low effort QOL UI patch possible?

[Miles Teg]

So as the game goes on, the list of ships doing random things in the unassigned category grows. I typically have a bunch of 1 off ships doing random things, and it tends to clutter what is going on in the UI.

Can we possibly get folders/categories or some other custom label to group ships without a specific fleet? I do not even want/need logic for these folders, I just want a way to organize the list of ships into what they are doing. I would even be happy if fleets or other already build groups could not sort into these.

Anything to actually organize what is going on, just labels with no logic. Right now I change names, but the ability to collapse a category would make things really nice. So NO mimic behavior, NO sorting inside the folder, NO mass orders, NO code/logic outside of putting ships in a visual group that I can name and collapse the group.

Just a folder I can name and collapse, that is all. I know there is probably a mod already, but everything gets disabled when I start adding mods. Please, as a software engineer myself I want a folder of random ships I can create to organize. It is an array inside an array, or a temp ship object that contains ships. You already do this with fleets, but I am forced to have it mimic behaviors.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Miles Teg:

Can we possibly get folders/categories or some other custom label to group ships without a specific fleet? I do not even want/need logic for these folders, I just want a way to organize the list of ships into what they are doing. I would even be happy if fleets or other already build groups could not sort into these.

When I need something like that I create "mimic commander" fleets. That allows grouping, but does not allow me to change behavior of subordinates. I also occasionally use tags to mark specific roles, like $trader or #trader.

I'd recommend to post suggestions to egosoft forums....

[chronobomb]

I can see why this would be good. My personal way to help is this:

So I group my unassigned ships by a first letter. All the ships I don’t have to interact with get an X. So I might have xTrader L ARG 01 and it moves it all the way to the bottom of the list.

Ships I need to keep on eye on start with an a. Like aARG Def L 01 if it’s not part of a fleet.

Personal ships, I give an * as it moves them to the top of the list.

This way I do not have to find them. When you build a ship you can rename them so they slot right in.

[Amduskas]

While we're dreaming, imagine being able to select a dozen scouts, and order them all to refit to a new loadout at once.
We're all gonna make it, bros.

[Mechanical]

Originally posted by Amduskas:

While we're dreaming, imagine being able to select a dozen scouts, and order them all to refit to a new loadout at once.
We're all gonna make it, bros. :praisesun:

Select a dozen different ships, right click an equipment dock, mouse down to "Refit with Presets" a side menu pops up with a check box at the top that preserves the side menu when clicking. The side menu is populated by all the presets for each ship, sorted and demarcated by each ship, click away, and the relevant presets vanish as ships accept the refit task, until all ships are assigned to refit and the side menu vanishes.

[Venerable_Sin]

I've been asking for this (Being able to minimize fleets, stations and unassigned ship categories), the priority ware mechanic to be turn-off-able (preferable by ware or entire station), being able to turn off the face generator on personnel management, being able to search employees by moral and being able to rename all selected ships at once for what seems like years now. It took them two years for them to finally allow me to refit more than one ship at a time, so I know they get around to suggestions eventually, especially when a dev or their boss WANTS to do it. I'm glad more people are getting on board as they reach endgame content. I'd hope this gets more traction to where someone will pick up the ball and go with it, but I've lost my "hope" with Egosoft since the Timelines release. They only care about money.

[Amduskas]

Originally posted by Mechanical:

Originally posted by Amduskas:

While we're dreaming, imagine being able to select a dozen scouts, and order them all to refit to a new loadout at once.
We're all gonna make it, bros.

Select a dozen different ships, right click an equipment dock, mouse down to "Refit with Presets" a side menu pops up with a check box at the top that preserves the side menu when clicking. The side menu is populated by all the presets for each ship, sorted and demarcated by each ship, click away, and the relevant presets vanish as ships accept the refit task, until all ships are assigned to refit and the side menu vanishes.

Is that a mod? I do not have any such option.

Edit: Nevermind, I found it lol.

[Zloth]

Originally posted by chronobomb:

So I group my unassigned ships by a first letter. All the ships I don’t have to interact with get an X. So I might have xTrader L ARG 01 and it moves it all the way to the bottom of the list.

The sort is case sensitive, so lower case letters go lower than upper case. I use "z" on the front of ships that I just park at stations with faction reps so I can teleport to them. "free" on the front of miners/traders that don't need attention from me.

But yeah, Miles is right - what we're doing is just like making a folder that can't collapse. It doesn't hold up very well in later stages of the game.

We need folders to put fleets into, too. I'll sometimes assign captured pirate ships to escort mining ships. Do a few dozen of those, and you've got the same issue with fleet entries.

