[Suggestion] Too many benches

Comments: 49

• 25 Sep, '21
  Spartan4Knight Merged

  I like the concept of having to unlock the workbenches in order to manufacture different items but it gets really cluttered in your base when you have all of these big machines to put somewhere and since the limited drop time of the game seems to encourage smaller bases and more movement around the map, it might be easier if it was maybe an attachment to original workbench or an upgrade to it rather than a whole new physical workbench.
  
  Obviously not everything makes sense to do that way but maybe you could reduce it down from the roughly 12-15 or so benches there are now to maybe 6-7?

• 27 Sep, '21
  Elissa Snowball Admin

  "Consolidate Work Benches" (suggested by Spartan4Knight on 2021-09-25), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 27 Sep, '21
  Myth

  I would like to see a more modular bench design. Such as a main crafting bench that can be Upgraded to Machining or a Carpentry Bench that can be upgraded to work with stone. A skinning bench that can be upgraded to an armor bench.

• 27 Sep, '21
  ZugZugNZ

  I don't really mind the amount of benches per se, I played a lot of Conan Exiles so got used to a really fleshed out crafting system with lots of stuff. I think for Icarus though, it would be better if the higher tier benches also provided functions from the lower tier benches which would mean once you have leveled up a bit you can get away with having less benches if you want to. It could even be something you upgraded onto benches to add functions to them that made logical sense for that bench, for example crafting and machining benches, or the mortal and pestle with herbalism bench. I think in Icarus it seems we will be making a first base, then smelting bases and staging bases as we progress through to harder biomes so we are often remaking bases or carrying stuff with us, having a way to make this easier could be good.

• 27 Sep, '21
  abitdazed

  I like Valheim's workbench upgrade system, where you build the anvil, tanning rack, water bucket, etc etc to upgrade the workbench to a higher level.
  Perhaps a similar system, except without adding a physical thing you need to place down in your house for the upgrade. A workbench starts off smaller, and upgrades in a modular fashion like the kitchen bench and it's extensions.
  
  Either that or, crafting structural pieces costs less resource, because of the small time frame that the mission drops are.

• 27 Sep, '21
  Dani

  Having extensions or upgrades to certain benches when you level, like in valheim, would be cool. It adds to aesthetic and keeps your work benches sorted to one area.

• 27 Sep, '21
  Arttu Mahlakaarto

  The way that Kitchen pieces snap together, would be great for certain crafting benches as well

• 27 Sep, '21
  Norbu

  I love the idea of replacing lower tier crafting benches with higher tiers that offer both functionalities. It works nicely for the furnace and the cooking options (fire pit / stone pit / fire place / potbelly stove / modular kitchen) already.
  Since some benches are unlocked by blueprints, the more advanced bench could offer the other crafting recipies only after the respective blueprint is unlocked.
  
  Can we please have this for:
  - crafting bench / machining bench
  - skinning bench / armor bench.
  - masonry table / concrete mixer (only used to build concrete furnace currently)
  - carpentry bench / glaswork bench (pretty oversized for a rarely used bench)
  - mortal and pestle / herbalism bench (functionality already included in the modular kitchen?).
  
  Moving a base is currently at least 4 hauls to secure at least the costly iron/steel benches.
  As 2nd best option, you could reduce the bench weights for single players.

• 27 Sep, '21
  Crimson Sword

  All decent survival building games have multiple benches, I have 0 issues with this. What will you fill a house with?

• 27 Sep, '21
  Ozymandias J.

  Agree with the comment from ZugZugNZ. It would be much more managable if some of the lower tier workbenches did tasks of the upper ones.
  Or some of the main workbenches allowed you to use crafting recipes from other workbenches in the vicinity, ie Machining workbench picks up the masonry, mortar+pestle, herbailsm, anvil, etc. nearby and allows you to craft them in that one workbench.

• 28 Sep, '21
  Pixie

  I agree that upper tier benches should be able to perform the functions of lower tier benches. However... base building is also an aspect of survival games that some players (like me) quite enjoy. I think a happy compromise might be having some cross-functionality. Like, for example, being able to make stone structures at the crafting bench, but having that cost more resources because it is less efficient than making stone structures at the Masonry bench. But, if you really wanted to, you could pick up a crafting bench, move across the map, and make a storm-resistant stone base straight away (assuming you want to mine extra stone). Similarly, the mortar and pestle and herbalism bench could have some cross-functionality, but again, with a penalty one way or another.

• 28 Sep, '21
  CosmicTony

  There is an obvious flaw with merely upgrading a bench to do all lower tier items; don't tie up an advanced bench queue with the little stuff AND don't stuff the benches storage with stuff it will only use sporadically if at all.
  
