Feedback on the new search navigation for crafting

If people didn't know already, you can now search for recipes as well as right click recipes/ingredients and search 'by crafting method' which leads you to the crafting page for it.

Both are nice additions but I still feel like there needs to be more tweaking here.

I would highly appreciate a back/forward button, just like how we have on our browsers because I constantly run in a problem.

What happens is, I open up a recipe to craft then frequently 'search by crafting method' to craft its ingredients. After I complete one ingredient for the original recipe, I want to be able to go back to where I was before so I can see the whole list again so I know what to craft next for it.

This is where the back button could be really useful. Every time I have to find it normally again and again each time I am trying to craft the ingredients needed for it.

Personally I think search by crafting method also needs to sit under search for item in the right click menu in the crafting log.

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Originally Posted by PotatoWafflez

Personally I think search by crafting method also needs to sit under search for item in the right click menu in the crafting log.

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THIS. This placement frustrates me a lot because it only appears first in this menu, and nowhere else, and I'm constantly mashing it instead of "Search for Item" to see if I have said ingredients somewhere in my inventory or retainers. Then because there's no back button like the OP suggested, I have to waste time going BACK to the recipe I was on in the first place.

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Originally Posted by PotatoWafflez

Personally I think search by crafting method also needs to sit under search for item in the right click menu in the crafting log.

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Actually this is totally consistent with all the other sub menus in the game, in that it's completely inconsistent with every other menu you find in the game!

Oh, and don't you love how it's "Search for Item by Crafting Method" and not "Search for Recipe?" which is what you'd expect. Hell! "Search for Item by Crafting Method" actually enter's the item's name in the "Search Recipe" text box! So why does it use such awkward terminology?

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Originally Posted by ChocoChick

What happens is, I open up a recipe to craft then frequently 'search by crafting method' to craft its ingredients. After I complete one ingredient for the original recipe, I want to be able to go back to where I was before so I can see the whole list again so I know what to craft next for it.

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Agreed. A "back" button would be so much easier.

In the meantime, I've been using the "favorites" menu to keep track of the initial recipe I was working towards, as well as each sub-component I'll need to make along the way. If you keep your favorites menu cleared of everything else, it makes finding your initial recipe again a bit easier (though not as easy as a "back" button would).

On the subject of using the favorites menu, can I add a tangentially related suggestion? Items we've manually placed in the favorites list have a "remove from favorites" option. However, items that have been automatically added simply because we made them recently, don't have that option. The only way to remove those is by first adding them to favorites (where they already are anyway) just so that we can then remove them from favorites. It's cumbersome and confusing. If they're there, let us remove them. It would make keeping the favorites menu clear for use (such as keeping track of a final item and it's components) much easier.

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Originally Posted by PotatoWafflez

Personally I think search by crafting method also needs to sit under search for item in the right click menu in the crafting log.

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Yes, that would work a lot better. I always want to search for the item first. It's only if I don't have any (or don't have enough) that I therefore want to craft the component. It just makes a lot more sense if the more common "Search for item" came ahead of its fallback "Search for recipe". (And yes, I think the later should be named more properly as "Search for recipe". For bonus points, only include/enable that option if the item is craftable so has a recipe.)

Have my like. I'd been wanting to request this for a while now.

Also, if I select an item I can't craft due to being the wrong class, it should just ask me if I want to switch to a gear set that contains that class (presenting a small window if multiple classes/gear sets can craft that item). Then it should just activate that gearset and start crafting the item. When the item is complete, it should automatically switch to the previous gear set and recipe.

I would be super happy if there was a "search by crafting that contains the item" method.
So you could see everything that uses a particular item. Would be super useful for gathering.

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Originally Posted by FunkyBunch

I would be super happy if there was a "search by crafting that contains the item" method.
So you could see everything that uses a particular item. Would be super useful for gathering.

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Also super useful when clearing out inventory. For simplicity, I just keep all dropped crafting components until my retainers' inventory is full, then I go through it all, trying to determine which items are useful enough to keep and which I should sell or toss. A simple way to look up what all an item is used for would help in making those decisions.

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Originally Posted by ChocoChick

I would highly appreciate a back/forward button, just like how we have on our browsers because I constantly run in a problem.

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Originally Posted by PotatoWafflez

Personally I think search by crafting method also needs to sit under search for item in the right click menu in the crafting log.

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We'll consider both of these suggestions..

As for returning back to the previous recipe, you can work around this by performing the following steps:

1. Open the crafting window
2. Select the item you want to craft
3. Select the material you want to search the recipe for
4. Hit the escape key to close the window
5. Re-open the crafting window

Thanks for the feedback!

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Originally Posted by Zhexos

As for returning back to the previous recipe, you can work around this by performing the following steps:

1. Open the crafting window
2. Select the item you want to craft
3. Select the material you want to search the recipe for
4. Hit the escape key to close the window
5. Re-open the crafting window

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Unfortunately this does not consistently work with a game pad (PS4 player here). I have frequently run in to this problem when the component I need is on a different crafting class.
I back out of the crafting screen, change my class. Do the component craft.
Return to previous crafting class, the original recipe I was looking is no longer remembered. The group (say 51-55) is still selected but the index marker is returned to the top of this list.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zhexos

We'll consider both of these suggestions..

As for returning back to the previous recipe, you can work around this by performing the following steps:

1. Open the crafting window
2. Select the item you want to craft
3. Select the material you want to search the recipe for
4. Hit the escape key to close the window
5. Re-open the crafting window

Thanks for the feedback!

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But please a search for what uses an item would be awesome too! I need to clear out my inventory...

