Tools

* See also Fabrication (making objects within the game)
* See also Player Skills
* See also Drill and Wrench
* See also Player Residence (where to keep all this stuff)
Some other tools :
* See also Game Editing Tools -- tools used to create/edit the game
* See also Player Created Assets (Done Via Outside-Game Tools)
* See also Player Creation Contests
Game Objects/Things Used (in-game) For Player Actions).
 
 
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Tools (In-Game Objects) Of Utility To The Player :
In The MMORPG (in-game) There would be MANY MORE of These usable 'Tools', and they would have More Clues/Hints/Indicators.
When you have a good Tool (Object, ie- a screwdriver ) in the game, it should work for its intended purpose, but efficiency/effectiveness might not always be evident ( Player may not use it enough or have used a lesser one previously to realize a difference ).   It should be possible to have visual and auditory clues ( including variations of animations showing how clumsy/imprecise the Tool is when used ) to act as an indicator of not just its quality, but also of repair state (time to get it fixed).  Flubbing an action should be made obvious ( wrong Tool, or not enough skill ... )
Such cues would indicate something not being used for its proper usage, or that it is getting stressed/closer to  breaking.   A variety of 'Failure Animations' and 'Action Outcomes' is then logical.   Sounds of strain on Tools/materials, that sickening snap of breaking metal, or a shriek of a jagged end of a broken Tool plunged into the users flesh ...
There then would be activities to repair/tune-up the Player's Tools ( can have some NPC do it ), even  routinely, which would be preparation for Adventures. A useful game mechanism is to have NPC Team lackeys to do this for you, including them asking for resources to get it done, and for the priorities for which things to do it for (a bit more detail of limited resource management).   You can also just 'wing-it', and hope that your Tools don't fall apart in your hands (the same goes for Weapons, BTW.)
Tools to fix Tools ...
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Idea from Thingees Tacked Up On Walls In Many Places (SitS, Ryans WTF wall, etc...):
Players would have their own  'Bulletin Board' -- Interface where they could tack up things of interest or to be 'remembered for later', etc...   Including Maps, Photographs they (the Player) took, Memos, Mail letters, Notices they received, Pamphlets, Task-Lists, etc...   Probably(preferably) it would be sufficiently low impact (processing/graphics) for it to work well in the tablet/smartphone interfaces.
Player would have these 'bulletin boards' for various different contexts -- like on the Player's fabrication workbench, official paperwork in a work-desk, business desk ledgers, adventuring bulletin board, (NPC) Team  board/schedule -- to separate various different interests/functions, instead of one humongus (large/long/deep/clumsy) bothersome-to-use menu.  ( Example - the way the different interfaces in the BS2 MP Player Apartment are separated ).
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Pay Phones : (Player Interface) 
Operator, Security, Medical ( Look and See whats on the payphones in the game ... )    ??? a 7 digit number ???     (things like that are usually short sequences like   0  or  911 for ease of entering them in an emergency or to be easily remembered.   All privately funded services ?? .. Possibly in Rapture...).
With coin-slots for lower denomination coins (We never saw) -- BTW, a dime can be fired thru someones head just as easily as any bullet ... Copper pennies can be made into real fine arrow heads...   (( Heh, Too Many Violent Video games for me ... you think ??? ))
Circa 1946 what did it cost ???  ( I remember my grandfather telling about prices of things (circa the 1920s probably) - " You could get a can of Campbell's Soup for 'a nickel !!'  And it was a BIG can !!" )
Anyway ... Payphones cost a nickel or a dime back then ( often as cheap as a quarter still even today ) --  You should know that you could get a cup of coffee for 5/10 cents at that time,  so that gives you a idea of the relative value/cost of a phone call ( ?? a Buck today, or Coffee for $4 at StarPozers/StarBarfs ? ).
Add Pix here
May be very interesting to see who/what's on the other side of the Pay Phones you will find in various  places in the MMORPG wild Rapture world.  Many phones are still functioning ( that equipment was really well made there ).  Be aware, though, that whomever 'picks up' may realize someone other than who they expect is AT that phone and now knows where YOU are ( 'Caller ID' features were a big thing in Rapture's competitive consumer tech scene ).  Organized Factions would employ phones as a very useful resource/Tool and try to keep them operating.   One faction at Hephaestus had last orders from Ryan to keep Rapture alive and so maintain communications with diverse sections of the city to keep the power flowing and access for the Big Daddies who continue to do repairs.
