Ability to create your own scrollable block groups for the toolbar

Zoli K. shared this feedback 5 years ago
Submitted

Hello,

We all know the block groups wearing a + sign that contain a scrollable list of variants of a given item.

This idea is about creating the ability for the users to create their own block groups and add them to the toolbar.

For example I have a mod containing 20+ catwalk plate 'tiles'. Placing these individually on the toolbar would use 2 toolbar pages alone.

When such a block group is clicked on the toolbar the UI could display several icons vertically, too, in order to facilitate even more search effectiveness beside providing access via mouse scroll.


Possible implementation:

Add the ability to create own tabs in the tab list of the G-menu. Once tab created, users can drag and drop blocks onto the newly created tab. Then the tab can be drag and dropped onto a toolbar slot to add the blocks of the newly created tab as a custom scrollable block group.

Ability to re-order by drag and drop / delete (via right click) can also be added.

Ability to select more blocks and move/copy-paste them between the custom tabs can also be added.


Such a feature would provide very flexible grouping of blocks on the toolbar and a much higher amount of blocks possible on the 9 toolbar pages currently available.


Thanks for reading/support!

Replies (6)

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2

Something like this really should have been in the last update.

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3

Nice proposal. With the number of blocks slowly creeping up, we should either get larger groups of blocks (i.e. all power sources, every light armor block, all lighting) or simply a way to mix and match our own just like you described.

(It would also be nice if these groups were persistent between servers/worlds.)

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3

I've since hacked together a program that collects all the block definitions from vanilla and selected mods and adds them to a new SBC file where I manually move them to new block groups and empty the existing ones to avoid conflicts. Next I place them on the G-menu such that I get 9 rows of 8 slots, so all blocks can be on the toolbar at all times with slot 1 reserved for the character tools.58fe7022eabe724a2f69ae7da87f7006


The rest is done by plugins. The first one allows you to scroll through your tools, so you only need 1 slot for the three of them. The second one adds a feature to load/save toolbars, so you can quickly get going in a new world.

One thing that is sort of difficult are groups that may not be available either because they are a mod or DLC. 2nd row, 1st slot are the passages with floor from a mod. They are a group of 52 blocks and for that reason I wouldn't want to merge them with something else. In vanilla worlds this row will shift left, because the slot would be empty.

Noteworthy:

  • We cannot group large and small grid blocks together without a "transition block" like the cockpit, that exists in a large and small version. Otherwise we can only access one grid size (e.g. large) and the game tells us that the small grid variant does not exist. Large and small grid blocks need to be linked by a common <BlockPairName>. Example where this would occur: Someone makes a group called "barred windows" containing the DLC barred windows and the old vent-like open windows.
  • Players might fancy assigning some blocks to multiple groups, which is possible so long as they make sure that those duplicates are not mentioned in <BlockPositions> to represent their group on the G-menu's "All Blocks" rooster. Otherwise it would be unclear which of the groups it is part of you want there. Example of where I might want this: Some blocks fulfill multiple purposes and would lend themselves to being part of several groups. The survival kit is a medical facility and a production block, there are passages (particularly modded ones) that double as doors or air vents. (This would make block groups behave much like the block categories to the left on the G-menu.)
  • The radial menu. Players that play with mouse and keyboard may not know that you can't just willy-nilly remove block groups as they are referenced in the radial menus for controller support. As most PC players wont use or may not have a controller, it would be too much to ask of them to also build new radial menus for their block groups.

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2

I am a disabled player that prefers controller over keyboard for ergonomic reasons. I have been trying like crazy to find a way to get the radial menus to work for my mods instead of having to use the g key. I think something like what your talking about would help me. Is there any chance I could see that program you hacked together? Seems incredibly useful for a niche case like mine.

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1

Unfortunately I didn't take care of the radial menu at all, it becomes broken in my setup. It also doesn't create any new groups, just creates a new file (like a mod) that contains all the vanilla and modded blocks to override the defaults. You still have to manually edit that text file and put blocks in new groups and put them in the desired slots on the G-menu. Lastly I put that file in the "Torch Client API" mod, so it gets picked up even when I join most (Torch enabled) servers. Otherwise it also work as a standalone mod.

Last not least, the program was originally meant to be a GPS assistance tool and I just hacked it to process the game's XML files and look for block definitions on startup. I really feel uncomfy sharing it, but if you insist I can wrap up the code into an archive as is and if you can write C#, you could take inspiration from that.

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2

This is really needed, with 'only' 81 toolbar shortcuts it is impossible to have all the essential blocks in them to build a whole ship without changing some by other who is tedious and in the end you don't know on which of the 9 tabs you put it and put it again on another tab :( Some work could be done by grouping more blocks like:

- Light Armor Corner 2x1x1 anf Light Armor Inv. Corner 2x1x1

- Small/Medium/Large Cargo

- Hydrogen/Oxygen Tank

- Corner Light, Interior Light, Spotlight

- Yield/Speed/Power Module

- Interior/Gatling/Missile Turret

- Welder, Grinder, Drill (ship blocks)

- Cockpit, Fighter Cockpit, Industrial Cockpit

- Window 1x1 Flat, Window 1x2 Flat, Window 2x3 Flat, Window 3x3 Flat

- Door, Sliding Door

- LCD Panel, Corner LCD Panel

Cargos and Tanks could event be in only 1 group if you feel it :)

And I would not go against putting ALL the Decorative Pack and Economy Delux Pack blocks each in its own groups as the blocks are related and not too many.

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2

With the ostensibly quality-of-life-focused update, this should be reconsidered.

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1

With the most recent update, I feel this is needed now more than ever

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1

Excited for two new DLCs that have been announced but feel that this becomes even more of critical feature as the block library is expanded, hopefully this is being considered~

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