Topic

Craft dialog tweaks

I like how when you are making something, and you need an ingredient that you can make using another tool, you get to switch back and forth between them. So if you are making widgets, and you need thingies, you can switch to the thingiemaniser to craft them without exiting the widgetwodger dialog, and then switch back to the widgetwodger when you have finished thingiemanising. A couple of little tweaks that would make this even more wonderful:

1. Automatically populate the second dialog with the number of thingies you need to make the selected number of widgets (up to the maximum batch size for your thingiemaniser, ETA: or the maximum number permitted by your thingie ingredients). So if you want to make one widget, and it needs three thingies/widget, the thingiemaniser dialog would automatically be set to three when you enter it from the "Make more" link on the widgetwodger dialog. Unless you already set the widgetwodger to make two widgets, in which case the thingiemaniser would be set to make six thingies. Unless the batch (ETA: or ingredient) maximum for a thingiemaniser was five thingies, in which case it would be set to five. In all cases, you could change the number of thingies just by changing the number. Which brings me to:

2. Allow typing the number of widgets or thingies or whatever you want to craft in each dialog without having to focus on that box and select the already-populated number first. A bit like how the drop/pick up/donate/etc dialogs work.

Posted 6 months ago by Trixie Leitz Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • 3. allow keyboard input to select from recipes and to manipulate the counter/hit the craft button. This is especially needed for machines.
    Posted 6 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes! and allow you to access machine dialogs from tool dialogs as well, if you are standing close enough, e.g. if you are making furniture while standing in front of the woodworker or metal machine.
    Posted 6 months ago by Trixie Leitz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Now I want a thingiemaniser and a widgetwodger!!
    This this is an excellent idea!
    Posted 5 months ago by Hen vla Ham Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ?? Perhaps I'm mis-interpretting your request (it wouldn't be the first time, and if so, likely won't be the last either), but you can already subcraft required items from the popup. click the make-more and the dialog will appear. When done, (for instance, grinding some required spice or making N jars of required goo), click "back to recipe"

    The only thing I see missing is that the overlay layer used for the popups prevents removing additional raw materials from sdbs while you're in your home crafting, so you have to close the menu to get more stuff.

    regarding machine made goods (rods, bars, posts,  etc.) I *do believe they're also included in the mix, much as for food items or tincture/potions, but in that I may be mistaken.
    Posted 5 months ago by Woochi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Woochi, I know that if you need to make ingredients for what you are crafting, you can access the subcraft dialog using the "Make more" link. That's what I was describing in my first para.
     
    However the amount of the ingredient that you want to "make more" of is always set to 1 in its sub-dialog, and you have to click in the box and select the number if you want to change it via the keyboard. Which means swapping between keyboard and mouse, which is unwieldy when you use the keyboard for most of your play. (If you use the mouse for most of your play, this won't be an issue.) What I'm asking for is, if you access the dialog from another dialog, that the number of ingredients is set to the number you need for the number of items you eventually want to craft. And that you can change it via the keyboard without needing to use the mouse, just as you can now in other dialogs.

    I'd like to be able to access raw materials from outside my inventory, too, but that has been suggested elsewhere, so I'm not going to make this suggestion more complex by adding it in.

    Re: machines, the last time I tried to craft using them, you could start with the machine and use another tool (like the alchemical tongs to make moly ingots) to craft ingredients for what you wanted to make with the machine. However, I don't think you can start with (for example) the construction tool dialog and then access a subdialog for the woodworker to make boards for your sdb. That would also be super-nifty, but it's not the main point of the idea I've posted, which is just a simple (to the user) interface tweak that would make a lot of difference to crafting complex items.
    Posted 5 months ago by Trixie Leitz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ah. I understand your request now. All the wallchamucallit speak was blurring it to me. For me, it's not an issue. I use the keyboard and the mouse and don't even think about it.

    edit: btw, doesn't the quantity box come up as the default when a dialog popup is displayed? I'm not in game and can't go in game right now (I'm waiting for a deploy to complete and had a couple of minutes at my disposal), but I thought that was the situation when crafting. If so, it should just be a matter of typing in the quantity. Myself, except for furniture, I don't craft in onesey twosees, so such an implementation would be  of no value to me. If I require N thingamabobs to complete the mfg of a wachumacallit, I generally make as many as I can so the next wachumacallit doesn't require my making more thingamabobs

    If the qty box doesn't pop up as the default, it really *should.

    Granted, I may change my attitude during my next road trip from Anabru to parts unknown.
    Posted 5 months ago by Woochi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The quantity box is populated with "1", i.e. if you click the Make button, you just get one of the item that tool crafts. If you want more, you have to click the quantity box, select the number and type a new one. Or use the +/- buttons. You can't do anything on that dialog just with the keyboard - you have to use the mouse as well to focus on what you want to change. You can't even type enter to activate the Make button. This is different behaviour to some of the other dialogs in the game - for example, the drop dialog allows use of the keyboard for the whole process, should you wish to do so.

    Also, I don't always want to make the maximum available. For example, if I'm making EHSP and I need to make some Humbabol, I only need 160/jar, and making the max (250) might use up all of the rest of my limited supply of shiny elements that I could instead use to make Zillene for the same jar of EHSP.
    Posted 5 months ago by Trixie Leitz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • YES to everything in this post.  For example, I make a lot of Butterfly Eggs, which require 8 blue bubbles and 10 tiny bubbles apiece.  I'd really love it if the first subcrafting menu opened up with the option to make "enough blue bubbles for 1... 2... 3... butterfly eggs" (which would automatically make you 8, 16, or 24);  then the second subcrafting menu could open with the option to make "enough tiny bubbles for 1... 2... 3... butterfly eggs" (which would in this case automatically make 10, 20, or 30).

    Also I've been meaning to write a post BEGGING to allow us to use the woodworker as a sort of crafting submenu when making furniture, because I hate having to jump into and out of inventory when making the components for things that I'm crafting with the construction tool.  So here I am piggybacking on your comment saying YES PLEASE.
    Posted 5 months ago by Pale Queen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The machines don't allow submenus, even if you need to craft anything else with the same machine. I just tried to make wood posts, but I didn't have any boards. I couldn't just click ahead to make boards from the dialog for posts! I had to go back to make the boards first ): It's not a major inconvenience, but it really doesn't make sense!
    Posted 5 months ago by Xacau Feera Blin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Understood on both counts Trixie. fair dos. As I noted, if the count box doesn't come up as a default entry point, it should. As to the default qty. meh. As I said, I rarely make one or two of anything aside from furniture. it's just not worth the effort to me.

    I do understand where you're coming from though. good luck.
    Posted 5 months ago by Woochi Subscriber! | Permalink