suggestion the durability system is stupid (and some ideas on what can be changed)

[deathwolf54]

why does when a hammer looses all of its durability it just goes poof?

hammers dont do that the handle breaks and you rehandle it or the head deforms and you just reforge it tools just vanish when they would not/should not

so below is ideas i have

sharpness meter that reduces efficiency for knifes and tools where the blade is part of what makes it work this could be implemented in any number of ways though adding a grindstone to sharpen things would be needed but can be automated like the quern and maybe a cheaper/early version of it could be a whetstone or something



change the pre-existing durability bar to instead represent amount of material left of the tool this will be reduced by sharpening as well as general wear and tear an example being a sword will chip when hitting something like metal armor if it is a sharp edge vs if it is already a dull edge (perhaps you can intentionally blunt the edge of a sword so it wont chip but dent or deform instead)


and you can reforge tools that have lost too much material to be useful in to a smaller unit of material you can reuse elsewhere or use to make a new tool

durability should instead be a stat rather then meter that tells you an objects ability to resist damage (becoming blunt or loosing material)

examples being copper will bend and deform before it chips o cracks because of how metal works but has a low durability because it becomes unusable relatively quickly but can be recasted with minimal copper loss

while iron on the other hand will have a high durability but sharper blades will chip or crack before they bend and need to be reforged and sharpened



and now on to the differences between objects

we will have these handful of things as how i will attempt to explain things

axe: is not effected much by being blunt when cutting trees as long as it has enough material cutting trees does not remove material from the axe (thus why axes last forever if you rehandle it)


hammer: hammer will have no sharpness meter because use your brain(you evolved it for a good reason) and will past copper basically never fail you all you need to think about now is the handle breaking

armor: is strong like an axe damage is sustained mostly with dents rather then it being punctured and needs to be repaired by knocking out the dents or enhardening that area to realign the metal (this is a tangent and can be ignored this is a real thing i swear the grain or internal structure of metal can be changed and made less effective thus why when repairing a sword you need to anneal it then reharden it to reset the internal stress to increase its strength or durability)




and i think this would be a good addition to the game because its realistic in a way that i think serves the gameplay

TL;DR a revamp to the durability of things based off wear and tear

[Thorfinn]

Sounds interesting. Make the mod and I'll give 'er a whirl.

[deathwolf54]

14 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Sounds interesting. Make the mod and I'll give 'er a whirl.

i cant code but i have been meaning to learn so give or take a year i might have something passable

maybe

[Nagahiro]

there's this mod called Toolsmith which adds everything you needed. it adds whetstones and grindstones that allows you to sharpen your tools and maintain their efficiency, as well as a handle and binding system that allows you to swap out the handles and bindings which allows for more durability and a less likely chance for the tool head to fly off the handle which you must then reattach it. it makes tools last longer than vanilla counterparts, but the trade off is that they need to be maintained, so you should bring a whetstone with you everywhere.

I highly recommend this mod as it's very nice to have and to actually interact and get invested in your tools instead of carelessly throwing them away once they become useless. it's not a matter of realism for me, but for an innate care towards the tools I use.

[Thorfinn]

It's kind of a niche thing. I can see myself trying it, but not using it beyond that trial period. That was my opinion of Anvil Metal Recovery and Smithing Plus, or whatever that was called, that let you haul around the broken tool head and patch it up at home. Problem being that tool head was around 18-19 nuggets,  or less than 5 pieces of high-grade ore. Am I going to carry home the broken pick that will have lower durability with each forging, or am I going to carry enough ore to make almost 13 picks? To ask the question is to answer it.

It probably has a lot of appeal to people who want more "realism" in the game, and to those who don't yet appreciate how plentiful metal is. If you used something that cuts metal use by 33%, you should probably reduce ore spawn rates by 33% to compensate.

[Echo Weaver]

I was on a server that used Toolsmith and found it pretty confusing, but it does seem to be the right sort of mod for folks who want more engagement with tools. If you can repair your tools, you don't need to find as many resources, so it seems like a pretty smooth tradeoff. At this point in my gameplay, I'm pretty excited to keep gathering resources, so the more simple resource-sink tool mechanic works for me.

