Sturdy Stick

[Kosti]

I present you with the Sturdy stick, it will be an item only needed once reaching iron age+. Where as currently all you need is a random stick picked out from the forest, let's be real, most won't be durable enough to make a pickaxe with, so instead the sturdy stick will replace the forest ones once you reach the iron age and beyound. 

To make a sturdy stick you'll need one normal stick, a saw and a lump of fat. It will function similarly to the long bowstave where once you craft it, the item will need some time to become sturdy enough for your iron or steel tools.

"Why add another unnecessary process to the iron age considering how hard it is?" Well, we have to remember just how much this game is about realism, can you really go into the forest, pick a random stick and make an iron pickaxe with it? No. And if you've read the item descriptions, it's likely we'll be able to forge even more powerful tools in the future from better alloys, let's not forget we have stuff like titanium in the game. So ultimately, I believe adding it will just make the game feel more realistic and add a tad bit of surprice to anyone reaching the iron age on "why can't i craft my pickaxe and hammer?!?".

[Amadeo4444]

Sounds cool, although one fat per tool seems like too high a production cost

[Facethief]

Maybe a batch craft of 4 or something

[LadyWYT]

6 hours ago, Kosti said:

So ultimately, I believe adding it will just make the game feel more realistic and add a tad bit of surprice to anyone reaching the iron age on "why can't i craft my pickaxe and hammer?!?".

I agree that it would add surprise, but I doubt it would be the fun kind. I would say most of the crafting recipes in the game aren't realistic as well. While Vintage Story leans heavily into realism, realism does not always equal fun. That's probably why a lot of recipes just require a plain stick instead of a more specific item; it's realistic enough to be decently believable, but not dogmatic to the point the game isn't fun anymore. For example, sewing kits require sticks to craft, rather than requiring a needle. Arrows use plain sticks, despite the fact that realistically you'd need proper shafts. Fences use sticks too, but if you've ever seen a wooden fence it's hardly just sticks used in their construction. You could make separate items for each of those recipes, of course, but at that point you're using up more drive space for a bunch of different items that only have one or two highly specific purposes. A plain stick, however, gets the point across, saves on drive space, and allows a player more time to devote to other various things the game has to offer.

For a mod though, I think it'd be fine. I think there's already a mod or two that implements the concept of requiring the player to refine wooden handles for their tools. I don't recall those mods being all that popular, but they do exist.

[Kosti]

4 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I agree that it would add surprise, but I doubt it would be the fun kind. I would say most of the crafting recipes in the game aren't realistic as well. While Vintage Story leans heavily into realism, realism does not always equal fun. That's probably why a lot of recipes just require a plain stick instead of a more specific item; it's realistic enough to be decently believable, but not dogmatic to the point the game isn't fun anymore. For example, sewing kits require sticks to craft, rather than requiring a needle. Arrows use plain sticks, despite the fact that realistically you'd need proper shafts. Fences use sticks too, but if you've ever seen a wooden fence it's hardly just sticks used in their construction. You could make separate items for each of those recipes, of course, but at that point you're using up more drive space for a bunch of different items that only have one or two highly specific purposes. A plain stick, however, gets the point across, saves on drive space, and allows a player more time to devote to other various things the game has to offer.

For a mod though, I think it'd be fine. I think there's already a mod or two that implements the concept of requiring the player to refine wooden handles for their tools. I don't recall those mods being all that popular, but they do exist.

fair enough!

[Evoken]

I think that this would be a great idea to make somewhat better tools but leave the standard recipe in place. So if you want to make a pickaxe or hammer fast then just go with regular stick but if you want to make something better (maybe you're low on that particular ore) then go with sturdy stick, maybe from sturdy stick create better handle? ^^