Managing parts from multiple mods in VAB/SPH

[sleight42]

Let's face it: if you have multiple mods installed, managing the parts in the VAB/SPH is cumbersome. For me, with a few mods installed, it's so painful that I'm tempted not to play KSP with any mods. And that detracts so much from the game, having owned it for about a year, that I then don't want to play the game.

Mods make KSP more fun.

Currently, all parts from all installed mods appear in the SPH/VAB tabs by part type. If, like me, you have several mods installed, your structure and propulsion tabs probably contain several pages of parts.

This could be handled better.

What if, when a mod is added that adds parts, the VAB/SPH parts tabs are then augmented with a vertical set of tabs, say on the left side of the parts frame. For instance, if I installed B9, I would see two tabs on the left side: one for stock parts and one for B9 parts. If I selected B9 and then the propulsion parts tab, I would then be presented with only the B9 propulsion parts. If I selected stock, I would then see only the stock propulsion parts.

I imagine some users would find this unwieldy. Perhaps it would be better suited to power users. And, so, this feature could be toggled on/off with a checkbox.

If not this then something. Building craft, using mods, should be less cumbersome.

Help me, KSP devs, you're my only hope.

[leax256]

sure but only one change, there would also be a tab for all parts of one type

[xEvilReeperx]

Have you seen PartCatalog?

[NoMrBond]

Simple Part Organizer is another option which may suit

[meeware]

All these suffer from the poor discipline of parts naming in MODS. I see engines in structural and utility categories, struts in aerodynamics, fairings in utilities. It's a mess. I'd like to see rules for what gets named how, and a controlled vocabulary, and a field in the parts data that is has a limited range of elements that is added. This, and version compatibility, need to be improved for all mods if the game is to be reliable and usable in a mass market.

[LeadMagnet]

All these suffer from the poor discipline of parts naming in MODS. I see engines in structural and utility categories, struts in aerodynamics, fairings in utilities. It's a mess. I'd like to see rules for what gets named how, and a controlled vocabulary, and a field in the parts data that is has a limited range of elements that is added. This, and version compatibility, need to be improved for all mods if the game is to be reliable and usable in a mass market.

Agreed! Whenever a mod gets updated, I have to go through all the CFG files and make changes so the parts are easier to find and identify. Once I do this, PartCatalog has a better time dealing with all the new parts. It would be nice if PartCatalog would offer an in-game edit feature. Would save me the hassle.

But, at the end of the day, the part/mod makers should do a better job categorising and naming things.

[Nuke]

what id do is give each mod its own tab (and possibly sub-tabs), and let them sort things as desired. all of that would be mod defined of course. this would be preferable for mods that have a lot of parts that need to work together and would benefit from being grouped together without the clutter of other parts(kethane, lazor system, and kerbal attachment system to name a few). you would still be permitted to use the existing tabs, but this would be frowned upon unless the parts absolutely belonged in that category (and mostly used for general parts packs, especially ones not dependent on plugins). subtabs give mod organization another option, to put all their stuff into one tab, and then have that organized however they want.

it is unfortunate that some mods are disorganized messes. but id like to think with some better organization options, it will become less of a problem. you are never going to get every modder to agree with some standard, and i doubt draconian organization guidelines would work either. it would be practically impossible to enforce, and would make modding in general less fun. instead give modders organizational options and tell them how to use them effectively.

[meeware]

Yep, that works too.

[KasperVld]

This item is on the infamous "What not to suggest?" list. Topic closed