Looking for your opinions on a concept.

[ortorin]

I've started working on my "Ort Sort" alchemy sorting system again. This is the fastest and most feature-rich alchemy sorter to date with a ton of bells and whistles (with low system impact, too!). I want to utilize the GetPcSneaking, GetSpellReadied, and GetWeaponDrawn as possible modifiers to how you interact with the alchemy sorter. I'm hoping to get your opinions about how you would like to use the modifiers.

Here's the main features to the sorting system:

* The main chest contains all the items. Interacting with the chest pops up a dialog prompt to place all ingredients in, pull all ingredients out, or open the chest

* The alchemy "containers" are actually ingredients themselves with KiteFlyer's awesome can textures. This means looking at them displays the same "ingredient tag" as looking at the ingredient itself. With a dialog pop-up at the bottom, you are able to see all the info about the ingredient, including the effects you know, and the amount contained in the system by simply looking at one of the "containers". Here's an screenshot of what I'm talking about. http://i.imgur.com/NViGmpR.png

* Activating a "container" will first scan the player's inventory, and if the player has any of that type of ingredient the script places the ingredients inside the system. If the player doesn't have any on them, and there are ingredients in the system, the script pulls the ingredients from the system and puts them into the player's inventory instead.

Here's where the modifiers come into play. Utilizing the modifiers, one could do something such as pull half the ingredients out of a "container", pull only one out (or five), pull all of the ingredients out of a "container" instead of placing them in when the player has some on them, or many more interactions could be utilized with a modifier (or combination of modifiers).

As an example of this: instead of having to utilize the dialog prompt on the main chest, I'm thinking of using "weapon drawn" to place all items inside, "spell readied" to pull out, and "sneaking" to open the chest. This would make the system so that you never have to open a dialog prompt or container to be able to fully utilize it. I fell like this adds volumes to immersion, especially when used with At Home Alchemy.

So what do you think? How would you use the modifiers, or combination of modifiers, to change your interactions with the sorting system? I'd really like your opinions so that I can make this as user friendly as possible.

[Drakkmore]

I like the idea of newer more feature filled, less resource grabby functions for mods like sorters of alchemy ingredients, and weapons/books/armors type things.
Having said that I've never actually USED a sorter for anything in MW, as I like to place things by "hand" to keep with immersion, and the freedom to put things where I want them to be, and not where the mod wants them to be, so I really do not have any experience at all how they usually work. I do like having the choice though. Instead of having weapon readied, maybe have the player character just standing there with out weapons drawn, or magic readied to have the ingredients automatically transferred might seem a bit more realistic to me. I guess the idea of having your weapon drawn to put things in the container gives me the image of a reverse mugging "If you don't take this, I'll run you through." type of thing. As for the retrieval of the items Spell readied is okay I guess, at least it doesn't look like you're threatening the container if it does not comply with your wants. Sneaking to open the container,and take what you need Seems okay too, but it looks like you're thieving away someone else' ingredients, but who's gonna see you.
But like I said I don't use sorters so I'm in no real position to give any suggestions.

[ortorin]

I like the descriptive way you put all that.Haha. I've thought it over and I really don't want to use weapons and spells as modifiers anymore. It was just a thought. Thanks for your input!

[sassman]

Wouldn't a simple dialog upon opening the container be sufficient?  I actually use a sorter that has a CAT...upon clicking the little kitty, I get three options:  "Pet the cat", "Sort ingredients", and "Gather ingredients."  I can gather whatever I need according to the effect I want to create, or I can just look at the sorting containers for a specific item I need.