Locking mouse X/Y coords when placing things
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2016 7:38 pm
Hi, first post here.
Sorry if this feature has been requested before, but I couldn't find it in the archives.
Short version: Enable locking of mouse movement in X/Y direction when placing/mining/selecting.
I'm often trying to place items (especially belt) in long straight rows, but it's really difficult to move the mouse in a straight line, so what often happens is that the neat line soon goes off course and I have to manually pick up the erroneously placed items. This is common when placing ghost images as well as when placing items with the Long Reach mod. The current remedy is to place the items while running, but this is slow, and running over any perpendicular belt along the way may result in a wonky line.
The suggestion, therefore, is to have a feature that would enable one to start placing a thing, and while dragging in any direction with the mouse, the placing of further copies of that thing would continue only in that direction, or along that particular line in both directions. The effect would be of "locking" the movement in either the X or Y direction. This could possibly be activated by pressing a modifier key on the keyboard.
If this was extended to also only select things in a line in a specific direction, when the player's hand was empty, it would make picking up lines of inserters, belt etc. much less error prone. It would also make it much much easier to align things by simply engaging the feature, dragging the mouse and see where it ends up some distance away. The typical use case would be trying the place a splitter in the right location so that the split-off or joined belt lines up at the right place with a location on a belt bus, or finding where a belt has to be turned and extended to join up with another piece of belt further away.
This is a feature that I've seen in one or two graphical design tools, and it would make placing ghost images of belt and assembly machines (etc.) in neat rows much easier (or pick them up, or just measure things out for proper alignment).
Judging from watching a number of "let's-players" on YouTube, this is a common source of minor frustration, so I don't think it's just me.
Thanks for a most enjoyable game!
Regards,
Kusalananda
Sorry if this feature has been requested before, but I couldn't find it in the archives.
Short version: Enable locking of mouse movement in X/Y direction when placing/mining/selecting.
I'm often trying to place items (especially belt) in long straight rows, but it's really difficult to move the mouse in a straight line, so what often happens is that the neat line soon goes off course and I have to manually pick up the erroneously placed items. This is common when placing ghost images as well as when placing items with the Long Reach mod. The current remedy is to place the items while running, but this is slow, and running over any perpendicular belt along the way may result in a wonky line.
The suggestion, therefore, is to have a feature that would enable one to start placing a thing, and while dragging in any direction with the mouse, the placing of further copies of that thing would continue only in that direction, or along that particular line in both directions. The effect would be of "locking" the movement in either the X or Y direction. This could possibly be activated by pressing a modifier key on the keyboard.
If this was extended to also only select things in a line in a specific direction, when the player's hand was empty, it would make picking up lines of inserters, belt etc. much less error prone. It would also make it much much easier to align things by simply engaging the feature, dragging the mouse and see where it ends up some distance away. The typical use case would be trying the place a splitter in the right location so that the split-off or joined belt lines up at the right place with a location on a belt bus, or finding where a belt has to be turned and extended to join up with another piece of belt further away.
This is a feature that I've seen in one or two graphical design tools, and it would make placing ghost images of belt and assembly machines (etc.) in neat rows much easier (or pick them up, or just measure things out for proper alignment).
Judging from watching a number of "let's-players" on YouTube, this is a common source of minor frustration, so I don't think it's just me.
Thanks for a most enjoyable game!
Regards,
Kusalananda