Sorting Base Item Tabs?

[Enabling Shenanigans]

For the love of all we hold holy, can we please have the base items tabs organized? 

 

We have pillars, stairs, surfaces, statues, cabinetry, and the gods know what else, in multiple tabs.  Yes, we can search by item.  But unless I'm looking for a specific thing, like stairs, I scroll through the tab's contents because seeing all of the items frequently inspires me to make cool stuff.

 

But remembering which stairs, or shelves, or walls, or whatever, is on which tab is becoming cumbersome and more than a little annoying.

 

Hell, I'd be willing to do it!  I know all of you folks with access to the tools are crazy-busy, both with CoHH and analog life, so I'd be more than willing to go through all of the tabs and make a spreadsheet with each item and the tab it should go on so all someone with access has to do is translate the item data to the UI for building, or whatever sorcery it is that gets these things done.

 

What're our chances of seeing this happen?

[EmmySky]

+infinity

 

I can never remember which tab I need for which item.

[Dacy]

All the yes! Especially since new items were added, some seem to have been added in rather arbitrary places.

 

We have light sources in Room Details. We have a category for statues, but there are many statues not in this category. To name just a couple of small examples.

 

If organized, I would also want some items that could appear in multiple categories. For instance, the floating cauldron under lighting, it doesn't actually light, and it's arcane, so it could easily go under arcane, as well. You should be able to find out which lights actually light without having to test them out, which floors are counted as floors, without having to test items on them. You should be able to trust that, if something is a surface, you can walk on it without falling through or sinking into it. (Roman Emblem comes to mind, if I am recalling correctly, and also, if you don't have a floor under a water plate, you fall right through it). I'd love to be able to sort items by surface type: which ones look like concrete? Which ones look like metal? Which ones look like glass? If I want glass right now, I can look under Dividers, for the glass walls, Surfaces, for the glass floor, or (memory fails, it's a newer item) I think Cityscape for glass sections. If I want stone, I might look under Landscape, or, a lot of stones were just added to Nature. Ruins? Try Cityscape...No, wait, maybe that's Structures...unless you want Roman ruins, and then maybe it's Pillars. Oh, was it a temple front you wanted? That'd be under Windows and Doors. How about Arachnos windows? Oh, right, Windows and Doors. And Tech. Oh, and the new Villain Lair category! Don't forget Wall Details....

 

Yes. Categorizing would be wonderful! But challenging, to say the least. Some floors aren't floors, they are surface coverings. Some lights aren't really lights,  they just look like lights. Some windows are really just wall decorations, because you can't see through them at all, and some light up. I'd almost want tags: these items have a light effect, and these items actually provide light. These items are counted as floors (things with the "floor" attachment will attach to them). These items have a surface that looks like concrete. These items have a surface that looks like stone. These items are round. These items are tintable. These items are see through. These items are huge and must be placed after enabling room clipping...and  so on. However, that might be exhaustive, since things are  so very inconsistent, but it would be helpful to someone who hasn't spent hours and hours in the base editor, figuring out just which things have which properties. Which is most people. 🙂

 

-Dacy

[WanderingAries]

Could we maybe have a wiki like page offline that we can match names to so that the search function can be used?

While we're at it...I can't read the damned text on the tabs at all. I can barely read what the item is and often am flying blind while building. Considering I'm running 1080p on a 40" TV, then I wouldn't have thought this to be an issue. Nothing is scaled differently.

[Dacy]

Hmm. Have you noticed that you can scale the size of the editing bar? Find one of the borders without a tab (that's the hard part). Position the cursor so that you get the arrows on either side of the line, indicating you can move it up or down. Moving it down, of course, shrinks the whole bar down, and it can be impossible to read in that position. Moving it up will expand things so they are easier to see and read. Just in case you didn't know that, and maybe accidentally sized it down.

 

-Dacy

[ShardWarrior]

TBH I would be for the base editor UI to be completely redone.  As more and more items get added, the more tedious it is to find something.

[Dacy]

Definitely, @ShardWarrior! Unfortunately I’m sure it’s not a high  priority right now. Things like that seldom are. But I’m willing to be proven wrong!😁

 

-Dacy 

[Rooster Gold]

Yea its a mess, navigating the tabs is like trying to unscramble an egg. 🍳

[Enabling Shenanigans]

 

>.>  Looks easy to me! 

 

😄

[Flashtoo]

Don't forget that we have redundant "Tech Medical" and "Science and Medical" tabs, each with its own set of items in it!

[PeterDutcher]

They could always add a 'Most Recently Used' tab. That would help a lot. Or a 'Favorites' tab.

[PeterDutcher]

While they are at it, it would be great if we could bold the tab name text and change the color of the interface.

 

Doing this would help those of use who have vision issues.

[MyriVerse]

On 2/20/2020 at 7:12 PM, Flashtoo said:

Don't forget that we have redundant "Tech Medical" and "Science and Medical" tabs, each with its own set of items in it!

The Tech Medical category is for the "functional" items like res chambers.

[Rooster Gold]

1 hour ago, MyriVerse said:

The Tech Medical category is for the "functional" items like res chambers.

Some things in Science and Medical like the AE Rez Pads are actually functional, while everything in the after the Heath Kit in Tech Medical is non-functional and both are tiny in comparison to other tabs but larger than its Arcane counterpart.