Component List

[Neebat]

I often find myself staring at a bag full of similar components and wondering, "Which of these do I need to keep for future skillups? What can I throw out?"

I can go through the items one at a time, search for it by name, do a reverse recipe lookup, then compare each recipe to my current skill... but that's very tedious and slow. My wife gets annoyed because I'm wasting too much time on my tradeskills and not enough time on hers.

So, I want a form that lets me put in the relevant information and get a list components with some extra information.

Input Partial Item Name: "Words of" or "clockwork gnome"
Input Class: Wizard
Input Race: Gnome
Input Tradeskill: Research or Tinkering

The results should be a list of all components which match that name that I can use for that tradeskill. So, it could be a list of all research words, or all clockwork gnome bits used in tinkering. Or a tailor might get a list of "skin" and "hide" items.

For each item, list the difficulty/trivial number for the most difficult combine I can do with that item. (Leave out items that can't be used in any recipe by a gnome wizard.)

As a nice bonus, it could include links to some items that can be made from each component.

If it doesn't totally cripple the database, make the partial name an optional field.

[KyrosKrane]

In theory, I agree with you, but in practical terms, it wouldn't work. The problem is, a component might go through multiple tradeskills before we reach its "real" use. Just because the immediate use is one tradeskill, doesn't mean that's why you're banking it.

e.g., a dropped research page is used in a baking combine (to make celestial essence), then in a brewing combine (to make a temper), and finally in a smithing combine (to make armor for skillups). That same research page is used directly in spell research to make a spell, but only for certain classes.

Do we classify the research page as a "baking item" because that's its only immediate use? Do we take it up one level and call it brewing?

e.g., a Sporali Skin is used first in a tailoring combine, then in a baking combine, then in a spell research combine. The primary use of a sporali skin is as an instruction parchment, used to make mechanoinstructions. Which tradeskill would you classify it as?

In your example, say you have loads of sporali skins banked and you can't remember what they're for. What should the search reply? Tailoring would be misleading, and anything higher would be arbitrary.

[mewkus]

While it wont do everything you're asking for, my program (see sig) generates a file that lists several traditional skill-up recipes along with the quantities that your various characters have of the required ingredients. The inventory listings it makes also has direct links to the items on here (as well as to lucy, allakhazam, magelo, etc), which will reduce the time spent doing searches.

[Neebat]

In theory, I agree with you, but in practical terms, it wouldn't work. The problem is, a component might go through multiple tradeskills before we reach its "real" use. Just because the immediate use is one tradeskill, doesn't mean that's why you're banking it.

e.g., a dropped research page is used in a baking combine (to make celestial essence), then in a brewing combine (to make a temper), and finally in a smithing combine (to make armor for skillups). That same research page is used directly in spell research to make a spell, but only for certain classes.

Do we classify the research page as a "baking item" because that's its only immediate use? Do we take it up one level and call it brewing?

e.g., a Sporali Skin is used first in a tailoring combine, then in a baking combine, then in a spell research combine. The primary use of a sporali skin is as an instruction parchment, used to make mechanoinstructions. Which tradeskill would you classify it as?

In your example, say you have loads of sporali skins banked and you can't remember what they're for. What should the search reply? Tailoring would be misleading, and anything higher would be arbitrary.

There's a big difference here. Sporali Skins are distinctive and serve a unique niche in a unique process that I do for the RESULT.

I'm talking about a list of dozens of fairly generic ingredients that I keep in stock solely for SKILLING UP. The real impact for this is almost exclusively in spell research, but I could see some application in tinkering, tailoring, maybe fletching or baking.

As far as listing the final result... that's just a side-issue. What I really need is a number. For each component, once my skill matches the difficulty for its highest use, that component is junk. (It's not like these results are going to sell in the bazaar, unlike the sporali example.) Knowing that number for every component helps me prioritize which combines I make first and clear bank space after I've done them.

[KyrosKrane]

So essentially, you just want the immediate result of a combine? Not anything else it could be used for, or further combines up the chain.

That's a much more limited scope, and easier to handle. For a first pass, I'd envision something even simpler: Type in a name or partial name, and get back a list of Tradeskill: max trivial. So let's say you search for "banana". Your results would be something like (made up names):

Highest trivial combines for Banana:
Brewing: 123
Baking: 234

Highest trivial combines for Banana Split:
Baking: 345

Highest trivial combines for Banana Peel:
Spell Research: 135

Is that sort of what you had in mind?

[Neebat]

It's narrower than that even. I'd select a tradeskill and get only the trivials for that tradeskill.

Listing the immediate results with it would be nice, but it's not essential. But it is important that it take into account race and class restrictions. If I have some component sitting around that someone else could use, it's still just wasting space in MY bank. My decision on how to get rid of it usually involves looking for someone else that would use it.

You know... on second thought... I kind of like your version... listing the other tradeskills would be kind of nice if the component really could be used across skills.