  My Zen in these games is a well organised workflow... but I play with monkeys who can't be trusted to organise where they dump resources. So while I would LOVE upgradable benches, I would need;
  A) Benches that connect to all nearby storages ,
  B) have queue benefits in the upgraded bench. ie the one bench is as fast as two queues on two different machines.

• 28 Sep, '21
  Mark

  Maybe just reduce the weight of the benches to make it so they are easier to transport? That's the main issue for me. I don't mind having to build the benches once but doing them over and over again is rough as you need to move in this game to progress.

• 28 Sep, '21
  BOU

  I like the many benches. It makes the base look like a workshop.
  Please keep them.

• 13 Oct, '21
  Natrash

  upgrade benches would be a solution. Upgrading LVL could cost the same amount of furnitures than crafting the bench itself, keeping previous blueprints.
  Machining bench and fabricator could be evolutions respectively LVL 2 and 3 of the crafting Bench.

• 25 Oct, '21
  Beaux

  YES YES, I agree especially as a solo who needs a smaller footprint to protect from weather etc. Please impliment a way to modulate/extend/upgrade benches to reduce the amount of floor space needed for the missions, THX.

• 26 Oct, '21
  Giddion

  I agree that new benches should eliminate the need for old benches - like machining bench being able to do all of the crafting bench and more - it gets cluttered with all the benches and sometimes when something like a bow breaks you're walking back and forth to remember which bench you need to repair it and/or where you stored the materials for it. The fact that smelting does this upgrade is great and a perfect example.

• 09 Nov, '21
  Zinna

  100% disagree. Respectfully. I might ask if you have a one-all workbench at home and what it may look like? It's total immersion for me to have the need for a different bench for a different dedicated purpose.

• 22 Nov, '21
  shin0bi272

  The sheer number of benches I have to make is why I build a 5x5 house! Almost need a second level for storage even with that big of a home too.

• 05 Dec, '21
  Janekburn

  Tbh i quite like the current system, when i build my house i can have a work area with my work benches filling up the gaps and then i can have a kitchen area and so on and everything looks nice and in its place and looking good :)
  I mean u wouldn't have a skinning bench built into ur kitchen bench for me it would lose its appeal and immersion all that blood and sinew over the stuff im cooking i mean eeewww... gag! please keep them!!

• 19 Jan, '22
  W2D2

  The benches should IMO allow upgrade and after each upgrade add the new functionalities.
  e.g. Crafting bench -> Machining bench -> Fabricator
  
  For anyone running into the big base problem, I've started experimenting with keeping all my benches in a chest and only pulling them out when I need them. This reduces the base footprint but adds some extra work. But hey how many times do you need the glass working bench, concrete mill or composter ?

• 27 Jan, '22
  ErwinB

  Ok, too many stations, but what about having only one inventory for all? I have no problem with many stations, my problem is when crafting, any player move resources, they disconnect and you don't have any idea where are de 80 Epoxy that you made 1 hour ago.
  If you have only one inventory for all the stations would promote the crafting of chests and other storage furniture.

• 16 Feb, '22
  Fresa Merged

  You need to much benches to cook. Why couldn´t you use a tier 3 bench to cook the food of a tier 2 bench?
  For example: Why could you not cook the food of the cannon oven in the biofuel oven?
  
  Why could you not make the salads of the kitchen table on the kitchen counter?
  
  It should be like the smelters, the higher Tier ones can also smelt the ore of the lower ones.

• 17 Feb, '22
  samyala Merged

  Yes, it would be nice if each new tier cooking benches could have the recepies of all the previous ones.

• 18 Feb, '22
  ScottG Merged

  Yes, I cannot imagine a logical reason why a more advanced kitchen setup is unable to perform the same tasks as a more primitive appliance. The gas fueled stove has included pots and pans....but can't render fat?? This sort of inconsistency brakes the immersion.

• 24 Feb, '22
  nfourie Merged

  I agree. The higher tier cooking stations should be able to do everything the previous tiers could do. It should be a replacement, not an addition.

• 06 Mar, '22
  cc

  agree with having some benches utilize the valheim system to cut down on clutter and make upgrading to new blueprints.
  
  i like how some of the kitchen stuff stacks, it should just become one big cooking station tho that you can add to.

• 24 Mar, '22
  Fresa

  I think I have a simliar post out there, whatever.
  