[GeekFather]

I have to agree with OP. For a game that emphasizes certain things, like leather, crop rotations, cheese, weather, ect but ignored others like tool maintenance feels a bit off.

Stone tools break plain and simple. So should be left the way they are.  Softer metals like copper and bronze should need to be re-forged if they break. Or not. They could just be a stepping stone to iron but that's where things should probably change.

Iron tools and above should need re-handled, sharpened and maybe refaced in the case of a hammer. I think at least a sharpening kit would help for some field repairs. Up the durability of hammers. Have a powered grinding wheel for things like chisels and blades to sharpen at home.

There are plenty of mods that do these but none do it perfectly or are close but not updated.

These are just my meandering thoughts on this aspect of the game. Maybe disregard anything below Iron and leave it the way it is but once you get Iron it should feel huge. Right now the tools are just a bit faster with a bit more durability.

[Thorfinn]

I agree it seems a bit weird to not have anything left to show for your broken tool. It just goes *Poof*.

But the problem is that metal is so common, even on some of the hardest settings, that if metal does not go *Poof* that whole gameplay loop collapses. Reforge your chisel, maybe you have to add a fresh nugget or two, and you are good to go for another thousand blocks. But why? What's the point, for those of us who don't feel inspired to build Notre Dame?

Unless tool maintenance becomes a substantial outlay, something akin to repairing armor, and tools become vastly more expensive in the first place, most of that whole game experience vanishes. But if tools get more expensive, where does that leave the players who are having difficulty finding their first 40 copper nuggets?

[GeekFather]

People in trades and craftspeople in general have their favorite tool(s) they fix them when damaged. Throwing things away and getting a new one is more a modern outlook on things. Look how often people upgrade their cell phones. Not because the old one stopped working. Just that the new one is "better" or it's a status/flex thing.

I've been playing video games for the better part of 35 years. I've never minded tools that degrade as long as you have the ability to repair them. Ones that go poof after a certain amount of uses is bad mechanics to me. I get it's easy to just get a new one. It's just not satisfying nor is it remotly realistic to have a tool last less than a day of use in game. (Im talking iron and above tools. )

If tools degrade this quickly then this could be said for most of the light sources. Candles burn down and go out so they need replaced in your lanterns. The sails on the windmills get worn and tattered and again need replaced. 

 Ive been around and talked to plenty of crafts people. More than half of them have their grandfather's tools and use them regularly. I still have my grandfather's wood lathe as well as the chisels. 

As to not wanting to build "Notre Dame" that's fine and also why this game and games with similar crafting are great. Everyone can enjoy it the way they want. 

One part of maintenance would be the use of oil or fat to keep iron and above from rusting. That's a renewable but costly endeavor until you get a good animal farm up and running, Or a seed press gets added in to get oil. 

 As a compromise between the two sides of this, the devs could institute a repair limit. 5 to 10 times. Just spitballing. 

[Bumber]

2 hours ago, GeekFather said:

Ive been around and talked to plenty of crafts people. More than half of them have their grandfather's tools and use them regularly. I still have my grandfather's wood lathe as well as the chisels.

But how many have mined an entire mountain of its riches? There's an excessive amount of work being done here, and the tools are essentially being used up like drill bits. (Those last 30-100 hours of continuous use, for comparison. Modern carbide alloy.)

2 hours ago, GeekFather said:

One part of maintenance would be the use of oil or fat to keep iron and above from rusting. That's a renewable but costly endeavor until you get a good animal farm up and running, Or a seed press gets added in to get oil. 

As a compromise between the two sides of this, the devs could institute a repair limit. 5 to 10 times. Just spitballing. 

Would you enjoy it as much if you had to do all that just to reach around the current durability tools already have? The current numbers exist for gameplay purposes, and all those things you mentioned are easier than setting up an iron industry.

Edited October 29, 2025 by Bumber

[Thorfinn]

10 hours ago, GeekFather said:

As a compromise between the two sides of this, the devs could institute a repair limit. 5 to 10 times. Just spitballing. 