In New Rapture the reestablished phone system reflects conveniences that once worked in old Rapture :
Phones offer various useful Menu-ing systems for New Rapture's citizens.  The Player interface would be easily applicable for Tablets/Smartphones - used for the various mundane activities, while the player is 'off-line' from the full '3D' PC Interface.  
 
* Call in to order those structural bracings you need to prop up that sagging section of your new 'Team' Base.   
* File a Notice Of Intent to take the mission to explore/survey that section beyond City Limits posted on the City Projects Board.   
* Send in your Vote on  the current City Projects Issue to extend repairs of the AE Line towards some section of Rapture. 
* Etc ...
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Typewriter - Object - Tool :
Seen on desks in many places in Rapture ( I've brained a few Splicers throwing them ). NPC/Player (in-game) Tool for various Research, and some businesses operations(newspapers). The New Rapture City Council wants more of these for its Official functions ( paperwork is reasserting itself - in triplicate ). Modify (kludge) with some effort into a Teleprinter ( easier to do on a Selectric, but possible if you don't have enough solenoids ).
Idea for an entrepreneur ^^^ -- rediscovering how to manufacture Carbon-Copy paper ...
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Players Bulletin Board :
A mechanism much like SitS Meltzer's extended Wall Board and various other office objects, or Ryan's WYK wall.  Would be used to organize a Player's game in a little more interesting way than the usual MMORPG Quest/Mission List.  This one would not be STATIC like those others, but allow the Player to place their mementos and mnemonic markers spatially as desired and to whatever extent they want.   Maps and diagrams, memos and pictures, little flags and red strings linking objects, all that good stuff.
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The Hotplate - (Very Simple Electric Stove) :
* Basic apartment (residence) item --- well known for starting fires.
* Useful on-site tool for coffee, food, heating various work chemicals, etc...
* Larger 'porta stove' units with larger capacity for 'camps'
* Folding tables - convenient especially for temporary situations ( hmm, folding table is a 'machine' )
* In a pinch can be used to thaw frozen machinery.
* Red glowing (visual) element effect when its 'on'. Will likely burn you if you try to grab it in that state.
* Place items ontop to impart 'heat' state change to those objects ( another Game Mechanic to add )
* Fortunately most ovens/stoves in Rapture had been electric, so there are LOTS of the heating elements available so that most folk can afford one easily.
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Radio Handsets/Base Units :
* Requires operator for the base unit ( will forward to other communications when needed ) Ex- players project worksite may  use radios for the interim they don't have the phone lines working.
* Handset to handset ( handset frequency range usually limited ) Walkie-Talkies...
* Base unit have wider frequency range, more distance capability
* Utility value of Radio is high - purchased at premium cost (and expensive to repair)
* Radio frequencies - some City reserved frequencies for emergency/security/maintenance dispatch ( players can listen in  to transmissions if their radios can tune )
* Handset Batteries ( the old problem - limited charge time - keeping them charged - portable generators )
* City Central Communications/Dispatch
** Coordinates emergency services ( Constable/Fire/Maintenance )
** Maintenance orders issued by radio/phone
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Waterproof Boots ( New Rapture "Accessorizing: ... ) :
Basic equipment for various types of city workers ( and the MMORPG's Player Adventurer ).
Didn't get big until the Rapture 'civil war' was started, and significant damage was done to City. And then further usefulness, when because of the anarchists/'rebels' disruptions, the city could not keep up with the demands for repair and maintenance.
Hip Boots are only to be had at a premium ...
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Bathtubs - Valuable Commodity in Chaos Era Rapture :
* Source of food - green goo (algae) cultivated in it ( don't really want to mention what is used for  'fertilizer'... ).
* Place to keep your pet Sea Slug which is large enuf and largely unbreakable ( licking them to get ADAM -- well if people do it to toads ... ).
* We see them in places where people were bootlegging ADAM products ( if not the ADAM then maybe a way to  generate raw EVE ?? )
* Safer place to sleep ( hard for rats to climb in to chew on you ).
* Probably plenty of them around and they aren't too easy to destroy (so many survived)
* Lesson from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" - always take your gun with you when you use a bathtub.
