Machines, ovens, furnaces

[Nasikabatrachus]

I'd really like to see buildings in the game that allow for input, autonomous time-based work, and output.

Example: an oven.

How would an oven work? Well, in real life, when you want to make a cake, you mix the stuff, put in in the oven, let it cook, take it out, and decorate it. The chain of production could be:
Raw ingredients mix to become unfinished cake
> Unfinished cake is placed in an oven and becomes an undecorated cake
>> Undecorated cake is worked on by a colonist and becomes a Cake (awful)

The oven itself consumes energy while it cooks the cake, but the colonist also puts time and skill into mixing and decorating the cake. In this way, technology and pawn characteristics are intermingled in a satisfying way because the player decided to set up the cake mixing station (or whatever), build and power an oven, train up or find a good cook, gather ingredients, and make a cake.

A simpler idea is something like a 3d printer. The printer itself could take in metal (or whatever) and every so often produce a widget, which could be "designed" by a pawn with the research skill to produce widgets of a certain quality. Subsequent research would allow for widgets of increased quality. (Or, say, Nutrient Paste Dispenser parts which use food more efficiently. Etcetera.)

An example of a thing I tried to mod in, but couldn't because the game doesn't work like that, would be a recipe for a simple meal which could be cooked at a campfire which would consume 1 log, 10 meat, and produce a ~Legendary Hamburger~ (or just 10 cooked pieces of meat). In this case the log would be consumed as fuel and the reaction would produce the cooked meat. (When I tried, the log would wind up as an ingredient in the meal, which, aside from being a bit weird, actually produced error messages, rendering it useless as a mod.)

Rimworld is ostensibly a sci-fi game, but so far there's not actually a lot one can do with the technology in it. Interesting interactions with machines would therefore be a good addition to the game.