  I agree, high tier benches should be able to build the low tier stuff. Why investing in Tier 4 benches, when you don´t get anything for it? If a advanced kitchen counter can replace the table and the normal counter, a electric oven can replace at least two of the lower ovens, that it would be worth consideration, but now.....
  
  Also, the basic benches. You have to build each bench to get the next, but that doesn´t mean, you have to keep it. Add folder in the menu of the higher benches with each folder contains the Items of a Tier.

• 24 Mar, '22
  Elissa - Producer Admin

  "Cooking benches" (suggested by Fresa on 2022-02-16), including upvotes (9) and comments (3), was merged into this suggestion.

• 22 Jul, '22
  James Freeman

  I love this idea but don't think it really needs a drastic rework. I'm sure this is somewhere in the list already but simply making the higher tier work benches able to craft all the things the lower tier versions of their type can would still work for me. I would still have to tier up through all the benches but when I got access to the better one I could yank the old one out, put it in a cupboard or something and plop the higher tier bench in. Maybe give the higher tier bench a little more storage space to account for it having a lot more recipes to work from and done.

• 05 Aug, '22
  Theodore Bendon

  Perhaps the Benches that are Tiered-up Versions of others can be Upgraded using the Upgrade Tool? It would be Exceptionally Helpful to have such a funtion.

• 11 Aug, '22
  Jinsai

  Also agree that tiered-up benches are the way to go, OR making sure that upper tier items completely moot the need for lower-tier items. Building these benches is painful enough. It should not be the case that any player wants to keep a lower-tier bench around for any reason, because the higher-tier stuff is so much better.
  
  To get high tier stuff, you already have to level up and spend talent points. You also have to do a ton of work to climb up the chain to build the bench in the first place, and find the materials to feed it.

• 26 Aug, '22
  SpecterXP

  I think it would be awesome to have 3-4 "primary" benches like the Crafting, Machining, and Fabricator but allow expansions to them to make them more powerful and versatile. Like modules of sorts. Maybe require electricity to the Machining bench in order to do more advanced things and require both electricity and water on the Fabricator to do almost anything because lets face it, the fabricator looks like it's a CNC bench, which would require power. One example would be requiring electricity be connected to the Fabricator to create the Materials Processor and Electric Furnace. Now, I know that the Fabricator is what you use to make the Biofuel Generator, but maybe allow solar panels, water wheel and maybe even a wind generator to be created at a lower level. I'm sure this is asking a lot, but this would be awesome to see implemented.

• 29 Aug, '22
  Craig

  I am also voting for the option to Tier up a bench. There is still plenty of craftable items to fill your home with, and not having to run between 3 crafting benches would be super nice.

• 04 Sep, '22
  cmopatrick Merged

  I would like to suggest that higher level benches, especially the main T3 and T4 benches should have a way to merge functions once the higher tier bench is built/available. Consider the same basic function as you give the attachment benches where the advanced can do all the basic attachments as well (so only one bench is needed in the end). To limit clutter, you could put a tab on the tier 4 bench to show/hide tier 3 items. Let us recover the materials and space from the t3 once the 4 is created and deployed.

• 05 Sep, '22
  Elissa - Producer Admin

  "Bench tier suggestions" (suggested by cmopatrick on 2022-09-04), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 19 Sep, '22
  SnakeSkin Merged

  In my opinion, there are just too many workbenches. Why can't you take the simple workbenches and update them so that you can get the new recipes. That would look like the Fabricator but you can craft anything you would otherwise need the Workbench for. What I would still improve would be that there are more defensive options. E.g. Bear traps that trigger when someone (no matter who) steps in or how about spikes that can be attached to the house walls or barbed wire that does some damage but slows down the animals. Tripwire with a hand grenade would also be something (then the hand grenade would finally be good for something).

• 19 Sep, '22
  Elissa - Producer Admin

  "Rethink workbenches and more defense options" (suggested by SnakeSkin on 2022-09-19), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 16 Oct, '22
  East City Survivor

  Absolutely agree, there's simply too many benches. I do see the point for them, and IMO the way forward is to, as someone already suggested, consolidate some of them. The obvious solution has been suggested already: instead of a separate workbench, change some into upgrades to existing ones.

• 01 Nov, '22
  Torgoth

  Upgrade Bench option, not just an Unlock. Like the Upgrade Hammer does when Upgrading Construction. Would also make it helpful when having to physically move your base to just move the Fabricator and have everything down to your Workbench without having to move or reconstruct each of them.

• 02 Nov, '22
  SuperT

  I agree that there are too many Benches. For instance there are too many cooking benches and stoves with an electroc stove coming soon. This can surely be simplified even if it initially costs more.
  
