Automatic Tool Selection System

[cyan oxide]

Automatic Tool Selection System

[long whale]

i feel like this kind of defeats the purpose of a major portion of the game

[cyan oxide]

Suffer with inventory management?

A game should not have inventory management as major portion of the game, that is wrong, bad UX.

It's not a gameplay mechanic, but interaction with UI where the player has to press alt and drag and drop from many backpacks

In a hellception of backpack inside backpack.

It requires many clicks (pressing alt) to find the desired item in the inventory, then you have do drag and drop to you hand, the organize later because the item swapped to slot the player don't want to, just to keep organized. It's exhausting.

[jagged bison]

It... isn't suffering. It is meant to mimic actually doing the things you do IRL. It is very deliberate and part of what a lot of players enjoy.

[cyan oxide]

How is that simulating, can I have a backpack inside a backpack IRL? Can a human carry infinites amount of material with no weight limit?

If I had to search something from my backpack IRL I would have to put it on the ground first, open it.

It's not a simulation, it's a bad presentation and management of UI.

The problem in question is not having to search, but to use the drag and drop system and caos of backpacks, the mouse wheel works ok when having one backpack open, but with many open it takes too much time to scroll, the only option is alt+drag drop.

[violet yarrow]

you know you can play the game without ever pressing alt, right?

hotkeys and scroll wheel is way faster

[cyan oxide]

#1439401028293234749 message

[violet yarrow]

the way you manage your inventory is not a problem for the devs to fix

[cyan oxide]

I'm not asking to remove the drag and drop, I'm asking for a better option for it and made a suggestion.
It's not the best system to have in the game, there is plenty of examples in other games on how to solve it.
But when in intense building it gets tiring to open/close backpacks and drag and drop items with alt.

The UX (User experience) is something to be considered and normally comes with QoL updates, additions to make the game more comfortable. After playing many hours, it becomes extremely exhausting (at least for me) repeating this action (alt+drag and drop). The scroll mouse is not viable (I normally use it for the toolbelt because I have Inventory Tweaks). When you have multiple windows open, takes too much time to scroll through. And no, there is no way to play the game without alt, because you have to open the backpack inside 4 or 5.

Another option is to have a Contextual Inventory where it shows required items from what you looking at and show it a separated window, then the player could scroll through and swap with F.

[cyan oxide]

Yes it is. It is for many players, just because you like it doesn't mean new players will.
It affects sales, the UX is unpleasant.

[violet yarrow]

i just fundamentally disagree with your take. the controls are inspired from SS13 where 2 handed controls are also used. if have multiple windows open and nested backpacks is cause so much friction in your gameplay, stop opening so many windows

when you are building you only need you backpack and tool belt open

you don’t need to carry all the supplies with you all the time

[cyan oxide]

Well there is some hyprocracy in your words, you are suggesting something that nobody would do. There is no way someone would waste time walking through airlocks, going back and forward just to grab resource when there is the possibility to carry the in character.

And that is not the point of this suggestion.

[violet yarrow]

the person you are describing is me 😂

besides that’s an extreme example, what i mean is you don’t need to carry 6 backpacks filled with every building material in the game. you can think about the project and carry a stack of the things you might need and restock when you run out

[cyan oxide]

Yeah, but the game allows me to do it — and that’s where the problem lies.
If the game lets the player perform something, the UX should support it with a design that feels smooth and intuitive.
If it doesn’t, then it’s simply bad UX.

[jagged bison]

I tend to make multiple trips to move stuff to a work area also and put it in floorage or if storm hazard a double locker or two.

[violet yarrow]

you can do just about anything in this game (many of them end in explosions) but that doesn’t mean you should

the controls could certainly be made more intuitive but then that would be a different game and not stationeers

[cyan oxide]

Yeah, but you are talking about game mechanics. I'm talking about UX, do you know what even UX means?

[violet yarrow]

look, all i’m saying is just because you are having an issue because of the way you decide to play the game doesn’t mean the devs need to do anything to fix it when you could just change your playstyle

[cyan oxide]

Then you don't know what UX means

Ask chatgpt about.

[violet yarrow]

i’m not going to entertain this line of argument

[cyan oxide]

Doesn't matter, this is not meant to entertain you but the devs. You have helped me explain my point in the thread and at some point they will read it. And they know what UX is.

[safe terrace]

at first I thought the inventory system was quite tedious, but once you get a work flow you work around it. Not the best system, but I prefer it to some automatic tool selection. Id settle for contextual tool tips though. It is somewhat annoying not knowing which tool is needed for a task, but guess thats what the Stationpedia is for.

[jagged bison]

Yeah, don't get me wrong, the UI and UX could use a little work and polish, but in general I think it is a good system.

[viral thunder]

Just use F, G and scroll wheel

[violet yarrow]

if you look at a structure with a tool, it should already show a tool tip telling you what the right tool is

[jagged bison]

I've found a major annoyance with this is if you are holding a tool with another purpose it does not show which tools do what alternate task. Like holding a crowbar looking at a door will say you can pry the door open but not how to disassemble it. That is just an example, I cannot remember currently which things do that.

[safe terrace]

That is more what I was referring to. I pull out a random tool to see how to assemble/disassemble and the tool has a function already so no tool tip

[violet yarrow]

you should make that a separate suggestion thread

[keen plaza]

You kind of learn what tools do what pretty fast. I don't see how this is an issue.