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[Dirst]

I guess my main hesitation is with prepping reactions before they're ready to be completed. I certainly think in most cases it doesn't make sense but it could work sometimes.

It could be a multi-step reaction that has intermediate outputs that become inputs of the next step, but then no two reactions could ever have the same intermediate output.  Not sure if that is a problem or not.

If it is, then one reaction creates the %item% and another uses it.  From a raws perspective, it's just a tag that flags the output as %incomplete% so that it has no quality level and no direct use.

[SixOfSpades]

I guess my main hesitation is with prepping reactions before they're ready to be completed. I certainly think in most cases it doesn't make sense but it could work sometimes.

True, most of the time there's no need to start things that you have no intention of finishing right away. But that's perfectly okay, because in almost all cases, %items% will be totally unobtrusive, just sitting in their workshops (while their respective workers are off Eating / On Break / whatever), behaving just like a reaction that got Suspended & will automatically resume when their worker returns. In cases like this, %item%s provide no improvement except for realism: You can now "watch" as the lump of stone gradually takes shape, rather than being able to cancel the reaction at the very last second & still get back the very reagents you started with. Ideally, you could examine the %item%, and see that "this leather waterskin is about 45% complete", or perhaps even percentage-based descriptions, like "the sheep wool has been 100% carded, but is only 10% spun."

But, if you wish, you should be able to order %item%s, paving the way for the aforementioned low-level trainees doing the rough work & their masters receiving the commands to complete the jobs. In addition, this could pave the way for multiple professions being able to perform intermediate steps: Bronze weapons are cast, not forged, so why couldn't a %bronze axe% be made by a Furnace Operator, who then hands it to the Weaponsmith to be given a handle & sharpened?

[Gwolfski]

But, if you wish, you should be able to order %item%s, paving the way for the aforementioned low-level trainees doing the rough work & their masters receiving the commands to complete the jobs. In addition, this could pave the way for multiple professions being able to perform intermediate steps: Bronze weapons are cast, not forged, so why couldn't a %bronze axe% be made by a Furnace Operator, who then hands it to the Weaponsmith to be given a handle & sharpened?

Tis sounds as if you just need a fewmore than a few reactions in the raws

[SixOfSpades]

But, if you wish, you should be able to order %item%s, paving the way for the aforementioned low-level trainees doing the rough work & their masters receiving the commands to complete the jobs. In addition, this could pave the way for multiple professions being able to perform intermediate steps: Bronze weapons are cast, not forged, so why couldn't a %bronze axe% be made by a Furnace Operator, who then hands it to the Weaponsmith to be given a handle & sharpened?

Tis sounds as if you just need a fewmore than a few reactions in the raws

Maybe, maybe not. IF (big if) anything like this ever gets done, it would only be on a case-by-case situation, specific things that happen to make sense, just in the name of realism. For example, objects that have multiple major components, which draw on the skills of multiple professions, would be a prime candidate: Right now, the Carpenter makes beds, and that's it. More realistically, the Carpenter would only make %bed%s, which would remain incomplete until the Weaver makes some blankets (and possibly mattresses?) for them. [EDIT:] %bed%s would only be partially incomplete, because although they have no real use yet, a fitted & carved bed-frame would definitely have quality. Another example would be picks, where the head comes from a Weaponsmith / Blacksmith / Furnace Operator, and the handle from a Carpenter / Woodcrafter. Each component would have quality, but be useless (unless you fitted the handle to an axe blade instead) without the other. The game could change to require making the parts separately, or have %incomplete% reactions that automatically chain to the next step at another workshop--either way would be an improvement.[/EDIT]

As for regular workshops being ordered to stop work partway for the purposes of creating a "Work In Progress" stockpile or let their novices get some risk-free experience, I imagine 50% is a good default stopping point for each applicable reaction, although if others would seem to have stopping points that make more sense (like the Baker making that batch of bread mix, which would be only like 5 or 10% of the process), by all means use that.

[GoblinCookie]

Some kinds of items do not work that way while some do.

[Bytyan]

Additionally, you could add degrees of incompleteness for complex objects, and add arbitrary incompleteness for objects you want for a specific task

For example, a carpenter could make an %%+oak bed+%%, signifying it has no mattress and no blankets. It could then get hauled to a farmers workshop, who would fill it with cave wheat, turning it into a %+oak bed+%. It would then need a clothier to come and add all the additional cloth to finish it as an +oak bed+

Alternatively, if you really wanted a candy sword decorated with goblin bone and steel spikes, you could put an order in for one at the managers office. Once your sword has been completed by the smith, it will be automatically designated %%candy sword%%, unavailable to military civilian uses pending decoration.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Some kinds of items do not work that way while some do.

Which is why there would obviously be some raw tag to disallow this type of incomplete item creation. Or make it less efficient, like forging, which would need new fuel each time.

