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[jei]

I don't think all tools are necessary to be brought into gameplay. You can just presume that any dwarf owns such tools inherently and they're not considered notable enough to mention such as giant axes and spears are.

Also implementing them would not enrich the game, they would create lots of clutter and more useless pathing problems that serve only to slow down the game further from it's now already glacial pace.

[Owlbread]

Perhaps some tools could be used to collect different fish, such as spears being used for larger fish and nets being able to collect large groups of fish, such as near the sea shore. Of course, I don't see why some fish can't be collected simply by hand. It must be quite hard to spear a mussel.

Another introduction may be the use of buckets to collect fish, or maybe even store bait.

[GaxkangtheUnbound]

You could spend like 5 embark points for a profession kit.
This kit would be used by the dwarf for their profession.

[Artanis00]

If planting requires a hoe, will harvesting require a scythe? As nice as it would be to equip my adventurer with an awesome but impractical scythe, this renders the "All dwarves harvest" option next to useless.

Allow dwarves to plant and harvest as it works now, there's no reason less abstraction should make it impossible to simply push a single seed into the mud with your finger. Or uproot a single plant by hand.

Although, a grower with a hoe could plant several tiles worth of seeds for each planting job... and then with a scythe and/or pitchfork, harvest several tiles worth of crop for each harvest job.

Perhaps determine the amount of tiles by skill and tool quality, so for example, a legendary+5 grower with an artifact (for example, really an artifact hoe would be more useful furrowing goblin foreheads!) hoe and a 10x10 plot would carry a bag of 100 seeds over to the plot, and plant the whole hundred tiles in one go. On the flip-side, said legendary+5 grower would pick up his artifact scythe and reap the whole hundred tiles. And then run outside to reap the goblinite siege crop.

Maybe that's too much, but it gets the point across.

[GaxkangtheUnbound]

If planting requires a hoe, will harvesting require a scythe? As nice as it would be to equip my adventurer with an awesome but impractical scythe, this renders the "All dwarves harvest" option next to useless.

Allow dwarves to plant and harvest as it works now, there's no reason less abstraction should make it impossible to simply push a single seed into the mud with your finger. Or uproot a single plant by hand.

Although, a grower with a hoe could plant several tiles worth of seeds for each planting job... and then with a scythe and/or pitchfork, harvest several tiles worth of crop for each harvest job.

Perhaps determine the amount of tiles by skill and tool quality, so for example, a legendary+5 grower with an artifact (for example, really an artifact hoe would be more useful furrowing goblin foreheads!) hoe and a 10x10 plot would carry a bag of 100 seeds over to the plot, and plant the whole hundred tiles in one go. On the flip-side, said legendary+5 grower would pick up his artifact scythe and reap the whole hundred tiles. And then run outside to reap the goblinite siege crop.

Maybe that's too much, but it gets the point across.

I agree with this more than my one. You can grab a fish with your bare hands, can't you? A spear just helps for the bigger stuff.
Butchery? You can tear apart corpses. A knife just speeds up the process.
Although, carpentry/masonry/crafting is an exception. You can't really carve something with your hands, can you?

[Draco18s]

I agree with this more than my one. You can grab a fish with your bare hands, can't you?

Sure can, I've done it.  While in a boat.

Of course, the fish was dead...

...and it still wasn't easy.

[GaxkangtheUnbound]

I agree with this more than my one. You can grab a fish with your bare hands, can't you?

Sure can, I've done it.  While in a boat.

Of course, the fish was dead...

...and it still wasn't easy.

If you've ever noticed, they take longer than a few tries to get a fish. In fact, proficient fisherdwarves probably have learned techniques to catch fish easier, such as preventing the shadow from going over the fish.

[EvilMoogle]

It should just be a matter of efficency.

You can catch fish with your bare hands, it's just not very efficient.  It takes a long time for each attempt and has a low success rate (unless you're very, very skilled).

Better to catch fish with a spear, net, fishing pole, or other tool.

Farming should be the same way, you can till the soil with your bare hands, it just takes a long time.  If you have a hoe it's quicker, even better (when implemented) would be a plow and labor animal.

[Andeerz]

Agreed.  In essence, most tools and technology, I would argue, simply permit better, more efficient ways of doing tasks that existed before hand.  Plowing, as mentioned before, is an excellent example.  Throughout history before the advent of steam power and combustion, if a farmer could not use an ox or a horse to pull a plow, it would in essence be impossible to prepare the amount of land needed during a given season to make a profit and/or support the population of the time. 

Of course, there are some tasks that without appropriate tools and technologies would be virtually impossible...  Plowing is still a great example of this.  Animals and iron plows permitted the cultivation of marginal lands that otherwise would have been impossible to farm, which was extremely important for supporting the relatively huge populations in medieval Europe before the Black Death and permitted the population booms seen during that time.

This is a big reason I'm all for tools to be in game, and the OP highlights a very important trade (fishing) that, like plowing, required diverse tools.

[truckman1]

 ....Whether by bolt, plow, or hook, provide for your dwarves


 

[Liber celi]

Fact is, in mediaeval Europe most common people carried knives, for being universal tools (and weapons). If all Migrants brought knives with them, and your Weaponsmith could produce better ones, many tasks could be explained- and influenced- by this tools.

[Knigel]

Fact is, in mediaeval Europe most common people carried knives, for being universal tools (and weapons). If all Migrants brought knives with them, and your Weaponsmith could produce better ones, many tasks could be explained- and influenced- by this tools.

And they didn't have that, they could just knap a rock. For plowing really anything solid would work better than bare hands.

[thijser]

I agree that tools should be added and that we should still be able to preform jobs without the tool. However a mason/carpentor would not be able to get above the lowest quality. 

[Kurouma]

Well in a larger fortress, this would get old pretty quick. I think that kind of stuff makes more sense in Adventure Mode rather than Fortress Mode. Economies of scale and all that. Refer here

[Jake]

This thread dealt with some of the same issues. It was suggested that a raw entry be created so that players could customise exactly what tools each profession required, though an init option to disable them completely might be a good idea. As far as embarking goes, any dwarf starting with points in the relevant skill could simply get one each of the necessary tools free in the way hunters get crossbows and armour.

And there need not be that many kinds of tool anyway. Two sizes of hammer and chisel (maybe a special woodworking chisel), tongs, two sizes of sewing needle and some sort of generic 'knife' would cater for every common workshop labour I can think of.

I would however like to see a few more items of 'furniture' used in the same way as anvils, and generally more specific building materials in general. Kitchens should need one block and one grate of fire-safe material, stills should use a couple of pipe sections and a barrel, some sort of 'loom' item for making cloth and a crucible for the smelter; that kind of thing. Nothing you couldn't make for yourself on arrival if you didn't want to spend the embark points, but enough to make building certain workshops require a bit of extra effort and forward thinking.