[Testers needed] Multi-container auto-access when crafting

[IsharaMeradin]

I had started this some time ago after reading a thread that I can no longer locate.

 

The idea is to be able to pull items for use at the crafting stations from multiple containers and return those items to the correct containers when finished.

 

To do this a quest is needed to fill the optional aliases, because aliases will remain fixed until the quest is stopped and started again, a ring is used to start the quest on equip and stop the quest on unequip.

 

Not knowing what containers players may have at their disposal the ring also acts as a container registration device. By placing the ring in the container in question, that container becomes registered for use. The ring is auto-returned, no possibility of accidentally leaving it in a container.

 

There is support for up to 100 local containers, but you can register as many containers as you wish. Therefore, the system will work in any location. If you can get away with it, you can even register containers that are not public (but if caught with your hand in...). Respawning containers can also be used but I'd recommend against it.

 

There is one ring per crafting station: Alchemy, Cooking, Enchanting, Forging, Smelting, Armor Tempering, Weapon Tempering

Forging ring is also designed to work with the Skyforge and the Lunar forge. Alias conditions are specific but loose enough to include most mod added stations. Some mod added stations may not work, however.

 

Atronach Forge is not included

Aetherium Forge is not included

No plans to include either one.

 

These rings for testing purposes are located on the alchemy table in the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood. No idea where they *should* go outside of testing. Suggestions welcome.

 

A bag of holding was also considered to accompany this system so that there could be portable storage that was always included. But the jury is still out on that. Feel free to share your thoughts.

 

The process is then as follows:

Step 1. Place ring inside desired containers and register them -- can be done after step 2

Step 2. Place materials to store in registered containers -- can be done before step 1

Step 3. Equip the ring associated with the crafting station of your choice

Step 4. Access the crafting station -- items from the alias filled containers will appear in the player inventory for use

Step 5. Make stuff as desired

Step 6. Exit the crafting station -- items should begin returning to the appropriate containers within 10 seconds ***

Step 7. Unequip the ring associated with the crafting station -- quest stops and aliases are emptied

 

I need individuals willing to stress test this and try to break it in game. Also need feedback on functionality. While I can use the Creation Kit on the current "backup" laptop, I cannot play Skyrim. The game will load but even on the lowest of settings it is impossible to play. Doing proper testing on this under such conditions is impractical. Should everything work as intended, I may offer this as a playable resource.

 

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

Download link:

http://isharameradin.zxq.net/mods/IsharasCraftingAssistant.7z

 

*** Since it is impossible to know how long a player will use a crafting station, there is a 10 second update cycle which starts looping when the items are transferred for use. This loop runs on a temporary container that is outside of the quest's control. This means that unless the mod is removed while one of the rings is equipped there should be no papyrus log issues.

[mikegray]

Heya!

 

I just found my way here from your response to a question I asked somewhere else.

 

Are you still looking for testers on this?

 

It seems like a potential replacement for the old family of General Stores mods.

 

P.S. PM me if you still need beta testers. As I said in my other thread, I'm not really able to keep track of where I've posted ...

[IsharaMeradin]

Yes. Still interested in getting feedback on this. I'll send the PM just to be safe.

[instantmelanie]

The items didn't appear in my inventory when I used a crafting station. I bought an alchemy and enchanting station for Vlindrel Hall and followed your instructions but nothing happened. I'm not sure if you wanna spend the time diagnosing why it's not working in my particular case, but on the subject in general, why the rings? In practice, I think players do most of their crafting only in their houses, while crafting outside the house serves a more auxiliary function than anything serious. Assuming that's true, then there's only a finite number of crafting stations a player uses, and by implication, only a finite number of associated containers a player utilizes to do said crafting. To me at least, it makes more sense, to just script containers near crafting stations in their house, and if they are using a non-vanilla crafting station from a mod, then make a compatibility patch in which you just slap on the script to those containers. Then in the readme, you just inform the players which containers are scripted. Or label them “Enchanted Chest” or something. I guess, for me at least, managing the rings seems a bit of a fuss.

[IsharaMeradin]

The items didn't appear in my inventory when I used a crafting station. I bought an alchemy and enchanting station for Vlindrel Hall and followed your instructions but nothing happened. I'm not sure if you wanna spend the time diagnosing why it's not working in my particular case, but on the subject in general, why the rings? In practice, I think players do most of their crafting only in their houses, while crafting outside the house serves a more auxiliary function than anything serious. Assuming that's true, then there's only a finite number of crafting stations a player uses, and by implication, only a finite number of associated containers a player utilizes to do said crafting. To me at least, it makes more sense, to just script containers near crafting stations in their house, and if they are using a non-vanilla crafting station from a mod, then make a compatibility patch in which you just slap on the script to those containers. Then in the readme, you just inform the players which containers are scripted. Or label them “Enchanted Chest” or something. I guess, for me at least, managing the rings seems a bit of a fuss.

I could have done a fixed location. However, in the end since my game ended up without a fixed place to call home, I decided to make it usable in any location. Not to mention that I personally do not want to go thru every stock home, every dlc, every mod home setting up such a process. I'd rather let someone else do that.

 

The rings are necessary because there is no direct way to connect container A to workstation B in game. The only way to do so directly is in the Creation Kit. Which as you pointed out would require setting the process up in each home. Using the rings to first associate the container with a form list and then using those rings to initiate the quest which fills all the aliases allows one to use the process at any location.