What should happen if a ship in the folder is having problems with orders? Maybe some text with a count of the issues in that same orange color on the right side of the folder line?

[Carlsberg]

Originally posted by Mechanical:

Select a dozen different ships, right click an equipment dock, mouse down to "Refit with Presets" a side menu pops up with a check box at the top that preserves the side menu when clicking. The side menu is populated by all the presets for each ship, sorted and demarcated by each ship, click away, and the relevant presets vanish as ships accept the refit task, until all ships are assigned to refit and the side menu vanishes.

Thats great thanks. Both hold down CTRL to select individually or select the first one and holding shift when select the last one to highlight all in between.

Just sent 3 Ships from 3 different places to dock and wait at same wharf, thats a bonus move. What a great way to send extra ships to a conflict.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Amduskas:

While we're dreaming, imagine being able to select a dozen scouts, and order them all to refit to a new loadout at once.
We're all gonna make it, bros. :praisesun:

I'm fairly sure you could equip multiple ships simultaneously even in 7.2. Basically when you select multiple ships and rightclick-->change their equipment (forgot menu name) at a station, by default you'll be modifying one ship, but if you click dropdown menu, it'll open up, and you'll be able to select them all at once. They have to be the same model, I believe.

[Miles Teg]

I do have a whole bunch of wants when it comes to the UI, but as a software engineer myself this one just seems like an easy win. You could even take the fleet UI logic code and copy it, then delete the "copy leader behavior" functions out of it. In this case I could make fleets of units who continue to do whatever they were before. It feels like this is a day or 2 at most task for a single coder to do, and far less for a qa engineer to check. I know there are ways to name ships to organize them, but doing so feels far more like a work around for a simple change.

as far as copying load outs, ya that would be more of a script or bulk order function and probably have a few corner cases that need some work or consideration. Basically copy a load out like you do with a station and then just copy the work order across a bunch of ships, along with protections if the types of ships do not match. Not to mention a check to make sure the station you make the order to has all the correct weapons, logistical, and resource slots. Ex: do not allow if the station can not build one of the correct types of shield modules.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Miles Teg:

I do have a whole bunch of wants when it comes to the UI, but as a software engineer myself this one just seems like an easy win. You could even take the fleet UI logic code and copy it, then delete the "copy leader behavior" functions out of it. In this case...

As a software engineer you must be aware that sometimes software has eldritch horrors in form of code under the hood due to historical reasons, and that wriggling mass of stuff mortals aren't meant to see could block simple changes. X4 has more than one of strange design decision.

For example, the game use XML for scripting. Example:
https://ibb.co/N9BrX0w

[Miles Teg]

Originally posted by Doom:

Originally posted by Miles Teg:

I do have a whole bunch of wants when it comes to the UI, but as a software engineer myself this one just seems like an easy win. You could even take the fleet UI logic code and copy it, then delete the "copy leader behavior" functions out of it. In this case...

As a software engineer you must be aware that sometimes software has eldritch horrors in form of code under the hood due to historical reasons, and that wriggling mass of stuff mortals aren't meant to see could block simple changes. X4 has more than one of strange design decision.

For example, the game use XML for scripting. Example:
https://ibb.co/N9BrX0w

Meh, most use of XML and in examples like this are normally things that were left off from the time of using SOAP messages and code. I started off with XML at my first job before moving to rest. If it has XML, it might also have some LUA code somewhere in the framework as it was hot in the game industry around the same time.

right now I am occasionally having to tell people that REST works better for server communication and graphQl is for UI side work. Every 6-8 years the languages change, and this is an older game engine.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Miles Teg:

Meh, most use of XML and in examples like this are normally things that were

That's not data and not config. This is executable code, a XML-based custom programming language dialect. Also, it is used for AI routines and commands. One of the reasons why there are so few code mods for the game.

There is indeed lua, used for UI somewhere.

--edit--

Anyway. Regarding UI see nexus page for UI mods. There were few bigger UI modifications.

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/categories/7/

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/842

[Zloth]

Originally posted by Doom:

For example, the game use XML for scripting. Example:
https://ibb.co/N9BrX0w

Waaaait a minute! That's got a useful comment in it! Are you sure that's really from a software developer?? <evil grin >

[zpc]

Originally posted by Zloth:

Originally posted by Doom:

For example, the game use XML for scripting. Example:
https://ibb.co/N9BrX0w

Waaaait a minute! That's got a useful comment in it! Are you sure that's really from a software developer?? <evil grin :devilskiss:>

I like the "debugchance" attribute on param. Now I want a X4 D20 dice!