Ship builder wishes

from StarControl Forums

I just finished my first spaceship build, here are a quick few suggestion to make things a little more user friendly on the ship creating side.

-A simple arrow on the grid pointing which direction is forward. In the beginning of a creation, I got confused a few times.

-Also on the grid, mark the boundaries of a Large, Medium and Small ship size. I did not know how big to make the model.

-Let us copy parts that have already been placed.  Sometimes you use a part repeatedly of a weird size or angle. (like a duplicate button!!)

-Simple Objects! Add a 6-sided cube to build off of. And some sort of long thin object that does not look like a spine.

-Different tabs to separate the objects in categories. I kept getting lost trying to re-find a certain object I placed.

-Let us manually type in numbers! This would have been incredible useful trying to match angles a few time.

That's my 2 cents. Overall it was a fun experience building my first ship, just some frustration that could have been avoided. I tried to limit it to what I think would be fairly easy to implement with out going overboard and make the user experience a bit easier.  

23,201 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

Also, to add on to this:

 

When rotating and/or offsetting on the sliders. There should be a “Zero” button for each slider. So you can easily reset the slider to zero. Also just for rotation, a -90 & +90 degree buttons. Trying to get that exact 90 rotation is a pain.

This would save tons of time when creating a ship. (And an overall reset button, zeroing out all the sliders on any given object.)

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

A simple arrow on the grid pointing which direction is forward.

A lot of us have asked for this. It'd be nice.

Also on the grid, mark the boundaries of a Large, Medium and Small ship size.

This is not necessary; the game will do it for you.

I did a little experimenting: these are the exact same ships with the exact same weapons and engines; the only difference is which size I chose. The game will scale it for you based on which you picked.

Let us copy parts that have already been placed.

Agreed. An eye-dropper or copy/cut/paste tools would be handy.

Simple Objects!

Again, agreed. Some sort of null object to use as a base object would be handy.

Different tabs to separate the objects in categories. I kept getting lost trying to re-find a certain object I placed.

On the one hand, yes, because I often lose my place, too. But on the other...with only a few exceptions--like engine parts that will generate a stream while in battle--parts are used only for what we decide. Goodness knows that there are a few with which I've done some rather odd--and certainly unintended--things.

Let us manually type in numbers!

On the one hand, yes, that'd be nice. But on the other, it's clear when looking that every number is a snap point; even the bits that look like decimal places will always end up at the same value every time.

Without a copy-paste tool for item values, I'm not sure typing in numbers is the best idea.

Trying to get that exact 90 rotation is a pain.

Which is obviously why 90 is one of the snap-to-values; it really shouldn't be a pain at all.

Not that I don't share your sentiment that it'd be nice to have a few short-cut buttons. But still...

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

Funny, I am not getting the snap to’s.

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

See whether you can get any values on the rotation numbers that isn't the pre-programmed set. Every time you move the sliders, they go to exactly the same numbers, every time.