Alchemy Sorters

[Lanceor]

I'm thinking of implementing an alchemy sorter in a mod, but to be honest, I've never found them useful except to get the warm fuzzy feeling that everything is nicely organised.

 

For those who have never used one, with one click, an alchemy sorter removes all alchemy ingredients from your inventory and sorts them into containers. What kind of sorter do you prefer?

 

1. All in one

With one click, all your ingredients get dumped into one container. While opening it may take longer as the hundreds of ingredients load, every single ingredient and quantity is on one mouse-wheel scrollable page and the properties are listed when you mouse over each one.

 

2. Sorted A - Z

With one click, all your ingredients are sorted into containers labeled A, B, C etc. To get the quantities, you'll have to click into each container. To get the properties, you have to click into each container and then mouse over the particular ingredient.

 

3. Sorted into individual containers

With one click, all your ingredients are sorted into containers labeled Alkanet Flower, Aloe Vera Leaves, Ambrosia etc. With a bit of scripting, I can get the quantity to show when mousing over the container, but to get the properties, you still have to click into the container and then mouse over the ingredient. This option also uses up a tremendous amount of space in the room.

 

Thinking about it, #1 seems to be the most practical for most people. Hardcore alchemists might prefer #3. What is your opinion?

[kingtitan]

This would be (I believe) much more difficult to employ, but hear me out. I found myself collecting ingredients much more in Skyrim for invisibility potions or health potions, or whatever really (those were just the main two). In my opinion, it would be much easier if you could sort by "properties." Sounds confusing, but let me explain:

 

Some people mainly just need a small collection of potions. It would be easier on them if they could "click" on a container named (for instance) "Invisibility," and any ingredient in the inventory that has that property is filtered out into that container. Same is true for any other effect the person is going for in their alchemy. I think the only drawback to this would be if you had a "conflicting" ingredient that had two or more properties of the filter boxes, as that would probably require manual splitting, or a detection script that asks the player if they would like to evenly split the ingredients between the two containers. In this manner though, players could choose which "filter boxes" to keep and get rid of the ones they don't really need. You could also have a "Miscellaneous Properties" box to cache anything that made it through the filters (for those quests that you randomly need 5 nightshade or 10 troll fat or whatever the hell else). That way they would not clutter up the filter boxes and, sorted a-z, would be pretty simple and quick to find.

 

This is just my idea for a #5, probably not that good of an idea as far as implementing goes, but it is the system I would use, if available!

Edited March 9, 2012 by kingtitan

[Lanceor]

Thanks for making the suggestion. Since each ingredient has up to four properties, sorting them by effect probably wouldn't work...

 

But I think how it could be implemented is to dump all the ingredients into one container as in #1... but clicking on the container/button/whatever would allow the player to choose an alchemical effect. So if you chose "Restore Health" for example, the script would transfer all ingredients with the "Restore Health" effect from the container to your inventory. It would have to check for alchemy skill level of course.

[Nephenee13]

Isn't that how the Cobl sorters work? They're the only ones I've really worked with, and the main character I've had a chance to use them on doesn't really use them (since potions don't really work on her...long story, RP related. upshot is she compulsively collects ingredients, but doesn't really do anything with them), so I'm not fully versed on how they work, but I'm pretty sure that you can use them to pull out ingredients by effect.

[AnimalRiot]

Yup, I use COBL and the alchemy sorters can filter ny ingredient proprties. :)

[Striker879]

The Highland Furniture Set - Modders Resource has a medicine chest that offers quite a few slots for storage.

 

I'm also a compulsive ingredient gatherer, but I do use some for alchemy. I haven't tried any COBL solutions, but Aranmathi Ayleid Home (version 1.04) has a sorter of sorts (kinda slow and clunky in my opinion, so I use a nearby container that looks like it may be a COBL sorter mesh retasked, instead of the one beside the alchemy station). I am getting a reputation as the type who seeks the more complicated ways of doing things (well earned I might add). I like to continue to carry a small supply of ingredients myself, along with another small supply on my packdonkey, who also carries the major load after I've gone nuts denuding the wilderness of anything that grows (just doing some pruning ... to help it grow better you see). Every house I own has a burgeoning supply of ingredients. Sky's the limit for how much I need apparently. Did I mention I'm also a packrat? Oops, did I say that out loud.

[razorpony]

The only sorter I've used is the one included in Armorylab. It sorts into individualy labled containers and allows extraction by effect. I'm pretty sure it also marks containers that have ingredients in them with a thumbprint on the label so you can see at a glance if they are empty or not.

 

RP

[TurkeyShoot]

I mosty use cobl sorter because its a fast and easy place store your ingredins, potions and scrolls but what would be cool addion to that system is to be able to do alchemy in it! that way you don't have to pull out all the ingredins, do alchemy and put all them back in, it could be all in one system. :biggrin:

The other sorter I used was the one in Venona House BLoodline (haven't played it for some time :ohdear: ) the one were you give your items to the nice cook to sort and put them away (if you give her money she even buys more :biggrin: ) the ingredins were put away in contaniors they can be retrevied manually or they can be retrevied by the black cystal by type or somthing :unsure:, anyway the cystal was in middle of a work table sorwounded by alchemy books some of them were atlases cyrodiil idgredins what they were, how to find them, others books were resipes for some wicked potions, for a player who only use alchemy in the intro quest it was amasing fun trying going though the contaniors trying to find the wacking oblivion plant thing so you can make kick ass triple threat posion (I think it was a pralise, frost, silince combo:ohdear: )

well I got sidetracked :wallbash: will in sumary if your going for advansment for alchemy sorters for all I would go for number one, but if your doing this for a special mod in your heart them go for bloodline's route its the coolist :pirate:

 

best of wishes :thumbsup:

[Lanceor]

Well, the poll is inconclusive at best... :rolleyes:

 

What I've settled on is separate containers for each ingredient, with the added perk that the quantity can be seen when mousing over it. You'll be able to pull out ingredients by effect.

 

As for one click to take ingredient by effect, load the Alchemy screen and then replace all the ingredients when finished, I'll investigate that route to see how it's playability stacks up. :)

[TenthLegion]

I honestly have a love hate relationship to the sorters. I use COBL, which adds them to all the player owned houses, however, they are a royal pain to move using the CS. It would be great if the sorters could be moved and reset ingame to eliminate clipping issues for those of use who use house redecoration mods and COBL. But I have no idea if such a thing is possible. But more to the topic at hand, i tend to hand sort my ingredients. It's great that they are organized since i am a neat freak but the clipping issues are driving me nutters.