Who else thinks the item selection menu needs a revamp?

[agentKmurph]

Especially with the recent incorporation of KW Rocketry, I've been growing to dislike the current interface for selecting parts in the VAB and Hangar. Its clunky, slow (pages rather than a scroll... ick), and the shear number of parts makes a visual labyrinth that is easy to get lost in. I find myself looking over the part I want two and three times even though I have played the game for a little over a year now and am more or less acquainted to where each should appear in the menus. The current organization scheme of Pods, Control, Structure, etc I feel doesn't go far enough. There doesn't seem to be a particular order that the parts appear in the menu other than parts that are similar in function will appear in the same tab. Also some parts are not classified correctly, such as the ion engine or Hitchhiker Storage Container. Seems to me those should be in Propulsion and Pods respectively, not Utility.

This is what I would personally like to see. In each tab, group each part by its exact function (and part size for those that are particularly numerous like fuel tanks) into a labelled sub-menu. Then have the item tab contained the sub-menus scroll up and down to reveal them rather than have pages.

Here is what I am getting at:

Alternately at least group into subgroups in the tabs and sort them in some non-random order like by ascending size order and use a scroll bar instead of the current pages.

These are the sub-categories / menus I would suggest:

Pods:

-Manned

-Small Unmanned (Oktos, Stayputnik)

-Large Unmanned (the pancake control units)

Control:

-Thrusters

-SAS Units

Propulsion

-Small Fuel Tanks (toroidial up to FLT200)

-Large Fuel Tanks (FLT400 and up)

-RCS Fuel Tanks

-Small Engines (LV1 up to LVT30)

-Large Engines (Poodle up to Kerbodyne)

Aerodynamic:

-Fixed Fins&Wings (Wings without control surfaces)

-Controled Fins&Wings (wings with control surfaces and control surfaces)

-Nacelles and Intakes

-Nosecones

Utility:

-Batteries

-Landing Legs

-Wheels

-Solar Panels

-Ladders

-Docking Ports

-Lights

Science can remain unsorted. In each subcategory, fill them such that the parts go from smallest to largest in terms of thrust, fuel capacity, energy content, etc. The icons are deceptive and untruthful about the size of the part so we need something else to go on.

Of course this is just what I think should be done. Thoughts, comments?

And please give quantitative reasons for your opinions. If you think the interface should stay the same, "I don't want to learn a new interface" is not a valid reason. "I don't want to learn new interface because the new one isn't as good for X, Y, and Z," That's fine. Don't be a traditionalist is what I am saying.

[robopilot99]

This would be wonderful. The whole pages thing dosn't really work any more and I would love to see parts sorted by thrust/size and have fuel tanks separated from engines.

[xtoro]

You could use Simple Part Organizer

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62466-0-24-2-SimplePartOrganizer-v1-2-1

You can filter your parts by mod or by size, and you can also sort them in different ways. I think it's great and really helps me find stuff.

[worir4]

You put engines but you have the aerodynamics tab open!

Seriously though it's a good idea, especially when you have mods and the pages get cluttered.

[Wanderfound]

Endorsed. The VAB/SPH interface needs work. It could also do with being made more mod-friendly. A show/hide toggle on modparts would be handy.

[mattinoz]

Given the parts in the game at the moment seem to be only a rudimentary set and I could see the parts options increasing massively over time some sort of rework really is required.

This looks to be a pretty good take on it to me.

[Trainzack]

Yes. Sorting through the parts currently is a bit of a pain, and much worse if you've got mods like KW or B9. I can't recommend this be added enough.

[robopilot99]

Found this:

https://kerbalstuff.com/mod/128/PartArranger

The stock game needs something like this as well as a scrolling part catalog.

[Guest]

And parts from mods are in separate subgroups from each mod.

[xtoro]

Endorsed. The VAB/SPH interface needs work. It could also do with being made more mod-friendly. A show/hide toggle on modparts would be handy.

The mod I linked above does just that. You toggle what you want to show or hide, and you can do it by mod and for example, hide all kw rocketry parts, or, show ONLY kw rocketry parts...

[agentKmurph]

The mod I linked above does just that. You toggle what you want to show or hide, and you can do it by mod and for example, hide all kw rocketry parts, or, show ONLY kw rocketry parts...

Check me if I am wrong but it sounds like you are trying to say "It shouldn't be stock because its a mod." To which I would respond "That is a moot point; a lot of stock KSP came from mods." Also people shouldn't have to pursue add-ons to compensate for poor design. That's like saying "We should build a car without power steering and seat belts because the owner can add those themselves later."