You've just described the Smithing Plus mod. Try it out and see if you don't agree that the default game has too much metal if you allow tool repair. Setting global spawn rate to the lowest setting, surface copper to extremely rare, and surface tin to never, I was still awash in metal. As a side effect, prospecting became much more hit or miss, and prospecting is already a frequent complaint here.

It's easy to spitball answers and miss the second and third order effects of those suggestions.

[Thorfinn]

8 hours ago, Bumber said:

Modern carbide alloy.

Tungsten carbide drills?

[LadyWYT]

Or could potentially just add a maintenance system(oiling, sharpening via grindstone, etc), that adds a chunk of extra durability/slightly faster workspeed/slightly more damage on top of the tool/weapon's base stats. The tool will still eventually break, but a player who puts in the time and effort to maintain their stuff will have stuff that lasts longer, while players who really don't want to bother won't be punished too much for skipping that loop(essentially tools and weapons function the same as current).

[MKMoose]

On 10/26/2025 at 4:05 AM, deathwolf54 said:

why does when a hammer looses all of its durability it just goes poof?

Simple, functional, avoids clutter. Provides gameplay incentives to encourage searching for more resource deposits.

 

3 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Or could potentially just add a maintenance system(oiling, sharpening via grindstone, etc), that adds a chunk of extra durability/slightly faster workspeed/slightly more damage on top of the tool/weapon's base stats. The tool will still eventually break, but a player who puts in the time and effort to maintain their stuff will have stuff that lasts longer, while players who really don't want to bother won't be punished too much for skipping that loop(essentially tools and weapons function the same as current).

This is arguably the best suggestion I've seen for more complex tool or weapon mechanics, especially if you also consider some interesting tradeoffs and not just ways to increase durability.

Sharpening is the big thing for any blades and it could offer plenty of depth by consuming durability to grant increased work speed or damage. It could also involve a minigame of sorts in the style of various crafting mechanics to enable more skill expression.

Oiling or greasing seems like an interesting way to increase maintenance complexity for iron and steel items specifically in the late game, though to make it remotely realistic it would also be necessary to add rusting (prevent rust with oiling or remove it afterwards with other methods; reduced durability loss while clean), and I don't know if we want to go this route. Reducing the rate of regular durability loss while oiled seems like a fine enough simplification, if necessary. It could be interesting to implement it in a way that ideally encourages oiling after each use, though may also end up tedious.

Handle replacement could be a thing, but it would have to be sufficiently unobtrusive and simple, so that advancing through the ages actually yields a notable increase to tool lifetime, because exchanging "replace the tool every 10 minutes" for "replace the handle every 10 minutes, and the toolhead every hour" basically doesn't change anything. Alternatively, just allow using better handles in place of sticks to slightly increase the base tool durability.

 

The above three, alongside cleaning which probably isn't a great fit for the game, were historically the most important parts of regular tool maintenance. Not all of them are necessarily crucial to be implemented, but all of them arguably stay within a suitable complexity balance and have a lot to offer to improve the overall experience.

More miscellaneous features like bowstring durability, bowstring tension or armor deformation can be implemented as well for things other than metal tools.

 

On 10/26/2025 at 4:05 AM, deathwolf54 said:

and you can reforge tools that have lost too much material to be useful in to a smaller unit of material you can reuse elsewhere or use to make a new tool

Reclaiming material from used tools is a fine idea as well and again very common historically. For copper and bronze tools it's typically done though recasting and for iron and steel tools through reforging into smaller tools of similar shape, both of which would have notable implementation issues in the current smelting and forging systems. There's also problems with reduced metal consumption rate and item clutter, as has been brought up in this thread. It's something I would be interested to see, but I worry it would require heavy balance changes and could end up causing many more issues than it solves .

 

More complex systems could be cool and realistic, but the gameplay goals that are to be achieved here are very important to keep in mind. Mods sometimes take a great feature and develop it in a highly unbalanced way, ending up with an overcomplicated, sometimes outright bloated feature that feels like it wants to take over an excessively large chunk of the core gameplay loop. The way I see it, we primarily want three things from more complex tool durability and associated mechanics:

1. The new options should facilitate player agency and mastery by allowing to prioritize different goals and exchange resources for different ones or for various benefits, be it time, oil, metal, durability, work speed or anything of the sort. Resource tradeoffs and conversions are crucial for the game as it is currently designed and it should stay that way. Things like recasting don't do that - they just return clutter that can be reprocessed for new things at very little additional cost.

