I am making a mod that includes certain recipes that combine two or more of an Item in a container (e.g. bowlSoup).  The crafting result, also has a container.  (Imagine combining two different types of stew to make a third type.) 

 

My problem, is how to enforce conservation of containers (i.e. neither create nor destroy bowls).  So far, I can either designate a containerItem for both Items, or not which effectively boils down to, when the recipe is used either:

[*]two containers go in, one container is produced, and both originals remain behind ==> 2 (originals) => 1 (result) + 2 (remaining) = 3 containers, or

[*]two containers go in, one container is produced, and both originals are destroyed ==> 2 (originals) => 1 (result) = 1 container

 

Ideally I should get:

2 (originals) ==> 1 (result) and 1 stays behind (or goes to the player inventory) = 2 containers, thus the player starts with two containers and ends with two containers.

 

Any ideas how to do this?

 

Thanks in advance!

Use a third bowl in the recipe. When you do that, you'll get the first two (full) ones back, and you'll lose the third one. This is the only way I can think of right now, but there may be a much better, harder way.

Make a custom crafting class and you can do whatever you want to both input and output.