[Libash_Thunderhead]

What about artifacts?
I think their types are decided when the moody dwarf finish the job.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Which can only be told if you savescum   

Presumably artifacts would not be included in the first version of this, but that has potential: use incomplete artifacts to allow for eating/drinking/sleeping while in a (fey or secretive or macabre) mood. I don't think a possessor would know or care about bodily needs, and a fell dwarf cannot rest, lest the stink alert other dwarves to their fiddling about with the bones, hair, and skin of Urist McUnfortunate

[LMeire]

Which can only be told if you savescum   

Presumably artifacts would not be included in the first version of this, but that has potential: use incomplete artifacts to allow for eating/drinking/sleeping while in a (fey or secretive or macabre) mood. I don't think a possessor would know or care about bodily needs, and a fell dwarf cannot rest, lest the stink alert other dwarves to their fiddling about with the bones, hair, and skin of Urist McUnfortunate

An incomplete artifact could be called a %Sampo% for mythological reference points. The Sampo of Finnish myth was a vague construct that the legendary smith, Ilmarinen, tried and failed to make 3 times before he succeeded. First making a crossbow, then a full-sized warship, then a living metal cow; before finally making the mystery machine with which he attempts to impress the girl he liked. (He failed at this also.)

[SixOfSpades]

For example, a carpenter could make an %%+oak bed+%%, signifying it has no mattress and no blankets. It could then get hauled to a farmers workshop, who would fill it with cave wheat, turning it into a %+oak bed+%. It would then need a clothier to come and add all the additional cloth to finish it as an +oak bed+

Alternatively, if you really wanted a candy sword decorated with goblin bone and steel spikes, you could put an order in for one at the managers office. Once your sword has been completed by the smith, it will be automatically designated %%candy sword%%, unavailable to military civilian uses pending decoration.

Those would almost be best implemented as two separate suggestions . . . if chaining together multiple steps to apply decorations ever happens, it might be best for the Manager screen to have the ability to Save and Recall production orders, as well as to parse through them like when choosing your fortress name. This would make it quite simple to produce large quantities of that most flavorful of decorated items: Uniforms / livery.
Manager screen, request 20 cloaks (sheep wool, dimple dye) decorated with fur (badger) trim and thread (rope reed, redroot dye, thin crosses). Save this order, perhaps with a name. Later on, if you want to make some skirts or robes to match, just Recall that order, parse to the "cloak" and change it to "skirt", without having to reset (let alone remember) the whole order.

[King Kitteh]

You could even have certain items go from incomplete to complete on their own over time, eg ageing wines and whiskeys, or even dying cloth.

I really like the idea of the cloth unraveling or 'dying' over time and then becoming an incomplete item which a clothes maker would repair. This could replace the throwing out of xclothesx. Instead of being thrown away, they'd be repair, or maybe even remade into new cloth.

Also damage to clothes or armor from fighting could create a %shirt% or %breastplate%. This would mean that items would actually need to be fixed by a clothier or armorer. Maybe goblin armor won't be so easy to pick up and put on.

It never made sense in adventure mode when I cleaved a peasants arm off and his shirt was fine.

[Libash_Thunderhead]

Some kinds of items do not work that way while some do.

I suppose half cooked roasts are still edible. In this case, %% is more like a negative quality flag.

Some job like making charcoal, however, will probably continue to burn the material even if the worker leaves the furnace.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

You could even have certain items go from incomplete to complete on their own over time, eg ageing wines and whiskeys, or even dying cloth.

I really like the idea of the cloth unraveling or 'dying' over time and then becoming an incomplete item which a clothes maker would repair. This could replace the throwing out of xclothesx. Instead of being thrown away, they'd be repair, or maybe even remade into new cloth.

Also damage to clothes or armor from fighting could create a %shirt% or %breastplate%. This would mean that items would actually need to be fixed by a clothier or armorer. Maybe goblin armor won't be so easy to pick up and put on.

It never made sense in adventure mode when I cleaved a peasants arm off and his shirt was fine.

For your first part: he was talking about applying dye, a pigment, to cloth. XXclothesXX are already implemented, although fixing them would be a nice thing to include in DF.

Damage to shirts in fighting sounds like it would mostly be wear, but if you do chop an arm off, it sounds like a XX%shirt%XX might be the result. Still, a %item% is generally a good-quality item that just needs more work to be complete, not a complete item that now has a piece missing. Some things aren't constructed piece by piece. Clothing isn't always like that.

[NW_Kohaku]

Additionally, you could add degrees of incompleteness for complex objects, and add arbitrary incompleteness for objects you want for a specific task

For example, a carpenter could make an %%+oak bed+%%, signifying it has no mattress and no blankets. It could then get hauled to a farmers workshop, who would fill it with cave wheat, turning it into a %+oak bed+%. It would then need a clothier to come and add all the additional cloth to finish it as an +oak bed+

Something like this is best handled by simply having intermediary products. Rather than a %wood bed% and %cloth bed% that need to be combined to make a bed, it makes much more sense to make a wood bed frame and a cloth mattress that are either used as components in construction of a new item, or are built into furniture together in the same way that screw pumps are three different types of component items that form a building with a gestalt function.

The same can honestly be said about several of these ideas, like having a baker just make dough instead of %biscuits%.  Having a % around things doesn't give meaningful information as to what stage they are in of a multi-stage process, and you basically cannot do this sort of multi-stage process without functionally programming in intermediary products, anyway.