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 Handy Dandy Radio :
Ordinary Household Reception Unit - entertainment and information advisories
Two-Way Communication units 
The Radio Transmission System (and TV also) inside Rapture was not the same as up here on The Surface in those days.    Radio waves travel poorly through water and not well through thick concrete.  So to get coverage for proper reception transissions were sent thru wires either directly to fixed receivers (like TV sets and Radios) or to local repeaters for 2-way portable units ('walkie talkies').   Wires went all over in Rapture, and the RF signals could use most any of them ( I recall remote broadcasts were sent thru conventional Telephone lines way back - some for special coverage from unusual sights like A-Bomb tests in Nevada ).   
This also means that local Radio reception may be poor-to-none depending on the state of those wires.  One more thing for the Players to be Tasked with fixing.   Will be able to watch "Cecil the Seasick Sea Slug" once  again !!!
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Camera - an in-game object device for talking pictures in-game (non-genetic research type) :
* To send as media in player-player messages (attachments)
* Usable pictures for publishable Newspaper material
* Can be part of 'quests' as part of survey missions of 'ruined' areas etc - take pictures of location ...
* 'Film' objects (consumable) - color film is available at premium price.
* Exportable for out-of-game use (ie- in social media to show everyone what you are upto in 'Rapture')
* Picture album object, blowups for wall pictures, etc ... ( keep trophy pictures of all your achievements ) 
* In-game darkroom tools to crop/add flying saucers ...
* Slideshows to bore people to death with...
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TV camera :
* 'Live feed' is possible (players can watch on their TVs or on all those public TVs for security incidents)
* Its more common to 'record' footage for distribution (to TV news/whatever)
* 'Video Tape Reel' objects for video recording (reusable)
* Yes, YOU could be a TV reporter ... ( Player editors would select anything good to report or be desperate to show  anything )
* In-Game Video Exportable for out-of-game use
* Editing ?? basic editing features for video stream
* "THIS IS RAPTURE" - the documentary ( no doubt there will be a 'Ryan the Man' documentary eventually )
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Netgun - Fires a Net Meant to Capture/Impede a Target :
* Short range, gets stuck on things in way, doesn't work too well on Houdini Splicers ...
* Addons, like Electro-stun
* Net Ammo (and recovery of those expensive little nets)
* Works outside in the Ocean too.
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Dartgun - fires drug darts at target :
* Part of new suite of 'capture' weapons
* ?? Taser style shocker darts ???
* Not always effective on hyped up Splicers
* Too many darts and oops ... stopped breathing
* Try not to hit your own guys by accident
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Tripwires - wire strung across a space to trip-up an unsuspecting person :
* Manually set up at location
* Ordinary type is a movement hazard
* Some may be 'wired' to the electrical utilities (shocking!!)
* Those 'Trap Bolt' ammo items aren't as common as they used to be
* Can be connected to an alarm - typical low-tech device for perimeter security
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Grappling Hooks and Grappling Guns :
* Not so much a weapon as a way to climb things when other methods don't work
* MMORPG movement now includes climbing (skills do apply)
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Team Members are Potentially Effected By Actions You Take ( Something you didn't have to worry about in solo games )
* Like shooting each other by accident.
* Placement of 'unskilled' persons may be important ( don't have them behind you )
* If you are doing demolition, you may want to make sure the area is clear.
Add Asbestos firesuits/armor for dealing with flame shooting Splicers ( and fire extinguishers ?? )
* Tend to make the wearer clumsy/encumbered
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Auto-Diary of Events (A Nifty OUT-GAME Player Tool) :
Information tracking - Players Forget - Players need reminding - Players HAVE REAL LIVES AND MIGHT NOT GET TO PLAY REGULARLY.
SO something to keep info for (hopefully) instant access and retrieval for all the many game details.
Basic descriptions auto-entered with Player able to add comments (later)
* Reference links (hypertext) to minimize bulk.
* Media tags/markers insertable (so its not only text)
* Pictures (view captures, etc..)
* Maps with flags marking progress
* Tag entries for people/Players/objects you meet to build up a bio database 
* Quest references
( You will probably remember your expedition - when you slipped in the Splicer dung and broke you leg but not the name of the Player you met who helped you -- when all this happened a month ago in real time ... )
Some people don't want/need this feature - So Have it vary in data collected/disablable.
Extended data gathering features could be included, to allow recording bugs when they are found and recreatible ( useful to the developers also -- many existing games have Shit-Poor(tm) tools of this kind, and only makes attempts to fix them that much more difficult -- likewise Player Creators will use to assist their debugging activities ).
A means of referencing the Auto Diary Information with Searches and other standard 'easy-use' features.
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Trophy Board for Players 'Achievements' (no house required) :
Competitiveness is a factor for some players. Visible to other players (optional?)
