Trivial modification to crafting UI - made of 100% awesome. With use-cases!
tanzanite
Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222904Members
Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222904Members
To summarize in one sentence: wouldn't it be nice if any item you can not craft due to missing ingredients would spawn a sub menu-column with the missing craftable dependencies - regardless of whether you have the items needed to craft the dependency.
This would be of course recursive. Also, if you have all the ingredients then the craft click would not spawn the sub menu and would behave exactly as it already does.
Examples / Use cases:
1. have all the components
inventory: 1 x Titanium ingot, 1 x Lithium
on craft click of Plasteel ingot: it will be crafted. No changes in UI behavior.
2. missing a component that has no crafting recipe
No changes in UI behavior. Because: submenus are spawned per recipe for missing ingredient - if there are no such recipes then no submenu for them can form.
3. missing a component that can be crafted
inventory: 2 x Titanium, 2 x Metal salvage, 1 x Lithium
on craft click of Plasteel ingot:
- submenu for crafting Titanium ingot will show greyed out (hover shows that you have 2 Titanium of the 10 needed)
- on craft click Titanium ingot: submenu for crafting Titanium will show up normally. Once you craft-click twice to break down both Metal salvages and have the needed 10 Titanium, the submenu closes
- now you can craft the Plasteel, which also closes its submenu and you are back at use case #1
4. missing component that you do not have the ingredients to craft
inventory: 2 x Titanium, 1 x Lithium
on craft click of Plasteel ingot:
- submenu for crafting Titanium ingot will show greyed out (hover shows that toy have 2 Titanium of the 10 needed)
- on craft click Titanium ingot: submenu for crafting Titanium will show up greyed out (hover shows you don't have the Metal salvage needed). Craft-click on Titanium (from Metal salvage) will be unsuccessful - you just do not have what you need.
5. missing a component that is craftable by another machine
The missing component will show up with differently colored bubble (only a slight red hue? to avoid turning the menu into an Angry Fruit Salad) and an oneliner to indicate what machine makes it. The bubble cannot be clicked. Ie. it is not a crafting button - it just informs you what machine you should bother with your request.
It can get even better - A LOT BETTER:
Would it not be beyond awesome if all kinds of fabricators (fabricator, modification stations etc) would have an "preparation" menu (different hue to indicate the menu is "special") for the dependencies it can build.
Examples:
1. You can make a Battery with fabricator going:
fabricator: "preparation" -> Modification Station -> Thermoblade -> Battery
note: Thermoblade only shows up if you miss any of its ingredients - regardless of if the ingredients have crafting recipes (no changes in hover behavior - you get your usual reds and greens etc)
note: Battery only shows up if you do not already have it
meta-note: the behavior is indistinguishable from the behaviors described in the use-cases -> should make a programmed feel warm and fuzzy.
2. Another example just to underline the proposals usefulness especially to new players (First impressions matter! Be nice game-devs!):
fabricator: "preparation" -> Mobile Vehicle Bay -> Seamoth -> Power Cell -> Battery
Imagine a new player going back and forth between his base deep under the sea and the Mobile Vehicle Bay to sort out the missing items. Do note: suggesting pen and paper solution to a UI problem is a bit silly - just bring the UI to 2016 instead.
Similarly, Habitat Builder is another source of major back and forth.
Considerations:
- does it interfere with on-your-own-survival feeling: NO. This is not autocrafting, you are still on your own. Nothing moves unless you do it. UI is to interface the user to an virtual world in a box: as thin as possible and work around the fact that the player is not actually there. That means: short day/night cycle as real time just won't fly; seconds to build an underwater habitat by magic as doing one in real time with limited materials won't fly either; same goes to reliance of pen and paper.
- should subcategories of the target device be used (a'la Habitat Builder -> Interior Modules -> Fabricator): Perhaps? If it makes sense for target device?
This would be of course recursive. Also, if you have all the ingredients then the craft click would not spawn the sub menu and would behave exactly as it already does.
