Building mode productivity could be improved with the addition of a few tools and tweaking current ones. All the small steps are coordinated to provide a final result, but each suggestion can operate also by itself:
Selection Color should be different than current block under the cursor
ATM "white outline" is used as either to mark a block as part of the current selection or to highlight the block "under the cursor". Would be much better to have a distinct outline color for each to clarify when a selection is been disabled by selecting a single block WITHOUT the multiple block selection tool active.
Select ALL blocks of this type
With this tool selected, each click on a block would select ALL blocks of the same type and material on the current ship. Further clicks should behave based on if the clicked block already belongs to the current selection: if it does then this type of block is removed from the current selection, if it does not, all blocks of the same type & material will be added.
Modifier Key to apply a tool effect to the currently selected blocks instead of the one under the cursor
A good candidate could be CTRL but the key in particular is not as important as its functionality. While this key is pressed, any tool that changes/edit a block under the cursor, will apply its effect into all blocks currently selected. Obvious current candidates are "paint tool" and "replace block".
Create Group & Group list
2 Controls, in fact. A button to "store" the currently selected blocks as a "group". And a corresponding window with a list of all "groups" currently created for this ship. Each "delete block" operation should ALSO check EACH group definition to remove the block from it also, meanwhile, a delete operation on the group list will just remove the group definition, not any real blocks (Delete group should be a button on the Group list... Delete key should keep been reserved as currently, to delete the currently selected blocks). Clicks on the Group list will replace the currently selected blocks by the ones selected on the stored group. This is basically a Layer System on a block building game like Avorion.
Group List: Hide/Unhide group "checkbox"
Next to each group in the Group List there should be a checkbox to control if the group is displayed on the game or become hidden and unselectable by further editions until made visible again.
Toggle Last Group visibility key
A shortcut key should exist to toggle the visibility of the last group used by the player, instead of him having to go the list each time to toggle it. Alternatively a second checkbox could be added to each group in the group list to mark which ones will be toggled by each shortcut key press.
Suggestion
oreganor
Building mode productivity could be improved with the addition of a few tools and tweaking current ones. All the small steps are coordinated to provide a final result, but each suggestion can operate also by itself:
Selection Color should be different than current block under the cursor
ATM "white outline" is used as either to mark a block as part of the current selection or to highlight the block "under the cursor". Would be much better to have a distinct outline color for each to clarify when a selection is been disabled by selecting a single block WITHOUT the multiple block selection tool active.
Select ALL blocks of this type
With this tool selected, each click on a block would select ALL blocks of the same type and material on the current ship. Further clicks should behave based on if the clicked block already belongs to the current selection: if it does then this type of block is removed from the current selection, if it does not, all blocks of the same type & material will be added.
Modifier Key to apply a tool effect to the currently selected blocks instead of the one under the cursor
A good candidate could be CTRL but the key in particular is not as important as its functionality. While this key is pressed, any tool that changes/edit a block under the cursor, will apply its effect into all blocks currently selected. Obvious current candidates are "paint tool" and "replace block".
Create Group & Group list
2 Controls, in fact. A button to "store" the currently selected blocks as a "group". And a corresponding window with a list of all "groups" currently created for this ship. Each "delete block" operation should ALSO check EACH group definition to remove the block from it also, meanwhile, a delete operation on the group list will just remove the group definition, not any real blocks (Delete group should be a button on the Group list... Delete key should keep been reserved as currently, to delete the currently selected blocks). Clicks on the Group list will replace the currently selected blocks by the ones selected on the stored group. This is basically a Layer System on a block building game like Avorion.
Group List: Hide/Unhide group "checkbox"
Next to each group in the Group List there should be a checkbox to control if the group is displayed on the game or become hidden and unselectable by further editions until made visible again.
Toggle Last Group visibility key
A shortcut key should exist to toggle the visibility of the last group used by the player, instead of him having to go the list each time to toggle it. Alternatively a second checkbox could be added to each group in the group list to mark which ones will be toggled by each shortcut key press.
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