Tools and Weapons From Most Ingots

[PineReseen]

Now, I am aware that this suggestion might not be the most practical, but hear me out on this.

What if we could make tools and weapons from tin, lead, zinc, ect.? They would probably not be very durable (Like tin or lead), but they could be used if you have ran out of other materials for whatever reason, or just wanted to screw around, I guess. It would also finally make the tool and weapon recipes mostly consistent. Maybe even tin can armour?

This would probably be easy to implement, as from what I know you do not need to make a new tool texture, and just use the ingot texture. The hardest part could very well be the stats.
Maybe lead even could inflict lead poisoning? Who knows?

What do y'all think?

Edited April 5, 2025 by PineReseen
Forgot to actually mention lead poisoning

[LadyWYT]

I think it's probably territory that's better suited to the modded realm than for the vanilla game, since the vanilla game tends to focus more on realism for the most part. There's a reason that tools and weapons generally aren't made from soft metal; the material used needs to be tough enough to both get the job done and retain its shape after repeated use.

Plus even if you ignore the realism aspect and add it anyway...if the resulting products have terrible stats to reflect the material used...why would you bother making them to begin with? Copper isn't particularly rare, and you can smelt it with tin to get a bronze alloy, which is much better.

6 hours ago, PineReseen said:

Maybe lead even could inflict lead poisoning? Who knows?

Poison is better suited for an alchemy mechanic. Brew your poisons from certain mushrooms and other things.

[PineReseen]

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I think it's probably territory that's better suited to the modded realm than for the vanilla game, since the vanilla game tends to focus more on realism for the most part. There's a reason that tools and weapons generally aren't made from soft metal; the material used needs to be tough enough to both get the job done and retain its shape after repeated use.

Plus even if you ignore the realism aspect and add it anyway...if the resulting products have terrible stats to reflect the material used...why would you bother making them to begin with? Copper isn't particularly rare, and you can smelt it with tin to get a bronze alloy, which is much better. [...]

I mean, I do agree that tools and weapons aren't usually made from weak materials like tin, and that it probably wouldn't be realistic nor useful, but I feel like the developers have already crossed that line by adding gold tools. For example, the gold pickaxe has half the durability of copper, and I'd assume that gold is pretty hard to find compared to copper.

Tin would probably be a pretty bad material to use, even in things that don't include mining blocks like knives or cleavers, but there are more resistant metals like Nickel or Zinc that might actually be on-par or better than gold! If we are to trust Wikipedia, Zinc deforms harder (Poisson ratio), is equally resistant to scratching as Gold (Mohs hardness), and is more resistant to indentation (Brinell hardness) than Gold!

Nickel even more resistant, it has a higher Brinell and Mohs hardness than Zinc, and it does deform easier than Zinc, but it's still harder than Gold.

Bismuth, Tin, and Lead aren't as good, but I don't see a reason why we should stop arbitrarily at Gold.
Do note that I'm not a materials scientist so I could be missing a lot of other values that determine hardness or brittleness and overall suitability for tools, or just plain misinterpreting them.

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

[...] Poison is better suited for an alchemy mechanic. Brew your poisons from certain mushrooms and other things.

Yeah, I agree. Just threw out that idea for not much reason.

[Broccoli Clock]

19 hours ago, PineReseen said:

Now, I am aware that this suggestion might not be the most practical, but hear me out on this.

What if we could make tools and weapons from tin, lead, zinc, ect.? They would probably not be very durable (Like tin or lead), but they could be used if you have ran out of other materials for whatever reason, or just wanted to screw around, I guess. It would also finally make the tool and weapon recipes mostly consistent. Maybe even tin can armour?

Those metals are used as alloys in game, so it's not like they are useless metals, what's more they are used as alloys in real life too for the simple reason they are not strong enough.

What would be more realistic is to use that sort of metal to make trinkets and jewellery. The lead poisoning is an interesting thing as lead was used "medicinally" in the time period VS's alternative timeline exists in, people had no idea it was poisonous.

[PineReseen]

29 minutes ago, Broccoli Clock said:

Those metals are used as alloys in game, so it's not like they are useless metals, what's more they are used as alloys in real life too for the simple reason they are not strong enough. [...]

I don't quite find this argument convincing enough, since we already have golden tools in the game, and they're even weaker than copper tools, and I don't think there were many, if any pure-gold tools. Furthermore, Gold is used in Black Bronze, which puts Gold in almost the exact same scenario as Lead, Tin, Nickel, Zinc, or Bismuth.

