[1.0.6.0] QOL Suggestions to improve drag-select

[100thMonkey]

As it is now, drag-select allows you to select all ships in a map region. It puts those ships in the selection panel. And if some of the selected ships appear in the currently visible list in the control center, they're highlighted.

All good stuff!

But I believe that by adapting functionalities already present in the game, and what I'm confident would be some relatively small modifications to the existing drag-select code (of course, Elliot is the authority on that), drag-select could be used to:

• Select only ships of certain type/role/hull in the region. For instance, only your frigates near the border with another empire that just declared war on you

• Select your monitoring stations near an empire that you believe is preparing to attack you, to upgrade their design to the new one with the more powerful sensors

• Select your caslon mines away from your border with your enemy, to upgrade them to the new design with the better mining engines, while leaving those near the enemy border as they are, because they might be attacked or captured by them.

• And much more!

How? By using the control center as a filter for the drag-select!!!

After all, it already act as a filter:

• If you activate the control center ship filter to see only frigates, frigates are highlighted on the map.

• If you activate the mining locations to see only your caslon mining stations, they're highlighted on the map.

• Same for all lists that show items visible on the map.

So then, it seems to me that it's "only" a question of modifying the drag-select code so that it selects, in the dragged region, items that are highlighted on the map / that matches the active control center list and its filter. And only those items. Of course, that means that drag-select would be able to select other items than just ships, depending on what list and filter is active in the control center. For instance: caslon mines.

There is one other addition that would make all that even more useful and efficient: a "Selected" filter in each of the control center lists that can display drag-selected items. That would eliminate from the list the non-selected items, keeping only the selected ones, greatly reducing the "noise" in the interface (items that you're not interested in at the moment), by the same token reducing the amount of required scrolling to do what you want to do with the selected items.

One last thing: what if you DO want to select all the ships in the dragged region? Then, you simply close the control center, so that no list is shown, and then drag-select to your heart's content.

Feedback and comments appreciated.

[rxnnxs]

Good idea!
It kind of this works already in the ship designer. There the filter applies also to the components that you add to the ship.
Also if it is in the other design mode. I hope you know what I mean.

And if you want to select all ships, you could as well say:; control+drag select selects all.

[100thMonkey]

It kind of this works already in the ship designer. There the filter applies also to the components that you add to the ship.
Also if it is in the other design mode. I hope you know what I mean.

No, I don't, sorry. I went into the ship designer to try to figure out what you mean, but I couldn't.

And if you want to select all ships, you could as well say:; control+drag select selects all.

In fact, it could all be done by displaying a menu when you start drag-selecting, allowing you to specify what you want to select (ships, frigates only, mining stations, etc.). But I believe that would be a lot more work for Elliot. The idea of using the control center for the filtering is that the interface code is already done: it's the control center, its lists and filters.

[rxnnxs]

It kind of this works already in the ship designer. There the filter applies also to the components that you add to the ship.
Also if it is in the other design mode. I hope you know what I mean.

No, I don't, sorry. I went into the ship designer to try to figure out what you mean, but I couldn't.

You have to the left in the ship designer the filter where you can say ie: "only latest weapons".
Now there are two ways of how to build your ship:
the one is, you select in the component list above what you want to place in the ship, then you click at the bottom, where you can put the components in, and place them there.

The other way is, you have nothing in the top left component selections selected. when you go now in the bottom left, the emtpy ship so to speak, you can click the left mouse button and hold it, then a drop down list appears.
you can then select all components, that fit into the bay you have left clicked and held the mouse button at.

Now, if oyu have filtered then before for only latest weapons, only those are shown instead of all. Or the alphabetical sort, then you have that order.
Maybe you try it.
You can see if the one or the other mode is active by the color that changes in the columns.

And if you want to select all ships, you could as well say:; control+drag select selects all.

In fact, it could all be done by displaying a menu when you start drag-selecting, allowing you to specify what you want to select (ships, frigates only, mining stations, etc.). But I believe that would be a lot more work for Elliot. The idea of using the control center for the filtering is that the interface code is already done: it's the control center, its lists and filters.

It would work as you say, but with ctrl+rectangle, you would override your set filter.
You would not have to leave the control center.

[100thMonkey]

It would work as you say, but with ctrl+rectangle, you would override your set filter.
You would not have to leave the control center.

Thanks for the explanation. I now understand what you were referring to in relation to the ship designer. But I think you didn't completely understood what I'm proposing.

Yes, with the way it works right now, doing a drag-select would cancel what is highlighted on the map because of the control center. But that could be changed. Elliott could change it so that when you start dragging it doesn't override the filtering from the control center.

That would make possible many types of multi-selections that are impossible to do right now with drag-select.

[rxnnxs]

I understand what you mean, but you wrote, when you want to select it (all ships) without any filter, you have to leave the control center.
But you would not have to, when you press control for instance to override the filter settings.

I would really love one first step: not deselecting the selection when we drag the screen

[100thMonkey]

I understand what you mean, but you wrote, when you want to select it (all ships) without any filter, you have to leave the control center.

That's because, even with what I'm proposing, if you would close the control center, it would cease to "filter", just as it does now. So in that specific state - when the control center is "closed" (ie: no list is shown) - it would behave the same as now, even after what I'm suggesting would have been implemented.

But you would not have to, when you press control for instance to override the filter settings.

If what I'm proposing would be implemented, it would be necessary, because starting to drag-select wouldn't clear what's highlighted on the map. The only time it would, is if you would close the list itself, so no list would be shown at all in the control center.

I would really love one first step: not deselecting the selection when we drag the screen

Yes, I would love that too. Maybe something as simple as "You need to double-click on empty space" to clear the current selection. And simply clicking and dragging would just pan the map.