Friday Facts #191 - Gui improvements

[joon]

I approve Really hated the weapon stuff in the corner going over info which I was hovering over so that's a big plus for me, and the rest looks really good as well

[ZombieMooose]

Personally I like everything mentioned and already want them.

[Nikey646]

Not really a fan of the inventory change, you're taking away all the available information that was previous given to you at a glance, and adding additional steps to get to where you want if it's not the last screen. Especially with the equipment area, with the new design i won't know how much ammo i have left at a glance, especially since i only ever carry around minimal ammo unless i'm going hunting to clear biters. Why does the inventory change seem more like a downgrade than an upgrade?

I personally don't think the existing inventory UI will need to be changed if the quickbar becomes a shortcut bar instead, since the ambiguity of where shift clicking an item will send it will be removed as a result, only equipment would have unique behavior in that it gets equipped.

[milo christiansen]

Does this mean we could get multiple toolbars that we could cycle through? I could have my default toolbar, and additionally have a "Train" set, or a "Fluid" set for when I am focusing on those things.

Multiple swappable quickbars would be an awesome feature. There is never enough room for everything I want, even with two rows...

Also is there a reason why keys 6,7,8,9 & 0 are not mapped to the quick tool bar?

This has bugged me as well, is there any reason for this?

[hr]

Overall I like the ideas presented, they seem well thought out and worthwhile.

[porcupine]

I'm loving this, and I think as soon as people see how the change hits, they'll absorb, and enjoy it right away. Being able to drop ghosts of stuff that isn't in your inventory would be very useful, as that's always been a nuisance (maybe it's in your logistics network, but you just ran out, and now you have to run back to the pickup to deal with that to finish what you were working, or pull up some of the work to shift place it because robots would arrive to build it eventually, argh!).

Having said that, I'd love it if there was a way to build ghosts without robots. Lots of times we have BP's before we have a personal roboport, or even just robots in general (especially since we're now carrying them between games).

My current deathworld game, I've made some nifty combinator setups, that will have me researching the circuit network earlier in future games, but the circuit network is researched many hours before having robots... Having the layout of combinators on a BP won't help me place things down since they won't be configured, right?

I think any such feature should be effectively penalized (IE: you don't have robots, your character is following his previously recorded instructions, thus):

- Almost zero range (IE: half your regular hand distance)
- Need to hold a key to deploy the stuff (IE: ctrl + mouse1 or something)
- Only deploy the stack type you're holding (IE: slow inserters, or red wire, or what have you), so you're literally running around wiring stuff up, the same way you'd be doing it by hand, except without the mistakes
- Possibly placement speed limit (IE: though I'm not sure about this, since nothing else has a placement speed limit now)

Thus a simple blueprint with say a half dozen items, would require you to grab 'em from your quickbar/inventory, and run each item around to have it get built out (so we're not competing against robots/roboports/etc.)

Just my $0.02

[Twinsen]

Does this mean we could get multiple toolbars that we could cycle through? I could have my default toolbar, and additionally have a "Train" set, or a "Fluid" set for when I am focusing on those things.

I like this idea.

[Shenpen]

I don't normally comment on the Friday Facts as they are often "over my paygrade" and because I mostly just trust that you know what you are doing. This is different as it covers one of my very few and very small peeves about the gameplay: I find that the quickbar or tool-belt as is, is utterly useless.

First of all because my default option is always and automatically to open the inventory gui and look for things that I know should be there. They mostly are, but ever so often they have been put in the belt instead and I run back to base to get stuff that is sitting in my belt. Or I do look in the belt, but only after searching the inventory twice.

Even worse as I often want to get rid of the different research levels (red, green..) I feel obliged to do the belt "improvement" research. Which incidentally makes the problem worse as now there are more items hiding in the belt and as more screen real estate is now covered by useless random stuff. This is especially annoying when dealing with biter-bases as it gives you a blind angle in which spitters can sneak up on you.

If there was an option to hide or disable the quickbar/belt, i would use that permanently. So any improvement is very welcome and if it even becomes useful so much more so. So no hate from this particular player and perhaps a different perspective on things.


Edit: Incidentally some way of organizing the the technology items according to needs or plans would be high on my wishlist for gui improvements. I often revert to do "research" mindlessly to "get rid of" research items, which I bet was never the intention with the system. It would feel a lot more engaging - and more in line with any sound idea of research - if you could plan and research for certain needs, say the goal of using personal roboports + construction robots.

