1.22 Metalworking is weird

[DOOM_Dwarf]

It seems to me that the new metalworking system, mainly quenching and tempering is weirdly unrealistic and... just a little random?

Like, quenching and tempering doesnt work like that in real life.
What about copper, bronze and plain iron? None of those can be heat treated. Only steel with a decent carbon content hardens with heat treatment.
Bronze can be cold forged to make it tougher and harder.
I could totaly understand why they did it for all metals, thats fair enough, but why only for falxes? Why not just wait and implement it for all tools?
Why not just integrate the Toolsmith mod at this point, if the devs with for a more complex weapon/tool making system?

It just feels like and incomplete concept, poorly implemented just because.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Maelstrom]

It's a game and some things in games are not realistic so that the game is fun.   Having better stats (durability, damage, etc.) on equipment is fun, therefore getting those benefits is fun.

[Foe Hammer]

As @Maelstrom said, there are sacrifices of realism for the sake of fun and enjoyment. Like it is unrealistic for a leather backpack to be capable of holding dozens of metric tons of just stone, let alone for a person to carry 4 of them with all the weight impediment of having picked up a cool flower lol.

That said, I do feel you on it being weird. And while I do use ToolSmith, I understand that not everyone would be super happy to have it as a default system with how many moving parts it has. I also am not a huge fan of the simple act of quenching can cause a blade/tool to just self destruct. I would prefer at least some way to re-forge should it fail.

I will also say that the actual mechanics of metallurgy, specifically as it pertains to iron and steel heat treating and carbon content is deceptively complex, and while I am here for such low level suffering due to my interest in the subject, I know for some, maybe many, it would be an annoyance.

Ultimately in my opinion, the devs have to thread the needle of realistic for those who love it, and intuitive and enjoyable gameplay for those who do not. Having these mods that let you turn up, turn down, or even just outright remove 'the suck' allows them to do that and let the people on the ends of the bell curve tailor their experience.

Edited Friday at 07:11 PM by Foe Hammer

[cjameshuff]

I've wondered about possible approaches for cold working, work hardening, and annealing for cuprous alloys and silver. Perhaps use something similar to the temperature mechanic, but which builds with each hammer strike until the workpiece gets hard enough that hammer strikes start failing to move voxels, then anneal to return the piece to a soft state. I don't think it'd be overly complicated compared to the unrealistic hot-working that is the current state, and might give some reason to keep a stock of plates, rods, etc instead of working everything from ingots every time. Maybe add a peening hammer with similar effects to the grindstone.

A couple other oddities with nonferrous metals: solder is very easy to cold work and can also easily be dribbled into sticks on a flat surface, so the idea of taking a saw to some ingots to make sticks is rather silly. And bismuth is very brittle...you just cast it to shape.

And back to ferrous alloys: we have wrought iron, we have steel, but we don't have cast iron?

[Vyralator]

People mentioned the trade-off between fun and realism (or I sometimes like to look at as realism vs authenticity) and I think another good example is prospecting. Nothing about how that is implemented is realistic, but if it were, it would be absolutely mind numbingly tedious. So it feels somewhat authentic while not being realistic.

I was also disappointed, that the new update only affects higher tiers of tools which I don't even have access to on my current save, but I'm assuming that the system will be expanded upon in the future. At least the handbook entry implies there will be more liquids to quench in and I assume the other stuff will be expanded aswell

[Tabbot95]

idk people are insisting "fun rather than realism".. idk I think there's a fair way to have a bit of both.

some mechanism for "work hardening" might be good to see, and having enhanced smithing techniques (more complicated production, temperature control setups, etc) would benefit the balancing of 'endgame' equipment.. (things like crossbows, plate armor, etc.)..

Personally I got very attached to the way Smithing Plus worked, getting to collect bits (especially extra bits from iron blooms) was great and I liked the additional control options on the hammer/tongs..

 

Additional modes the anvil could be used in might be nice to see, (for things like horse-shoes), schematics being something learnable, some emphasis on WYSWG;