Progression of tools [some spoilers, maybe]
Progression of tools [some spoilers, maybe]
I had some difficulty figuring out the order of progression for the early game tools and feel it is somewhat counterintuitive. The fact that the pointy stick is your first digging tool and can be used both on stone and coal, combined with the idea that the sharpened rock is more of a cutting implement, initially led me to believe it was also the only tool suitable for mining iron.
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FlowerChild
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Re: Progression of tools [some spoilers, maybe]
I wavered a lot on this one, renaming items back and forth several times.
IMO, it all comes down to the item names hinting at initial usage or not. In the end, I opted for descriptive names that suit a wide variety of roles, rather than ones that tell the player exactly what to do at start, but which then pigeon hole the tools into specific uses.
For example, with the "Pointy Stick", I tried "Wood Pry" for awhile (I think that was actually the first name I gave it, thinking that the more generic "wood chisel" was just way too bland to even bother with). This gives a very clear indication of the initial role, but then feels distinctly weird for stuff like using it as a spit.
What I wound up deciding is that the first few minutes of the game aren't worth the long term sacrifices. Minecraft has always been a "wiki game" in that people look for instructions on crafting recipes and such, and I think it exceedingly unlikely that someone will go into the mod completely blind besides the first few relatively spoiler-free weeks after I released with zero instructions. Even your own thread title here indicates uncertainty over whether such details are already known to people or not, so you seem to simultaneously be saying "this wasn't obvious" and "I suspect everyone knows this" :)
Anyways, suffice to say that I hear you, and I even agree with you, however, I don't think it should be "fixed".
IMO, it all comes down to the item names hinting at initial usage or not. In the end, I opted for descriptive names that suit a wide variety of roles, rather than ones that tell the player exactly what to do at start, but which then pigeon hole the tools into specific uses.
For example, with the "Pointy Stick", I tried "Wood Pry" for awhile (I think that was actually the first name I gave it, thinking that the more generic "wood chisel" was just way too bland to even bother with). This gives a very clear indication of the initial role, but then feels distinctly weird for stuff like using it as a spit.
What I wound up deciding is that the first few minutes of the game aren't worth the long term sacrifices. Minecraft has always been a "wiki game" in that people look for instructions on crafting recipes and such, and I think it exceedingly unlikely that someone will go into the mod completely blind besides the first few relatively spoiler-free weeks after I released with zero instructions. Even your own thread title here indicates uncertainty over whether such details are already known to people or not, so you seem to simultaneously be saying "this wasn't obvious" and "I suspect everyone knows this" :)
Anyways, suffice to say that I hear you, and I even agree with you, however, I don't think it should be "fixed".
Re: Progression of tools [some spoilers, maybe]
Haha, that is a very fair assessment indeed. Yeah, I realized this would be a one-time issue only for most players but figured it might be an observation worth sharing.FlowerChild wrote:Even your own thread title here indicates uncertainty over whether such details are already known to people or not, so you seem to simultaneously be saying "this wasn't obvious" and "I suspect everyone knows this" :)
Anyways, suffice to say that I hear you, and I even agree with you, however, I don't think it should be "fixed".
Anyway, thank your for your reply, reading your thoughts behind BTW's development is essentially the coolest feature of hanging around on this forum :)