Examples / Use cases:
1. have all the components
inventory: 1 x Titanium ingot, 1 x Lithium
on craft click of Plasteel ingot: it will be crafted. No changes in UI behavior.
2. missing a component that has no crafting recipe
No changes in UI behavior. Because: submenus are spawned per recipe for missing ingredient - if there are no such recipes then no submenu for them can form.
3. missing a component that can be crafted
inventory: 2 x Titanium, 2 x Metal salvage, 1 x Lithium
on craft click of Plasteel ingot:
- submenu for crafting Titanium ingot will show greyed out (hover shows that you have 2 Titanium of the 10 needed)
- on craft click Titanium ingot: submenu for crafting Titanium will show up normally. Once you craft-click twice to break down both Metal salvages and have the needed 10 Titanium, the submenu closes
- now you can craft the Plasteel, which also closes its submenu and you are back at use case #1
4. missing component that you do not have the ingredients to craft
inventory: 2 x Titanium, 1 x Lithium
on craft click of Plasteel ingot:
- submenu for crafting Titanium ingot will show greyed out (hover shows that toy have 2 Titanium of the 10 needed)
- on craft click Titanium ingot: submenu for crafting Titanium will show up greyed out (hover shows you don't have the Metal salvage needed). Craft-click on Titanium (from Metal salvage) will be unsuccessful - you just do not have what you need.
5. missing a component that is craftable by another machine
The missing component will show up with differently colored bubble (only a slight red hue? to avoid turning the menu into an Angry Fruit Salad) and an oneliner to indicate what machine makes it. The bubble cannot be clicked. Ie. it is not a crafting button - it just informs you what machine you should bother with your request.
It can get even better - A LOT BETTER:
Would it not be beyond awesome if all kinds of fabricators (fabricator, modification stations etc) would have an "preparation" menu (different hue to indicate the menu is "special") for the dependencies it can build.
Examples:
1. You can make a Battery with fabricator going:
fabricator: "preparation" -> Modification Station -> Thermoblade -> Battery
note: Thermoblade only shows up if you miss any of its ingredients - regardless of if the ingredients have crafting recipes (no changes in hover behavior - you get your usual reds and greens etc)
note: Battery only shows up if you do not already have it
meta-note: the behavior is indistinguishable from the behaviors described in the use-cases -> should make a programmed feel warm and fuzzy.
2. Another example just to underline the proposals usefulness especially to new players (First impressions matter! Be nice game-devs!):
fabricator: "preparation" -> Mobile Vehicle Bay -> Seamoth -> Power Cell -> Battery
Imagine a new player going back and forth between his base deep under the sea and the Mobile Vehicle Bay to sort out the missing items. Do note: suggesting pen and paper solution to a UI problem is a bit silly - just bring the UI to 2016 instead.
Similarly, Habitat Builder is another source of major back and forth.
Considerations:
- does it interfere with on-your-own-survival feeling: NO. This is not autocrafting, you are still on your own. Nothing moves unless you do it. UI is to interface the user to an virtual world in a box: as thin as possible and work around the fact that the player is not actually there. That means: short day/night cycle as real time just won't fly; seconds to build an underwater habitat by magic as doing one in real time with limited materials won't fly either; same goes to reliance of pen and paper.
- should subcategories of the target device be used (a'la Habitat Builder -> Interior Modules -> Fabricator): Perhaps? If it makes sense for target device?
Comments
What I would be happy to see is changes to dependency-based crafting. Whilst I'm happy to make a plasteel ingot from a titanium ingot and a piece of lithium (because 10 bits of titanium can take up a lot of room), I might not want to go through a hierarchy of crafting before I end up with my end product. I'd like to have the option of convenience, where I can shove a pile of different materials in to the fabricator, and have the fabricator spit out the end product with a single click. That way, I don't have to make the prerequisite products first if I don't want to.