Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-31507215-20171018184514

In the Lord of the Rings mod, when you repair an item on an anvil, you must put the item on the anvil, and then you put the materials you want to repair it with on the anvil. After that, you must pay even more materials, with the needed amount proportional to the modifiers on the item. In Vanilla, you would use experience instead of extra materials, and, although experience is not particularly realistic, the amount of materials required to fix certain items in the LotR mod can get a little unrealistic, as well.

So, here is a way to incorporate Blacksmith Hammers into smithing, and perhaps make the cost of repairing things a little more realistic.

Change 1 - Hammer Pricing
It should be more likely for Blacksmiths to sell Hammers, but they should cost a lot more. I would suggest that any Trader who can smith things for the player (except Oddment Collectors) would have a 50% chance of selling a Blacksmith Hammer as one of their trades, for anywhere from to.

Change 2 - Anvil GUI
The Anvil's GUI would change again. The icon for the Blacksmith Hammer would replace the current hammer image (the blocky iron hammer), and a bar showing the hammer's durability would be added below the icon. (The reason why will be explained shortly.) In addition to these changes, the top center item slot would go back to the way it was before, and the bottom center slot would be moved lower, and a fire symbol like that in a furnace would be added in it.



Change 3 - Smithing Mechanics
In this section, I am including sample formulas and values for calculations, but they are just for example (and probably completely imbalanced), and can be changed.

The last change would be to anvil mechanics. (Again.)

To access an anvil's GUI, you would need to be holding a Blacksmith Hammer in your hand. (This was suggested by Sir Lazuli.)

Instead of costing extra materials for repairing as it does now, the anvil will require fuel and hammer durability. Here is how it works (in a nutshell): When you put an item on an anvil, along with materials/another tool to repair it with, the anvil calculates what you need, and then tells you how much fuel you will need and how much durability the hammer will lose on the right side of the GUI (where it currently tells you what materials you need). Once you have put a sufficient amount of fuel in the bottom slot (the one with the fire), you may take your item out of the output slot. When you do so, the fuel will be consumed and the hammer will lose durability according to the calculated cost.

To find the durability that will be lost, you follow this equation:

( [W * R] + [ (W * M12) + (W * M22) + (W * M32) ] ÷  15)

W = Material's Workability Value; R = Total Amount of Durability Repaired; M1-3 = Tiers of Modifiers 1 - 3 (on new item, if applicable)

''For instance, I am repairing an iron pickaxe (at 1/4 of its durability) with two iron ingots. Let's say that iron's workability value is 4. (W = 4) I am repairing the pickaxe with two ingots, each of which repair one fourth of the pickaxe's durability, and both together repair half. The durability of an Iron Pickaxe is 251, so half of that is 126 (rounded). (R = 126) Since this pickaxe has no modifiers, we can ignore that part of the equation.''

[(4 * 126) ÷  15] = 33.6

''Thus, when I pull the repaired pickaxe out of the slot, the Blacksmith hammer in my hand loses 33 durability. (Any decimals are rounded down.)''

To find the amount of fuel needed, you must follow a similar process:

[F * (R ÷  10) ] + [ (F * M12) ÷  2] + [ (F * M22) ÷  2] + [ (F * M32) ÷  2]

F = Material's Fuel Value; R = Total Amount of Durability Repaired; M1-3 = Tiers of Modifiers 1 - 3 (on new item, if applicable)

The number that you receive upon running an anvil use through this equation is the burn time (number of items cooked in a vanilla furnace) of the fuel needed. For instance, one piece of coal has 8 burn time, one wood plank has 1.5 burn time, a stick has 0.5 burn time, etc. As long as the needed burn time is exceeded, you can remove your item from the anvil.

''For example, I am combining two Stone pickaxes. Both are at exactly half of their Durability (R = 66), and the first one has the Hardy modifier (tier 1, M1 = 1). Let's say that stone's Fuel value is 4 (F = 4). Let's plug those numbers into the equation, shall we?''

[4 * (66 <span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">÷ 10) ] + [ (4 * 1) ÷ 2 ] = 28.4

The burn time required is 28.4, which means that I can use 4 pieces of coal, or anything else that has a combined burn time exceeding 28.4.

Here is a chart I made with the values of different materials:

Additional Notes

 * If the required durability is higher than the durability left on your hammer, the anvil will check your inventory for another Blacksmith Hammer. If it finds one, you may finish your repairs, and when you pull the item out, it will use up as much of the first hammer as it can, and then remove any remaining durability from the other hammer. If it does not find one, you will not be able to finish.
 * All faction equipment counts as being of the material that you use to repair it.
 * Vanilla Bows can be repaired with string for no cost. Others must be repaired with sticks (which count as wood) or the faction metal, depending on what the bow is crafted with, as normal.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my suggestion! Any thoughts, improvements, questions, and/or constructive criticism are very welcome!

<ac_metadata title="Between the Hammer and the Anvil"> </ac_metadata>