Some minor quality of life suggestions

[BadOaks]

This is just a a few relatively minor quality of life features I've found myself wanting at some point. If you like them, please click the bug tracker links and vote.

Archive saved craft files - #22914

The ability to move a saved craft out of the load craft menu without deleting it. In career games the list of crafts I have saved gets rather long and cluttered with ones I no longer use. However, I still like to keep some record of them in-game so I can go back and see what I've built, and occasionally I do find a use for an old craft. This would entail creating a third Archive tab in the load menu in addition to VAB and SPH that you could move old craft designs into to de-clutter the main lists. There'd also be an option to restore a design back to its original tab.

Ability to "configure vessel naming" in-flight - #22915

A few versions ago we got the ability to "configure vessel naming" on specific parts and set the priority for that name, which I absolutely love. Unfortunately this feature is only available in the editor and I'd like to be able to use it in-flight. 

Ctrl-to-click-through - #22917

In the editor, I often have times where I part I want to select has been clipped juuust under the collider of another part, even if it's still visible. Selecting a part like this usually involves some finnicky camera manipulation. To solve this, I'm imagining a feature where if you hold control key and left click, it will ignore the part that would normally be selected and instead select the next part under it, if there is one.

 

 

[Snark]

22 minutes ago, BadOaks said:

Ability to "configure vessel naming" in-flight - #22915

A few versions ago we got the ability to "configure vessel naming" on specific parts and set the priority for that name, which I absolutely love. Unfortunately this feature is only available in the editor and I'd like to be able to use it in-flight.

This one seems like a bit of a mixed bag, to me.  On the one hand, having this could be useful in certain circumstances.  On the other hand... it would be adding yet another button to the giant chaotic teeming horde that is the command pod's PAW.  I already get the collywobbles from that PAW-- it has so many buttons in it, and is so chaotically cluttered, that I always have to hunt all over the dang place to find the button I want.  Adding yet another button in there would be a UI "tax" I'd have to pay on every single time I pop up a command pod PAW, whereas the payoff would be the ability to use the feature as you describe.

For me, the benefit isn't worth the cost, there.  I might find myself wishing to use that feature in flight maybe once for every 1000 times I pop up a command pod PAW.  And to me, getting to use it that one time is not worth having to slog through the added clutter of the button getting in my face the other 999 times I don't need it.

I realize that this is going to be highly player-dependent.  Some players would like to use such a feature fairly often, and maybe they don't mind having tons of buttons in the PAW, so to them the benefit outweighs the cost.  Other players may be like me-- rarely need such a feature in flight, and really hate clutter, and it's very much not worth the tradeoff.

So about the only way I can think of to let everyone win would be to make it something that can be adjusted via config,  so that someone who doesn't like the default behavior can use a ModuleManager patch to make it act the other way.

[Cavscout74]

2 hours ago, BadOaks said:

Ctrl-to-click-through - #22917

In the editor, I often have times where I part I want to select has been clipped juuust under the collider of another part, even if it's still visible. Selecting a part like this usually involves some finnicky camera manipulation. To solve this, I'm imagining a feature where if you hold control key and left click, it will ignore the part that would normally be selected and instead select the next part under it, if there is one

Something along these lines would be wonderful.  I have a habit of sticking stuff inside of trusses, then its a pain move said parts around later.   Same with sepratrons between stages

[BadOaks]

2 hours ago, Snark said:

This one seems like a bit of a mixed bag, to me.  On the one hand, having this could be useful in certain circumstances.  On the other hand... it would be adding yet another button to the giant chaotic teeming horde that is the command pod's PAW.  I already get the collywobbles from that PAW-- it has so many buttons in it, and is so chaotically cluttered, that I always have to hunt all over the dang place to find the button I want.  Adding yet another button in there would be a UI "tax" I'd have to pay on every single time I pop up a command pod PAW, whereas the payoff would be the ability to use the feature as you describe.

For me, the benefit isn't worth the cost, there.  I might find myself wishing to use that feature in flight maybe once for every 1000 times I pop up a command pod PAW.  And to me, getting to use it that one time is not worth having to slog through the added clutter of the button getting in my face the other 999 times I don't need it.

I realize that this is going to be highly player-dependent.  Some players would like to use such a feature fairly often, and maybe they don't mind having tons of buttons in the PAW, so to them the benefit outweighs the cost.  Other players may be like me-- rarely need such a feature in flight, and really hate clutter, and it's very much not worth the tradeoff.

So about the only way I can think of to let everyone win would be to make it something that can be adjusted via config,  so that someone who doesn't like the default behavior can use a ModuleManager patch to make it act the other way.

You raise a good point, but one of the existing buttons in the command pod's PAW is "rename vessel".  Since the functionality of this button can already be achieved with the vessel info panel from the map view or tracking station, maybe "configure vessel naming" could replace it. This would make sense since unlike "rename vessel" it's part-specific, and there would be no increase in the number PAW buttons.

Edited June 17, 2019 by BadOaks