How to "fix" the crafting menu.

[Gaboris]

Okay so since this has been a complaint from not just me, but most people I saw play the game since the crafting menu's update I guess we could start a thread on ideas to "fix" it... unless if there's already a proper update planned for it that is.

So the obvious problem is that it's a PAIN to flip through all the pages whenever we want to find the thing we want to craft. I know that this is a first world problem, but this is a basic rule of UI design: "The less clicks the better. Show as much info on one page as you can. But still split them up whenever it's needed."

My first thought when I saw the new craft "list" was that this is SWEET! I like the page design, it makes it much more fitting... but where's the rest of the notebook and why is it so hard to use if I have a MOUSE?

To fix this I'd say the one page flipping could be extended to a whole two paged book, keep the right page for the selected item so those assets don't go to waste and just add a "grid list" of smaller recognizable images with fitting notebook page indexes on the top for filtering on the left page.

The top indexes could just be "all - tools - clothes - misc - meds - maybe search if someone REALLY needs it" and if one is picked then the list is filtered for those items(maybe the size of the images could depend on the amount of items?) where you can pick one out and the right side of the notebook "flips" while keeping the left side list in place(this is still a game so let's not make a fuss about how that's not realistic ).

Now I guess the main reason why a subpar system like this is in place is the same like it was with Skyrim's vertical listing inventory. It's just more usable for controllers and I'm not trying to argue about consoles I just mean that a more complex system is harder to optimize for those controls so I kept thinking till I figured out how make them fit both methods.

For the mouse it's easy. We just click where ever we want like on all the other great UIs already in the game.

For controllers it's actually surprisingly simple. The bumpers switch between the page indexes and the D-pad simply goes left-right-up-down on the grid and each D-pad step selects the item.

Since there were already a few ideas to improve the menu I guess I'll link in a few that have similar ideas.

This had the same "tabbed" idea as me:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=8105

Again similar ideas just with the old text list:

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=7386

Also there was a small thread about adding a "last viewed item" function to the menu so if you exit crafting to eat or drink the menu'll open back up at that item the next time, but I just couldn't find that thread.

Any thoughts or info on planned improvements for crafting are welcome. :mrgreen:

[Boss Llama]

I would definitely welcome a modification like this to reduce the number of pages one has to flip through - it is probably the single most cumbersome thing in the game right now (short of the new forging mechanic, which is tragic). A simple inventory-style interface showing images of all the things you can craft, which could be easily color/shade coated to indicate things like current progress on an item of that type, availability of required resources, tools needed, etc would make it miles more user friendly and unobtrusive.

In the short term, while we have the current mechanic, I would at least like to see items you currently have an in-progress version of bumped to the head of the queue, with a bias to most recent project if people have multiple in-progress crafts. Given the rates of food and hydration drain, I find myself having to stop repeatedly during the crafting of any given item to eat and drink, and then click back through the whole book of patterns to get back to what I was working on.

[Muk_Pile]

+1

I'd just be happy if you could just click and hold the "Next Page" button to just continuously flip through the pages rather than having to repeatedly click the button to flip to the next page.

I mean, it wouldn't that difficult; the mechanic is already implemented for selecting multiples of an item simultaneously (e.g. when selecting how many liters of water you want to drop/transfer/boil, just click and hold down the arrow on the right until you reach the amount you want to select, rather than clicking the arrow repeatedly).

[andross]

It would be cool to have your craftable items laid out on the crafting bench and be able to click and drag them together to start crafting. You could simply take your 'in progress' boots and select 'continue'.