The mod also ships with default configuration for a number of popular tree-adding mods. Documented default-supported mods include Applied Energistics, Biomes O'Plenty, DivineRPG, ExtraBiomesXL, Forestry, Gems Plus, Gravitation Suite, IndustrialCraft 2, Mekanism, MineFactory Reloaded, Natura, Railcraft, RedPower 2, Thaumcraft, Tinkers' Construct, and The Twilight Forest. Trees from mods not in this list can be enabled by adding your own config entries.

TreeCapitator is configured through a text config file generated in your Minecraft config folder. The two builds use different files:

Key options exposed by the mod include:

• treeHeightDecidesBreakSpeed - when enabled, taller trees take longer to begin chopping, trading away some of the speed advantage for better balance. Disable it to restore fast chopping.
• destroyLeaves - controls whether leaves connected to a felled tree are removed along with the logs.
• requireLeafDecayCheck - when true (default), only leaves already marked for natural decay are destroyed; set it to false to also clear leaves from modded logs that do not mark nearby leaves for decay.

Beyond these named options, the config also lets you register the log and leaf blocks for additional trees so that modded trees not covered by the defaults or the Ore Dictionary scan can be felled.

TreeCapitator is designed to coexist with other tree- and mining-related mods, though a couple of cases need attention.

When used alongside a multi-block mining mod that lets you break several blocks at once, the two can conflict over log blocks. To make them work together, every log block ID you want TreeCapitator to handle must be added to that mod's excluded-blocks list so it does not also try to process those logs. Only the log block IDs need to be excluded this way; leaf block IDs do not.

The Forge build includes support for the ID Resolver mod, so block and item ID remapping is handled automatically and no manual configuration changes are required for the two to work together.