Topic category: Feature requests and ideas for MCreator
While there is ways of making crops and saplings in MCreator, the current ways all have pitfalls and end up being one of the most complex mod elements in terms of procedures needed just to retread the same steps that already exist in the game. It ends up being a way to "mimic" vanilla crops, but because it doesn't follow minecrafts own systems for crops or saplings, it creates mod incompatibilities with mods that alter those processes, such as Serene Seasons for Crops, or Botany Pots for both Crops & Saplings.
If there was a dedicated generator for these, a lot of wasted time would be saved having to setup working bonemeal, working growth stages, and a lot of mimicking of what already exists in the game, and could make mods that add new wood types, or new foods that require crops, a lot less time-consuming to make, and have a better chance at being compatible with mods that alter these processes. I have a mod idea sitting on the backburner currently because the complexity of making these by hand for several dozen crops ends up being more hassle than its worth.
For the crops generator, all you'd need is to use vanilla's own crop system, and give us a way to have several growth stage textures, and a seed item & harvest item, for saplings it could be as simple as a custom tree structure, with the bonemeal interaction & flower pot interraction implemented from vanilla
I think dedicating custom generators for these could get MCreator 1 step closer to being able to cover all of Vanilla's features.
I agree with everything said here. For a mod I am working on, I was going to add a rice crop, but in the end, it just turned out so complex I couldn't do it. It would be AMAZING if MCreator could add this feature :)