Improved crafting

[Pinco]

Craft something is another really unwieldy thing of this game so, here is my solution:

Basically my idea is to replace the current crafting gump for every tool with a single window.

Let's start with a picture:

This tool will appears instead of the default gump (toggleable from the options).
You will be able to search what you want to make by item name, by switching the active skill you can perform the quick actions. The green buttons (make, make max and make number) can be used without set the active skills, but after using them the active skill will automatically switch so you will be able to use "make last" without manually selecting the skill.

The settings allows you to set the material (only the ones usable at your skill level), the kind of tool to use (plain or runic) and all the default options (quest marks, do not color and mark item).

The mouse over an item will shows the materials required, how many do you have and how many you can make with the materials currently available.
If you don't have enough materials it will be highlighted in red, the same happen if you don't have enough skill.

The only catch is that you must set the materials and tools container in order to make this tool works. By default it search only the main backpack level, but you will be able to set another container (just remember that will NOT search sub-containers).

The layout in the image is just a first idea and it could be improved.


I'd like to hear some ideas and suggestions about it before bring it to life

 

[Storm]

I like it what about a little icon in the corner that shows the current material

 

[Pinco]

I like it what about a little icon in the corner that shows the current material

What about this way:

This provide also a quick way to switch material and an easy way to detect when the tool is gone (I always miss that )

 

[Leira of Asrai]

Will the Crafting Assistant remember the last thing you made with each skill? I like opening my tinkering tool window and clicking make last to make another sewing kit, then opening the sewing kit window and clicking make last to continue working where I left off (training the skill crafting the same thing over and over, or filing a BOD when your tool breaks with more to make).

 

[Pinco]

Will the Crafting Assistant remember the last thing you made with each skill? I like opening my tinkering tool window and clicking make last to make another sewing kit, then opening the sewing kit window and clicking make last to continue working where I left off (training the skill crafting the same thing over and over, or filing a BOD when your tool breaks with more to make).

the button for the active skills do that, in short it execute the actions without searching for the right tool in your pack... you just need to switch the active skill to use that

 

[Storm]

What about this way:

This provide also a quick way to switch material and an easy way to detect when the tool is gone (I always miss that )

perfect love it

 

[Storm]

What about tool uses remaining or did i miss it

 

[cdavbar]

The only catch is that you must set the materials and tools container in order to make this tool works. By default it search only the main backpack level, but you will be able to set another container (just remember that will NOT search sub-containers).

Do you mean another container within your pack, or you can set a secure container in your house?

 

[Damia TMC]

I love this idea, especially the search feature. After a million years in UO I still say who makes that? Tinker right?

 

[Pinco]

What about tool uses remaining or did i miss it

Added to the design:

here it is another thing that I've forgotten: the success chance

Do you mean another container within your pack, or you can set a secure container in your house?

no, in your pack... a house container is not very useful if you need to know how many items you can make

I love this idea, especially the search feature. After a million years in UO I still say who makes that? Tinker right?

mmm no, it's not the tinker it's me
when I've done, the old tools directly open the crafting assistant instead of the usual gump

 

[Petra Fyde]

So - when you're making (eg) a leaf suit, you won't have to keep going all the way through pages to get to the next item in the suit?
How does the item selection section work?

 

[Pinco]

So - when you're making (eg) a leaf suit, you won't have to keep going all the way through pages to get to the next item in the suit?
How does the item selection section work?

you type the name or a part of it (like for the container search) and you will see the items that matches the criteria
for example if you want to make a leaf suit, you just need to type "leaf" and you will see all the items that contains leaf in the name (that should be just the leaf suit), this way you don't have to keep going through pages in order to find what you need

 

[Petra Fyde]

sounds good
it might be less helpful on inscription. I'll wait and see.

 

[Pinco]

sounds good
it might be less helpful on inscription. I'll wait and see.

it still on design mode, that's why I'm gathering ideas

right now I got this idea on how to improve the search and simplify the crafting:

The idea is allowing to search by different criteria: item name, item category and by skill (in order to see all the craftable of that skill).

