Repair of tools

[Tem Deker]

It would be good to repair tools and not make them back, for example: hammer + ingots + broken tool = repaired tool

Thanks

[Screwy]

This will and should not happen. We don't have the power of forming metal in our bare hands here, we are not called Steve.

Of what advantage would it be anyway? You still need a hammer and the required ingot. You save one stick

Getting some metal bits back when a tool breaks or making a grindstone to refresh your tools through mechanical power are more likely approaches to that issue. All of those we already see in mods and I guess the team is on to it.

Otherwise you could just have stackable tools, by carrying a stack of ingots and using them, whenever your Pick is about to break. Would feel like ammunition for your mining rifle. So I disagree with your suggestion. No offense, but sorry. Not my approach. 

[daretmavi]

Repairing on anvil could work.

Broken tool - make hot - add a bit of metal - bum bum -> repaired tool (with reduces durability)

• less material needed
• less time needed
• less durability with every repair (one day you have to smelt it)

[Screwy]

That's how it should be done! 

Not to simple, not exploitable, not to complicated. You don't need to add a whole ingot to repair something, that consists of just one ingot. 

What about the stick? You can't put that on a forge. Do we need a new one, after the repair? In that case, the blade can't be stackable anymore, because of differing durability. I would leave that part out and just give a completely new blade as output, so you just need another stick. 

[Windego]

The (Broken) tool once it reaches 0 durability could revert back to just the head.
With that, i mean you'd have a (For example) iron axe. It breaks and you lose the handle as it becomes a new item entirely for the time being.
So you'd have a -Broken Iron Axe Head-
You grab another handle (Stick) and add it to the new Broken Iron Axe Head to make a -Worn Down Iron Axe-
You take that to a new block called a Grind Stone Wheel and add a new edge to the worn down axe.
Now the result would be an iron axe that has.. Let's say... 10% - 20% less durability in total? Repeat the process let's say.... 1 to 2 more times and you have to make an entire new axe head all-together. It's still time consuming. You won't be saving any deforestation... But at least you'll save some limited resources and potential prospecting trips in the dead of winter.

[Windego]

To add to that, the grind stone could be used to add 5% damage to a sword and/or spear so it's not purely for repairs either.

 

[Screwy]

Giving a "sharpened" effect via grindstone sounds interesting. Should be restricted to about 100-300 uses, depending on the quality of your grindstone. And this should also be the only gain in durability, the grindstone should be capable to provide. I would even invent a new crafting mechanic for grinding stuff, where you need to be careful not to damage the tool further. Simply because this is the case in real life too.
But the broken axe head thing sound unnecessarily complicated to me. Nice idea, but not quite practical when you think twice. I'd rather suggest to drop about 5-15 metal bits, whenever a tool breaks. That preserves some resources, sounds logical and the feature already exists in mods. Simple to code, no need for extra item types, no hording of broken stuff, before you construct a windmill. Just a few pieces of metal for your next ingot.

[Windego]

We could even go the long mile and say combine all of it. Prevent the tool from ever going to 0 and thus turn into a broken head so long as you keep 'feeding' it metal bits. But if you're low on that particular metal due to not having found a new deposit.. You can let it reach 0 and repair it at the grind stone instead.

[Screwy]

Doesn't sound convenient. Is it now repaired by adding or by removing material?
I would even say, that the durability goes down, every time you sharpen your tool (depending on your personal skills in grinding). A grindstone, after all, works by removing a thin layer of metal from the egde of a blade. A breaking tool doesn't do so, because it isn't sharp enough, but because the material gets cracked and slightly out of shape.
Repair through metal bits, sharpen through grindstone. Clear differenciation at this point. The system has to follow a kind of logic, after all.
How about decrasing tool efficiency and damage output if the durability is lower than 50%? Maybe the "sharpened" effect can be used to keep your tools efficient enough, even in lower durability.

[Windego]

Well.. You do have solid points. I agree it all sounds quite complex but maybe the entire idea as a whole would be the proverbial spark for a skilled mod developer to implement it all as a separate thing for people who like complexity.

It's some times hard for me to convey my thoughts into proper words because English isn't my native language. So, sorry for that.
I'll try to explain the idea I had down below the best I can manage.

The initial idea I had in mind, though I worded it poorly was...

If you have a 100% durability, brand new iron axe..
You eventually will wear it down. When chopping wood in the forest in real life, rarely is any tree bark dirt free at the base. This means that eventually the edge wears down and the more blunt it gets, the less it'll actually do what it's supposed to do.
What usually breaks with an axe is the handle itself. Unless you're chopping away at a solid iron statue.. Your axe won't actually break down to the point where it vanishes from existence.
The duller the edge, the more force you have to add to chop down the tree. The more force is applied, the easier it is to break the wooden handle.

The thought was to add variety in options for people, depending on what they want to do and what resources they have available to them.

So the options would have been...

-Brand new axe, all used up. -> You're given a dull axe head. -> Add a new handle. -> Sharpen it at a grind stone. -> It's good to go, but has 95% max durability left.
(This option would be for those people who are on their last bits of iron and haven't had the luck finding a new iron deposit. So they'd be looking to save some iron.)

-Brand new axe, 1% durability left, never repaired with the method above. -> they remove the head. -> heat up the head. and add a nugget or two of iron.-> They repair it over an anvil. -> Add the handle back. -> A new axe good to go.
(Obviously for those that have plenty of iron but still want to save some iron resources just because they can and like to do it this way.)

-Brand new axe, all used up. -> You're given a dull axe head. -> You make a new axe from a new iron ingot. -> You put the *Stackable* dull heads in a bloomery. -> You get 50% -70% of the iron back as nuggets.
(This is not so much apart from what we now have, with the added idea of recycling the worn down axe head. )

-The grindstone would take away ( 5%? ) of the tools total durability if you use it to sharpen / repair a dull axe head. (Or any tool head)
-The grindstone would take away ( 1%? ) of the tools or weapons total durability, but, it will add a bonus to it of a given %. (25?)
(For weapons it would give it a damage boost. For tools it would be a speed boost.)

Hope this is a bit more clear as to what I had tried to say before.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Windego

[Camilo Rojas]

agreed durability should be linked to the head of the tool, or in case of the shears the whole thing, so when durability reaches 0 you have to re forge the object at the anvil, probably addings small bits of the same metal to re shape it, then just add a new stick and done. on the other hand another simpler option would be. any tool with 0 durability becomes a broken something, and you can use the chisel to break up and recover some metal bits back.