[MasterBuilder]

This is what I have wanted from my toolbar all along. Currently I just filter my toolbar to be only deconstruction planner, blueprints, & blueprint books.
This forces all items to my main inventory & my toolbar basically becomes blueprint central.

One thing not mentioned in the FF; how will blueprints work with the filter/shortcuts? How does one filter/shortcut to a specific blueprint in the proposed system?

[madpav3l]

Does this mean we could get multiple toolbars that we could cycle through? I could have my default toolbar, and additionally have a "Train" set, or a "Fluid" set for when I am focusing on those things.

I like this idea.

+11111111

[Blackraz0r]

I really love the idea of having toolbar instead of an inventory extension!

What i also would love, is the posibillity to open multiple gui's.

Like keep inventory open all the time. Then we'd a real interface! You Could open assembler and your inventory and your blueprint libary at the same time.

[viveks711]

Does this mean we could get multiple toolbars that we could cycle through? I could have my default toolbar, and additionally have a "Train" set, or a "Fluid" set for when I am focusing on those things.

I like this idea.

+11111111

Oh Yes, Oh yes!!!!!

[Ghoulish]

Might there be the possibility of changing the layout size of the toolbar, so rather than 2 blocks of 5x2 we could have 10x1 or 10x2 - more individual choice about the number of buttons and layout on screen?

I fear many current players, especially those who won't read this Friday Facts might see this as a bad change, a change for the sake of change. Because I am taking away something they understand and know all the quirks of, to replace it with something that's simplified and new.

There was a mini riot when the colour of smart inserters was changed, it's now forgotten and taken for granted.. Make those changes!

[aedificatori]

Does this mean we could get multiple toolbars that we could cycle through? I could have my default toolbar, and additionally have a "Train" set, or a "Fluid" set for when I am focusing on those things.

I like this idea.

Seconded! And depending on how the game needs to be balanced, maybe secondary toolbars could be something to research? Sort of like the second quickbar row is now? As a whole, these changes are awesome.

[twepy]

My reaction: Reads intro, graps the pitchfork, reading further and puts the pitchfork back in the shed.

Im having doubts about completely removing weapons toolbar, when fighting biters i tend to change weapons mid battle if the situation dictates it and wouldnt like that option removed because i have open the inventory to switch weapons. Another question is how do you envision to keep track on ammo consumption while fighting when the bar is gone? Perhaps making toggle on the weapons toolbar or changes like ammo consumtion or weapons change makes the weapons toolbar popup.

PS if i may make a suggestion for GUI change, can the research button moved from the right to the left? Its a bit weird to select a research project on the left and then having to move the mouse to the right to start it.

[Bellgarath]

I love this idea. The random objects ending up on the bar, and the incorrect number of items (with relation to the total of the item in inventory) has always annoyed me.

[Zool]

Talking about the placed ghosts: (which I really love)

Is there a way to automatically place an item on the ghost once you have it? Preferably including all settings that a fab or arm has? If not, please add it !!! Its really annoying to build stuff twice (until you have robots ofc)

[JadeSpider]

I like most of what you are proposing here except for one thing I am bit unclear on.

Are you proposing that the weapon/ammo area goes away completely? What is the replacement for it? I understand that we don't need it most of the time, but the times when we do need it (when we are fighting things), we need it to be visible on the screen at a glance. I need to know which weapon is going to fire when I press the button and how much ammo my weapons have. I don't want to be opening a window in the middle of my screen to check that I switched to the correct weapon while I am being attacked, and I definitely do not want to fire the wrong weapon to find out which one is equipped.

If you are planning to remove this part of the UI, there needs to be something in its place that is either always visible or can be toggled on and off at will.

[Zool]

Does this mean we could get multiple toolbars that we could cycle through? I could have my default toolbar, and additionally have a "Train" set, or a "Fluid" set for when I am focusing on those things.

I like this idea.

+11111111

Oh Yes, Oh yes!!!!!

YES YES YES

[Sephrat]

Yesss this is the GUI overhaul we needed! As many said before, we all got used to the way it works now, but now that you point out what could be enhanced I can't wait to get these upgrades!

[tarou00]

When I craft a nuclear reactor (or a anything that I build not so often), having it auto placed in the tool bar is very convenient. I don't have to open the full inventory to quickly place it. Also, I don't want to waste a slot in the bar by locking it to such a rare building.