[Suggestion] Crafting Supply Automation

[Fennec]

Big QoL improvement would be to allow crafting stations and such to just take from supplies we have in storage. I HATE having to search around for what I need, grab it from storage, then put it back when I'm just making one thing real quick.

I don't even care if it's a unique storage solution like a Crafting Chest or something. Just... anything would be good to allow us to craft or do ship building without needing to HAVE the things on our person.

[Scipo0419]

I think the most interesting route to go would be something like Minecraft Technical mods where you have pipes or conveyor belts to move items around. I suppose we don't need that many crafts, but linking up a storage network to your crafting stations would be really neat.

And it would help with automated storage, having a dump chest that then filters out the items into their respect storage chests. You could even go so far as to have auto-crop harvesting, cooking, and storing so you have food on hand.

It would require lots of resources and could be like an endgame goal to reach this near full automation in your airship

[Fennec]

Originally posted by Scipo0419:

I think the most interesting route to go would be something like Minecraft Technical mods where you have pipes or conveyor belts to move items around. I suppose we don't need that many crafts, but linking up a storage network to your crafting stations would be really neat.

And it would help with automated storage, having a dump chest that then filters out the items into their respect storage chests. You could even go so far as to have auto-crop harvesting, cooking, and storing so you have food on hand.

It would require lots of resources and could be like an endgame goal to reach this near full automation in your airship

I'd just prefer the route of 'if it's in your ship and in storage, you can use it for crafting'.
Or even, like I said, a special chest that does that specifically.

[FFH_Greg]

"Craft-from-storage" is something that is being discussed daily now in the studio.
We know a lot of you guys want this feature.
There are still a bunch of QOL improvements like this we want to add.

At this stage, I would say it's more "when" and not "if".

[Scipo0419]

Originally posted by Fennec:

Originally posted by Scipo0419:

I think the most interesting route to go would be something like Minecraft Technical mods where you have pipes or conveyor belts to move items around. I suppose we don't need that many crafts, but linking up a storage network to your crafting stations would be really neat.

And it would help with automated storage, having a dump chest that then filters out the items into their respect storage chests. You could even go so far as to have auto-crop harvesting, cooking, and storing so you have food on hand.

It would require lots of resources and could be like an endgame goal to reach this near full automation in your airship

I'd just prefer the route of 'if it's in your ship and in storage, you can use it for crafting'.
Or even, like I said, a special chest that does that specifically.

It's definitely easier, but takes some of the fun and reality out of the process.

How, exactly, is your Fabricator accessing a storage box over 10m away? It's quality of life, sure, but adding an additional element, like transfer pipes/conveyors/filters to justify how your materials are moving around adds to the realism, and it doesn't need to be as complicated as Redstone machines can get, as a lot of the best technical mods for minecraft are designed to simplify the Redstone circuits by saying "oh, items flow from this container to that container without needing hopper filters"

Edit: i suppose the best middle-ground approach would be a special crafting station that has a built in storage. So you would just store items you use a lot in crafts inside the crafter. But that still would require you to keep it stocked manually.

[Fennec]

Originally posted by Scipo0419:

Originally posted by Fennec:

I'd just prefer the route of 'if it's in your ship and in storage, you can use it for crafting'.
Or even, like I said, a special chest that does that specifically.

It's definitely easier, but takes some of the fun and reality out of the process.

How, exactly, is your Fabricator accessing a storage box over 10m away? It's quality of life, sure, but adding an additional element, like transfer pipes/conveyors/filters to justify how your materials are moving around adds to the realism, and it doesn't need to be as complicated as Redstone machines can get, as a lot of the best technical mods for minecraft are designed to simplify the Redstone circuits by saying "oh, items flow from this container to that container without needing hopper filters"

Edit: i suppose the best middle-ground approach would be a special crafting station that has a built in storage. So you would just store items you use a lot in crafts inside the crafter. But that still would require you to keep it stocked manually.

1: We're in an airship over a ruined planet with buildings in a state of near constant collapse, flying chunks of plastic and metal all over the place, and a 3D printer system that can make a machine bigger than it is inside a small glass case. I think we're LONG past 'how does a fabricator access a box'

2: Pipes are the same problem as the fabricator. How is it transporting things that are way bigger than it?

3: Honestly, having storage IN the fabricators and other devices would be good, too.

[Fennec]

Originally posted by FFH_Greg:

"Craft-from-storage" is something that is being discussed daily now in the studio.
We know a lot of you guys want this feature.
There are still a bunch of QOL improvements like this we want to add.

At this stage, I would say it's more "when" and not "if".

Awesome!

[Zewtastic]

Bowing to the lazy whim's of children by making games so super easy they don't have to do anything is a step too far for me. It's not QoL, it's just lazy and makes no sense other than simplifying games for immature kids that grew up playing carebear WoW which was a ridiculously dumbed-down and pampers-wrapped copy of the adult EQ.

[NukeAJS]

Originally posted by Zewtastic:

Bowing to the lazy whim's of children by making games so super easy they don't have to do anything is a step too far for me. It's not QoL, it's just lazy and makes no sense other than simplifying games for immature kids that grew up playing carebear WoW which was a ridiculously dumbed-down and pampers-wrapped copy of the adult EQ.

I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective.

Any game design philosophy should start with "is this fun?" Making a game challenging can absolutely make a game more fun and rewarding. So the real question here is: "Is running around to various boxes fun and, furthermore, is running around to different boxes the type of challenge that is fun?"

I think the answer to both of those questions is a hard no. Running around to boxes doesn't even make the game harder, it's just tedium. It certainly doesn't make it more fun.

Think of the virus analysis part of the game -- it's done in a way where you play a little minigame that is fun (for about 2 minutes, definitely not more) but you only have to play it once for each item. You get a little sense of accomplishment when you complete the game and unlock the virus sample. Now, imagine having to do that literally every time you ever wanted a virus sample. After the tenth time, you'd probably think it's pretty silly and you'd be right.

Inventory management would ideally be like that -- at first you have to run around like some OCD kid on ritilin but around the time that you have so much stuff that running around, putting stuff in boxes gets too monotonous and frustrating, a solution presents itself that greatly simplifies the process.

The key part here is to not stream-line core parts of the game: exploration and building (and combat?); however, you would want to stream-line things that are in the game, but not the focus. This way you can make the fun parts of the game as fun as possible while the other aspects are just in the background.

[Fennec]

Originally posted by Zewtastic:

Bowing to the lazy whim's of children by making games so super easy they don't have to do anything is a step too far for me. It's not QoL, it's just lazy and makes no sense other than simplifying games for immature kids that grew up playing carebear WoW which was a ridiculously dumbed-down and pampers-wrapped copy of the adult EQ.

In addition to what NukeAJS said, I'll add: If it's not realistic and hard enough for you, don't play it. Go play Ark on the hardest difficulty or Hardcore Fallout New Vegas with mods to increase difficulty and realism further. I wasn't asking for fast travel and infinite resources or something.

After a point, I just don't enjoy walking back and forth from my storage constantly to realize I don't have what I need. It's tedious and not in the fun way like some sim games can be.

So for all intents, I request you get onto a suitably high horse for your difficulty standards and ride it out of town if this will be the straw that breaks your camel's back.