In other words, Gold is a metal entirely impractical to use in tools or weapons in real life, and is also used in a metal alloy. Zinc is also a metal impractical for tools in real life, and is used in a metal alloy. Same goes for Lead, Tin, Nickel, and Bismuth. The only thing that sets Gold apart from all the other unworkable ores is the fact that it can be used for armour, and tools.

So, why not, eh?

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, PineReseen said:

The only thing that sets Gold apart from all the other unworkable ores is the fact that it can be used for armour, and tools.

That, and gold tends to be more difficult to acquire en masse. Silver/gold items are more just a flex than anything, and possibly a holdover from the other block game. I'd still keep those as-is, but up the decoration on some of the models perhaps. As for more mundane materials like lead? No one's going to be bragging about having a lead pickaxe, or going to be excited about getting a lead shovel as a prize.

6 minutes ago, PineReseen said:

Furthermore, Gold is used in Black Bronze, which puts Gold in almost the exact same scenario as Lead, Tin, Nickel, Zinc, or Bismuth.

You are correct in that silver and gold can be used for black bronze alloy, but again, both precious metals are harder to get ahold of than other materials, so no one's really going to be opting for black bronze. Especially not when you need precious metal for Jonas tech and lantern linings, if you're going to min/max on your lighting.

[Broccoli Clock]

12 minutes ago, PineReseen said:

I don't quite find this argument convincing enough, since we already have golden tools in the game, and they're even weaker than copper tools, and I don't think there were many, if any pure-gold tools.

Traditionally, IRL that is, gold tools were ornaments, not practical. You say this in your second paragraph, "Gold is a metal entirely impractical to use in tools or weapons in real life". Just because you can smith them doesn't mean you are meant to use them. That argument could be used for things like zinc or lead but those aren't valuable metals.

12 minutes ago, PineReseen said:

So, why not, eh?

I've got nothing against it, I just think those metals would be better suited to things like jewellery (the lead ingot is already used for windows), or for adding detail when chiselling.

There is so much "clutter" to be found that I'd be surprised if there isn't some form of jewellery or trinket crafting at some point.

[PineReseen]

3 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

That, and gold tends to be more difficult to acquire en masse. Silver/gold items are more just a flex than anything, and possibly a holdover from the other block game. I'd still keep those as-is, but up the decoration on some of the models perhaps. As for more mundane materials like lead? No one's going to be bragging about having a lead pickaxe, or going to be excited about getting a lead shovel as a prize. [...]

I feel like this is mostly a point of opinion. I think that conspicuously posh things like Golden tools should not be given special treatment solely based on the fact that they are a sign of luxury. Gotta be all or nothin' in my opinion.

3 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

[...] You are correct in that silver and gold can be used for black bronze alloy, but again, both precious metals are harder to get ahold of than other materials, so no one's really going to be opting for black bronze. Especially not when you need precious metal for Jonas tech and lantern linings, if you're going to min/max on your lighting.

Yeah, that's fair. Although, there's also Electrum, but I haven't gone that far yet. The wiki page says something about "advanced technological components" (Jonas tech?), so that pretty much still makes Gold largely similar to Tin (Bronze), Lead (Solder), Bismuth (Bronze again), Zinc (Brass), or Nickel (Cupronickel, also for advanced technology from what I know. Nickel's just the off-brand gold!)

[PineReseen]

3 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

Traditionally, IRL that is, gold tools were ornaments, not practical. You say this in your second paragraph, "Gold is a metal entirely impractical to use in tools or weapons in real life". Just because you can smith them doesn't mean you are meant to use them. That argument could be used for things like zinc or lead but those aren't valuable metals. [...]

As I said in another reply, I find this point to be mostly opinion-based. I mean, golden crowns, sure, but tools? Why not just add in the rest? I mean, I would understand excluding heavy work tools like axes or pickaxes for low melting point materials since that would impact progression/most of them are way too soft for that kind of wear and tear (That argument kind of went out the window with Gold though...)

3 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

[...] I've got nothing against it, I just think those metals would be better suited to things like jewellery (the lead ingot is already used for windows), or for adding detail when chiselling.

There is so much "clutter" to be found that I'd be surprised if there isn't some form of jewellery or trinket crafting at some point.

Yeah, sorry if that was kind of offensive. Though, trinkets and tools don't necessarily have to exclude the other, tools would probably be very easy to make, you just take the template of existing pickaxes and copy it with some changed textures. Maybe I'll make a mod for that?