How to handle Material Selection
Now the Workshop Material Selection topped the eternal voting and was implemented to the upcoming features list, I started thinking about how to handle it in terms of interface. I wanted to draw a mockup, but the solution is so simple it doesn't even need one.
Use the uniform system for workshop items!
You could call them "recipes" instead of uniforms or whatever.
Each workshop now comes with a list of "recipes" that can be made there. But you could expand the list by defining your own recipes. You would then name them and they would appear in the menu. It's the same thing as with uniforms, except you wouldn't be able to delete the defaults.
Let's take craftsdwarves workshops, for example. The default list would look something like this (from the top of my head)
- cloth crafts
- decorate with bone
- decorate with horn/ivory
- decorate with pearl
- decorate with shell
- horn/ivory crafts
- leather crafts
- pearl crafts
- rock crafts
- rock mugs
- rock short sword
- shell leggings
- shell gauntlets
- totem
Now if I wanted to create something very specific, I would click "Add a new recipe". Which would bring up a new screen, something like the uniform definition screen. This screen would probably be very complicated, but in the end, I'd define something like "Carp bone helm" + "studded with cow horns" + "encrusted with red sapphires" + "bands of rose gold"... name my creation "horned helmet" and save.
The order list would then look:
- cloth crafts
- decorate with bone
- decorate with horn/ivory
- decorate with pearl
- decorate with shell
- horned helmet
- horn/ivory crafts
- leather crafts
- pearl crafts
- rock crafts
- rock mugs
- rock short sword
- shell leggings
- shell gauntlets
- totem
Easy peasy!
The uniform system has no cons, only pros! It remembers all your recipes (and if you don't want them remembered, simply delete them). And most important of all, it makes material selection completely optional. We definitely don't want to force the player to choose a material every time he orders something. The material selection screen should be something a player could go 100 % without, they could play the whole game without opening it once.
The uniforms/recipes could also be exportable and transferrable between games!