Do you use the custom VAB menus at all?

[Carsogen]

While I really like how they split up tanks and engines, I still think that the way it is already is the best, though that might just be because I already have it memorized.

Cas.

[Guest]

Custom menus? I knew I forgot something ... *starts KSP to try it out*

[Frank_G]

I really like the custom categories you can create, especially for subassemblies. I can now create mission concentrated subassembly groups and sort my launchers, transfer stages and so on. And i dont youse part heavy mods. I only use procedural fairings, RasterPropMonitors and SCANsat, so there is no need for a sorting there. The options to sort by size and so on are also great. Good and useful improvement in my opinion.

[katateochi]

The advanced part menus were a good idea, but I don't think Squad got the implementation right, unfortunately. The UI is horrible (hidden menus with small and obscure icons, yay). Every time I try to use them, I end up getting frustrated and going back to the standard menus.

What we really need is to make the parts list searchable by name, and to get some "show/hide all parts from mod X" options.

Yes a search, that is what we need. I don't use the sortable lists at all, I just stick to the original categories. The interface for making customs list is laborious and that's just with stock parts.

But a search would be so useful. Even just a basic 'by-name' search would help but as part names can be a little similar and also be a bit odd, we should be able to tag parts with key-words and a search should look in both names and keywords/tags.

And it needs to be very much easier to quickly tag a single or group of parts. ie; have a "tag parts" button, click it and it opens a dialog asking for a tag name and instructing you to click on the parts you want to tag. You then navigate the parts lists as we're used to and toggle-click on the parts to be tagged with this new or existing tag name. Then finally click ok and the selected parts will be tagged.

There should be a simple text field above the parts lists, typing into it searches within part-names and tags. Then there should be a section like the current custom parts list that automatically lists the different tags/key-words used, shows a count of how many parts each reference and you can click it to see its parts. You should then be able to create custom "lists" by grouping 1 or more key-words/tags together and associating an icon with it.

(and the mapping of part-names to key-words and key-words to lists should be stored as a single separate file, so it's easy to transfer between installs).

[NecroBones]

1) Is the "Filter by Manufacturer" button really needed? This might be for future gameplay (if you get discounts from preferred vendors maybe?) but I don't see any point to it.

Actually I use that one all the time. Mods often have their parts associated with a custom manufacturer, so it's great when you want the parts from a specific mod.

[Lhathron the Elf]

The only reason I ever use the custom parts menus is to organize parts for specific things. For example, I'll put all of the possible space plane parts in one folder so that if I ever want to build a space plane, I won't have to jump around to all kinds of different folders. I might also do the same thing for all of the parts I often use for landers, or probes, or giant rockets, or something else like that. Sometimes it just takes too long to put everything in the folders, though. So mostly, I don't bother.

[Boomerang]

I might use them, if they were designed in anything like an ergonomic fashion. Mostly I just miss PartArranger, that let me order my parts as I liked, within each catagory, sans the blockyness of the custom editor menus.

[moogoob]

I think I would if I used a large number of mods, but as I play pretty much stock it's quicker just memorizing where everything is. Though to be fair, this method did hit a bit of a speed bump when 0.90 was released and all of a sudden fuel tanks had their own section - took me a while to re-learn where everything is.

[NBZ]

Prompted by poll:

Other: I use the custom menus, and I do use mods, but I don't use part-heavy mods.

I agree that setup of the custom menus is tedious. I began making a menu for each radial size, (functionality is coming to stock in the next update) but it was too much work, and I now rely on color coding instead.

Edited January 19, 2015 by NBZ

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Voted "I've tried them, not really my cup of tea.".

As it stands right now, it takes more clicks to get to an "advanced" fancy sorting filtering tab, than just click a regular tab you want and then the "next" button at the bottom. So no, I don't have a use for it. The only use I'd like to have is filtering by mod but that's not an option, so... meh.

I hope they rework this, as somebody said, the design behind this UI is quite weak. But give them time, I'm sure they'll build up on it, after all it's the first iteration of it.

[Crzyrndm]

Tried them, found them annoying, made a mod to do it (subjectively) better.

