Minecraft Forums

I find it a bit hard to believe that shovels don't last longer than pickaxes, and i burn through more shovels than any other tool; can shovels last 1.5x to 2x longer than other tools?

I agree with this idea, Shovels dig through dirt, sand and gravel way too quickly and because they are so effective they break really quickly...

They cost 66% less because it seems they break 66% faster >_>;

Yes, granted... A Shovels only purpose is to save you time when digging through Dirt, Sand and Gravel...
I mean, I could dig alot dirt with my hands and my hands would probably get sore, but if i have an Iron Shovel... It should last a bit longer than 2 minutes..

Quote from Mystify »

Don't look at time, look at the sheer volume of dirt you have moved with it.

Which is no more than the volume of stone i've moved with a pickaxe. I just finished using my first diamond shovel, and while it lasted ~20 times longer than the stone shovels i've used, it just doesnt feel right that it didn't last that long. It's not shoveling huge blocks of stone or anything; it really feels like it should last longer.

And the "it costs less material" argument only works when the resources for making them are scarce; i can manufacture as many stone shovels as i please which would work just as well (if a bit slower) thanks to the fact that i have hundreds if not thousands of stone and plenty of wood.

Just because the stuff they get is faster doesn't mean they need to last longer. It's not a matter of time, it's what you get. It's actually easier to make then a pick or a hoe, and you get the same amount of stuff. A diamond pick gets 1200 something pieces of ore, stone, whatever. SO does a shovel, its just faster.

The cost is not the issue, it is the inventory space, the hotbar space or inventory opening time, and the constant going back to a workbench to make more. While some are small reasons, they stack up.

Thats basically why. Rotating out shovels is tiresome, and it also doesn't feel right to me.

Quote from RCIX »

Thats basically why. Rotating out shovels is tiresome, and it also doesn't feel right to me.

I agree with this. I like to have shovels because they're faster- but they wear out so quickly that it just feels wrong to me, somehow. I can dig dirt with my bare hands almost as quickly, and I never have to replace those.

As it was said.

1/3 of the cost. That's good enough.

Shovels are very easy to make. Find that one diamond? Ooh, 1/3 of a way to a pickaxe? Naaaw, make a shovel!

Got QQ?

The issue i'm raising is that a shovel (which only gets minimal wear from shoveling the equivalent of 1 block of material) doesn't last longer than a pickaxe (which is forcibly hacking apart stone with heavy impacts, and shouldn't last that long). I'd much prefer if i spent like a stack of 3 resources to build a shovel that lasted 5x as long as the current one.

Quote from Mystify »

But the pick is built much sturdier than a shovel.

Then i want to build a reinforced shovel that lasts longer :smile.gif:

Notch as already said he wants to make all diamond tools last longer.
...as for the shovel...if the pic where 2x faster than the shovel is now would you complain? NO! You would say "Dam, this is nice, now I can mine faster" saying " i burn through more shovels than any other tool" is stupid, be happy it's faster, not complaining about how it doesn't last long enough, it lasts the same amount of uses.

-B.S.

Quote from bobsajit »

saying " i burn through more shovels than any other tool" is stupid, be happy it's faster, not complaining about how it doesn't last long enough, it lasts the same amount of uses.

Yes, but you also get a lot less benefit from using a shovel.

A stone shovel going through only through dirt and/or sand will save you a total of ~36 seconds (36/material) compared to bare hands. A stone axe going through only logs will save you ~159 seconds (53/material) compared to bare hands. A stone pickaxe going through only smooth stone will save you ~441 seconds (147/material) compared to bare hands.

So, on the most basic of things you can use each tool on, the shovel saves you about two-thirds as much time per unit of head material as an axe, and only a measly one-quarter as much time as a pickaxe (again, per unit of material).

A diamond shovel going through only gravel will save you a total of ~769 seconds. A diamond axe going through only chests will save you a total of ~3,383 seconds (1,128/material). A diamond pickaxe going through only obsidian will save you a total of ~35,814 seconds (11,938/material).

This is on top of the fact that pickaxes are the only tool that is actually necessary, of the three, as all the materials that can be obtained with shovels and axes can be obtained without them at the cost of a little more time.


Personally, I'd say that the axe needs to last a little bit longer (~1.5× to 2×, maybe), and the shovel needs to last significantly longer (I'd say at least 2×). That, and/or make them actually have more of an effect on the speed, so they're more comparable to the huge time savings a pickaxe gives.

Quote from Mystify »

I think an iron shovel may actually dig as almost as fast as a diamond shovel. It digs so fast that the delay between blocks is much more significant than the time to mine the block.

Yeah, the difference is only 0.1 second between them. =/

Maybe gravel (and possibly sand) could take longer to dig away (not horribly long, just something like 2 to 2.5 seconds instead of ~1.2 seconds [logs are 3&1/3, for reference]), with the shovel having a more significant impact on the speed for them? It certainly isn't easy to be picking up any large amount of a shifting material with your bare hands, so it makes sense to me.