rework materials from the ground up

[Nnystyxx]

THE ARC SMELTER

(and the general forge process)

Okay, so. I have an idea for how we can change the general process of using the arc smelter to both simplify making certain objects, and relegate the complex shit to the workbench system. Basically, the process of making stuff with the arc smelter would be in a few parts: most importantly, melting in the main chamber, and pouring into molds.

When you put materials in the arc smelter and fire it up, they will melt down together and pour into a secondary holding tank. They do not automatically melt as soon as they are added, allowing you to put everything together into one alloy with mixed properties. It also allows you to load corpses and melt them into meat slurry.

Now, once the molten metal has gone to the secondary holding tank, you have a few options. At this juncture, you can either void the container and start over, add reagents to alter its properties (in theory), or move on to the casting process. Let's assume you do the latter.

Underneath some funnels 'n' shit from the holding tank is a casting machine. At roundstart, it has a number of basic molds in it, ranging from various tools, to material things like sheets. (There is no specific limit on what can be cast into what, but a molitz crowbar would be pretty useless.) Molds are made from a refractory material that can be ordered from QM or mined. You can interact with the machine to see what molds it has, and select which one is active. By engaging the funnel from the holding tank to the casting machine, a certain volume/all? of the molten metal will pour into the cast, set for several moments, and then cool, allowing you to pop the fresh new item out with your bare hands. Or preferably gloves. So you don't burn your dumb hands off.

Replacing the material combobulator would be a mold scanner; essentially, it would take any given item you hit it with (mugs, crowbars, space things, saxophones) and 3D-print a mold out of refractory material that it starts with/you load in later. That mold can then be added to the caster so you can make, I don't know, golden butt statues.

And that's my current ideal vision of the arc smelting process. It lets you make simple, fun and potentially useful stuff, but certain items could be blacklisted from being scanned so you're forced to use the actual crafting/workbench system for the more complex stuff.

EDIT: I'm an idiot, we already have a scanner which does nothing so use it for the mold scanner printer thing ok bye.