Some of these tools act in a weird way.

[Hellbeholder]

For example, why is the butchering axe actually decreasing cooking by 50%?
Or why is a hoe made from iron worse than a very simple one made from copper?

Am I missing something?

[Bossman]

If you hold the control button while hovering over the tool, you'll get an expanded tooltip that breaks down the stat numbers. Each job skill is calculated by adding two of the tool's stats and subtracting a third, multiplied by (1 + the tool's skill modifier). The Butcher's Axe is a weapon that doubles as a cooking tool, but it will always be inferior for cooking than a ladle of appropriate materials. The Farming skill provided by a rake is Preciousness + Resilience - Hardness, and the rake head boosts Hardness while reducing the other two stats. Iron (25 Hardness and Resilience, 1 Preciousness) is basically the worst material to use in that case (something like -10 Farming skill), so you should stick with copper until you have access to silver or gold.

[Hellbeholder]

Geez... Thanks for the explanation. But that's quite overly complicated, innit?

[Bossman]

The complexity encourages thought about what materials and components you use in your tools and weapons. Iron is an upgrade over copper for most tools, but not all. Some tools benefit more from a curved handle, others should stick with the straight. Weapons are a mix of two (out of three) damage types, so do you maximize the primary type, secondary, or overall damage?

[Hellbeholder]

So, where exactly do I see what values are good for a profession and which are bad? When I push crtl over an ore, I can't see what it'll do. When I hover over a skill, it doesn't tell what tool-values are important to it. I'm still quite confused and it seems you're supposed to make a tool combination of one of each

[Bossman]

They only show up by holding control while pointing at a completed tool that has the skill. I've previously requested that it be shown on the tool recipe tooltips to be more new player friendly.

[WarpQueen]

We do have some pointers regarding the materials in the Book of Tings, but yes, that tooltip would be nice.

[MythN7]

Originally posted by WarpQueen:

We do have some pointers regarding the materials in the Book of Tings, but yes, that tooltip would be nice.

being able to see a tool tip of what the material type does when in that pull down would help so we dont have to craft one to see the outcome.

[fodder]

Originally posted by Bossman:

The complexity encourages thought about what materials and components you use in your tools and weapons. Iron is an upgrade over copper for most tools, but not all. Some tools benefit more from a curved handle, others should stick with the straight. Weapons are a mix of two (out of three) damage types, so do you maximize the primary type, secondary, or overall damage?

except there's no real thought. just require people to make/find the spreadsheet (there's one or more in guide) and keep referring back to that. all of which would be so much better if can be gleamed ingame without using a third party app/tool (be it calculator or spreadsheet) say... an ingame designer that tells you the result and allows you to design your tool without having to build the components out with each material. though i would say probably should only add material / parts to the designer once you've encountered the material or researched the tech that gives parts.
they can even randomise the properties of material/parts for each game seed after that.