New crafting system inspired by "Neo Scavanger"

[N EL]

Saw on the roadmap that one of the things being looked at is a new crafting system that fits the game better than the Minecraft-esc one we currently have. I had a different game that might be better inspiration. Keep in mind this wouldn't be a change to the systems like clay forming, knapping, ect. those would be left the same in my vision.

In Neo scavenger the crafting interface is a large crafting grid. When you go to craft you not only can put on any items you want but you have all of your characters skills as "items" that can be placed on the grid as well. The idea being you put in the items needed, and then the skill to communicate to the game what your intentions are with it. Example: you can put two sticks in the crafting grid and the results would bring up using them to make a longer stick, add the fire starting skill and now the game will make a fire starter with them. It even went as far as making a list of possible results so if you put on the sticks and the skill it would show both possible results and let you pick which one you take. Neo scavenger is an rpg so it would have to be altered to work in Vintage story but I thought about that and had suggestions too.

Without a leveling system and thus no skills to earn, I had the idea of unlocking concepts instead. when the player first starts they don't have any concepts or just the most basic ones. when they first pick up a stick or a rock they would get a "tool" concept. this would be used for the obvious assembling tools with sticks and knapped rocks, but two sticks with it would make a Firestarter, or a stick and some string would make a torch. first time they pick up clay they get "brick making" as a concept for making raw bricks, or mix it with stones to get cobble. The idea being that the unlocks would subtly push the idea that the thing the player just got has X use, but reward messing with things still. The big thing is the concepts should be unlocked as a tutorial more than a reward. Don't want the situation of having all the stuff to make a healing salve and not being able to because you didn't unlock the medical concept by getting your hands on linen.

Pros
-easier to experiment with (player wouldn't need to figure out the specific pattern to make an item they know is in the game, just have the parts and then tell the game what the intention is.)
-player can "communicate" their intention with the game. (I want to make a tool, so i put in the tool concept vs I want a wicker chair so I put in the furniture concept.)

-multiple items can use the same or very similar recipes. ( displaying all possible results and letting the player click on them to decide which one they want means a chair could be 5 planks, and a book shelf could be 5 planks and even use the same skill.)

-easier experimentation. (just throwing in items and concepts to see what the game recognizes, similar to how someone in real life would start putting random stuff together with what they know to try and come up with new ideas.)
- could work with a large variety of inventory systems and would not need the Minecraft one. (personally I would prefer a RE4 Tetris like grid system. Neo scavenger almost does it.)

Cons
- much easier to learn new things, possibly ruining the "hardcore" perception some people have of the game.
-would have the pitfall of concepts being too difficult/easy to unlock and each one would probably need tweaking at some point as new recipes are added. (if armor made entirely out of sticks was added, that means the player might have enough sticks to make it but need to first get Leather to unlock the ability to make armor, despite having the items needed to make it.)
-infinite possibilities means potentially infinite headaches for dev's. (making my own tabletop game, and while much, much, much easier than a video game they are similar enough I can recognize this is a mechanic that can be tweaked forever without ever being "perfect.")


I sometimes have trouble correctly expressing what I mean, so I'd appreciate feedback so I can make it clear. The game I am referencing is not the most popular so the idea kinda needs to stand on my description. I did include a screenshot of crafting in neo scavenger to hopefully make it clear.