Production

Production (or crafting) is the process to turn a set of materials into a product with the help of an object build in the world. Cooking food has a basic implementation in the pre-alpha of Orcish Inn, with fish to bake and eggs to fry. Anyway, cooking food will be extended in a future version of Orcish Inn.

Production Process and Interface

A production process is tied to an object, like a furnace or a malt box. The player opens the object's storage by clicking it while the hand tool or the basket is selected and puts the required materials in. Producing objects have a storage capacity and decay chance like normal storages, too. It's displayed in the storage's interface. The player can transfer items between his inventory and the producing object's storage by selecting the item and clicking "pick up" respectively "put in", which are only available if the production storage has enough space for items left. If all the required materials are in the production's storage and the producing object is within a room (with exceptions like charcoal piles, which can be outdoor), it automatically begins to produce. The production can be paused by clicking the pause button in the production's interface, which is available while the producing object is selected. A small arrow in the production interface also shows the current progress of the production.

After clicking on a producing object, this interface is shown.

If the production is finished (the production progress arrows is filled), the object transfers its items to the product. The product is automatically put into the object's storage. If a chest is placed near (given the object's connection points, see below), the product is automatically placed into that chest.

The end of the article shows a table with all the production recipes currently available in Orcish Inn.

Beer Brewing

Brewing beer is a major part of Orcish Inn, as the player's progress relates to the satisfaction of the visiting clans, which mainly consists of drinking a beer with the right taste, tint brightness, full body, bitterness, alcoholic strength and flavor (if any).

Beer brewing consists of 3 steps:

1. Malt: creating malt out of a cereal crop like barley and water with the help of a malt box.
2. Wort: creating wort out of malt and water with the help of a wort boiler.
3. Beer: creating beer out of wort, hop, yeast and optionally a flavor, all with the help of a beer brewing kettle.

In all 3 cases, the production has to be fueled, for example with wood, charcoal or dung. Fuel doesn't affect the product nor its quality, but is necessary to start the production and keep the production running. Different types of fuel differ in the average duration until they get depleted.

Malt Production

Malt has two properties: its taste and its tint brightness. The wort and finally the beer will derivate these two properties from the malt. As a clan wants a certain taste and tint brightness, it's reasonable to address their wish by configuring the malt box with fitting materials.

The first slot of the malt box production is related to the fuel and doesn't affect the product, but without it, the production doesn't start.

The second slot takes a cereal crop (barley, spelt, rye, wheat or corn) and defines the malt's taste. Using a barley will result in barley malt.

The third slot takes between 1 and 6 water. The amount of water defines the malt's tint brightness. One water will result in a tint brightness of zero, two water in a tint brightness of one, three water in a brightness of two and so on.

The production interface of the malt box.

Wort Production

Wort has three properties in total: taste, tint brightness and full body. As malt is one of its materials, it will derivate taste and tint brightness from it. Similar to the malt box, a certain amount of water is necessary to target a specific level of full body. The beer made out of a wort will derivate its taste, tint brightness and full body.

The first slot of the wort boiler production is related to fuel again. The second slot takes the malt. The third slot works like the third slot of the malt box: it takes between 1 and 6 water. One unit of water will result in a full body property of 0 and so on.

The production interface of the wort boiler.

Beer Production

Beer has six properties in total:

• Taste derived from the used wort, for example a barley taste
• Tint brightness derived from the used wort, for example a tint brightness of 2.
• Full Body derived from the used wort, for example a full body of 5.
• Acerbity based on the amount of hop put in, for example an acerbity of 1.
• Alcoholic strength based on the amount of yeast put in, for example an alcoholic strength of 0.
• Flavor, an optional and additional crop, for example belladonna. A beer can have no flavor at all.

The first slot of the beer brewing kettle production is reserved for the fuel again. The second slot is dedicated to the wort, which sets the taste, tint brightness and full body of the final beer.

The third slot takes between 1 and 6 hop and like the water in the malt box and wort boiler, the amount of hop used defines the beer's acerbity. One hop results in an acerbity of zero, two hop in an acerbity of one and so on.

The fourth slot takes between 1 and 6 yeast and again, the amount of yeast defines one of the beer's properties: the alcoholic strength. As you can already imagine, one yeast will result in an alcoholic strength of zero, two yeast in a strength of one and so on.

Some clans want a flavor, but it's possible to brew beer without any flavor at all. If the beer should have a flavor, a special crop has to be placed in the fifth slot. Currently available flavor crops are belladonna, blueleaves, dryroot, sunflower, lotus and Scholar's Fire

A beer brewing kettle will produce 20 beers with one production cycle. They are put automatically into near beer barrels or faucets.

The production interface of the beer brewing kettle.

Connection Points and Automation

Every producing object and every storage has so-called connection points, which can be displayed by switching to one of the underground layers with a button at the screen's bottom or by pressing C. These are points where the object tries to recreate its process by putting products there and pulling materials from. The connection points can look a bit off if the producing object is placed below a wall, because the object is moved a bit toward it.

After activating the pipe interface with a button at the screen's bottom, the connection points of producing objects and storages are shown. Furnace and loom can interact with the chest in the middle.

As an example, a malt box will put its created malt in a chest above, right, below or left to the malt box (where it's connection points are). If the product is moved to the chest, the malt box tries to grab materials from connected chests (fuel like wood and barley) and rain barrels (water) to recreate the exact same product. Therefore if the malt box produces a barley malt with a tint brightness of two, it will try to grab some fuel (for example charcoal if no wood is left), barley and three water from chests and rain barrels on the malt box' connection points. This automation will go on forever until it runs out of places to put products in or out of materials.

Pipes

Pipes are a way to connect storages and producing objects across a distance. There are input pipes (copper colored), output pipes (silver colored), combined pipes (copper-silver-striped) and all types in an underground variant, therefore input underground pipes, output underground pipes and combined underground pipes.

