Parts Manager - UI improvements

[Vl3d]

Some suggestions to improve the Parts Manager:

- add a key binding (for example tilde '~') to open and close it, also make clicking away from it with the middle button close it.

- make right clicking on a part in the staging list open it's Part Manager; make right clicking on a stage number open the Part Manager with filter activated for that stage

- add stage and parts categories icons to the left of the list for easy filtering and navigation of the list. So with one click you can view just the parts of the stage you're interested in and filter for the type of part you're looking for. Sort of like this but also with per-stage filtering:

- specify the part type and size (S, M, L..) next to the part name (idk what CBL-375 is)

Edited February 26, 2023 by Vl3d

[Sea_Kerman]

Additionally, get rid of the massive borders, the sliders and buttons and stuff could probably fit in half the vertical space they are now

ah also also allow numeric input in the slider boxes

Edited February 26, 2023 by Sea_Kerman

[Initar]

Very good suggestions. The whole thing is oversized, even the police is bigger than the rest of the UI.

And yeah no numeric input why?!?

Edited February 26, 2023 by Initar

[Poppa Wheelie]

It would be very nice to be able to name any (or all) of the parts in my vessel(s).  Some examples:

• Fuel tank 1 of 3
• Front docking port
• Port side engine
• Transfer Stage Decoupler

[FuelX]

Yes, all of those! But categories should be optional (no category selected to see everything), because I may want to see my engine and fuel tank at same time for example. Also;

• Highlights: When you right click a part of your rocket or hover it, use a different title color or highlight the part you right clicked on the manager. Linking them with a line (like in KSP 1) would be great too.
• Add a button to pin a part. Pinned part could pop out of the manager or simply raised to the top.
• Add a ^ carret button to close all accordions
• Add a button (an eye icon, for example) to hide all non selected and non pinned parts.
• Add a setting for parts manager background transparency.

Edited February 26, 2023 by FuelX

[lemon1324]

Rather than the huge error messages when parts aren't operational (e.g. the solar panel in shadow), a more functional parts manager could be used to also monitor parts issues, by adding a warning or error icon on the part names.

[dr.phees]

And then allow us to "favourite" parts or even create custom groups. So I could see all mining related parts in my "mining" group. And allow us to add the same part to multiple groups.

Then give us an icon in the app-menu thingy where we can quickly open those groups individually, meaning one-window-each.

Edited February 26, 2023 by dr.phees

[_Pitchblende]

It seems like the inspiration behind consolidating all the part details into one view was to minimize the amount of seeking for parts in the flight view or VAB and give more something of an overview. I do think it has quite a bit of potential, but the current implementation feels clunky and does not improve over the pinnable floating context menus from KSP1. If anything, I found it taking much longer to seek for individual parts in the Parts Manager and ended up right-clicking to select parts anyway.

I think to maximize the Parts Manager's utility it could be used in tandem with floating context menus. My take on it would be to strip the details from the menu itself and make it a tree structure with single line elements, which allows for custom grouping of parts. Individual parts could be picked with a right-click, but groupings could potentially be picked and manipulated all at once too.

Here's a rough concept I threw together (in Paint, so very very rough). This is just a potential direction - and there are plenty of details to work out that this mock-up doesn't cover: what should be used for default groupings and how should ungrouped parts be manipulated? Should groupings be limited by parts that have the same options (if not, how do we handle context menus)? Should the player be able to pin Parts Manager context menus to the main view (if so, then how do we handle it in conjunction with pinning or opening a context menu for an individual part (either from the Parts Manager or the main view))?

I have my own ideas on how each of those questions can be answered, but I think there are a variety of implementations that could work, so personal preference and impact on usabilty come into play.

https://imgur.com/a/ARSqse8

Edited March 1, 2023 by _Pitchblende
Add imgur URL for image

[whatsEJstandfor]

21 hours ago, _Pitchblende said:

https://imgur.com/a/ARSqse8

I really like this mockup, and the tree idea in general:

It would also make sense to just combine the Parts Mangler and Resource Mangler into one window, similar to what you have, but also showing fuel levels and dV for each stage/tank/engine, etc. As it stands now, I actually can't think of a reason why they'd be separate. In trying to declutter both windows, they just made each one half as useful (and still cluttered)

Edited March 2, 2023 by whatsEJstandfor

[Sea_Kerman]

Yes, tree menu like that, and allow popping out multiple part windows at once