Suggestions Thread for v2.4.0

[nakorkren]

Can we please have a direct unload to Ark ship command? From the 2.0.0 change log:

Any ship loading or unloading colonists will interact only with the surface population, although the ship with Ark Modules could load colonists that a different ship has just unloaded. Depending on playtest, I may also add load/unload colonist orders that have an Ark ship as a target, although I suspect this would be seldom used in practice. Ark Modules will more likely load colonists once and then retain them indefinitely (with the exception being an orbital colony that builds its own Ark ships).

As the population in Ark modules is awake and functional, there will be some population growth if there is space capacity. This growth will be at an annual rate of 5% x (Space Available / Total Capacity). For example, if an Ark Ship is only carrying 75% of capacity, the annual pop growth will be 1.25%. Available space is likely to be a rare situation, but it could happen after damage and repair, or if an Ark loads a surface population less than its capacity.

I have run into just that situation. In my current game, I found a Venusian world rich with minerals that I want (nay, need!) to mine. I towed a few Ark ships to provide a base population capacity, then brought in mines and construction factories and some construction brigades, then manufactured a Spaceport on site. Now I have sufficient capability at the planet to manufacture Ark ships in-situ, which is awesome! However, they don't fill up very fast from natural growth, so I want to bring in colonists. I can't unload colonists from cryo ships directly to the Ark ships, so I have to unload them onto the planet surface where a bunch of them (~5%) die before the Ark ships can bring them back up. I may be a heartless monster to my enemies, but I'd really like not to murder my own colonists

[nakorkren]

When viewing a ship class that is locked, if you click on a component it causes a pop-up message that you can't edit a locked class. That's fine, but it prevents you for viewing the details of the component in the lower right window. Instead you have to go find it in the component browser.

Could the code be changed to update the component details in the window to the component you selected and THEN display the pop-up about not being able to edit locked classes?

[nuclearslurpee]

When viewing a ship class that is locked, if you click on a component it causes a pop-up message that you can't edit a locked class. That's fine, but it prevents you for viewing the details of the component in the lower right window. Instead you have to go find it in the component browser.

Could the code be changed to update the component details in the window to the component you selected and THEN display the pop-up about not being able to edit locked classes?

Seconded, Steve please I am begging you

[kyonkundenwa]

When viewing a ship class that is locked, if you click on a component it causes a pop-up message that you can't edit a locked class. That's fine, but it prevents you for viewing the details of the component in the lower right window. Instead you have to go find it in the component browser.

Could the code be changed to update the component details in the window to the component you selected and THEN display the pop-up about not being able to edit locked classes?

Seconded, Steve please I am begging you

I would rather the message pop up when I double-click, as in, I have actually made a mistake and am attempting to add or remove a component from a locked class.
Right now it's a "nuisance" message that I consciously ignore while unconsciously moving the mouse to the "copy class" button so I don't have to find the component in the components list.

[nakorkren]

Right now it's a "nuisance" message that I consciously ignore while unconsciously moving the mouse to the "copy class" button so I don't have to find the component in the components list.

That's exactly what I do... I copy the class. Didn't realize anyone else had that tic too. When updating a class it's easiest to review the components in the old class, otherwise you have to go look up a bunch of components in different places in the components tree. Really hope this is an easy code change.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Seems like a popular suggestion

I've changed it so that the 'locked' message only occurs on a double-click.

[Kurt]

Minor ask, but I'd like to be able to name my administrator ranks.  For example, instead of Administrator rank 9, I'd like to be able to rename it "Emperor". 

[nuclearslurpee]

In the Shipyards tab, could we get a vertical whitespace buffer between naval, commercial, and repair yards, to make it a bit easier to visually parse this screen?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Minor ask, but I'd like to be able to name my administrator ranks.  For example, instead of Administrator rank 9, I'd like to be able to rename it "Emperor".

There is only a single administrator rank. They are just organized by admin rating on the commander window..

It is still possible to do something on these lines, but it is more involved than a rename. I would have to create a new set of name types and associate them with a commander bonus, rather than a rank.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

In the Shipyards tab, could we get a vertical whitespace buffer between naval, commercial, and repair yards, to make it a bit easier to visually parse this screen?

Like this?

[nuclearslurpee]

In the Shipyards tab, could we get a vertical whitespace buffer between naval, commercial, and repair yards, to make it a bit easier to visually parse this screen?

Like this?

Beautiful! 

[Kaiser]

Now I want the new patch just to try the emotion of the new shipyards division   

[KriegsMeister]

Could we get a new installation type: Planetary Hangars. The quick addition would be functionally a clone of Maintenance Facilities that only work on Fighters. Benefits being an increased capacity (at least double the current maintenance tech, possibly higher) and reduced cost, at the drawback of again being limited to ships with the Fighter tag and possibly 0 MSP production. A secondary function that could be added is reducing the signature of supported ships in the same vane as ground forces fortification.

[L0ckAndL0ad]

I have two suggestions for Assign # functionality and box launcher QOL:

1) Make the Assign # disregard box launchers that are currently reloading (spent). It does not see a difference between lauch-ready and spent launchers currently. And since you can't drag & drop while scrolling the list, it's tricky to find usable launchers when there's a lot of them.
2) Create Salvo Size for offensive missile FCS setting. Goal: assigning all offensive box missile launchers to MFC and setting a salvo size, you won't have to shuffle launcher assignments around anymore. Say, I have 100 launchers, and want to use 20 per salvo. This way would also allow less micro for Fire At Will.

[nuclearslurpee]

Allow ships to be built into naval admin commands.

Instead of being built to a target fleet, new ships could have the option to be built to a naval admin command. Once built, they would be formed into a single-ship fleet with the ship name (the same way detaching a single ship from an existing fleet currently names the new fleet) which is placed under that admin command.

This would help manage some of the micromanagement involved with managing shipbuilding for large empires, since building into a Shipyard Fleet still requires clicking to detach and scrolling + dragging the detached ship to the proper place in the hierarchy, which can be tedious for ships intended to operate alone (e.g., survey ships, tankers, stabilization ships, industrial ships which will be immediately redeployed, etc.)

I would suggest that admin commands be color-coded as green in the shipyard drop-down menu to make it easier to parse the list of fleets and commands.