If I'm crafting something, that requires material A (eg. steel), and there is no material A in direct form, workshop will automatically consume stored in the workshop space or in the my inventory loot item providing A. Cool, but if this item also provides materials B, C etc., AFAIK these are wasted in the process - disappear. Am I right? It shouldn't be that way. A spare material from consumed item should be preserved IMO. There is a workaround, but far from smooth: I can drop an item on the ground and using construction GUI dismantle it into prime factors. My second suggestion would be an easy/fast way to process at once all stored in the workshop loot into primal materials.

Currently - absurdal things may happen, as I experienced recently, if crafted item in the same time requires and provides same material and I'm trying to make many copies one by one, let's say some utility mixture at chemical table.

Let's say item X requires A and B materials while provides A. I have not enough "bare" A material around, so workshop begins to consume stored loot... including just made X items. So in such case I can't make more than one copy of this item at a time - if I try to make the second, first one is consumed to craft it, etc. ad infinitum - at the end I will have a single copy of that item. Absurd.

I wasn't sure how this feature worked, but this is alarming if true. I did notice that when I scrapped, say, a Container in the world that held some items I had not looted, I saw a brief message that something had been stored in the workstation. That was probably a gun or something that was not capable of being scrapped, though. I had been worried (well, not ~worried~) about the order in which the workstation destroys junk to make parts ---- if you have junk on your person and build something, you get a message that, say, you just destroyed a Boston Bugle newspaper to get the Cloth to make a sleeping bag. But when you are creating stuff using junk in the workstation, you don't know what is being destroyed to get those raw ingredients.

I'd hate to think that I had to drop and manually scrap everything.

Actually since the raw ingredients are actual items, the game simply ads unused crafting material into the workshops or your personal inventory, depending on where the original item was stored, at least thats what I notice when I been doing crafting.

I've heard that there is a display issue where the stuff doesn't show up right away, but that it has been confirmed that the extra stuff does in fact go to your workbench. I can't confirm that myself, though, as I've been collecting literally everything I can find from every place I go, so I'm swimming in most materials.

I hope there's a reasonable method for the devs to address the issue. There's no way I'm scrapping one by one. I've been living with it as it is. I heard about this about a week ago, so firing up the game with my new knowledge and fighting that urge to scrap manually was a real struggle. I pulled through lol. new posts say its 'confirmed' you don't lose out on items?

It'd be nice if there were a 'scrap' or 'break down' button within the 'transfer' menu of the workshop. That way I wouldn't have to chase the physics engine all over the street.

I'm not sure, how it's called in ENG version, but I would add, I experienced this loop for "cutting fluid" or maybe "cutting lubricant": It requires steel (along with other things) and provides steel and oil. I wanted to make as much, as possible, means 14. So I did, fast one by one. After this I found a single item crafted, while in the screen corner was listed subsequent cutting fluids dismantled for the steel, that wasy used for next cutting fluids. Funny. Ha ha. BTW would be better to have an option to craft as many items, as I want and can at single cycle, via some slider or something.

About that I can say this: tried to make an experiment confirming wasting raw materials from the loot. So first I emptied whole workbench space ("take all") and stored all the things and all my inventory in the separate container. Then I returned to the workbench and opened its store space - few things was there despite, I took all while ago. Maybe from one of my settlement's junk hunters? So took this too to the same container. Now workbench space was empty, as my inventory. Opened chemical table and tried to craft something. Surprisingly, although I haven't all required materials, some was listed as avaialable in small amount, despite Workbench space emptiness. So don't know, from where these few ingredients came from. No change after game restart. Weird. Perhaps indeed, what I considered as wasted raw materials was the glitch making them invisible, still available during crafting.

Just a FYI this has been tested and found it to be a display glitch. Someone went to the Red Rocket Station and cleared it out (it had no settlers at the time) and took that and dumped it back at Sanctuary, then brought a few items to make a gun mod, and once they made it they looked into the inventory and there was nothing but when they went back to the gun mods, it showed the extra material as available.

This is only true if you keep the junk required for crafting something in your own inventory.

If you transfer the junk to the workstation before crafting, the spare base components will be split as they should.

No material A gets used and material B and C get stored in the bench if not used.

This is the case also for me, so false alarm about wasting - I cleared all workbench and took only two small standing fans into my inventory then tried to craft something requiring 3 steel. 4 steel I should get from both fans (+ few other things), thus expected 1 steel left after crafting and the rest (2 sprockets, 2 screws) and additional 1 steel from the item, I just crafted. Workbench space appeared to be empty after item was crafted though, but that 2 steel pieces was listed when looked at same item materials list. So there's no wasting after all (most important), but there are issues making an impression of wasting. And this absurdal loop.

I think it's worth noting that the main use of the Cutting Fluid recipe is to get Oil. If it's consuming Cutting Fluid for the steel from one you just made, that's fine. It's not taking the Oil, which is why you made the Cutting Fluid in the first place.

My experience is a little different perhaps? I wanted to test scraping at it's most basic level and was a bit horrified. I went to build a steel wall and had no steel. I went to the workstation, found some items that make steal, put them on my person, threw them on the ground and scrapped them for steel. WTF????

Just to put a very clear message out there:

It's a temporary, visual glitch. You lose nothing. The unused mats are added to your workshop inventory, but you won't see them till you drop out of your current construction job.

Again, using junk items to build things does not waste or lose the unused mats - they go into your inventory, just like they're supposed to.

For those above seeing different results, I promise you there's another factor in play - in one case, yes, it's because your settlers are adding junk to your inventory. In another, supply lines are what makes it look that way.

But this still doesn't account for why I go to make a steel wall and have no steel, but then can take something out of workshop throw it on the ground and scrap it for steal.

Items as in junks? It won't auto-scrap weapons, armors or anything else beside junks. If it was junks, this might be a bug, report it.

In my case this invisibity glitch lasts at least longer, if not permanently. I finished my construction, tried again a bit later, workbench was still "empty", even after game restart - yesterday I found this way invisible materials, I thought, was wasted two days ago. Also I have more than 1000 wood pieces available, visible are 12 units + junk providing wood, but 800 units invisible all the time (this much I still have for construction with emptied workbench and my own inventory) - this lasts after game restart etc. But again, as long these are available for construction, I don't mind so much.

Well I have to move forward from this issue. It's been days since I lost all those materials and I'm too far along to go back now. I will no longer be storing walls and floors etc. I just place them in a holding area like a construction site if I dont think I'll be using it.