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Originally Posted by FunkyBunch

But please a search for what uses an item would be awesome too! I need to clear out my inventory...

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Best to stick with a website for that one

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Originally Posted by Sylkis

Best to stick with a website for that one

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At the moment, it is best, yes. But it SHOULDN'T be the best option we have. It would be much better if it were available in-game. When my retainer brings me back an ADS plating, it would be nice to have a convenient resource in-game that will tell me how to use it.

Of course, the can of worms this opens is that, for the first time, recipes from multiple crafts will be displayed in the same window. In the ADS Plating example, Goldsmith and Armorer both have recipes that use it, so this hypothetical search function should be able to display both. This is unprecedented, and I don't know how much trouble such a thing would cause the developers...

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Originally Posted by PotatoWafflez

Personally I think search by crafting method also needs to sit under search for item in the right click menu in the crafting log.

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Yes, +1.

I don't need to know the recipe to make Iron Ore. I can't anyways. Search for item needs to be first on the list.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

Of course, the can of worms this opens is that, for the first time, recipes from multiple crafts will be displayed in the same window. In the ADS Plating example, Goldsmith and Armorer both have recipes that use it, so this hypothetical search function should be able to display both. This is unprecedented, and I don't know how much trouble such a thing would cause the developers...

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The "Recipe Search" and "Search for item by Crafting Method" features can already do this. If you look up the recipe for making an Iron Ingot, for instance, it will show you both the level 13 Armourer recipe for making it and also the level 16 Blacksmith recipe for making it.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

The "Recipe Search" and "Search for item by Crafting Method" features can already do this. If you look up the recipe for making an Iron Ingot, for instance, it will show you both the level 13 Armourer recipe for making it and also the level 16 Blacksmith recipe for making it.

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Ah, that's right. So it's not unprecedented at all. I don't see any reason why this would be difficult for developers to do, then; it basically amounts to a simple search, unless their recipes have been constructed in a needlessly convoluted way...

Code:

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foreach (recipe in full_list_of_recipes)
{
    var found_ingredient = false
    foreach (ingredient in recipe.ingredient_list)
    {
        if (ingredient equals search_ingredient)
        {
            found_ingredient = true
            breakloop
        }
    }
    if (found_ingredient equals true)
    {
        display_list.add(recipe)
    }
}

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As for the name "search by crafting method", I think it mght also be a translation "feature". Besides it's yet slightly misleading as if you use it for a thing that's harvested in some way, it opens the gathering log instead, which is not exactly a crafting method (not recipe either, I admit). I would maybe suggest "search by Source" which is not entirely accurate but closer there and nicely compact.

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Originally Posted by Sida

As for the name "search by crafting method", I think it mght also be a translation "feature". Besides it's yet slightly misleading as if you use it for a thing that's harvested in some way, it opens the gathering log instead, which is not exactly a crafting method (not recipe either, I admit). I would maybe suggest "search by Source" which is not entirely accurate but closer there and nicely compact.

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I agree that "Search for Source" would be better if they are indeed linked like that so the same command opens either crafting or gathering log. But un-linking them might be a better solution. Have "Search for Item" followed by "Search for Recipe" on crafted items and "Search for Item" followed by "Search for Harvesting Node" on gathered items.

I also dislike the wording because the prepositions used are wrong. We aren't searching for an item by its crafting method. We're searching for its crafting (or gathering) method. The result of the search is a recipe or harvesting node location, not the item itself. So, at the very least, they should change the wording from "Search for Item by Crafting Method" to "Search for Crafting Method". The "for item" part is just confusing and inaccurate.

Can you guys also fix the LTW 50-60 + master (2) crafting log?

I just tried making a friend dhalmel skin gathering gear for lvl 55. So the boots are in master (2) I think, headpiece in 55-60. and gloves and body in master (2) too? I don't even know anymore, it's THAT confusing lol. I really want to know which genius there thought 'yeah well, let's shatter these items over 2-3 categories in the log'.

Please fix this square enix, since everytime I get annoyed by it ,I will kill a lala :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sida

As for the name "search by crafting method", I think it mght also be a translation "feature". Besides it's yet slightly misleading as if you use it for a thing that's harvested in some way, it opens the gathering log instead

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Ok, I thought that made sense until I tried it yesterday, and it doesn't actually work like that. Selecting "Search for Item by Crafting Method" on a gathered resource will still stay in the crafting log and try to find a crafting recipe for it. It won't find any, of course, but will just reply with a "no recipe found" message rather than going to the gathering log. Although both the crafting and gathering logs have an "Item Search" or "Recipe Search" box where you can type in the name of an item, the context menu part (which is where it's called "Search for Item by Crafting Method") is exclusive to crafting recipes. So I'm back to my earlier opinion that it should be called "Search for Recipe".


Moving on from what it's called, I also have another request about this context menu option:

Can that "Search for Recipe" option please be enabled in the context menus wherever we see craftable items? If I'm looking at gear on the MB, or checking out the cool looking gear someone is wearing, I often want to know "Could I make that?" or "How hard would that be to just make myself?" If we had that "Search for Recipe" option from anywhere, and when selected it would open up our crafting log to do the search, it would be easier than trying to remember the item and go back and look for it ourselves later. Having it while we're in the crafting log already (where it is now) is the most useful place for intermediate crafting components like ingots and cloth, but expanding it to also appearing elsewhere would let us search for the finished product recipes easier.

(Expanding the feature to working from everywhere would, however, need one additional piece of intelligence in the feature. Make it only appear and be enabled if the item is indeed craftable. If it's not craftable (like with the gathered resources that now attempt a search and reply with No Recipe Found), then have the option either not appear in the context menu or be grayed out / disabled.)