Request: Give LCDs A Similar System to Button Panels for Displaying Vital Information

For Moderators: This is not a "Script" request, but a request to extend the functionality of, and rework the Guided User Interface for, the LCD Blocks. I believe my last thread may have been confused, perhaps because it was lengthy and not fully read, also because I used the word scripts which I quoted from the block itself, and I come to this conclusion because I received 0 feedback before it's removal, not even a PM. If I did this in error forgive me please I love KeenSWH and support all of you with great adoration! But also please feel free to look the following over and note that it doesn't really fit in a "which scripts should we include" thread.

Okay, so what if we took the way a Button Panel functions, and essentially gave this framework to the LCDs -in addition to all of the functions an LCD already has- to play with when looking at it with a control panel. I will elaborate.

Button Panel Functionality: With a Button Panel, I select any block on my current structure, ship, or base, and can then select one of that blocks functions I would like to assign to the push button control. The button panel exists to give us an alternative to digging our noses around inside the control panel menus, and this button panel especially takes away the cumbersomeness of certain functions from Xbox/Console users who don't always have the benefit of scrolling all the menus quickly with a mouse.

Proposed LCD Functionality: I, and I feel maaaaany others in the community would have an utter bliss filled moment of thankfulness if the Devs might consider creating say, a button in the LCDs control panel view that would allow one to select from a list of blocks on the base, a la the button panel selection screen, and then instead of choosing from values they would like to manipulate, like with a button panel, they would choose from all of the values of data from which they might display on the LCD for their chosen block.

I have detailed below some examples of what datapoints are available for the displaying on an LCD from some common blocks:

Piston Block:

-Velocity

-Maximum Distance

-Minimum Distance

-Current Position (in meters)

-Max Impulse Axis

-Max Impulse NonAxis

Advanced Rotor:

-Current Angle

-Torque

-Braking Torque

-Velocity

-Lower Limit

-Upper Limit

-Rotor Displacement

Battery:

-Stored Power / Fully Depleted In

-Max Output/ Required Input / Stored Power

-Current Input / Output

A Default Readout for "LCD Panel --> Piston 1 --> Piston Length" might read "Piston 1 Length: X", or even "Piston Length: X", where Piston Length is written along the top of the LCD, and X is displayed in larger font size below it and centered. There might be the option of editing this default heading that comes with the data I asked to display, where we can edit the string displayed, but not the Variable. Hence, I might select a bar akin to the one we use when renaming a block and choose to display "Piston 1 Length: X" instead as "Ride Height: X" or "Drill Depth: X". For the control room of a decorative centrifuge which uses an Advanced Rotor for Rotation, wherein "LCD Panel --> Advanced Rotor 1 --> Velocity" Reads "Advanced Rotor 1 Velocity: 25 rpm", I might edit it instead o read "Centrifuge Level: 25rpm", etc.

So on and so forth for all blocks, like Refinery, Assembler, many blocks have valuable information that can be displayed on the LCD Panels.

I believe adding this feature would compliment the button panels wonderfully, as it would give us clear and legible feedback on the ways our button pushing is affecting our base. Just one scenario where having information displayed on LCDs would be incredibly helpful is with my stationary mining rigs. I have to dig through the control panel to constantly be monitoring things like the rate at which my drills are plunging on the end of the piston, or how far extended these pistons are. When it comes to batteries around the base or power usage the same applies for their blocks. I check my refineries a lot to make sure I have sufficient power, another example is I have a connector on a piston that acts as a bridge between my drill rig and my refinery, but the button panel I use to extend/retract this bridge and lock or unlock the connector is somewhat remote from the connector itself. So the little yellow to blue and green rings that signal a good lock are not readily viewable, now imagine an LCD panel above this button panel that says very clearly "CONNECTOR LOCKED", there are just so many legitimately good reasons for why some better visual feedback with LCDs would be a godsend, it would make the LCD more useful. As of current its main use is in multiplayer servers and placing labels on everything, but I envision the LCD doing so much more, namely, I see the LCD being able to display any and all information available to us in the control panel, which will still serve its use as being the complicated back end through which we configure our blocks, but not necessarily the sole and convoluted method of reading values from them.

Thank you so much!

& I hope the Moderators see why this needs it's own thread and is not related to the thread about people asking the developers to bundle pre-existing community adored scripts into the game somewhere. AFAIK this functionality has never been added to LCDs in this way. People have attempted to achieve similar feats with scripting out of desperation for making the LCDs useful but no one has ever been able to add an extension to the GUI as above proposed so beautifully and simply. The fact that the button panel coding already exists gives me hope that this is something a Dev can rather copy paste into place, making certain key edits to the code obviously to change it over from value editing to value displaying but it seems so very possible. And thank you again, truly, I am wonderfully excited by the work you guys come out with, it's rare that software or a simulation fills me with such inspiration and bubbling joy.

-Blake