Incremental Blueprint Save or Overwrite ie 'Save As' or 'Save New'

[MrGrey1]

Often I find I save a blueprint and then realize I've missed some small feature or change that then requires a whole new blueprint to be saved. I have to retype the whole name of the blueprint again with an increment and the catalog list gets filled up with blueprints that are only fractionally different from each other with ridiculous version numbers going up n' up... As my catalog has grown this is becoming a right royal PITA, one of those things that niggles away at the overall enjoyment factor. We need a way to be able to easily overwrite a blueprint. "Save As" or "Save New" are pretty standard features and would help reduce the catalog clutter significantly. Is there any reason this has not already been implemented?

 

[NeonSturm]

I name my ships with a pattern like this:

Craft v0.0.1 alpha
Craft v0.0.2 alpha
Craft v0.1.0 beta release
Craft v0.1.1 bugfix
Craft v0.2.0 second release
Craft v1.0.0 final release
Craft v1.0.1 bugfix
Craft v1.1.0 bugfix release
Craft v2.0.0 update rail-system / slave-system / lightening / …
​

After I have all that, it would be nice to collapse all "Craft v*" into one entry of a tree-view. This entry could show the last entry by default.

 

[Drybreeze]

I also do this, but only with current WIP.
Completed ones I manually go into the blueprints folder in windows and take out all the previous versions leaving only the final finished version, and put them into some archive folder somewhere in case I need to refer to them at some distant point in the future (or if I fkup). I'm a data hoarder. Sue me :P

So my blueprints folder ingame only ever has current final designs or a big fat list of versions of one or three projects currently on the go. Gives me reminder and motivation to finish projects, also. HTH.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I use a simple version number and date/time reference. StructureName_versionnumber_YYYYMMDDHHMM.
They always sort by version and chronologically.
Plus I often trash the older ones when I get to a certain point of insanity.

 

[Brokengauge]

I use the same method as Lone_Puppy but dumbed down. Simply "ShipName V03 14 17" for example. If I manage to save a project more than once a day, I'll add a letter.

I used to do version numbers, but found that since I can't keep it straight in my mind if I'm saving something using it's full designation, or shorthand, or what, that it was simply much easier to use the date. So even if I can't remember exactly what I named the last one I worked on, I just have to find the one with the newest date lol.

A "save as" and "save new" button would be very convenient, but I would still save multiple backups. Having lots of extra saves has helped before. Like Drybreeze I too will will clear out my blueprints folder outside of the game, and copy the contents to a seperate folder, itself date stamped lol

 

[MrGrey1]

Yeah cheers guys, I do have a name-version# system happening and think I might incorporate a time stamp now that it's been brought to mind by Lone_Puppy ; my point is that being able to save over a blueprint you've already saved with a simple mouse click would make life much more convenient then typing anything at all.

 

[Tomssuli]

I'd like such a system too... At the beginning I tried different version numbering methods including dates and whatnot with underscores...

For the last project I came to conclusion that it's easiest to do ShipnameXXX where XXX is a running number from 000 to 999. It's fast to write, easy to find latest version and if I ever come to 999 I know I've worked too long for a single ship.

 

[jayman38]

This is why we need Blueprint subfolders.

 

[NeonSturm]

Whether you use yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm or a versioning system v-major-release-minor, it shouldn't have to be in the ship name.

Lichtblick_201703172312gmt1_v1-3-13_turret17
Lichtblick_turret17 (details: …)​

which is more convenient?

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Whether you use yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm or a versioning system v-major-release-minor, it shouldn't have to be in the ship name.

Lichtblick_201703172312gmt1_v1-3-13_turret17
Lichtblick_turret17 (details: …)​

which is more convenient?

True! If it showed the date of the file in the list then you could sort by that. And MrGrey1's suggestion would give use a standardish file dialog box.