The second idea is to show any craftable material required so you don't have to search for it (like for the keg on the example).

 

[RaistlinNowhere]

i dont use EC but i think you need to make the smelt button an option to choose forge or salvage bag ^^

 

[Pinco]

i dont use EC but i think you need to make the smelt button an option to choose forge or salvage bag ^^

I'm not sure about that... the salvage bag is a separated thing and if you craft inside it then you press the smelt button everything goes to hell... probably is better if the people activate it with the context menu so it will works as double check

 

[Petra Fyde]

I'm liking where I think you're going with this. The only reservation I have is with inscription. It's so different to smithing and tailoring etc..

 

[Pinco]

I'm liking where I think you're going with this. The only reservation I have is with inscription. It's so different to smithing and tailoring etc..

I don't think is that different...
I'm going to do this tool so that if you don't have entered any search criteria, you'll see all the items craftable with the active skills. The items order will be alphabetically for everything, but for inscription I could sort it by spell: first the mage (sorted by circle) then necromancy, then mysticism. Runebooks, spellbooks and bod books before the spells.

 

[Petra Fyde]

sounds good.
I admit the way the current craft menus return to the first page in a list whenever you make something winds me up.
If I'm writing level 2, 4, 6 or 8 spells I don't want to be returned to the page with 1, 3, 5 and 7 on. If I'm making a leaf suit, I don't want to be returned to the page with basic leather etc.

 

[Pinco]

sounds good.
I admit the way the current craft menus return to the first page in a list whenever you make something winds me up.
If I'm writing level 2, 4, 6 or 8 spells I don't want to be returned to the page with 1, 3, 5 and 7 on. If I'm making a leaf suit, I don't want to be returned to the page with basic leather etc.

yes, this is one of the most annoying things of crafting, another one is that you have to manually search a new tool when one is broken, but fortunately this new feature will automatically pick a new tool and you have just to press make

 

[Pinco]

ok, I've just reached the conclusion that showing the materials and success chance in the tooltip is not good :|
I'm now thinking to put all inside the table, and the materials all shown like the barrel lid in the last picture (obviusly without the make buttons for the non-craftable items )

 

[kongomongo]

OMG this looks fantastic! Did Mythic contact you for signing you up?

 

[Pinco]

I've finally completed the gump structure and the basic functions of the crafting assistant, here is a raw preview:

Now I have just to load all the craftable items data

 

[Frarc]

You doing a amazing job!

 

[Pinco]

This tool is almost finished!

Now I have just few more things to do and then will be ready for a serious road test

I had to change few details on the search:
The search box will parse the items by name so if you type the full name of a craftable item or just a part of it it will provide all the items that matches the criteria.
Then you will have 5 extra options:
- Show Materials: allows to see the list of items without the related materials.
- Show Sub-Materials: since once or more of the required materials could be craftable, the craft assistant by default will shows also the required materials for the required materials. So this option just limit to 1 level of materials
- Show Items with 0% success: this allows you to hide the items that currently you cannot create because you have 0% chance.
- Enable Search By Skill: this allows you to enter a skill name in the searchbox and find all the items that requires that skill.
- Active Skill items ONLY: this option limit the search to the active skill items, very usefull for skills like inscription where you can limit the search to find only certain scrolls (for example the magery ones).

If you have any request about this tool, there is still time...

 

[Doubleplay]

I hope that the new crafting window is resizeable and can be repositioned on the screen so it will open at the new selected location every time.

 

[Pinco]

I hope that the new crafting window is resizeable and can be repositioned on the screen so it will open at the new selected location every time.

yes, it saves the last position, is not resizable but you can scale it

 

[Zeke]

Looks great Pinco. Will you be be able to see Last 10 items made or just last one?

