Crafting Guide—the step-by-step guide to make anything in Minecraft—With Multiblocks!

[Andrew Miner]

Have you ever wanted to figure out how much of what materials you need to craft something? Ever notice that certain recipes are pretty easy... until you account for all the machines you need? Ever wonder how much stuff you'll need to make a Quarry or an entire QuantumSuit?

Crafting Guide will help. Choose what you want to make and how many of each, and it will automatically figure out:

• How many of what resources do you need?
• What tools / machines do you need?
• How many of what resource do you need for the tools?
• What items do you need to craft in what order?

I've just launched a brand-new version with support for vanilla, Buildcraft, and IndustrialCraft2 (classic) recipes. It's all open-source, so anyone can help expand it to cover missing recipes, other mods, or add new features. Check out
the GitHub project if you'd like to get involved!

If you've seen it before, go look again. There's a whole new site now, which supports a lot more than the old one did:

• All items have matching icons
• All recipes show the proper layout on the crafting grid
• You now get step-by-step instructions
• You can now make many different items at once (e.g., a whole NanoSuit)

crafting-guide.com

 

[PeggleFrank]

This is so incredibly useful for crafting and AE systems.


I can't tell if it's dynamic or not, but if it isn't, you need to make it dynamic to allow for easy recipe documentation.

Also, a gui for making recipes would be helpful for those who are less experienced in coding.

EDIT: It also needs a search function. It's currently slightly annoying to go through all the recipes, and it'll be much worse when there are more recipes in the database.

 

[whizzball1]

It looks pretty easy to figure out. All I have to do is follow the style of the other .jsons and voila! I'll read through the code, get myself acquainted first.

 

[whizzball1]

Quick question: Do I just name the file something.json? Or do I have to do something to make it a json?

 

[Andrew Miner]

> This is so incredibly useful for crafting and AE systems.
Thanks! I'm starting with the basics, but it's super easy to keep adding in more mods. AE is one of my top favorites, so that one will definitely get included.

> a gui for making recipes would be helpful
I might get there, but there are a bunch of things ahead of that on my list. Should be pretty easy to cut-n-paste one of the existing ones in the meantime.

> needs a search function
Definitely. I actually have a number of changes in mind which will make that problem almost completely go away.

> Do I just name the file something.json?
All you need is a plain text file which has the right stuff inside. You can call it whatever you like.

-------

Thanks for the comments, guys! I only started the project this past Saturday, so there's a ways to go yet before it gets to be quite as full-featured as I have in mind. You can check out the Issues section on GitHub to see where my ideas are heading, or to make requests.[DOUBLEPOST=1377034148][/DOUBLEPOST]> can't tell if it's dynamic or not
I'm not sure what you mean by dynamic? The way it works is that it reads in the recipe book files, and then walks up and down the crafting tree figuring out what's needed, and what it's made already. Only the actual recipes themselves are "static". Everything else is calculated on the fly.

 

[whizzball1]

> This is so incredibly useful for crafting and AE systems.
Thanks! I'm starting with the basics, but it's super easy to keep adding in more mods. AE is one of my top favorites, so that one will definitely get included.

> a gui for making recipes would be helpful
I might get there, but there are a bunch of things ahead of that on my list. Should be pretty easy to cut-n-paste one of the existing ones in the meantime.

> needs a search function
Definitely. I actually have a number of changes in mind which will make that problem almost completely go away.

> Do I just name the file something.json?
All you need is a plain text file which has the right stuff inside. You can call it whatever you like.

-------

Thanks for the comments, guys! I only started the project this past Saturday, so there's a ways to go yet before it gets to be quite as full-featured as I have in mind. You can check out the Issues section on GitHub to see where my ideas are heading, or to make requests.[DOUBLEPOST=1377034148][/DOUBLEPOST]> can't tell if it's dynamic or not
I'm not sure what you mean by dynamic? The way it works is that it reads in the recipe book files, and then walks up and down the crafting tree figuring out what's needed, and what it's made already. Only the actual recipes themselves are "static". Everything else is calculated on the fly.

Thanks! I don't know which mod I should start on, however. I think I'll go with Thermal Expansion.
Will Crafting.js automatically add my recipe book to the loadRecipeBook function in the first section? Or do I have to add it myself?

 

[Andrew Miner]

Thanks, Spirit! That would be awesome!

You'd have to had code to explicitly load it on start-up for it to automatically appear like the others. However, for testing, you can put it in any public place on the web and just enter the URL into the text box in the recipe book section. Hit the "Load" button, and your JSON file will show up with the others. For example, you could drop it in your public Dropbox folder and use the regular site to test. Just make sure you refresh your brower's cache if your changes don't seem to be loading.

 

[whizzball1]

I sent a Pull Request for a Silver Ingot recipe in the IC2 recipe book. 1 Silver Ore, 125 milli-coal with Furnace as the tool makes Silver Ingot. I'll need it for Thermal Expansion, so if you would kindly accept the pull request, that would be great. Thank you!

 

[whizzball1]

I assume I only need to add the Thermal Expansion json in crafting.js in the first section to start it up automatically?
Just so I know when I finish testing.

 

[Andrew Miner]

Yup. The pattern should be pretty obvious.

 

[whizzball1]

Do you think that one day there will be a way to code in a Crafting Overlay and pictures for each item and the system will automagically place the items on the crafting board? However, that would make the recipe coding unnecessarily complicated.

 

[whizzball1]

Stone Gear Pull Request.

 

[Andrew Miner]

I've thought about it. The problem, as you mentioned, is that it would add a *lot* complexity to the recipe book file format. It would be really cool, though, to have it present you with the recipes, one-after-another, as a slideshow while you build. I'll add an issue to the GitHub project to capture the idea.

 

[whizzball1]

Also, please ignore and delete Patch-2 by me, that was an accidental Push. I haven't submitted a Pull Request, thank goodness.[DOUBLEPOST=1377058467][/DOUBLEPOST]

I've thought about it. The problem, as you mentioned, is that it would add a *lot* complexity to the recipe book file format. It would be really cool, though, to have it present you with the recipes, one-after-another, as a slideshow while you build. I'll add an issue to the GitHub project to capture the idea.

The most plausible option would be to just add a picture for each recipe. A branch for pictures, and after "tools": comes "picture": and you put in the file name? There's a few problems with that, but I have to go to bed, so I don't have time to detail. But I'm working on TE now, I'll be able to push a WIP version soon with basic components.

 

[whizzball1]

Wait-wait-wait... Stone Gear is Cobblestone Gear? No wonder...

 

[whizzball1]

Fixed all the errors and tested in the Crafting Guide, here's the link so you can test it also.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57119164/thermal_expansion.json
Barebones, only includes items that can be made with a Crafting Table and BC, Vanilla, and IC2 items. I'll start up making Machines next.
Sending Pull request now.

 

[whizzball1]

Wait, you'd also have to merge my next pull request which will add the recipe book to the list. Merge this one last.

 

[Andrew Miner]

More progress! Crafting guide has been updated with:

* Search-as-you-type to select what recipe you'd like to make
* A checkbox to include or exclude resources needed to make tools and machines
* An inventory box to specify what items you already have

Check it out!

 

[VikeStep]

I was gonna make this, but since you made it I don't have to anymore , I'd love to contribute to the project. Currently I have a lot of other commitments but in a week or 2 I should be able to help.

I have 12 months experience with HTML so should know enough to contribute some features. However I might need to brush up on my javascript, been playing with a few different programming languages and have forgotten some of the js syntax

 

[whizzball1]

Need Bricks (block), setting up Crafting Recipe now.
After you accept that, I'll be setting up Snow (Block).