Rather than simply notify players when I update the game, I've decided to provide regular progress reports. As I mentioned, I have begun work on the "Blueprints" system for Star Explorers.
It's pretty much just a simple menu so far, but a lot of the pieces are now in place to add actual crafting of items.
When you use a blueprint, a new menu will pop up, showing the required materials and how much of each you have etc... The Build Item button will create the new item, and remove the materials used from your inventory.
Keeping it simple, each blueprint will require 3 different materials/items, in various amounts.
So there is a blueprint item that you can purchase (or find), and you can use it to call up the blueprint menu, and that's all right now. Tomorrow I think I will be able to get it to create items that already exist in the game. Later, I will begin adding new items, some of which you will only be able to acquire with a blueprint.
I am not sure how to handle blueprints in terms of how to manage them as inventory. Should I just keep it the way it is now, so to use it you would need to have the blueprint in your inventory? Or should I create a blueprint list, which allows you to remove the blueprint from inventory, and access it through a special list. Option 1 will be far easier to implement, and I will probably keep it that way for now, but I may add the second option later...