[1.1.101] Blueprints not available in GUI but hotkey works

[Zsar]

Blueprints can be created and placed by Alt+B right from the start of the game. Using the GUI to access the same functionality is, however, locked behind this misleading mouse-over message:
"This shortcut requires the Construction robotics technology."

Well, it is technically correct, "from a certain point of view": It never claimed the feature was unavailable, just that the shortcut does. And the hotkey combination may be deemed a different shortcut, which has no mouse-over message nor is locked.

Obviously GUI and hotkey should behave consistently: Either one and the other work, or none of them do!

... While presumably simple to fix, this issue is maybe not as minor as it sounds: Blueprints are not introduced in the tutorial missions and I, a new player, was halfway through writing a suggestion that they be unlocked earlier than Construction robotics when I noticed that actually the wiki is correct and there are no requirements.

The normal way for a new player to discover features is to explore the GUI and only then learn the hotkeys for features they use frequently enough to warrant it, so I am probably not the only one who sunk days into hand-placing everything, time and again forgetting to use ghosts and promptly having to deconstruct everything to move it "one tile up" or some such minor alteration, and again, and again. Some may not have powered through.

[Loewchen]

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=88043

[Zsar]

Mmh. Cannot reproduce the rationale. Was overwhelmed by having no planning tools. Planning tools would have helped not being overwhelmed.

Anyway, if they do want to lock it, they should lock the hotkey as well. In the current state it is a bug, no ifs, no buts.
... Incidentally it's also a code smell: It should not be possible to have different permissions on different ways to access a feature. The permissions belong to the feature, not to some input.

[FuryoftheStars]

Mmh. Cannot reproduce the rationale. Was overwhelmed by having no planning tools. Planning tools would have helped not being overwhelmed.

Anyway, if they do want to lock it, they should lock the hotkey as well. In the current state it is a bug, no ifs, no buts.
... Incidentally it's also a code smell: It should not be possible to have different permissions on different ways to access a feature. The permissions belong to the feature, not to some input.

I think the rationale is that they don't care if you are able to access and use blueprints earlier, they just want to keep the visibility of it hidden until you unlock as a way of introducing it to new players. Then after that, it's always there for you.