* Statistsics and creative looking 'stars'/gun notches
** For Splicers saved, etc ...
* Various Prestige Achievements ( Civic, various Groups/Societies, Offices held )
* Business venture(s) list, House address ...
* List of oddities found.
* NPC 'Team' size/achievements
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Cash Registers (and CASH Transfer Issues) :
* Print out daily totals/receipts your NPC shop watcher can mail you ( simplifying shop operation for Player )
* For businesses that Buy as well as Sell, sufficient funds must be available ( NPC may have to go to the 'safe' if its a  large transaction. )
* Writing checks ??? Not sure people will trust checking accounts ... ( which means piles of CASH in large transactions )  Really dont want any complicated Banking system for this game. Bank could possibly handle 'wiring amounts between simple accounts' with proper authorization and the usual 'Trade Window' mechanism to prevent player scams)
* With 'light fingered' PneumoMen, people might generally be smart enough to not send CASH thru the Pneumo.
* Additional Cash Register styles can be generated via Player Created Content ... ( Oh and they are usually bolted down in Real Life )
* Receipts for Buyers provided ( So your 'Team' NPCs have 'paper trail' for that equipment they were supposed to buy )
* Bookkeeping for Players should be minimal and largely automatic.
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Interface Mechanism for Manipulating Objects :
I've been playing around with using Telekinesis in hard-mode BS1/BS2 to manipulate objects (piling up bodies/lockboxes I'm too full to take stuff from, making 'mines' from the explodey objects(trap rivet trigger),  clearing empty lockboxes/corpse so I wont have to check them again, holding up object to sweep and spring wire traps, etc ... ).   A little tedious but still workable ( if you have time to do them - not usually in battle situation ).  Effectively you could do similar without Telekinesis.
Keep the 'activation' key press, but you still have to correctly select the targeted object first ( a problem noticed when loot is next to  vending machines ).  Finer controls - MMORPG machine use 'buttons'/controls that might require zoom when more than one In-Game control object is next to another (otherwise huge caricatures).
Ability to Pick up stuff and hold object without holding down a button, and then still to do stuff with the unencumbered hand ( somethings will also require using both hands ).
Change to object orientation while being held ( no control pressed for 'hold' ) to facilitate placement and stacking  - possibly precision 2 axis control by mouse working a popup rotation trackball control (click and drag).   Any tediousness must be rewarded (and minimized as much as possible).
A Fabrication 'Workbench' may be a more 2D view/manipulation ( a bit more complex than a 'Minecraft' workbench - Drag-n-drop is still a better interface when applicable ).  
Tool manipulations - sticking crowbar into that door to pry it open ...  ( or wedging it into a door to prevent that horde of Splicers to open it and make you into 'Chutney' ).   Tools should have multiple 'use' select applicable to object in activation range ( ie - locked/jammed door in range of crowbar lists that as an option )
The 'Rigging' (ad hoc assembling) of machine components to get something done ( ie- force a door, repair a life-support system, pump out a flooded room, etc ... )  will rely on the ease of this interface type to place the components.
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Magnesium Flares (I Recall They Even Work Underwater) :
Playing around with the Rocket Spears, they would have made a good light enhancement in dark places (if they didn't explode) with a searing bright light that would be perfect to expose the legion of Splicers stalking you. The MMORPG with its more varied lighting situations ( including the always fun 'complete darkness' where things have a chance to jump out at you suddenly ), a variety of different lighting apparatus will be usable. With a more advanced game engine, a larger variety of lighting effects including beam of light shining thru mist, etc... can add alot of atmosphere to the game ( We would want to retain that creepy feel you got the first time you were there and didn't know where every object and Splicer was going to be ).
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Remote Control Bots (a TV view like a spy drone) :
* Radio control unit for the operator. Range may not be great thru walls and various interference.
* Player control interface - Much simpler than a AI controlled unit ( and maybe less likely to shoot at you by mistake )
* "Send in the Bot" to scout around ( and then pull the expensive Bot out when someone starts shooting at it )
* All kinds of 'Bot' accessories ( stealth bots, gunship bots, 360 degree scanner bots, lifter bots ? )
* Probably all very expensive and prone to failures -- the mission now is to RECOVER that expensive Bot ...