 

Flexibility rather than rigidity is the goal. To be flexible there has to be a means to dynamically add containers to the list that the workstation accesses.

 

In my initial testing I did have the container aliases be filled with ANY container and the items transferred directly to the player. The problem with that was that even containers which were owned were being accessed. I chose to limit the containers used in the aliases by requiring that they be registered first (assigned to a form list). Hence, I added the rings (I probably could have used a spell too). Then I found out that quests won't re-fill aliases unless it is stopped and started again. Hence the ring is to be equipped to start and unequipped to stop. I could very well use a SKSE hot key to start and stop the quests, I just didn't want to force SKSE out of the box.

 

As far as not getting items to transfer...

Three possibilities:

1. You did not equip the ring. Thereby not starting the quest.

2. You had no items in the containers that the quest filled the aliases with

3. Other scripted mods interfered in some way.

Any or all could have been in effect.

 

The Alchemy one is the one that I worked with and tested with. I duplicated the process for the other stations. I am willing to entertain the idea of some errors in the replication for the other stations. It was during the replication process that my initial computer died.

[instantmelanie]

 

As far as not getting items to transfer...

Three possibilities:

1. You did not equip the ring. Thereby not starting the quest.

2. You had no items in the containers that the quest filled the aliases with

3. Other scripted mods interfered in some way.

Any or all could have been in effect.

 

The Alchemy one is the one that I worked with and tested with. I duplicated the process for the other stations. I am willing to entertain the idea of some errors in the replication for the other stations. It was during the replication process that my initial computer died.

 

 

Is it possible that I had items that were not on the form list? I just dumped like 4 ingrediant types into the chest and tried crafting. I don't remember what the ingrediants were, but I do have Requiem on, which adds its own non-vanilla ingredients.

[mikegray]

OK -

 

I just gave it a shot in my test game.

 

The game is new, but has a few mods in:

- Unofficial Patches (all of them)

- SkyRe,

- AFT,

- Enemy AI Overhaul,

- ASIS

- Vilja

- Atlas Map Markers

 

No graphics mods at all

 

And to get it up going quickly:

- Live Another Life

- The Perk Point Book

 

I haven't checked the error logs yet, but everything is working very quickly. AFT commands instantaneous.

 

- I coc'd over to Riverwood and picked up the alchemy ring. (BTW, Did ASIS add about 10 other rings, all of which I would have had to steal? After trying to steal them and having a difference of opinions with Delphine, I reloaded the game. This time there was only one ring.)

- COC'd back to Breezehome and marked a chest.

- Added my alchemy supplies to the chest.

- Went over to the table at Breezehome, equipped the ring - the ingredients were there. (Yay!)

- Note: The ring also pulled some non-alchemy stuff from the chest!

- After leaving the table, the ingredients stayed in my inventory.

- Unequipped and re-equipped the ring a few more times, but they still stayed in my inventory.

- Manually replaced the items in the chest.

- COC'd to Riverwood to try the alchemy table at Delphine's

- This time I couldn't get access to the stuff in Breezehome.

- Put the rings on and off a few times, no change.

- Tried in Breezehome too. No change.

- Activated the chest again, first it didn't work, then it did, then it didn't again.

 

I reloaded and tried again, with roughly the same results.

 

Everything DID seem to be reacting super-quick, though.

 

Still, I like the idea. It's similar to the craftable cloud activators from the general stores mod.

Edited October 2, 2013 by mikegray

[IsharaMeradin]

@instantmelanie

Well, if the ring wasn't put into the container to register it then nothing will be transferred out of the container.

 

@mikegray

I have no idea what ASIS does. There should have been only one ring per crafting station. They were pre-havok settled in the CK, but it is always possible that some were knocked off when the cell loaded.

 

I got a similar report before via PM and I'm at a loss as to why it happens. It clearly worked for me otherwise I wouldn't have asked for some help with the "real world" testing.

 

Obviously, I need to gain access to a computer that actually runs the game. Could be anything from mod conflict to something not being set right.

[mikegray]

@mikegray

I have no idea what ASIS does. There should have been only one ring per crafting station. They were pre-havok settled in the CK, but it is always possible that some were knocked off when the cell loaded.

 

I got a similar report before via PM and I'm at a loss as to why it happens. It clearly worked for me otherwise I wouldn't have asked for some help with the "real world" testing.

 

Obviously, I need to gain access to a computer that actually runs the game. Could be anything from mod conflict to something not being set right.

 

ASIS is a SkyProccer that adds a number of things throughout the game - among other things, it causes increased spawns.

 

However, come to think of it, I don't think ASIS will be involved here - For one thing, I believe it increases spawns of enemies, not stuff lying around in inns. And: I didn't even run the proccer after installing your mod, so it shouldn't actually be aware of whatever it does.

 

Anyway, there were about 10 rings piled up on Delphine's Alchemy table - only one of which I could take with stealing.

 

Anything I can send you to troubleshoot? (Papyrus logs, load order, ?)

Edited October 2, 2013 by mikegray

[IsharaMeradin]

 

 

Anyway, there were about 10 rings piled up on Delphine's Alchemy table - only one of which I could take with stealing.

I did test the picking up of all the rings. None were set with ownership. No idea why they would suddenly be owned. That is a new one.

 

 

Anything I can send you to troubleshoot? (Papyrus logs, load order, ?)

Not at this time. I need to get into the game and see what is happening for myself. Might take a bit as I have borrow a laptop in order to do so.