Allowing different modes of Crafting could be good, but this phrasing introduces ambiguity: we’d no longer be able to tell which were the Materials (if any) and which were the Tools (if any) in a recipe written like Flammable Liquid + Oily Secretion = Rocket Fuel. Is it two Materials (which means they’re both lost) or two Tools (which means you get to keep them both), or one of each?

per kevan.

Then what would have been a better way of wording it then?

I’m not sure what you’re trying to change. What are you trying to make different about the rules?

Raven1207: To be distinct what is Materials and Tools, it could be “Materials + Tools = Output” or “Materials & Materials + () = Output” or “() + Tools & Tools = Output”

@Derrick

I’m trying to make it where you can legally combine Minerals, Vegetables or Animals with (other) Minerals, Vegetables or Animals

As of right now, it only seems like we can only combine Minerals, Vegetables or Animals with a tool

Tool just means “thing that isn’t used up”. Right now you could write:

Waterproof skin and long fibers + structural beam = Waterskin, where a waterskin is a new piece of equipment.

If you want to actually combine animals together,  you need to start with a way to carry them. Wich I suppose is simple enough:

“A pathfinder at a location with a dense or moderate concentration of a discovery may begin carrying a sample of that discovery,  which is tracked as a discovery in their inventory”

You would then be able to start writing recipes with discoveries.

If you want to apply them to each other,  that would require a few more changes.

A recipe like “Flammable Liquid + Oily Secretion = Rocket Fuel” is already combining two Products (you get Flammable Liquid from some Minerals and Oily Secretions from some Vegetables, although we don’t know which ones yet) to make a useful third Item.