* Bot repair skills in demand ( city has more than a few Bots used in their Security Apparatus )
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City Hall Map New Rapture History Model ( Sitting in City Hall adjacent to the 'council chambers' )
* Shows ACTUAL progression over time of growth of the New Rapture (this server)
* Includes period before player game from the 'first starting' ('Johnny' and Tenenbaum setting up the New Rapture)
* City Historian records significant events (and names names) - see the archives.
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The Scenic Survey Viewers ( Coin operated binoculars - as seen in Arcadia/Hephaestus )
* Another precision optical device that has uses (Bounty offered).
* Not sure why they have what looks like a little nuclear warning symbol on them ( close-up of metal label ).
* Odd that in Arcadia they were looking straight into a bunch of trees (obscuring the view).
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Handling Behavior of 'Captured' Splicers ( Who have to be brought back to 'the clinic' )
* Another scripted mode of behavior for NPC Splicers ( in restraints, ranting and frothing, etc ... )
* Have to cart them back all that way ( wheel-barrow sounds more and more useful )
* Some of those restraint thingees we saw on the walls in Persephone sound kinda useful now ( clinic probably needs a  supply ).
* Straight jackets take two people to put on someone.
* If you capture them (Splicers), they have to tell you where their Pot-O-Gold is (Yeah right ...)
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DNA Tags (Mentioned in Novel) for 'Genetic' Security Identification:
* Used by Bots/Security scanners as identification, Friend or Foe ( apparently not that hard to 'hack' )
* For access to Vita-Chambers/Bathyspheres (must've been a newer less-Hackable system)
* Genetic tech components have been in short supply (or hard to develop with reliability)
* Few people would ACTUALLY understand 'Genetic' tech details, and like 'Radium/Atomic/Electric' earlier it becomes a Buzzword.
* SO even the Novel author thought the DNA thing was too ridiculous to actually be real
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Light Switches (which work):
* Lots of lights in Rapture - didn't see one switch to turn them off/on
* NPCs, of course, know how to use them (usually residences and closed businesses)
* Power outlets/sockets ( did you see any of those in the game either ? ) for equipment/tools.
* Fixing them while 'stabilizing' a location
* Handy for Activating something used in Defenses or a Ambush
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Mini-Subs used in Rapture would have to be battery powered:
* Or compressed gas 'fuel' (many torpedoes in WW2 worked off compressed air),
* Another area for some neat Rapture bio-engineering for fuel-cells
* Remanufacturing of sub/bathysphere batteries needed since most have gone well past their warranted dates.
Quest scenario for the MMORPG having a Splicer Pirate Sub with a captain who's a cross between Captain Nemo and Jack Sparrow.. ( 'Captain Neek Narrow' ?? Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of ADAM ... ) "What a Sub is ... is freedom"
* Must be robbing ships up on the surface - not a good thing for Rapture being kept 'secret'.
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Pocket Calc-u-lators !!!! :
Yet another offshoot of Sea Slug genetic manipulation for mini logic circuitry. I recall an interview with a pioneer of the computer age saying those first digital (1940s) computers, even though they could only do 350 multiplies per second, were the biggest jump in computing speed EVER -- a transition from a human doing it with a slide rule/mechanical adding machine - something like a 1500 X speed up. You would not exactly be getting a 'tablet' computer here, but a pocket portable 4-function calculator alone would be a big advance (in Art Deco style of course). Training a Sea Slug Brain to do decimal arithmetic logic was the real trick.
The 'Calc-u-lator' is a general tool that assists in research of various kinds. The uses are many - boring, repetitive, tedious uses - so best if they are used by your NPCs (ie- accountant) who will do your boring, repetitive, tedious jobs, so YOU wont have to.
Remember to have An amusing animation of its 'works' ...
Used on various Missions/Quests as part of the goal achieving activity.
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THEY'RE ALL AROUND US !!!!!! :
"Alien" movie type vibration sensor portable device - showing crude directional/distance ( with all the nastiness that hides IN the walls in Rapture's construction ) - Every toilet flush makes it go crazy ...
Other types of remote sensing devices would be available to the Players in-game use
* Stethoscope - you want to hear what's on the other side of that door sometimes ...
addmore
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Invisible Traces : 
Blacklight (UV) or Infrared (via electronic TV cams) can show details/things not visible to the naked eye
So such apparatus and 'messages'(and stuff) as a 'Tool' idea.
As Steinman ranted - "Urine Everywhere !!!" 
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Some of the Props in Infinite BS could be reused. These are some kind of Medical implements.
As with much else, they would be expanded in detail ( pictured is a set of tools which would become individual Object items with different functions ).
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