Cutlery, Condition; Blades and Sharpening

Firearms have repair kits for dry and oiled that each has an effect on condition and function. This had me thinking about sharp objects. As usual, discussion is open and adding your thoughts on the topic is welcome.

Since we have an abundance of sharp objects in game to use in various ways already. Perhaps like firearms the blades could use similar treatment?

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Tags for blades that have a strength/temperament designation:
-Soft, Medium, Hard + temperature # to denote at which point cold with begin to increase damage to the blade itself.
Soft will dull and have a higher chance of breaking. Especially in winter/cold climate
Medium and Hard respectibly more difficult to dull and break in the cold.
(Each descriptive of the speed by which will fold/chip/break/dull; NOT life span “hit points”)

Hot to cold temperature change met with sudden impact and trauma may cause stress fractures in poor quality metal. Perhaps a scale for this could be made?
-Current ambient temperature; if at/or below blades cold #, scale in percentage chance to be damaged.

Condition/Hit Points; 0-100 to keep things simple or however the backend is handled for item condition as like any other object in game. Every blade having a different condition/HP seems logical though. Not all blades are equal. Every function should slowly lower the condition. Attacking and chopping dull the blade and as the condition lowers, the percentage of breaking increases(temp makes it worse). Meanwhile, menial labor will still dull a blade, only slower(cooking, carving, cutting/tailoring).

Condition addendum; “Filthy” and/or “Weathered”, over time creates condition “Rusty”, which acts as a modifier to make the HP of the blade lower quicker. “Weathered” can be added to a blade if the blade is not lubricated and/or if the blade has been on a body or on the ground outside for a month or more.
Perhaps firearms on corpses for too long or outside on the ground can have this condition modifier as well. Simulating the effect of weather and age.

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Repair Kits:
-Oiled/Lubricated and Not; Rust prevention. Rust will lower the condition of blades.
-Sharpened and Dull; lowers damage(in combative attacks). Takes slightly longer to craft?
-Edge?
A different edge can allow for difference in getting damaged by various activities. A woodsmans knife has a dull edge compared to a razor. For purpose of chopping. Same goes with a hatchet. These blades won’t dull as easy in a fight nor chopping baby trees. While a butcher knife would get messed up chopping wood yet be a decent weapon against bone in a zombie. (Woodsmans knife/hatchet=Hard with low cold threshold and a butcher knife=Medium maybe also a low cold threshold?)

Discuss.

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Count me intrigued! “knives” are often so abstracted in games, and it takes very little time using them in the R/W to know how much maintenance and care they actually require to stay useful.

The fact that gun fouling was introduced basically opens up that “can of worms” for all such tools and equipment.

Item fragility already covers lots of conditions where a blade would break mid-combat, but blade condition could definitely introduce some basic (somewhat optional) maintenance that would keep things at ++ condition or some such.

A dull spear point blade isn’t going to result in much degradation of effectiveness, but a dull chef’s knife is going to make cooking a pain, and a dull x-acto is nearly useless for fine work.

I guess for me it’s all about finding a balance between introducing a whole new set of busy-work / micromanagement, and some optional ways to optimize/care for your gear.

Where will makeshift weapons fall on this scale exactly? Anything utilizing a “blade” as in a lawnmower blade becomes somewhat abstract as it’s a low quality item. This gets into strange territory as in this case as it’s fairly resilient (it bangs at high speeds against stumps and rocks without an extreme amount of change). A fairly dull lawnmower blade isn’t wildly different from a sharp lawnmower blade and wouldn’t exactly fowl. Furthermore the methods of sharpening for makeshift weapons would have to also be makeshift, before a whetstone or series of whetstones you have a file, a rock, and also relatively smooth cement. These can all produce a sharp edge.

Furthermore, I think the survivor would never realistically be able to produce, even at the far end, weapons of the same quality than those fabricated before the collapse. And I’m talking about the survivor’s broadsword versus one you would find at a ren-fair, not monoblades. Though I suppose this is part of another discussion that links to tailoring more than weapons.

You’d imagine makeshift and later survivor weapons would see little benefit from sharpening and maintenance beyond the very minimum, and would exist for utility and reliability purposes. A katana may need daily sharpening, but a survivor machete probably would only need the suggestion of a sharp edge.

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Interesting point regarding the ++ of items. Forgot about that. Maybe use the ++ indicators instead of naming and save time/space, while keeping it all uniform to the game conditions we already use.

Scalpelscould be sharpened and maintained. A knife for skinning would be useful when kept in peak condition. Sushi and pasta made fresh could be a legit problem. But cutting through bone would really dull a blade. Attacking and/or cooking. Not entirely certain if the topic would be better as an ottional mod or mainline. Maybe a decent mod to test out who would like that level of realism?

Put simply, it would handle similar to blunt force trauma instead of cutting. A lawnmower blade doesn’t require the blade being especially sharp; I agree with you. But keep in mind the effect in a machine is different. You don’t swing your arm at 20mph or faster to cleave grass. Which…now that you make me think of it…Hmmmmm lol CBM? Ermmm…anyway >_>

You bring fair points. I would imagine something of a shift in how blades function in game. A new scale maybe? Everything pre-zed could be top tier tag with a few exceptions. Such as all those “ancient blacksmithing” high level diy recipes. A katana for example is something a highly skilled person can, indeed craft. Pretty sure that wouldn’t be disputed, as we have similar in game functions as is…that and the thousands of years of real blacksmithing irl. Maybe a few blades of highest tech like carbon nano tubes or something for that future vibe?

Sorry. Tangents. I get excited and my mind wanders around many ideas.

Makeshift blades= Low quality. Maybe just have them as throw away? No need to sharpen beyond original creation and after they become to worn they either break or “dissolve”(so worn become scrap). I imagine something like a pencil. You have a throw away item that is used for a period and can “get the job done”, however, they just become so worn as to require the actor to fetch/craft new items. Where as a mechincal pencil gets a new eraser and lead and is more precise. Reasonable analogy?

As for what can we use these for? Pretty much all blades can perform similar functions. But the differenes will be how well each performs. A scrap metal shank’s attack will be a low amount of blunt trauma more than cutting. Crap metal quality. It won’t allow sharpening and/or maintenance(maybe?); reason= blunts almost immediately so why bother(as a butter knife)? While true. Not 100% real. Neither is the game and this would create and maintain a balance for blades.

I still think anything “on the fly” DIY side of the road crafted could be like a pencil. You just wouldn’t want to use one to skin a dear. You probably wouldn’t get the most amount of components out of that dear compared to a top quality uber awesome hunting knife designed and maintained for that express purpose.
Example: Shank could skin a dear, sure. But you end up with holes in the pelt. The meat is mangled all to hell and the tool gets dinged up from working bones. I’m thinking in terms of gameplay with balance to quality. Not explicitly saying that is how it works in real life. I suppose this and what Beetlecat mentions would be similar to garment quality/function and improvements(for comparison). Sorta >_>