Mat2ch Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) Hi. As far as I have seen the current ui for building crafts hasn't changed much for KSP2. But I already struggled a bit with it in KSP and with more people getting bigger and wider screens this will be even worse for them. Here is a recent screenshot from the PC Gamer interview and the SPH (I guess): At this scale it looks fairly reasonable. But now imagine this two times to the left. You have to do a lot of moving your head and eyes and the cursor as well to select a part. This is sadly very exhausting and when doing bigger builds it can make it very tedious and take away the fun in building stuff. Here's how Avorion does this, where you build at an even smaller scale with much more detail if you like to: This is the building block dialog, which pops up at the center of the screen, if you press space. You can have it as separate floating window always on top, too. I'd like to see a similar thing in the build ui for KSP2. Maybe have the building menu pop up at the mouse cursor or such a thing. This kind of menu is much better, because it sits where you can easily access it. The wider-than-higher way is better for selecting parts, since usually our displays are wider-than-higher as well. So I'm asking you, the developers of KSP2, to at least consider reworking the menu for the building blocks to this type of style and putting it on an easy to reach hotkey. Thanks! Edited December 19, 2022 by Mat2ch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jastrone Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 its not that bad. never had a problem with this in ksp 1. and in ksp you use a bunch of different parts, not many of one type. bringing up a popup would be very anoying since you would have to do it a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shdwlrd Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 The Avorion parts menu works if you're not doing pick and place for each and every part. Unfortunately, I've never liked how Avorion did the part selection. It's difficult to see what is available or not. Also there's too much detail with the parts info to fit within the little info window. The best option is allow the parts menu to be moved to there you would prefer it, but I'm sure there will be limits though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat2ch Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 10 minutes ago, jastrone said: never had a problem with this in ksp 1. and in ksp you use a bunch of different parts, not many of one type. bringing up a popup would be very anoying since you would have to do it a lot. You might never had a problem with it, but others might. And as I stated above you can have it always on top in Avorion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regex Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Mat2ch said: So I'm asking you, the developers of KSP2, to at least consider reworking the menu for the building blocks to this type of style and putting it on an easy to reach hotkey. Please no, it doesn't look good and it obscures the craft while I'm considering what part to add. If anything, allow the player to configure which side of the screen the picker is on; I prefer right because I am right-handed. Edited December 19, 2022 by regex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Aziz Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 I'll be building things vertically (you know, rockets?) Anything cluttering the top or the bottom of the screen would be quite literally the opposite of being useful. Same story with the navball, being moved from the center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SolarAdmiral Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Yes I also disagree. Where it might work in Avorion (depending on what you're building, sometimes that layout is pretty annoying there too) is because if you're trying to build a good looking ship you often need to place many dozens of the same kind of block, building out the hull. This isn't true in the KSP, where often you only need one or two of each part and at most you might usually place only a couple of the same piece in a row like a fuel tank. Now, what I could maybe see is the ability to make the part catalogue wider if you want. Maybe you can click and drag the outer edge of the part catalogue left or right to size it as you wish. But no, I don't want it in the center of the screen and covering up the rocket I'm currently building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat2ch Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 15 minutes ago, The Aziz said: I'll be building things vertically (you know, rockets?) Anything cluttering the top or the bottom of the screen would be quite literally the opposite of being useful. Same story with the navball, being moved from the center. Did you at least try to understand what I have written? You bring up the menu, select the part and then the menu goes away. No menu there, when you place an item. 5 minutes ago, SolarAdmiral said: Yes I also disagree. Where it might work in Avorion (depending on what you're building, sometimes that layout is pretty annoying there too) is because if you're trying to build a good looking ship you often need to place many dozens of the same kind of block, building out the hull. This isn't true in the KSP, where often you only need one or two of each part and at most you might usually place only a couple of the same piece in a row like a fuel tank. Your answer is missing something. You are not explaining why a dialog/menu that you can display with a hotkey and which goes away when you release the hotkey is a problem in the workflow you are describing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SolarAdmiral Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 I'd still rather have both the craft I'm building and the menu of parts visible at once. I'd rather be able to mouse over and select a new part with one click than have to press a hotkey, bring up a new menu first every time I'm going to select the next part. And I'm not a UI expert, but I'd also suspect that having the menu always up and off to the side is generally what is found more useful and productive, considering every professional computer software that I'm familiar with has the most used tools on toolbars set up off to the side, rather than a menu that pops up over the thing you're working on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Aziz Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Yeah I love love when software adds additional click when there wasn't need for one. /sarcasm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rutabaga22 Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 3 hours ago, Mat2ch said: Your answer is missing something. You are not explaining why a dialog/menu that you can display with a hotkey and which goes away when you release the hotkey is a problem in the workflow you are describing. It disrupts it because it block view of the current craft. If you are trying to build a craft and need to block out the view of it every time you place a part things will get tedious, especially if you're trying to decide what looks nice. You would need to pop open the menu try, choose an engine you think will look good (you can't be sure if it looks good due to the menu blocking the rocket), place it, if it looks good you use if it not, you have to go through that process again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jastrone Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 17 hours ago, Mat2ch said: You might never had a problem with it, but others might why should they make it inconvenient for everyone so that some people dont have to look slightly left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daninplainsight Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 I'm also the sort that likes to see all of my craft when the parts window is open, because I haven't always decided what I want next. On 12/19/2022 at 11:22 AM, Mat2ch said: You have to do a lot of moving your head and eyes and the cursor as well to select a part. Having the parts selector cover what I'm working on would be a lot more annoying for me. However, I can see how it having it locked to one side could be annoying for users with ultrawide monitors. Unpinning the selector could be a happy medium. Maybe binding some hotkeys for navigating it could also help? That way you wouldn't necessarily have to move the mouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMS Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 Rockets are tall. Vertical screenspace is premium. Keep the GUI to the sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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