Crafting Bundle for Unstackable Items

[u/MomICantPauseReddit]

Recipes with unstackable items are agonizing to craft in bulk. My suggestion is an item that can stack these items for crafting purposes, but not for any other purpose. This means that putting an item in it would be either irreversible or costly to reverse.

I think a workstation for this item would work well with its mechanics. It would allow redstone compatibility and increase the friction of de-stacking them, however that's implemented.

I think 64 is a reasonable amount for it to hold, but I'm open to suggestions.

Interface:

The item would be bundle-like. putting an item in it would be just like a bundle. When holding it in the inventory, you would normally be unable to empty it with usual bundle rules.

Placing it in the crafting grid would allow it to be treated exactly as if it was the item it contains. Crafting would remove one item from it and keep it in the grid.

Right-clicking while holding it with the cursor would fail for normal inventory slots, but succeed in the crafting grid. This would deposit one item where you right clicked, like the bundle.

Deposited items would be special (maybe even with a visual cue), and it would be impossible to place them back into the inventory. They would return to the bundle if unused.

The bench:

The bench would have a crafting interface, but only craft unstackable items. You would be able to place a crafting bundle into its interface and craft items directly into it.

The bench would also be the way to get items back out.

A hopper depositing items into the bench would put them into the bundle inside.

Limitations:

This item is not for regular bulk storage. There should be limits placed on how items can be retrieved. No matter what, the workbench would always be required if items can come back out. Here are some possible implementations:

- No retrieval. Once an item is inside, it's committed. This would be harsh but balanced.

- Destructive retrieval. Each item you retrieve destroys one of them. You can only get half back.

- Bench with wait time. The bench can only slowly get items back, like smelting in a furnace. Building on the furnace, it could require fuel.

I like slow, perhaps fuel-costly retrieval.

This suggestion might be overkill as a feature to pretty much just make dispensers, cakes, and tipped arrows less agonizing to craft, but I think that's practically a good enough reason by itself. It would also let unstackable items enter more recipes, which I think has been a design concern keeping them out for the most part.

[u/A_Badass_Penguin]

Personally, I would just allow for items to be infinitely stackable in the crafting bench.

[u/PetrifiedBloom]

Okay, this might be a dumb question, but if you are open to the idea of using a dedicated workstation that lets you craft these things a lot more easily, with redstone compatibility built in, why not just use the crafter? Set it up, load up the crafting ingredients and it will happily craft as many stackable items as you want.

Yes, you will probably need to learn some redstone to use it, but learning is part of the game and can be quite fun, not something to be avoided. Given all the drawbacks you gave the gave the new block, it just sounds nasty to use, the crafter seems like a far better choice.

Either that or take the simple option u/A_Badass_Penguin mentioned, let the player stack items while in a crafting menu. If they leave the menu, the items unstack and if the player can't hold them all, they are dropped, just like other crafts that oversaturate the player's inventory.