Improving the Crafting/Recipe Screen

[youtoo]

I have found the crafting screen hard to navigate for a while. How big of a chance is it to add functionality like the following:

1. search for a recipe. whether you can craft it or not to see requirements
2. ability to organize recipes by required skills as well as by categories
3. ability to see all recipies and have the ones you can’t craft show a different color
4. ability to have some sort of tree so you can see required skills to create certain recipes.
5. sub-categories under the table. So you can do tabs by skill and then folder structure that you can open and close by recipe type or vice versa.
6. ability to search for recipes by ‘ingredients’.
7. ability to have a plan for recipes you want, list skill levels needed (color them if attained) and items needed and color them if attained. you can also mark as ‘having them’ or if they are in your ‘V’ they are listed.

this is a pretty big overhaul of the crafting screen. I am not good at making things pretty, but what do people think of making this more newbie friendly?

I would also include a ‘recommended’ tab for new people. Such as stone pot, and purifying water, etc…

[EkarusRyndren]

1. Currently you can do that, (F) I don’t think you can find the recipe if you don’t know it though. That said, I think it should stay that way, kinda defeats the purpose if you know what you need to make a recipe… But don’t know how?
2. The organization is fine as is in my opinion.
3. See 1
   4: It’s already listed what skills you need, a tree would be redundant
   5: I don’t see the point to this
   6: I like the sound of this, though it might be better to have it an option in item menu. EG i > 2 by 4 screen and then a button to give you a list of what crafting recipes can be made from the 2 by 4 and other things.
4. I don’t think a ‘goal screen’ is needed, it just seems like extra note clutter.

I like some of it, some of it I don’t.

[Miloch]

I’d like the ability to search for recipes by base skill (so I can find something to train certain skills)

[Klomvp]

Highlight the highest skill requirement items such that when I gain a skillpoint I can more easily see what I just unlocked?

[falconne]

I’m planning to add something that covers #6: in the item description box show what known recipes use it as an ingredient. Also want to do something to cover #2 (to make it easier to train specific skills). And was thinking about adding messages to the log of new recipes you learn when you raise a skill level or read a book.

I also want to think about a good way to do “chained” crafting, i.e. if you don’t have the required ingredients, but you can craft them, have the game automatically show you a chain of crafting that would produce the end item and run it for you. That’s a bit more difficult though.

[youtoo]

@ekarus: that is because like me you have played for a long time. for a newer player its hard to find recipes and figure stuff out. I think we can make the crafting interface easier to manage.

[kevin.granade]

I also want to think about a good way to do “chained” crafting, i.e. if you don’t have the required ingredients, but you can craft them, have the game automatically show you a chain of crafting that would produce the end item and run it for you. That’s a bit more difficult though.

Huh, if you don’t have an ingredient, I guess you can recursively check if you have a recipe to make it, and see if you meet it’s requirements. That falls down with quantity, because if you need 5 of something, we don’t have a way to check whether you have enough raw materials to make that many, just that you can make at least one of them.

Ideally, if you had the capacity to make all the components for something, you could just kick it off and automatically make them, then make the thing itself. That’s a lot of infrastructure though, and the crafting code is already pretty hairy.

[EkarusRyndren]

@ekarus: that is because like me you have played for a long time. for a newer player its hard to find recipes and figure stuff out

Yes but having a list of all the crafting recipes available at any time is very likely to result in “I have materials why can’t I make item” threads. Even with the “Level Required:” thing.

Plus, it completely negates the “This book has x crafting recipies.” you just apparently know how everything is made. No reason for it. I’ll admit it made life easier when the recipes were bugged and I could just make them all auto-learn, but still.

That said, a mechanic that teaches the players they need a book to know the recipe could be useful. Mayhaps an NPC quest of "Can you get my mother’s cook-book? She had the greatest recipe for " (Bonus points for letting it use foods like Mannwurst and Booze recipes.)

[kevin.granade]

Good thinking, possibly even have a book in the shelter or that the shelter NPC will just give you. Then you know to hunt for books.