Bring back KSP1's PAW menu system alongside KSP2's current PAM menu system

[DibzNr]

Just a quick explanation of what this all means:

The PAM (Part Action Menu) is a new UI menu implemented in KSP2 that replaces KSP1's PAW (Part Action Window) for parts, the PAM is designed to give a single centralised UI where all parts within a vessel can be searched for.

The PAW (Part Action Window) was a menu system in KSP1 where right clicking a part would bring up a singular interaction menu for that part, windows brought up can then be pinned to the screen, forcing them to stay on screen until the user unpins them.

On paper, the PAM seems like a step up over KSP1's PAW system, giving you one centralised location to access every part on your vessel and allowing you to search your vessel for parts that would otherwise be unreachable by right clicking (E.G. parts that are clipped inside your craft or inside fairings), however there are two primary problems with the current PAM system:

1) It's very slow
Needless to say this is a huge problem and one of KSP2's core issues that bring down the gameplay experience at the moment in my opinion. The critical UI interface that serves as the primary interaction point between the player and their craft's parts is hideously slow for vessels with even moderate part counts, let alone vessels with high triple digit part counts; for my Duna SSTO with over 160 parts the entire game freezes for over four entire seconds before the PAM opens every time I right click a part, which is quite easy to do accidentally by the way. 

2) It's very large
While less significant than the first point, it cannot be ignored that needing to bring up a UI that eats up an entire 1/6th of your screen every time you want to do the smallest thing is very cumbersome and inelegant to say the least, and while yes the PAM can be rescaled, this tends to not work too well as it's very difficult to find a scale that works well for all parts without eating up too much of the screen space, often forcing constant adjustments to the scale of the UI when switching through different parts, combined with the PAM not locking camera scrolling while moused over it, causing you to zoom the camera as you scroll through the menu, and it feels very clunky and inconvenient to use overall.

Even if the PAM were made to be more snappy, it still wouldn't solve the 2nd problem of it feeling very cumbersome to use while needing to manage many parts at once, as such I believe the best course of action would be to bring back KSP1's PAW system alongside it:

This mockup is designed to give an idea of how KSP1's PAW system would look in KSP2; as can be seen the already segmented and isolated window design of the PAM's submenus lend well to being disconnected and allowed to float on their own, along with this I also had the idea of incorporating a PAM button within the PAW, allowing the user to quickly jump to that part's location in the PAM should they wish to.

I personally believe that the PAW should be the default when right clicking parts, allowing for a quick and snappy experience when looking through parts, with the PAM complimenting it as a more in depth search option for searching for parts within the vessel as needed when they're difficult to locate with the camera, implementing things this way brings back the snappy experience of KSP1's PAW without eliminating the advantages of the PAM.

Edited June 30, 2023 by DibzNr

[Sea_Kerman]

Also, there’s a LOT of empty space in that UI design, it could probably be compacted to 2/3 to 1/2 the height without even changing the size of the text.

[RalphKerman]

3 hours ago, Sea_Kerman said:

Also, there’s a LOT of empty space in that UI design, it could probably be compacted to 2/3 to 1/2 the height without even changing the size of the text.

That is my biggest wish for improvement as well. The KSP 1 interface was so much more compact to fit a lot more information and control into the same or even less space. There were so many useful functions all in one place. I would love to see that in KSP 2, too. I personally find the font in the new UI too large but the most "waste" of space in my opinion are the separating lines between each section. They are not there in the KSP 1 interface and yet it is still very clear any easy to navigate. I hope there will be a future iteration of the new interface, especially when (e.g. via science, staring and gathering experiments) we get many more options to control from there. To be completely honest, if a mod named "KSP 1 interface" existed I would be downloading it the moment it is released.

But: I know there are so many features still missing that require UI interaction that I am confident the devs will take a good look at it and rework it.

Question for modders (I have no knowledge of the complexity of modding): Are the UI elements easy to adjust? Not just like building own dialogs with the same font and style like some mods already do but I am thinking of completely re-styling them? Or is that not possible with the given framework.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

I have been agitating for this since day one. 

[Lowi_Sace]

keeping the PAM as a button and adding PAW for right clicking a part seems to me as the best option