Read by Schine Make TAB do Something Useful Dammit

[Blaza612]

I've suggested this before, but cocked it up by including another suggestion in it.

TAB at the moment, is used solely to view the player list. Considering it's proximity to the WASD keys, I say we make it do something more useful. Here I present, the Multi-Menu.

The Multi-Menu will be this screen, except without the inventory open. From here, you just click on whatever buttons up the top you wish, or open something, and it will appear on this screen, with the only way to get out of this screen being TAB again.

Any menus that you left open when you closed the Multi-Menu, will be consistent, and will be in the exact same place from when you last closed the menu.

- The same goes for any other menus you opened from outside of the Multi-Menu, for example a factory or storage.
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(Later down the line) All menus can be completely resized, including the internals of said menus, for example the block info on the inventory menu.

There will of course be more Hotkeys involving TAB and the keys around WASD, to allow for the hand to not move much at all. Any extra menus within a category can be accessed by continually pressing the relevant hotkey until the destination menu has been selected. The menus can be opened with these hotkeys;

- Inventory: TAB + Q
- Shop Menu: TAB + E
- Navigation: TAB + F
- Structure Menu: TAB + Z
- Catalog Menu: TAB + C
- Faction Menu: TAB + R
- Crew Menu: TAB + X
- Messages: TAB + Space (Subject to change)

All hotkeys have been designated to maximize comfort for most used (presumably) menus, whether in combat or not. All feedback on said hotkeys is appreciated.
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All commands/hotkeys can be re-assigned to any function as specified by the player, allowing each individual player to customize to their setup/preferences.

This will allow a smoother transition into viewing anything that brings up this screen, especially with the recent thrust update and having to navigate to this screen in order to mess with a ship's thrust.

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

I love this idea, I'd been wanting something to bring up that menu bar for a long time now.

and y'know what, most other games have the TAB key do basically anything other than bring up the "active players" list, since that function is usually on \ or backspace.
(first-person shooters usually have TAB be "embiggen map" or "chuck a grenade", dunno what else it could do in StarMade, other than bringing up the multi-menu.)

 

[Blaza612]

multi-menu

FINALLY, a better name. Thank you. <3

EDIT: Changed all the name mentions in the OP

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

FINALLY, a better name. Thank you. <3

Hehe, not a problem at all! I know how it goes with naming ships, people, places, etc. I normally suuuuuck at it, so I'm happy to have helped.

 

[jayman38]

I love it. Just add the player list as an additional tab along the top. No need for a new hotkey. Give each tab a temporary hotkey, allowing easy, rapid access. (E.g. Tab-i to get to inventory almost as fast as plain "i".) Multimenu hotkey hints would be helpful for new players who don't yet know all the hotkeys.
Example:
Inventory | Buy at Shop | Navigation | Structure | Catalog | Faction | Crew | Messages and Missions | Players

If enough tabs are added, the tab line might need a scrollbar, when the number of tabs exceeds the screen's ability to show them all.

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

That seems to be a well thought out improvement to the idea there Jayman38.

I approve wholeheartedly. :p

 

[Blaza612]

I love it. Just add the player list as an additional tab along the top. No need for a new hotkey. Give each tab a temporary hotkey, allowing easy, rapid access. (E.g. Tab-i to get to inventory almost as fast as plain "i".) Multimenu hotkey hints would be helpful for new players who don't yet know all the hotkeys.
Example:
Inventory | Buy at Shop | Navigation | Structure | Catalog | Faction | Crew | Messages and Missions | Players

If enough tabs are added, the tab line might need a scrollbar, when the number of tabs exceeds the screen's ability to show them all.

I shall add that to OP. Bloody amazing, however will have keys remapped to those of/around WASD, because that way it's easier to get to them. So TAB Q could be inventory. Then again, using just i would still be a thing, so if people still want to use that then they can do so.

EDIT: I've now added it into the OP, with hotkeys arranged to be accessible without moving the hand away from WASD, and to correlate comfort with certain hotkeys with what'll be used (presumably) most.

 

[Valck]

I'm using IJKL as my directional setup, and I'd absolutely hate to be forced to use a key on the opposite side of the keyboard for vital functions like the inventory. Not everyone uses WASD, even with an ESDF setup TAB wouldn't be that comfortable to reach anymore.
Heck, not everybody even uses a keyboard, think HOTAS...

Individual functions need to always be able to be bound to individual keys, or combinations that do not use TAB, and the proposed functionality of TAB needs to be bindable to any other key as well.

 

[Blaza612]

I'm using IJKL as my directional setup, and I'd absolutely hate to be forced to use a key on the opposite side of the keyboard for vital functions like the inventory. Not everyone uses WASD, even with an ESDF setup TAB wouldn't be that comfortable to reach anymore.
Heck, not everybody even uses a keyboard, think HOTAS...

Individual functions need to always be able to be bound to individual keys, or combinations that do not use TAB, and the proposed functionality of TAB needs to be bindable to any other key as well.

Will add that to OP. However, I'd imagine that all keys would be rebindable anyways.