Condense Blocks in Blueprints List

[Madman198237]

So, this is a fairly simple suggestion.

There is now one inventory/crafting/in-hand block for each tier and color of armor/hull/whatever. So, it would be very convenient if, in the blueprints menu and in the actual blueprint meta-item itself, you would have a collapsible tab for each type of armor.

So, instead of seeing "15 Grey Hull, 5 Grey Hull Wedges, 5 Grey Hull Tetras" in a row, I'd see "25 Grey Hull" with button to click that will expand "25 Grey Hull" to show the subsets of "15 Grey Hull, 5 Grey Hull Wedges, 5 Grey Hull Tetras".

Make it easier to see what you need to fill a blueprint. I haven't messed with shipyards recently, so an equivalent change there would be nice as well.

This was another nice GUI/user-comfort addition suggested by MrGrey1 down there, so, even though it's right beneath this post...

We should have, when working with BPs, a change in color between INCOMPLETE and COMPLETE states would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MrGrey1]

So, this is a fairly simple suggestion.

There is now one inventory/crafting/in-hand block for each tier and color of armor/hull/whatever. So, it would be very convenient if, in the blueprints menu and in the actual blueprint meta-item itself, you would have a collapsible tab for each type of armor.

So, instead of seeing "15 Grey Hull, 5 Grey Hull Wedges, 5 Grey Hull Tetras" in a row, I'd see "25 Grey Hull" with button to click that will expand "25 Grey Hull" to show the subsets of "15 Grey Hull, 5 Grey Hull Wedges, 5 Grey Hull Tetras".

Make it easier to see what you need to fill a blueprint. I haven't messed with shipyards recently, so an equivalent change there would be nice as well.

Agreed, while you're at it can we change the colour of the bar graph of completed or full items compared to incomplete? Finding one item that's incomplete that's at 99% in a long list of 100% items is a PITA when they're all the same colour.

 

[Vvolodymyr]

I agree, this would make it a bit more convenient. Also would be nice to see all the blocks used for the structure in build-mode.

 

[Madman198237]

MrGrey1, I added your idea to the OP. Just for kicks and giggles, really, as you literally have the first post in the thread (Besides the OP).

 

[jayman38]

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

In relation to this grouping suggestion, I'm thinking of pre-building/pre-buying blueprint block replacement button for easily repainting a ship or giving it different weapons.
E.g. A button next to each set (and in the case of hulls and armors, individual shapes or other components) of blocks, to select a replacement block.
So you could repaint a green ship purple. Or replace beams with cannons, along with the new computers. Or replace purple plant decorations with orange plants. Or replace the yellow racing stripe with red. Or replace advanced armor with standard. Etc., etc., etc....

With this replacement option on blueprints, you could rapidly create a fleet of specialized vehicles out of a single blueprint. E.g. Using blueprint-block-replacement to get a blue missile cruiser, a yellow beam brawler, and a pink cannon striker all from the same blueprint.

Of course, I imagine you would normally keep all your fleet ships one color, but that was a quick example to show how you could use this to create many different ships.

 

[Madman198237]

That is an interesting idea, though it might get a little bit complex, especially on the user side, when you have 4 groups of beams, 2 weapons and two slaves, and you want to replace with a cannon/beam arrangement. But then wouldn't you have to build it and manually replace two groups to split the functionality? Unless you make everything a different block/weapon and then replace later, but then your connections are screwy. And how does one go about keeping connections together when replacing blocks?

 

[jayman38]

That is an interesting idea, though it might get a little bit complex, especially on the user side, when you have 4 groups of beams, 2 weapons and two slaves, and you want to replace with a cannon/beam arrangement. But then wouldn't you have to build it and manually replace two groups to split the functionality? Unless you make everything a different block/weapon and then replace later, but then your connections are screwy. And how does one go about keeping connections together when replacing blocks?

Thanks. I'm thinking that the blueprint would maintain all connections, and if you want something different, you have to manually change the connections.
In many cases, this type of pre-building replacement will not suit a user's plan, in which case they will need to build the ship from the blueprint, and then go in and do a manual change like they do now.

Another fault would be accidental color mixing. (You want to switch the red hull to yellow, and the yellow hull to green, but you accidentally change the red hull first, and now with the second hull replacement, you have too much green, and no yellow....) And other replacement accidents. But if it's pre-build, I would think you could quickly and easily return back to the "original" blueprint design and start over with replacements.

The other problem will be ships that are mostly one color. There simply will be no efficient way to splash different colors across a monochromatic hull, and that's something that players will simply have to put on their big-boy pants and deal with.