An input pipe moves materials from a storage to a producing object. Therefore a chest with materials can be connected to a producing object by placing pipes from the chest's connection point to the producing object's connection point. Then, the producing object will consider this chest as well when trying to draw materials.

The copper-colored pipe is an input pipe, therefore the malt box is able to draw material like wood and barley from the chest.

An output pipe moves products from a producing object to a storage. A producing object is therefore able to put its product not only in surrounding storages, but also in storages connected to them via output pipes.

The malt box is connected to the right chest with a silver-colored pipe, which is an output pipe. Therefore, the malt produced by the malt box will be moved to the right chest. It can't be moved to the left chest, because there is an input pipe instead.

A combined pipe does the job of both an input and an output pipe. Therefore a producing object connected to a storage via combined pipes can draw materials and put its product in there.

The partially copper- and silver-colored pipe is a combined pipe and therefore can transport materials and products alike.

The underground variant of these pipes do the same, but can be placed under earth and therefore beneath other objects. To display them, an underground layer has to be displayed by pressing C. Underground pipes are more expensive, but with them it's possible to have pipes which are not visible (as long as the underground layer isn't displayed) and which can be used to go through walls and other objects. To destroy an underground pipe, the player has to select the hammer-axe and display underground pipes by pressing C.

If an underground layer is displayed (with or without connection points), all the pipes are marked with an icon to display its type. An empty circle stays for an input pipe, a filled circle for an output pipe and a half-empty-half-filled circle for a combined pipe.

Malt box, wort boiler and beer brewing kettle are connected to the two chests and the rain barrels outside via input pipes. Therefore, they can draw all the materials from the chests and rain barrels. Underground input pipes were used to skip the wall and to cover the area beneath the machines and chests. The beer brewing kettle is connected to the faucet in the tavern via an underground output pipe.

The same situation as above, but with another pipe layer view. Connection points of machines and storages are displayed too, now.

Overground and underground pipes of different types can be combined to layout complex pipe systems. As an example, combined pipes can be used to make a crossover for an input pipe and an output pipe if placed in the center, as both the input and the output pipe take the combined pipe as a valid part of their line. It is also possible to break a line of overground pipes with a piece of underground pipe to skip a wall.

An input pipe from the left to the right and an output pipe from the top to the bottom can cross each other, because a combined pipe was placed in the center.

Overground and underground pipes can be used together. Here, an underground input pipe was used beneath the wall.

A typical beer brewing layout consists of a malt box, a wort boiler and a beer brewing kettle as well as two or more chests, some rain barrels, a faucet and optionally some beer barrels. Malt box, wort boiler and beer brewing kettle are connected to all chests with combined underground pipes, so they can draw fuel, barley, malt, wort, hop, yeast and flavor crops from them. The malt box and the wort boiler are also connected via input pipes to the rain barrels for the water they require. Rain barrels are often put outside of the room so they gather water during rainy weather. The beer brewing kettle has to be connected to the faucet in the tavern room via output (underground) pipes, if the player doesn't want to transport the beer manually there. It's also possible to connect the kettle to beer barrels via output pipes. The faucets have a higher priority in filling, so the tavern gets the beer first and if the faucets are full, the beer barrels store the surplus.

Attached Recipes

Some of the producing objects, like the malt box, wort boiler, beer brewing kettle or the furnace can have recipes attached to them. The corresponding button is available in the production interface. By clicking on it, the cooking recipe page in the hub book is shown and the player can select a fitting recipe. The producing object then trys to produce the specified item. Faucets can also have a recipe attached and therefore only refill with beer of that type automatically.

If a producing object with recipe attachment support is selected, the small "x" button opens the hub book, where a recipe can be selected and attached to the machine.

As an example, the player can create a beer cooking recipe with a specified taste of barley, a tint brightness of 2, a full body of 5, an acerbity of 1, an alcoholic strength of 0 and a belladonna flavor. If attached to a malt box, wort boiler and beer brewing kettle, all three producing objects try to grab the right type and amount of taste and flavor crops, water, hop and yeast to finally brew a beer of that type.

Pausing Storages

Not only producing objects, but also storages can be paused. If done, the storages are ignored by producing objects regarding drawing materials and putting products in.

Storages can be paused, too. Then, producing objects don't interact with the chest.

Special Behavior

Some of the producing objects have a special behavior to make everyone's life easier.

• Faucets can draw beer to get refilled, for example from connected beer barrels with beer of the same type.
• The washing trough and the clothes dryer don't try to recreate the exact processes, as it wouldn't make much sense to stop drying beddings because the next wet bedding isn't a straw bedding and a fiber bedding instead.

Crafting Patterns

	Materials					Properties
Producing Object	Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4	Slot 5	Production Time (s)	Indoor	Product
			1-6x			60	yes
			1-6x			120	yes
			1-6x	1-6x	0-1x	200	yes
						30	yes
						30	yes
						30	yes
						30	yes
						30	yes
						120	no
						60	no
						100	yes
						100	yes
						100	yes
						100	yes
						100	yes
						100	yes
						100	yes
						75	yes
						120	no

If you hover over an icon, it shows a small tooltip. The descriptive names used in the materials' and products' tooltips refer to the following items:

• Fuel: wood, charcoal or dung
• Crop: items dropped by plants
• Cereal Crop: barley, spelt, rye, wheat and corn
• Flavor Crop: belladonna, blueleaves, dryroot, sunflower, lotus and Scholar's Fire
• Bread: barley bread, spelt bread etc.
• Fish: small fish, midsized fish and big fish
• (Wet) Bedding: straw bedding, ragged bedding, fiber bedding etc.
• Soap: belladonna soap, blueleave soap etc.