Practical quasi-lore: Tool uses

Practical quasi-lore: Tool uses

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Posted by: Equinox.4968

Equinox.4968

This isn’t exactly lore, but it offers a practical explanation for why harvesting tools have different uses, so I guess it’s lore insofar as it’s a rationale using in-game logic.

Anyone’s who’s played the game probably knows that logging axes and pickaxes have 100 uses each, while sickles only have 50 uses each. This kind of makes sense because you get at least 3 of the same material from wood and ore nodes, whereas there is a wide variety of harvestable plants. But how can we make sense of this from a Tyrian perspective?

If you look at the harvesting animations, the logging axe is a double-bitted axe, and the pickaxe likewise has two heads. Both of these are similar to how logging and mining tools were traditionally made in real life—you’d have two heads on the same tool so that if one side got blunted, you could use the other and get twice as much life out of the tool before having to resharpen it. When you can take your time breaking rock and cutting wood and don’t have to use the tool to defend yourself, a little added weight is worth the convenience, especially if you’re taking a long trip to gather materials.

This, to me, explains why sickles only have 50 uses—they only have one usable edge. If the “base sharpness” of a tool is 50 uses, then the fact that axes and pickaxes have two heads means that they have twice the usable edges.

I hope this isn’t disgustingly obvious to you folks, since I know people on the lore forums are notoriously clever. It’s just something I’ve been thinking of for a while that is either entirely coincidental or a great example of fridge brilliance.

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Posted by: Wanderer.3248

Wanderer.3248

Interesting, but I think the reason that you only get 50 sickles a slot has more to do with game balance (because each node only consumes one use) than with any lore reason.

On a related note – one of the most formidable weapons of the late medieval period was a modified pruning shear, called the bill

I’d love to see one of these in game. You could use it to cut down saplings, or cut the legs off of enemies…

Practical quasi-lore: Tool uses

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Posted by: Equinox.4968

Equinox.4968

Interesting, but I think the reason that you only get 50 sickles a slot has more to do with game balance (because each node only consumes one use) than with any lore reason.

I agree, but I’m trying to use the in-game logic to provide a reasonable explanation for that phenomenon. This is the most plausible one I’ve come up with, and as I said, it ties into real-life logic with the actual purpose behind double-bitted axes and picks.

On a related note – one of the most formidable weapons of the late medieval period was a modified pruning shear, called the bill

And surprisingly effective given that it was mostly peasants who used them to take down knights. The only other really effective anti-knight melee weapons of the late medieval era were prohibitively heavy, like spears where half the length of the weapon was solid steel to aid in armor penetration. Too bad there aren’t any land-based polearms in the game (yet).

I’d still love to see the basic crafting tools as weapon skins.

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Posted by: Horst Hortensie.5420

Horst Hortensie.5420

Problem is that logging axes aren’t two sided. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Copper_Logging_Axe

And even a common pick has two different sides. One for picking and one to lever.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Pickaxe.jpg

I would explain it another way. A log and raw ore don’t need a clean cut to gather, because they are refined before they are used. A herb or other plants need a clean cut to not degenerate too fast (it’s food after all). A sickle needs to be sharp and becomes useless if not, while a logging axe or mining pick can still provide acceptable service until they break.

Slow clap for the great puppet player.

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Posted by: Haaznahnuff.1907

Haaznahnuff.1907

Logging axes do have two sides.. They differ from the inventory icon!

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Posted by: Horst Hortensie.5420

Horst Hortensie.5420

Slow clap for the great puppet player.

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Posted by: Equinox.4968

Equinox.4968

First: I’m only referring to the “standard” logging axes you get from vendors. The special ones dont’ count, because 1) they’re by definition unbreakable, and 2) they were intentionally made to stand out visually from regular tools.

Second: I’m referring to the axe your character uses during the chopping animation, not the inventory icon. Grab a vendor axe, go to the nearest tree node, and chop away. You’ll notice the implement in your character’s hands is double-bitted. (Note: I did this myself right before posting this thread to make sure that I wasn’t just remembering things incorrectly.)

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Posted by: Wanderer.3248

Wanderer.3248

As far as I can remember I’ve never see a double headed axe IRL. I’ve owned a few hatchets, axes and log splitters, and all of them have been single headed.

I’m not even sure that real world war axes were double headed. I suspect that the standard fantasy axe is about as realistic as horned helmets.

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Posted by: Equinox.4968

Equinox.4968

As far as I can remember I’ve never see a double headed axe IRL. I’ve owned a few hatchets, axes and log splitters, and all of them have been single headed.

These days they are, but back before metallurgy was an exact science and tools were crude, they did use double-bitted felling axes for the reasons stated above. It’s a product of older times though, and these days there’s really no point.

I’m not even sure that real world war axes were double headed. I suspect that the standard fantasy axe is about as realistic as horned helmets.

Exactly my point. There were virtually never any double-bitted combat axes; it’s a fantasy appeal to the “Rule of Cool.” The only such axes that did historically exist were mostly for totally ceremonial purposes, like the Cretan labrys axe.