  Here are my thoughts (sorry if someone already suggested it as I did not read all the comments))
  Combine upgrade benches. For example there is a Textile Bench and Advanced Textile Bench.
  There is a Alteration Bench and an Advanced Alteration Bench. So you build the first bench and on that bench you have an upgrade button with a list of the necessary items for the advanced upgrade.
  Once upgraded you have access to all recipes.
  This could be done for many of the benches.

• 04 Nov, '22
  ALISHA GARCIA

  To add to SuperT's comment. Kitchen bench and cooking station along with potbelly stove could be combined. Also you should be able to cook all the regular meat and vegetables you can cook on a regular campfire or fireplace on the potbelly stove also!

• 12 Nov, '22
  HimiTosi

  I personally enjoy having so many unique crafting benches, cosmetically they are very pleasing. But some could be combined/ reverse compatible the rest are unique and should definitely be kept. Another alternate is allow the crafting bench to be upgraded to function as multiple benches.
  
  Crafting bench->machining bench->fabricator (higher tier should make things from previous, so you can make everything in the fabricator)
  Anvil-> makes sense, maybe incorporate its function into the fabricator as the fabricator can make tools?
  Composter-> don't change
  Skinning bench-> could also be combined with trophy bench
  Cement mixer-> could be combined with masonry bench so you make cement and craft at the same location.
  Herbalism bench-> Give mortar and pestle function, but leave both items in game. You legit grind and make medicine.
  Carpentry bench-> its a crafting bench... for wood
  Glass working bench-> Makes sense looks cool
  Cooking station-> Should allow cooking of meat/etc like a fire

• 15 Nov, '22
  SuperT

  Just another thought on my previous comment.
  
  A lower tier bench could have a Upgrade Option using the lower tier bench plus addition resources to upgrade it. Much like crafting attachments from level 1 to level II. Or you could keep the lower tier bench and craft the advanced bench from scratch at a higher cost.
  
  This would allow those who want fewer benches to do so and save some resources while at the same allowing those who do not mind extra benches at the cost of resources.

• 24 Nov, '22
  CrumblyMuffins

  Definitely agree. The electric furnace can provide all the functions of the previous tier's furnaces, why not let the fabricator replace your basic crafting bench? The three main benches perform the same role but have completely different craftables for no reason. I would even be OK with the resource cost of the machining bench and fabricator being increased if it meant replacing the previous tier's bench.

• 08 Dec, '22
  prinsallan

  Easy fix: First bench allows some basic stuff.
  Second allows Basci stuff + additional stuff
  Third allows Basic studd + additional stuff + additional stuff....
  
  The last bench is, in this way, the only thing you need. You still need to create it so to progress you still have to do all the steps, but after you make a better, you can just remove the old one and replace it.

• 11 Dec, '22
  WindWraith

  The number of different benches are excessive. Upgrade the workbench to higher tiers and get rid of 3 right there. Its like having 1 bench for toothpicks, another for popsicle sticks, another for tongue depressors, etc. Why? The stone furnace is obsolete as soon as you make the cement dryer. At least offer the options to upgrade VS make a different bench.

• 22 Dec, '22
  karmaxsun

  as cosmic toney mentioned
  
  A) local storage access/link storage
  B) add a mod slot to all benches - add a mod the temporarily allow the mod function to that bench. basically adds a blueprint that normally cannot be made on that bench, perhaps add a tier penalty (tier 1 uses more resource/time to build a tier 4). that way you dont need to double up benches to speed up production of need gear/resources. mods could also add other effects like increase production speed, resource reduction, double output/addx1.5craft time etc...

• 04 Mar
  The Mad Sentinel

  1) I think there are at least two benches / bench systems that could very much benefit from some consolidation. Specifically, the Kitchen Trifecta and Tailoring. Both of those jobs ought to be fully handled at the Tier 4 level without having to retain their lower tier counterparts.
  
  2) The ChemLab... needs more to justify its expense.
  
  3) Suggestion: The base Crafting Bench could be upgradeable to EITHER a Masonry, Carpentry, Machining, OR Glassworking Bench. To get a different T2/3 Bench, whip up another Craftie, then upgrade that one to a different specialized bench. The Fab is definitely its own beast; an ADDITIVE manufacturing appliance, vs. the Machining Table being SUBTRACTIVE. Different techs. I like the idea of the Concrete Mixer being an add-on to the Masonry Bench.
  
  Side note: I can't help but think the Carpentry Bench ought to be able to make Sticks faster than by hand.
  
  3) If possible, linked storage would be VERY cool. S+ in the base game. BIG step forward.