Guild Wars 2

Oh the pine tree! How glorious is she! An evergreen having needles with sheen. Is there any greater sight than her boughs bending in the wind. Her branches, so versatile, flexible and soft. No better an example of a softwood tree than she.

So why the hell does chopping down a sapling yield Hard Wood Logs?

Because the devs don’t know what Hard Wood and Soft Wood actually mean.

Why do barracudas yield axes when killed? I think the placement of trees is supposed to be more in the type of tree would be in the region, whereas the type of wood is based on the level of the zone. So things got a bit mismatched.

Either that or, Magic in Tyria fortified oaks so strongly for some random reason that they eventually grew into Oakhearts. The wood that never gained sentience was still strong beyond all compare.

Whichever you choose to believe.

“Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees (more strictly speaking non-monocot angiosperm trees). It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.

Hardwood contrasts with softwood (which is from Gymnosperm trees). Hardwoods are not necessarily harder than softwoods. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood.

Hardwood should not be confused with the term ‘heartwood’ (which can be from hardwood or softwood)."

- Excerpted from Wikipedia for convenience.

So a Hardwood is a non-conifer broad-leafed tree, and a Softwood is anything else (confier or needle-leafed).

Alright, I guess that’s a good an answer as any. I had wondered if tyria just had a different flora genealogy, but it seems its just unofficial.

Drakkon.4782:

So a Hardwood is a non-conifer broad-leafed tree, and a Softwood is anything else (confier or needle-leafed).

Fyi, Pine is a Softwood tree (needle-leafed evergreen.)

Donnach Donnchadha.7864:

Drakkon.4782:

So a Hardwood is a non-conifer broad-leafed tree, and a Softwood is anything else (confier or needle-leafed).

Fyi, Pine is a Softwood tree (needle-leafed evergreen.)

That’s what I said, yes.

Oh I thought you were alledging that pine was a hardwood despite its softness

Donnach Donnchadha.7864:

Oh I thought you were alledging that pine was a hardwood despite its softness

The hardness of the actual wood is not something that determines whether it is a hardwood or a softwood. Balsa, one of the softest woods in the world, is actually a hardwood, while Yew, one of the hardest in the world, is a softwood.

Hardwood and Softwood describe only the type of leaves the tree that they come form has. Hardwoods have broad leaves, and Softwoods have needle-like leaves. And to be even more confusing, there are broad-leaved evergreens like Holly that are hardwoods, so terms like “evergreens” doesn’t define hardwood or softwood, either. Conifer and non-conifer are closer to discriminators.