DEV BLOG 11

QUICK CRAFT MENU AND MAIN CRAFTING MENU FINALLY IN!

QUICK CRAFT MENU

SO AS WELL AS A MAIN CRAFTING MENU I HAVE ALSO BEEN WORKING ON A QUICK CRAFT MENU. THIS ALLOWS THE PLAYER TO QUICKLY CRAFT AN ITEM FROM THE MAIN INTERFACE ONCE ALL THE ITEMS IN ITS RECIPE HAVE BEEN ACQUIRED. YOU CAN ONLY CRAFT ONE at a time AND THERE IS NO INFORMATION ON WHAT IS NEEDED TO CRAFT THE ITEM JUST WHAT CAN BE CRAFTED WITH WHAT IS CURRENTLY IN YOUR INVENTORY.

IF YOU WANT MORE INFORMATION ON THE ITEMS NEEDED OR TO CRAFT MULTIPLE ITEMS THEN THAT IS WHERE THE MAIN CRAFTING MENU COMES INTO PLAY.

FOR THE QUICK CRAFT MENU, ITEMS WILL BE GREYED OUT AND DISABLED UNTIL THE ITEMS IN ITS RECIPE ARE PRESENT IN YOUR INVENTORY.

ONCE YOU POSSES THE ITEMS needed THEN THE ITEM WILL BECOME ENABLED WHICH IS NOTICEABLE BY HAVING ITS COLOUR RESTORED.

yOU CAN THEN DOUBLE CLICK ON THE ITEM YOU WANT TO CRAFT. tHIS WILL THEN DEDUCT THE RECIPE ITEMS FROM YOUR INVENTORY AND AFTER THE CRAFTING TIME (WHICH IS SET FOR EACH ITEM) THE ITEM YOU CRAFTED WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR INVENTORY. THE QUICK CRAFT MENU WILL ALSO UPDATE SO THAT YOU CAN THEN SEE WHAT IS STILL AVAILABLE TO CRAFT WITH YOUR CURRENT INVENTORY.

HERE IS A VIDEO OF IT IN ACTION BELOW.

MAIN CRAFTING MENU

THIS HAS BEEN THE HARDEST AND LONGEST MECHANIC TO CREATE SO FAR. BECAUSE I DESIGNED THE INTERFACE THE WAY I DID IT MADE IT REALLY HARD TO GET THE DIFFERENT RECIPES WORKING. EACH ITEM IS A SEPARATE WIDGET WHEREAS I ONLY WANTED TO CHANGE THE CENTRE PART WHERE THE ACTUAL RECIPE IS. i COULD NOT GET THIS WORKING AND AS I WAS DESPERATE TO GET IT FINISHED AND MOVE ONTO THE NEXT TASK I DECIDED TO GO THE LONG ROUTE.

I KNEW I WAS CAPABLE OF GETTING IT WORKING THIS WAY SO IT'S NOT EXACTLY HOW I ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO DO IT BUT ITS IN, IT WORKS GREAT AND I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF WITH NO EXTERNAL HELP. THIS MECHANIC WAS SO HEAVILY SCRIPTED AND FOR THAT REASON IT HAS TAKEN ME NEARLY 1 MONTH TO LEARN, ADAPT, DESIGN AND EXECUTE. THAT ALONG WITH ALL THE BUG FIXING. I AM EXTREMELY PROUD OF HOW THIS TURNED OUT AND IT WAS DEFINITELY ONE OF THE MORE AMBITIOUS AND WORRYING MECHANICS I PLANNED TO CREATE AT THE START AND i AM SO HAPPY IT IS IN AND WORKING.

WHEN A PLAYER PRESSES THE CRAFTING MENU BUTTON (I HAVE IT SET TO C). THE CRAFTING MENU WIDGET POPS ON SCREEN FOR THE PLAYERS TO SEE/USE.

here is a picture showing the main crafting menu user interface. i will break each part down individually.

i won't bore you again with the finer details as i pretty much explained all that in dev blog 07 when i was first implementing it. everything i planned to get working in that dev blog is now.

the one noticeable difference however is the inventory from the main interface now also displays on the crafting menu, making it easier to see what you have and also give you the option to still use it whilst crafting.

this again was difficult to get working as the way my main interface is set up only displays the inventory when the main widget is visible. So i had to think of an alternate way of doing this. in the end it was a case of displaying the main widget and then hiding everything apart from the inventory and info panels. here is a visual representation.

another PROBLEM WAS THAT WHEN I WENT BACK TO THE MAIN WIDGET, BECAUSE EVERYTHING OTHER THAN THE INVENTORY WAS SET TO HIDDEN I THEN HAD TO MAKE THEM ALL VISIBLE AGAIN. tOOK A WHILE BUT IT IS SORTED NOW.

HERE IS A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF MY MAIN CRAFTING MENU

as YOU CAN SEE FROM THE VIDEO I HAVE ALSO UPDATED THE PICKUP FUNCTION. BEFORE IT USED TO PICK AN ITEM UP WHEN THE PLAYERS COLLISION BOX OVERLAPPED THE ITEMS COLLISION BOX. NOW WHEN YOU OVERLAP THE COLLISION A WIDGET IS DISPLAYED SHOWING THE ITEM NAME AND AMOUNT AND ALSO SOME INFORMATION ON HOW TO PICK IT UP. IN THIS CASE WHEN THE WIDGET SHOWS YOU PRESS [E] TO PICK UP AN ITEM NOW.