[Idea] Block Tagging

In SE1, block organization was often nightmarish. Block groups are a very limited and outdated way of approaching managing and interacting with a grid. I propose the use of block tags to easily and dynamically manage your blocks.

Proposed feature concept

Tags have been used to great effect in systems such as mail and file systems to handle large amounts of data in a performant and dynamic manner. Considering the amount of blocks present in the new mixed grid system, it's important to be able to manage them easily.

By default, every block would have sets of tags. For example, decorative blocks would have the tag #decor, armor blocks would have #armor, Thrust blocks would have additional tags dependent on orientation (similar to how they are currently recognized). Additionally, players would be able to define their own tags and be able to save them on the hotbar.

I also propose the inclusion of a new block, or potentially an action that can add or remove tags. Event controllers (if they come to SE2, which I'm sure they will in some form) would be able to react to tags being added or removed, or blocks with specific tags reaching the specified state.

Pros

• Dynamic - you do not need to recreate a group if you add a block
• Simple - we all sort of understand how they work, the learning curve would be very small and would make the game more approachable
• More impressive creations

Cons

• Would require careful optimization to avoid constant excessive lookups

Uses/Examples

• Naive directional thrust on subgrids - by tagging a thruster with #forward on a subgrid, it would be activated if that thrust direction is activated
• Player defined subsystems - redirect all power to thrust! You don't need assemblers and refiners running, you need to get away!
• Weapon targeting - option to prioritize tags instead of specific systems. This could also allow for clever counterplay where a tag could be added to a block to divert fire
• Ability to turn off h2 thrusters independently while still being able to disable thrusters in a specific direction for those of us who like to save fuel and disable reverse thrust for cruising.
• Sequential/combined firing made easy - any weapons with a specific tag fire when clicked
• Filtering in the terminal
• Scripting/modding API accessible.

I'm working on a mod for SE1 that does this (with my limited modding experience), but I'd be eager to see this as a full-fledged feature in SE2. I'd love to see what players come up with when the shackles of the past fall away.