 

[Pinco]

Looks great Pinco. Will you be be able to see Last 10 items made or just last one?

yes, there is a button near the search line that shows the latest 15 items made (with all skills)

when I'm done with all the materials images, I will post a new screenshot

 

[Pinco]

Here it is the final screenshot:

This evening (if nothing else comes out), I should be able to release it

 

[Petra Fyde]

don't forget the lids on that potion keg

 

[Pinco]

don't forget the lids on that potion keg

oh there are, just remember that it shows all the materials for an item and the materials to make the materials, so it's a long list

 

[Petra Fyde]

I'm looking forward to using it. Thank you for taking the time to develop it

 

[Storm]

very cool I also am looking forward to it

 

[Pinco]

... and has been released

 

[Storm]

dang that was fast logging in now

 

[Pinco]

dang that was fast logging in now

fortunately the HUGE db of all the craftable items do not make lag

 

[Storm]

fortunately the HUGE db of all the craftable items do not make lag

ok just logged crafter in and went through the menu to make the potion keg worked great i did have to move all tools to main pack ,not really a big deal ,only problem i had was i did not notice two spots for the lid once i did that worked great very handy for kegs will try other items soon and let you know

 

[Storm]

as for lagging the whole game is lagging for me atm so could not tell

 

[Pinco]

ok just logged crafter in and went through the menu to make the potion keg worked great i did have to move all tools to main pack ,not really a big deal ,only problem i had was i did not notice two spots for the lid once i did that worked great very handy for kegs will try other items soon and let you know

use the settings menu and select the tools and material container without move anything

 

[Storm]

use the settings menu and select the tools and material container without move anything

lol I had found it right after I posted along with select wood type at first it was unknown till i told it

 

[Pinco]

lol I had found it right after I posted along with select wood type at first it was unknown till i told it

unfortunately I have no way to detect the material, so you have to choose it at least once in order ti initialize the tool

 

[Doubleplay]

Lagging very bad since the patch. I have not lagged in over a year, and have played all morning without lag.

When fishing, double clicking on the sos bottle turns the bottle green and brings up the sos message instead of turning the bottle into a scroll. The bottle remains a bottle, even after the message is read and cancelled.

As for the lag, it makes the game almost unplayable. Moving fish out of my backpack to my pack llama is almost impossible because the lag interferes with the pick-up and drag of the fish from the backpack to the llama. Walking is very laggy too.

 

[Storm]

Lagging very bad since the patch. I have not lagged in over a year, and have played all morning without lag.

When fishing, double clicking on the sos bottle turns the bottle green and brings up the sos message instead of turning the bottle into a scroll. The bottle remains a bottle, even after the message is read and cancelled.

As for the lag, it makes the game almost unplayable. Moving fish out of my backpack to my pack llama is almost impossible because the lag interferes with the pick-up and drag of the fish from the backpack to the llama. Walking is very laggy too.

what server you play? I am on ls and just logged in with default client and have same lag without pincos i just posted a trace route to uhall

 

[Doubleplay]

That's good news. I noticed that UO had a patch too. Perhaps that is what is causing the horrible lag. I play on Sonoma

 

[Pinco]

what server you play? I am on ls and just logged in with default client and have same lag without pincos i just posted a trace route to uhall

this morning I was unable to logon, I put the google dns and all the problems are gone, maybe is the same?

 

[BeaIank]

I play Legends and I have been lagging real bad since this patch as well.
Playing with default UI gives me almost no lag.

Edit: I have been running through the Lua scripts. I have a feeling that this new function that resizes the icons at the open containers is the source of the lag. It generates quite some overhead, since it has to run through several items to calculate the new scale and rescale them.

 

[Storm]

I am currently patching cc and going to check it, but in default ec my lag is also bad, moving is almost impossible for me

 

[Storm]

this morning I was unable to logon, I put the google dns and all the problems are gone, maybe is the same?

what dns are you using pinco? I have been able to log in whole time even yesterday evening no problem till today

 

[Pinco]

I play Legends and I have been lagging real bad since this patch as well.
Playing with default UI gives me almost no lag.

Edit: I have been running through the Lua scripts. I have a feeling that this new function that resizes the icons at the open containers is the source of the lag. It generates quite some overhead, since it has to run through several items to calculate the new scale and rescale them.

perhaps, I have to do some tests...