In any case, thanks you for the link to the mod though. I will be trying that soon.

You put engines but you have the aerodynamics tab open!

Seriously though it's a good idea, especially when you have mods and the pages get cluttered.

Yeah I know . It is the only page that is completely empty ever in KSP which is what I needed to visually describe my idea.

[Red Iron Crown]

The part selection interface definitely needs some work. It's OKish if all you have is the current stock line-up but easily gets out of hand if you add a few part packs.

In addition to the good ideas already suggested, I would like more icons per page, perhaps with the part name beside them. Similar to changing the view in Windows Explorer from "Icons" to "Details". Some keyboard shortcuts to make navigating it quicker wouldn't go astray either, maybe 1-7 for selecting the part category and some other keys for flipping through pages.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Red Iron Crown

[xtoro]

Check me if I am wrong but it sounds like you are trying to say "It shouldn't be stock because its a mod." To which I would respond "That is a moot point; a lot of stock KSP came from mods." Also people shouldn't have to pursue add-ons to compensate for poor design. That's like saying "We should build a car without power steering and seat belts because the owner can add those themselves later."

No no, I completely agree that it should be a stock feature. I was just giving the OP an intermediate option to use until something like this gets implemented. I too thought the same thing but then started using SPO and I'm quite happy with it. If Squad implements something similar then I'd be happy and I'd definitely use the stock feature. But for now, SPO does exactly what I need.

[MisterFister]

It bears mentioning, in support of the OP here, that one of the very functions of the VAB / SPH editor DID originate with a mod -- subassemblies.

[Darnok]

Great idea... pages are too slow imo, in subassemblies tab pages are super slow for me.

[ZLM-Master]

HI , Agree with the autor . I wish like to have better UI in Vab & SPH ! Maybe Sommething like that !

Moved picture !!!

Edited September 22, 2014 by ZLM-Master

[Stratzenblitz75]

Yea, I agree that the part selection menu needs some work. Its a hassle to find the one part you need and its even worse if you're running a lot of part mods. A simple subcategory organizer like you suggested would make a huge difference towards solving the problem.

[ZLM-Master]

Yep +1 ! wanna thinking about a fast stock building mode and maybe other usefull setting ! Lot of people are seeking for a stock craft , with a lot of mods installed it's beggin to be a bit harder to find the stock part !

Just a variante of the first piture with fast setting !

Edited September 22, 2014 by ZLM-Master

[prophet_01]

Yeah it's getting flooded, especially once you start using mods. Subcategoris would help a lot. Maybe even klicking on a part in the menu to make it's variants pop up. This could help to reduce the ammount of Icons for parts with different sizes. One button for each diameter would already help a lot

[xtoro]

I also think there should be a search function. For those times when you have a part in the VAB/SPH that you want to use again, but don't want to copy the one already on the ship because too much is attached to it. So you search and search for the part... maybe an option to type in the name of the part, or, right click on a part in the VAB/SPH and have a "show me" icon that will bring you to the right part page and highlight the part for you...

[problemecium]

I agree that it needs a revamp, but honestly I don't like either of the proposals here better than what we have already. Mostly it just needs to be organized and pruned. I think something analogous to TweakScale should be made stock and the stock part selection should be reduced to this for example:

Fuel Tanks tab (with a different tab for engines and boosters):

Short cylindrical tank

Medium cylindrical tank

Long cylindrical tank

Toroidal tank (only stack mounted)

Spherical tank (only side mounted)

Hemispherical tank (only stack mounted on the flat end, or side mounted)

Each tank can be resized to any of the standard sizes, up to maybe 5m, and a right-click menu on the tank can change its texture once placed (e.g. orange, black, white, white with stripes). Something similar would apply to wings, probe cores, structural bits, and engines, with some limitations on the size ranges of certain engine types (ions not larger than 1.25m, LV-Ns not smaller than 1.25m).

[mrmcp1]

This is a great idea that really should be implemented but I believe that for the propulsion tab you should be able to select the parts by size e.g. 0.625m, 1.25m... as I think it speed up selection even more and make them easier to find as some people might get confused when you say large (they may think you mean length or width).

[NecroBones]

Yeah, I had a thread about organizing the SPH/VAB menus better, not too long ago: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/93946

Granted, in 0.25, the organizing will be slightly better just due to them renaming the part folders. But still, subcategories and the like would be very useful.