Overwrite and general designs management

[Fichom]

Hey there,

I don't know how much of a pain it is to others, but I find the current 'Saved designs' system very... unpleasant to work with. Here are some things I think could improve the UX of the process of saving and managing our own creations, but also workshop items we download. Don't forget it's a forum, so everyone is permitted, nay, required to leave their own opinions on the matter.

1. Overwrite functionality
A way to overwrite existing models when saving (quickly). My biggest grievance is having to constantly delete 'old' versions of a design, just to then have to rename the 'new' design. Maybe allow for a player to select a design and mark it as 'overwrite' - so any further save (or quick save, read 2. idea) automatically replaces the selected design. The 'overwrite' designation could be removed upon leaving building mode, or even better yet, when changing your currently active ship - this way players don't overwrite already existing saves. In the mockup down below, you can see an example of a way of marking the design that is selected for overwrite in a green frame (though you could also for example change the backdrop color of the thumbnail while it is designated as the overwrite design).

2. Saving quickly
Please, implement a way to 'quick save' items - a simple button (combination) press saves current design. I know there is autosave, but I honestly don't use it because I find myself with 100 saved designs which then lag out the whole Saved designs window while all 51923132 designs that got auto-saved load. It would also play nicely with the overwrite - but of course, if you don't use the overwrite, you would still get new snapshot of the build every time you saved. The save would be placed in the folder you were last in.

3. Multi selection
This would really help with moving designs between folders. For example, if you download a bunch of ships and turrets from the workshop, it would be nice if you could move them all at once, or at least in some groups. For example you might want to click all of the turrets and then move them to some folder you have for turrets (or wherever). Easiest way to implement would be 'ctrl+click' to add or remove from current selection, and maybe 'shift+click' to select all of the designs between the two clicked. Also, how great would be be to be able to, for example, be able to delete all of the selected designs (like those 51923132 auto-saved designs of unfinished bricks).

4. Moving folders
Currently we are able to move designs around the folders by drag-and-dropping them wherever we want. For some reason, this is not possible with folders? I mean yes, honestly, I don't need it often, but boy is it 'fun' to have to move 60-odd turret designs because I decided to reorganize my  folders - 1 by 1 mind you, and god forbid you have to move them further than 1~2 folder away, have fun with that. If you combine it with the multi selection idea, I don't see why it shouldn't be possible to also select multiple folders (and designs) at once and also move them.

5. Design list 
It would be lovely if we had a good old list/gallery view mode toggle functionality. Currently, all designs are displayed in a Nx5 grid - and I get it, it's so you can visually recognise designs and thus find them more easily. But I think a secondary viewing mode would also be great - a 'list mode', where designs and folders are shown in rows, and every design is maybe represented by some really small thumbnail and it's name. Quick mockup in attachments - the red-framed button is the one that would allow you to toggle between two different views.

6. Action shortcuts/hotkeys
I would love to see the ability to do some actions via keys, for example using 'delete' button to delete a file, or being able to copy them around. I know that, at the moment, the building editor is still active while the designs window is open, but maybe change that? I don't see myself needing to delete blocks on my ship while searching for some designs - currently, the 'delete' button will delete the blocks selected even when designs menu is open, which doesn't really make much sense.

7. Moving in general
This one might a somewhat of a long-shot (and honestly, I wouldn't even be mad if devs outright threw me out the window for suggesting it), but maybe some more 'structured' way of moving your files about. It would be neat if you could select a bunch of designs/folders (3. idea), right click on them, find a 'Move' option in the menu that appears, and when you press move you have ability to effectively 'browse your way through' the folders you have (similar to what you can do with some cloud-storages e.g., google drive).

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by Fichom
Adding a point