AUTO ghost place

[Nich]

I am not sure if this is a good idea or not. It might be nice to have items placed out of range of the player automatically become ghost placed. This could cause issues of ghost placing thing that you actually think you have placed and if you do not have personal roboports yet it will go unfull-filled. On the other hand if I never hear the to far to place error bumb again I will be one happy camper.

Alternatively a "long reach" research skill would be nice as well.

[Tekky]

What you suggest can already be accomplished by simply holding the SHIFT button down when placing a building. However, that will only work in areas covered by the construction area of a logistic network or personal roboport. But, as you have already pointed out, your suggestion would only work in such areas anyway.

[Nich]

For me at least quite often I am trying to place that one last item that I think is within my reach and then BUMB!!! I find it quite jarring. And yes I know I can just hit shift but what I am saying is maybe the game could be a little smarter.

If personal roboport is equipped auto ghost place anything out of range
or
Make caps lock always ghost place everything
or
make an option auto ghost place anything out of range all the time
or
continue to tell the user "FAIL" even though you know what he wants to do

If you spend 99% of a game sprinting why would you require the user to hold down a sprint button the entire time


I work with auto pilots (mission plans) and I know from experience that when things just work (even if they produce unexpected results by making bad assumptions) people are more likely to use them. The auto pilot I work with now does not work unless you set it up perfectly and in the correct order. Pilots I have talked to say they rarely use it because it is a pain in the butt.

For example lets say I want to fly over an airport at 2000 ft. A good auto pilot will change your altitude to 4000 ft (out of their airspace). A bad auto pilot will reject your input with an error altitude too low. A really bad autopilot will not accept your input with a BUMB!!! until you fix your altitude.

[AndrewIRL]

Was going to create an identical suggestion. Would love to see this.

The difference is only shift-click vs click but I want my UI experience super smooth. At the time of this post the Longreach mod had been downloaded 54,333 times. A lot of people find the current reach a problem.

When I left click to place a building what I expect to happen is:
The building gets taken from my inventory and placed at that location

What actually happens:
Error sound due to out of range. Fine, for the early game. Shouldn't just be able to place objects anywhere.

But if the following are true:
1) I have a roboport equipped
2) I have at least one construction bot available
3) The location I am trying to place it in is WITHIN my personal roboport range

Then it should ghost the location and the available bot(s) should place the item. Because of restriction 3 I will usually be the closest source of robots and most jobs will be serviced by my robots rather than the main network.

Basically: Extend my left click placement range to that of my personal roboport but ghost place items between my range and the roboport range.

[PunPun]

For me at least quite often I am trying to place that one last item that I think is within my reach and then BUMB!!! I find it quite jarring. And yes I know I can just hit shift but what I am saying is maybe the game could be a little smarter.

If personal roboport is equipped auto ghost place anything out of range
or
Make caps lock always ghost place everything
or
make an option auto ghost place anything out of range all the time
or
continue to tell the user "FAIL" even though you know what he wants to do

or
Double tap shift to toggle always ghost on and off.

I work with auto pilots (mission plans) and I know from experience that when things just work (even if they produce unexpected results by making bad assumptions) people are more likely to use them. The auto pilot I work with now does not work unless you set it up perfectly and in the correct order. Pilots I have talked to say they rarely use it because it is a pain in the butt.

For example lets say I want to fly over an airport at 2000 ft. A good auto pilot will change your altitude to 4000 ft (out of their airspace). A bad auto pilot will reject your input with an error altitude too low. A really bad autopilot will not accept your input with a BUMB!!! until you fix your altitude.

A bit offtopic but that "good" autopilot would be really really bad. An autopilot should never override the pilots decisions. A good autopilot would just fly at 2000 ft. And a separate alarm system should sound a warning that you are set to enter a restricted airspace unless the flight computers flight path calls for landing in it and it should also require the pilot to push an acknowledgement button to silence it.