Quick start

This page builds a small crafting setup from scratch: logs are sawn into planks at a workbench, and planks become a table. It uses the built-in inventory and the example crafting menu. When you have your own inventory, connect it later as described in Inventories.

The example map does all of this already; open /TACraftwright/Examples/Maps/L_CraftwrightExample to compare (see The example map).

1. Add gameplay tags. Open Project Settings > Gameplay Tags and add the tags you need, for example:

   Item.Material.Wood
   Station.Workbench

   Item tags let a recipe ask for “any item with this tag”. Station tags name station types.

2. Create items. In the Content Browser, choose Add > Craftwright > Craftwright Item for each item. Create Item_OakLog, Item_PineLog, Item_Plank and Item_Table, and set:

   • Display Name and Icon (a texture; the menu shows it);
   • Tags: add Item.Material.Wood to both logs;
   • Max Stack: how many fit in one slot of the built-in inventory (default 99).

3. Create recipes. Choose Add > Craftwright > Craftwright Recipe:

   • Recipe_Planks: under Ingredients add one entry, leave Item empty and set Item Tag to Item.Material.Wood and Count to 1. Under Outputs add Item_Plank with Count 3. Set Craft Time to 2 and, under Where, add Station.Workbench to Stations.
   • Recipe_Table: Ingredients Item_Plank × 4, Outputs Item_Table × 1, Craft Time 5, Stations Station.Workbench.

   A recipe with no Stations is crafted by hand. A Craft Time of 0 makes it instant. See Items, recipes and books for every property.

4. Create a recipe book. Choose Add > Craftwright > Craftwright Recipe Book, name it Book_Player and add both recipes to Recipes.

5. Give the player a crafter and an inventory. Open your Player Controller Blueprint and add two components:

   • Craftwright Crafter: add Book_Player to Recipe Books.
   • Craftwright Player Inventory (the built-in inventory with Owner Only on, so only the owning player receives it): set Slots to 30 and add a few logs to Starting Items for testing.

   The crafter finds the inventory by itself: it looks on its owner, the owner’s pawn or controller, and the player state. A crafter on the Player Controller, the possessed Pawn or the Player State works in multiplayer; see Multiplayer.

6. Make a workbench. Create an actor Blueprint with a mesh and add a Craftwright Station component. Set Station Tag to Station.Workbench and Display Name to Workbench. In multiplayer, make sure the actor Replicates. Place it in your level.

7. Open the crafting menu. When the player uses the workbench (an overlap, a line trace, an interact key), run this in the Player Controller:

   Create Widget (Class: WBP_CraftingMenu, Owning Player: self)
   → Setup (Crafter: the Craftwright Crafter, Station: the workbench's Craftwright Station)
   → Add to Viewport
   → Set Input Mode Game And UI (Widget to Focus: the menu), Show Mouse Cursor = true

   Bind the menu’s On Menu Closed event to set the input mode back to Game Only and hide the cursor. For hand crafting, call Setup with no station.

   

   The example's hand-crafting menu: Setup with no station.

   WBP_CraftingMenu is in /TACraftwright/Examples/UI (turn on Show Plugin Content in the Content Browser settings). Use it as it is, or duplicate it into your project and restyle it. See Crafting UI.

8. Add the HUD tracker. For the HUD tracker, add WBP_CraftingTracker to the viewport and call Setup with the crafter, once for the local player:

   Create Widget (Class: WBP_CraftingTracker, Owning Player: self)
   → Setup (Crafter: the Craftwright Crafter)
   → Add to Viewport

   Players pin a recipe with the menu’s Track button, and the tracker shows what is still missing for it. The example player controller does this with its Tracker Class. See HUD tracker.

9. Play. Walk up to the workbench (within its Interaction Range, 400 cm by default), open the menu, pick Planks, choose a count and click the craft button. The job appears in the queue, logs leave your inventory, and every 2 seconds 3 planks arrive. Then make a table from the planks. The menu also works with the keyboard and a gamepad: see Keyboard and gamepad.

Tip

You don’t need the example menu. Every button in it calls a function on the crafter: Check Craft (can I craft this, and how many can I make?), Request Craft, Request Salvage, Request Cancel, Request Collect Tray and Track Recipe. Call them from your own UI. See Crafting.

Next steps

• Burn fuel at a forge, pull ingredients from chests and keep results in the station: Stations and fuel.
• Teach recipes with scrolls or by crafting, or let players discover them: Unlocks.
• Add lucky crafts and let players salvage what they made: Lucky crafts and Salvage.
• Connect the inventory your game already has: Inventories.
• Save queues and inventories: Save games.
• Check your recipes for broken data and duplication loops: open Tools > ta Craftwright and click Scan project. See Editor tools.