Talk: Tools

Did a lot to the category links on this page.

Tools are items whose primary function is to manipulate the environment. So besides the big 3, all of the items in miscellany are tools. The breathing rod manipulates water (allowing you to breathe under it at certain points). One could argue that items whose primary function is to emit light do not "manipulate" the environment - they just allow you to see it (albeit this a necessity). I don't think it makes sense to add all of the light-emitting items in the game to Miscellaneous tools. --440Music

Breathing Reed

Should it even be considered a tool? Sure, it forces you to select it to be of any use, but that's the same for some other objects such as candles, torches (if you don't want to place them) or the Magic Mirror. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Smaxx (talk).

Move: Tool

This probably doesn't make much of sense, I already moved Items to Item and Blocks to Block. I don't know if that was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. Tools is somewhat silly to list as "Tool". Juze 06:52, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Hmmmm... I think "Tools" works and looks better than Tool. I vote to keep "Tools" as it is :) -- ❤Kalilla❤ 07:48, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Tool seems a bit iffy compared to item and block. I'd say keep it tools for now. ~Null ^(T-C) 22:24, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Icons

I am against having the icons on the list pages. I don't believe they are necessary. -- Wynthyst File:User Wynthyst sig icon.png talk 13:32, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

I am personally all for having icons on the list pages. It make it much easier to find the item you are looking for, without having to already know the name of it. User:Linkitch

If the icons were all the same size it would be ok, but they aren't. It simply makes the page sloppy. -- Wynthyst File:User Wynthyst sig icon.png talk 17:12, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

The breathing reed picture is mainly the only problem (of course it would be the breathing reed lol) but some pictures are slightly off. ~Null^(T-C) 17:19, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

It's also a matter of consistency... imagine all the icons on Weapons or Furniture.... -- Wynthyst File:User Wynthyst sig icon.png talk 17:21, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

True. I think we should remove the pictures. Even though it might not help as much, it would look neater and be more consistent. ~Null^(T-C) 17:23, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

As for "recognizability" if you aren't sure which is which, there are overview pages linked for each section that do have icons. -- Wynthyst File:User Wynthyst sig icon.png talk 17:36, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, it's likely that they exist, but if they are not clearly visible, people are never going to be able to find them. I thought the point of a wiki was to give informative and easy to find information, I really don't feel that's how this wiki is set up at the moment. With regards to pictures being too large, add functionality that would allow internal links to get resized, like you can with a normal image link? User:Linkitch

Merging Individual Tool Pages

The individual tool pages don't provide any information beyond what the tool type page provides, (e.g. Pickaxes)and are inconsistent with each other in terms of information. I think the tools should be structured into only 3 pages, and delete the individual tool pages. (excluding the misc. section, that can be left alone) Perhaps have separate pages for the hamaxes and such, too. --Justin 20:21, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

I see a lot of info on that page that benefits from being organized that way. --JonTheMon 20:25, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Organized which way? --Justin 20:29, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

The pickaxe page has a cost comparison, a power comparison, and a speed/efficiency comparison. --JonTheMon 20:33, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

So wouldn't it be better to delete the individual pages, such as Iron Pickaxe, and keep the pickaxes page as it's replacement? --Justin 20:38, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Oh, that's what you were getting at. In this case, we have the individual tool pages for the sake of documentation and consistency. Each other item has its own page (armors have their own standard). --JonTheMon 20:40, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Miscellaneous group

I removed the Miscellaneous group. A look through the history of this page shows that it started with only the Breathing Reed, along with a note that it was included because "it is not a weapon". The group grew from that poor description.

Tools should be limited to the pickaxe/axe/hammer families: non-consumable and non-magical items capable of dismantling tiles. The Magic Mirror, Breathing Reed, and Orb of Light, for example, are completely inappropriate here. If anyone objects let me know. Equazcion ^(talk) 10:02, 12 Aug 2011 (UTC)

I'm noticing a pattern here...

Is it just me or do I notice a pattern? I have seen a relation between the percent of power and the amount of hits it takes to break a block, where I have seen this when I was starting my world and character (long before).

I have deduced that it takes 500% Axe power to cut down a tree. This means that if you had a tool which has 100% Axe power, you would be able to break it in 5 hits, whereas a tool which has only 50% Axe power would take twice as long, at 10 hits. The only problem is that if the wiki adapts to this, it would take a long while to figure out the details because precision is actually lost as you get stronger picks. Imagine this: you have a block with 120% Pick toughness. If you had a Pickaxe with 50% Power, it would break in 3 hits, and so you can say that the block has 150%, but that's wrong. The only way to solve this problem is to use a pick which has a power that is a factor of the block's toughness, and this is hard because in analogy, it's like saying we want to find the value of x, but we have to use x itself to find it. And even harder is how we verify it. Verification may require multiple pickaxes for pinpoint accuracy.

The only fast way (and hard one) is to dissect Terraria and look for its code. Due to this pattern, there is no doubt that there is an implemented system in the game itself. In this case, we have to find the constants of the block's toughness. Only problem is that only skilled mod(ifier)s can do it; the game is well built and may be hard to dissect even with a fair amount of knowledge.

So, what do you think? I may not be the first person to discover this, really. But I'd like to point this out so that everybody else can know. Thirdy2 (talk) 15:16, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

What are tools?

Realizing of course that we all have more fun things to worry about with 1.3 coming, this has always bothered me: It would be best to have an item class to group the pickaxes, axes, hammers (and their various alternates) -- which I would say are the actual "tools" in the game -- separate from the other more miscellaneous items. In crafting an accurate intro section for this page I was recently forced to use the phrase "a loose association" -- since this page really describes a bunch of things that don't belong together.

Aside from coming up with a new name for the other items and changing this page, such a move would also require going around to the individual articles to change the word "tool" in their infoboxes and article intros.

As for what to call them if we did make the move, "misc" would probably work for the infobox "type" field, and the resulting category. In article text, "<item name> is an item that..." might have to suffice. If anyone has thoughts please share. Equazcion ^(talk) 11:58, 29 Jun 2015 (UTC)