Alchemy - Help with ye olde modding

[Vandris]

Well, I'm entirely new to the mod creation scene, but I've enjoyed pretty much every mod there is for this game, and I have great love for the modders and Rimworld itself. I'd like to dip my toes into these daunting waters.

Thing is I've got absolutely no skill in this. That's where (hopefully) you guys come in! 
I've nosed around in some mod files, core files, as well as some advice I've read around the forums, but it's hard to know what I'm looking for when I well, don't know what I'm looking for. I know exactly what I want to do, but I don't know every single thing I need to do to realize it. I'm fairly sure most of it is XML creation, and I'm really hoping it won't involve too much C# because I'm horrid at coding (I imagine some of the more ambitious features will need it).

I want to create a mod that adds alchemy crafting and poison crafting, that will bring in new workbenches, research, items, plants, animals, weapons, defenses, and events.

So far I (think I) know I need to make these sorts of files:
Defs >JobsDefs
       >RecipeDefs
       >ResearchProjectDefs
       >ThingDefs
Textures >Building
             >Item
Am I on the right track? What else do I need to do? Most of all, thank you for your time.

I originally had my blurby feature list thing below, but to clear any confusion I have made it into it's own post here: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=29793.0

[RawCode]

what exactly your question is?

if this is WIP project, it belongs to other section.

[Vandris]

Thanks for reply. Well I wasn't sure exactly where to post this, but it's a bit of a help request and also me proposing a project. I'm asking for what resources I need to actually make the features. What to do, and all of that, because I have no idea. What sort of files I need to make and that sort of thing. I hope that helps clarify.

Edit: To be more specific, how do I:
Add new items, research, jobs, bills, animals?
Add new mechanics? (like damage over time on weapons or weapons causing status effects to pawns)
Add new events/incidents, and is it possible to have crafting failure trigger an event?


Edit edit: Updated the main post to hopefully be more clear.

[RawCode]

generic questions result in generic answers, for this reason, please start here
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=3283.0
or here
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=3408.0

for specific question:

to have crafting failure trigger an event?

you will need to inject (detour) custom code into crafting handler and call your event or any event, or any code, there are no limits or restrictions at all.
this done at c# level and not possible on XML level (ever if some mod provide XML<>inject parser, you still need to provide custom version of method)

[Vandris]

Thanks a lot for the help! Yes, I realize my questions might be a bit on the vague side. Just starting out after all, but I'll try and hold out on asking more until I can be more specific in my requests. Helps everyone!