The following bug was first noticed shortly after the Attribute Dream update.
The following all used to work reliably:
1) if a hearthling has a shovel equipped, and a belt containing an axe, and starts to chop a tree, the axe will be auto-equipped.
2) if they then select "destroy" on a stump, the shovel would be auto-equipped. (Note that this requires a free hand or belt spot - which they will have if they started with the shovel equipped)
3) if on the other hand, they instead selected "lift" on a bush, the shovel would also be auto-equipped.
Since the _Attribute Dream_ update, (1) and (3) still work, but (2) is broken. The hearthling will instead chop away at the stump with their axe, at immense cost in stamina.
The player needs to manually switch tools.
This is a *change* in behaviour. I cannot imagine why such a change would have been made on purpose.
Neither person who reported this in the Attribute Dream thread has received a developer response so far, so I'm repeating the report here in the bugs forum in the hopes that it will be noticed.
Please fix this.