[zarakon]

I've always been annoyed with the way parts are (not) sorted in the lists. I find it very newb unfriendly, especially the way airplane parts and rocket parts are mixed in with each other. The order of parts within any category doesn't really follow any logical sequence.

When 0.90 came out, I started making custom categories where the main idea would be to separate rocket parts from plane parts.

Partway through, I realized that doing this was a lot of work and wouldn't really do myself any good, since I already know where everything is.

[Superfluous J]

I picked the option closest to my experience. I love the idea and they're totally my cup of tea, but having to set them up myself means I've not gotten around to it yet. But with mods like Karbonite, ELP, and KAS I'm starting to really want to get some sort of organization down.

[NecroBones]

I've always been annoyed with the way parts are (not) sorted in the lists. I find it very newb unfriendly, especially the way airplane parts and rocket parts are mixed in with each other. The order of parts within any category doesn't really follow any logical sequence.

When 0.90 came out, I started making custom categories where the main idea would be to separate rocket parts from plane parts.

Partway through, I realized that doing this was a lot of work and wouldn't really do myself any good, since I already know where everything is.

Yeah, that's the one weakness that still remains, IMHO, is that spaceplane and rocket parts are still lumped together.

Since I mostly build rockets anyway, I've gotten around this by searching for "oxidizer" in the advanced tabs. But as I think I stated earlier, I would love to have stock tabs for Mk2/Mk3 for factors, and a tab that gives "fuel but not oxidizer" in addition to being able to pull up things that have oxidizer.

And something else that I think should be stock, is this nice little mod called "QuickScroll", which lets you go forward and back in the pages of parts with the scroll wheel.

[Aragosnat]

Forgot they existed. Right now still don't have enough parts that it matters as tech 1 R&D does not have much. Do agree that the sub-assemblies should have its own tab. Because, I also forgot that it exists do to not seeing it. Out of sight out of mind.

[aleis]

Good intention, bad implementation.

Move sub assemblies to the main tab, and why can't I mod the main tab.

[LordFjord]

Old habits die hard. I know the custom menus exist, but I don't use them, except subassemblies.

[zarakon]

Yeah, that's the one weakness that still remains, IMHO, is that spaceplane and rocket parts are still lumped together.

It's definitely not THE one remaining weakness

As far as I know, the parts are just sorted alphabetically by the part folder names, which results in pretty arbitrary ordering. We end up with parts that should be grouped together being scattered around, rarely-used parts at the top of the list, frequently-used parts on page 2, etc.

[rynak]

I don't use them, because:

- The idea of custom groups is nice, but the UI is too slow to make it anything but a chore

- I would use it, if it allowed me to set up parts and categories that should always be ignored, but it doesn't have that feature either.

IMO, the advanced menu completely misses the point of what people need. With plenty of mods loaded, or far up the techtree, what you need isn't a whitelist, but a blacklist. The standard part categories mostly are fine - what is needed aren't MORE categories, but a way to globally disable listing of certain parts. For example, it really annoys me, that there is no way to disable display of unavailable parts (those greyed out ones, where it says you need to purchase them).

What IMO should be done, is nuking most of what currently is in the advanced menu.... it just adds clutter. Keep the ability to set up custom categories though (and improve the UI to make building them faster). Then, instead of the current whitelists/advanced categories, have buttons to globally disable types of parts.

[phunk]

I don't use them because they inconveniently end up hidden in a sub menu instead of next to the stock categories.

Ditto, and I hate that the subassemblies are nested in there too.

[NecroBones]

As far as I know, the parts are just sorted alphabetically by the part folder names, which results in pretty arbitrary ordering. We end up with parts that should be grouped together being scattered around, rarely-used parts at the top of the list, frequently-used parts on page 2, etc.

As of 0.90, that's not the case anymore. They used to be sorted based on folder/file names. Now it defaults to sorting alphabetically by displayed name of the parts, but you can select mass, cost, etc.

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

Heh, I haven't even upgraded all my mods to .90 yet.

[Delrey]

I made my own folders for electrical, fairings, ship parts (larger structural stuff), nuclear (interstellar), etc.

I then deconstruct everything and sort it. This helps bc I have the parts I actually use often in logical spots and I can see stuff I don't use and delete it to save RAM