2. The system should improve interaction with tools, to treat them more as important items that the player can care for so that they give back in turn in a more dynamic way, and not as a fixed-rate resource expenditure. A small amount of extra effort should give substantial benefits to reward deeper engagement with the game, but without punishing the player if they skip it. Toolsmith apparently puts this as the main goal for its mechanics, and it seems fairly well-implemented in that regard.

3. The system has to be entirely or mostly optional and shouldn't increase the baseline complexity of the game, so as to avoid overwhelming new players with excessively complex features or tacking on extra maintenance effort on those who don't want to engage with it. This is primarily where Toolsmith ends up pretty much completely unfit for the vanilla game, and that's why it should stay as a mod for those who want the extra flavor. Stone tools should remain entirely as they currently are, and further as the player advances through the game complexity should be added progressively and slowly, only significantly increasing towards the end of progression for the highest potential gains with iron and steel tools.

 

As a side note, my one pet peeve is that hammers seem to get used up way too fast. On my current world I've already used more metal on hammers than on pickaxes at the beginning of the Iron Age, and I still have close to a thousand various ore nuggets left to process, two dozen ingots in storage, and multiple unfinished deposits. Maybe I've just been lucky or haven't experienced enough late-game prospecting, but it feels kinda wrong how the most blunt tool in the game seems to get used up by far the fastest for me.

[Nagahiro]

On 10/29/2025 at 9:54 AM, Thorfinn said:

But the problem is that metal is so common, even on some of the hardest settings, that if metal does not go *Poof* that whole gameplay loop collapses

just give more uses to metals, like rails, fittings, more uses for nails (like for the sailboat maybe), machinery, pipes/conduits, decorations, reinforcing/fortifications, chain links, anchors/weights. and a lot more other uses. doesn't have to account for the other metal variants, only those that would believably be suited for the job, like copper for pipes, and steel for rails, and such. however it would be way long before we get all those lol. let's just hope for the best

[Broccoli Clock]

my 2 cents..

If I was designing the game for immersion then all tools should have the option of the handle breaking. Almost every tool (except the chisel) uses sticks, and that seems like an obvious failure point. Some tools should become blunt. Axes, knives, pickaxes, saws, etc.. all rely on a cutting edge, that edge should dull an in turn reduce efficiency. Perhaps to a point it "drops down a tier" (ie: quartz needs level 3 pick, if a level 3 pick is badly worn it should stop being able to mine quartz). This would facilitate the introduction of a grind stone (or similar) to sharpen things, and that grind stone could provide other functionality.

However, if I was designing the game so that there are artificial limitations that alter the progression and length of the game (for the better) then I'd design it like it is now. It could do with a tweak here and there, but if there was no durability it would lead to people mining iron once in their playthrough and never again. After all, why would you need more iron/steel if the iron/steel you have never breaks.

[Thorfinn]

8 hours ago, Nagahiro said:

just give more uses to metals

Sure. Until then, though...?

I'm not sure I see it as a solution, though. It's easy to amass resin and fat enough for automation, yet a not uncommon complaint is that automation requires too much farming of scarce resources. It's too hard to have quern locked behind anvil. Prospecting is too hard. It should point magically, unerringly to the deposit.

If you want some "immersive" maintenance, like @LadyWYT suggested, or broken handles, like @Broccoli Clock suggests, fine. There are mods for the first, and if there are not for the second, it should not be too terribly difficult to add a handle breaking thing. But practically speaking, what does it mean? Put the head in the crafting grid with another stick?

Why not just turn up the spawn rates to something that doesn't make you feel you are having to grind so much? After playing the game a while, you will probably find yourself nudging that number back towards or beyond defaults, just as you did the starting HP, the enemy damage multiplier, the hunger rate, the spoilage rate, etc.