Folders and Celestial body filters in tracking station

[Hyakkidouran]

Hello,

I don't know if this suggestion has been made already, but I have a few ideas to improve the tracking station a little bit.

KSP is a great game, but once you have started setting up bases and rovers and satellites everywhere, the tracking station becomes very confusing. Sure, you can filter by type of craft, which already helps a lot. But because the list is sorted by mission time, it leads to confusing list orders.

For instance, if I improve a lunar rover base 3 years later by sending my fancy new designed rover there, the new rover will not be at all in the same place in the list as my previous rover was.

Example :

MUN ROVER BASE 1 - 3 years ago

MUN ROVER 1 - 3 years ago

DUNA ROVER 1 - 2 years ago

KERBIN ROVER 2 - 2 years ago

....(more...).....

MUN ROVER 2 - few days ago

Since KSP is all about been organized and methodical, I believe it would be great to be able to manually sort this list and/or have more filter options.

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Suggestion 1 : filtering by celestial body

In addition to the filter by craft type, the game could offer the option to filter by body's sphere of influence.

Using a drop-down list, the user could select a planet or moon defined in the game. Once that body is selected, only objects currently in that body's sphere of influence will be displayed in the list. The list obviously contains an option "All celestial bodies" which disables the filter and is the default option.

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Suggestion 2 : "custom groups" (could also be called folders or custom filter)

If I use the example above, it would be very convenient for me if I could access all the rovers and separate buildings of my Mun base just by clicking somewhere.

Even if those are objects of different types ("rovers" and "bases"), and have been launched years apart, it would be great if I could regroup them in a custom group so that I can find them easily.

A group could be created and renamed, and then objects could be added and removed from groups.

In the example above, I would create a group "MOON ROVER BASE". Once I select it, the tracking station will only show all objects belonging to that group. If I wish to, I can combine the group filter with the type filter and the celestial body filter.

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There are several options for implementing this in terms of interface, and there is probably discussions to do. But hopefully those features sound interesting.

I have worked as a developer and I can assume those features would not be very hard to implement, while at the same time being very useful for any player. Hopefully you will consider them.

Good luck with the development!

[gmiddlemass]

Seems like a good idea to me.

[Red Iron Crown]

Agreed, some kind of filter/sort/grouping method beyond what we currently have would be great.

[Kasuha]

Icons of planets with the clicked planet getting instantly focused would be nice even if it did not filter out other crafts from the list on the side. Maybe left-click to focus, right-click to switch filter on/off? I'd definitely like that.

To prevent too many icons, a hierarchic approach might be possible. There'd be always icon of Sun, all planets, and moons of currently selected planet. Or just icons of all satellites of the currently selected body, the body itself, and its "parents" up to Sun - less icons but one more click to switch.

Custom groups as of your example are IMO easier done by just looking into map view. But there might be custom groups that are not that easy to locate, such as group of all ion crafts (random example) so as a feature it would make sense. I'm just afraid it would be seldom used.

[Capt Snuggler]

+ 1 agree.

this also goes for the VAB and SPH. the craft loading menu is also in need of a folder/sort/grouping system.

[GPoliceMZ]

Approved

Some more Sorting is always better...

VAB and SPH should also have a Folder System i agree

[DocMoriarty]

Actually the left side of tracking station could be a tree-control with a top node and nodes for each SOI. Probably togglable between tree and list (as it is now). Probably sort options for age or SOI or type of craft.

The filter buttons for craft type should be saved, if not in save game then at least for the current game session. I always have to click away the flags when i enter the tracking station, this really gets annoying.

If you do nothing of the above, then at least make the flags deselected by default. It nerves!

[Kasuha]

If you do nothing of the above, then at least make the flags deselected by default. It nerves!

Definitely. Plus don't count flags to active flights in game selection list.

[Hyakkidouran]

The idea of displaying the tracking station using the tree algorithm (what Kasuha suggested) is a good alternative to my original suggestion.

The list in the stracking station could be reworked in order to display this tree just like windows or other operating systems display files in the file explorer : the root node would be the sun, and planets would be like folders that you could "expand" or "retract" with a "+/-" icon.

It would be very convenient, and you would not even have to add any icon. The list structure would just have to be reworked a bit more.

If the devs choose to do that I am fine with it. However I would still love to have custom groups.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Hyakkidouran

[Hyakkidouran]

Made a double post, sorry. See below.

[Hyakkidouran]

I just thought today while playing a session of KSP that the option of sorting the list by alphabetical order instead of mission time would already be a great improvement to the tracking station.

It's less fancy and useful than the original suggestion, but I genuinely believe the dev team could implement a switch between mission time sorting and alphabetical sorting in a very short time. It would be a great feature!

In fact, with proper naming, an alphabetical sorting could act as a substitute for groups and celestial body filters until they are implemented. Just give ships a prefix and here you go!

I really want at least that feature now. Hopefully the devs will consider and implement it quickly.

If I have alphabetical sorting, I would be able to wait a long time until we get something better. And I am sure I am not the only one.

[Cucumbor]

is it possible now?