[yield:num] improvements

[TheyCallMeSibs]

Hiya,
Digging through the news led me to realize that we now have a way to create several items from slender trunks, like 3 blunt arrows or staves.
I've run into some issues with how this is implemented, though, and would recommend:
Communicate this feature to the player, for example by adding +'Slender Trunk, yields 3 arrows' to the applicable entries and adding a mention to the F1 menu.
This is obviously just a hacky solution, and adding this into other messages would be preferable.

Additionally, I found it a little confusing that I would discard an entire 2/3rds of a slender trunk if I was making one blunt arrow instead of 3. Thinking back to how you handle making armors or using cordage, there's already a system in place for using only parts of a base item. Did you consider extending this to lumber through the use of the yield tag? If the player decides to make only one item of a yield:3 recipe, you could remove 1/3 of the used base material, like removing a certain amount of lbs from a fur.

Theoretically, this could be extended to things like splitting boards or chopping blocks, where the player could choose to only create one block first, use it for firewood, then later use that tree for further blocks.
The only realism issues I see here is that a tree with several blocks removed could still yield usable boards. Then again, I can create fur items out of many tiny fur scraps...

[Plotinus]

I agree, the current interface doesn't help me remember that I should be making 3 arrows at a time if I want to use the slender trunks efficiently.

[JP_Finn]

Agreed, the [yield:x] seems like Sami has a future use in mind for it. Otherwise I think

Code: [Select]

{Slender trunk} #16.67# [remove][ground] would’ve been used.

I hope we get to add a list of “items” recipe produces, not just amount of one .item.

[Sami]

Yes, I agree, the new yield values should be communicated to the player so that crafting could be as efficient as possible - when needed.
However, F1 encyclopedia isn't a good place for this sort of information as the values are prone to change. 
Written descriptions (eg. +'Slender Trunk, yields 3 arrows') at recipes would be somewhat working hack, but as the requirement dialog is displayed only after selecting the number of items to craft it would need cancelling and crafting again to correct the desired number if need be.

I'd like to have the information displayed dynamically upon crafting without requiring any additions to the diy_ recipes.
Just haven't had time to consider a good practical approach to it just yet. One solution would be to display the applicable yield information as a game message before selecting how many to craft. For example like this:

HANDCRAFT OPTIONS: Arrows
ARROWS: Blunt arrows
One slender tree trunk can yield 3 blunt arrows.
HOW MANY (OF TOTAL 10)?

I think the raw material loss, be it slender tree trunks or something else, will remain a part of the crafting system in the future too but the yield value can ease it up to some extent.
In theory all the wood raw material and their requirements could made length based so that for a blunt arrow you would need "1 meter of slender tree trunk" but uh...that sort of an overhaul is pretty much out of the question at the moment as there's quite a bit of something else on the table right now.

Moreover, we like to think that slender tree trunks also differ in shape and size and sometimes you might find less good portions of wood for eg. blunt arrows from some of them.
Of course this isn't reflected in the game on other than imaginary level, but it may help to cope with the material loss if you roleplay it that way
Raw lumber one fells in the game isn't always of the same standard shape, size and straightness.

Nevertheless, the yield information upon crafting is a good and solid idea, also on our to-do list, and ideas for the implementation are welcome.

[PALU]

The situation is somewhat similar to the smoking situation prior to the rework of cords.
The ideal solution is probably a length wise implementation, but as this would be a longer term solution, I'd suggest the information wouldn't only say how many <X> a <Y> would yield, but also that excess material would be lost.
If that is considered hard to understand and no brief alternative could be found, I'd suggest having the crafting section of the encyclopedia say something along the lines of "Some recipes can produce multiple items from a single source item, but without the ability to return a partially used source item if crafting of fewer items is performed. In those cases crafting will warn the player with this text "...".

Thus, something like
"One slender tree trunk can yield 3 blunt arrows, with excess material being lost."
If possible, I'd also try to get the maximum count to be a multiple of the yield, i.e. 3 in the case of arrows to reinforce that you'd ideally craft multiples.

A possible alternative might be to use the damage system to indicate consumption, but I'd guess it isn't a trivial amount of work either.

[TheyCallMeSibs]

It's all tricky. I personally would go for converting a yield:3 recipe into lbs in the back end, then removing that many lbs of material from the item per craft, if the number of items crafted is under the yield tag. Stops any awkward message needs and makes the system future-proof and versatile.

[Plotinus]

I like this:

HANDCRAFT OPTIONS: Arrows
ARROWS: Blunt arrows
One slender tree trunk can yield 3 blunt arrows.
HOW MANY (OF TOTAL 10)?