Old school crafting tabs

[-Penta-]

Does any of you guys remember how the Shadow Manipulator used to replace both the Science Machine and the Alchemy Engine way back then? Well, could something akin to that be done in DST as a mod? I know you can edit recipes, change items around crafting tabs and even the crafting stations needed for them all you want (and I've been doing it myself for some time now), but is it possible to have Shadow Manipulator recipes previewed (aka, seeing their icons with the lock on top) on the Alchemy Engine?

Also, is the gemology tab icon still in the game's files? If so, is there any practical way to integrate it into the crafting tabs by making it replace the magic tab?

Edited May 27, 2020 by -Penta-

[Ultroman]

It's all about the builder component. It determines what shows up in your tabs. It has some functions which determine which recipes the player has access to using their own TECH + the TECH of the prototyper they are standing closest to.

When I did the mod Long-range Research, I not only wanted to make it so prototypers could be used from further away, because then it would be hard to select which one was the one you wanted to interact with. I also wanted to change the way it calculates which things you can craft, so my mod reads the highest level of each TECH that it can find on the player and EVERY prototyper within range, so everything you can craft using the prototypers within the defined range, will show up in your tabs at the same time <3

My approach required completely overwriting a certain complex function, so I do not recommend doing that lightly. What you're asking for, can probably be done by extending the KnowsRecipe and/or CanCraft (or whatever the name is of those functions are) on your character's builder component and saying "return true when asked about these certain prefabs". MUCH easier and less intrusive than doing what I did. I had to, because of the multi-prototyper-thing. If you study the builder component enough, following where those functions are used, you'll quickly get a good idea of how you can do this. Don't rush into it, because there are many gotchas in there.

EvaluateTechTrees is the function I replace. It's very interesting to read through, to learn how the builder component works, but again, I do not recommend messing with it, unless you're absolutely sure what you're doing.

But these approaches all actually allow the player to craft the thing. If you want it to show at all times but not be craftable unless you're closest to a Shadow Manipulator, I'm not sure how I would do that.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Ultroman

[-Penta-]

From the looks of it, something like that may be way too complicated for me to do on my own, but I'll try looking at the code and see what I can figure out. May I look at your mod's code too to see if I can get a better picture of how you edited the TECH?

Also, if I don't get this to work, there's another thing I'd like to try that's related to crafting. Would it be possible to make certain characters only be able to use science stations, while others are only able to use magic stations? I know you can change on a whim what certain characters can and cannot craft, but can that be applied to all crafting tabs, or only character-specific ones?

I'm asking all of this because I'm trying to rework the game's crafting system and tabs. There's too much filler content and not enough unique ways to integrate certain items with higher level crafting, and the fact that all characters always can and need to craft nearly the same things with so many other options available bugs me to no end.

Edited May 27, 2020 by -Penta-

[Ultroman]

1 hour ago, -Penta- said:

May I look at your mod's code too to see if I can get a better picture of how you edited the TECH?

You don't need my permission for that  Go ahead. But as I said, I do it in a way that you should keep away from. You might as well read the original game code. My code does almost the same thing, but makes it confusing with several prototypers.

This sounds like a new crafting menu replacement, with filters.