Delete, name, & rearrange templates

[Thundercraft]

As mentioned in the Custom Predefined Shapes topic, we can add our own custom shapes to the templates window in build mode.

 

I've had the experience of wanting to delete one or more templates that I created. Unfortunately, there currently does not seem to be an easy way to do this. The way I finally managed this was by opening up my templates.xml file (located in C:\Users\ [username] \AppData\Roaming\Avorion\) in Notepad++ and carefully deleting the right <template></template> brackets.

 

This is made difficult by the fact that none of the templates have a name. So, I have to judge which is the right one by the order in the list and the size.

 

And that brings me to my next suggestion: The ability to change the order of templates in the template portion of the window. Currently, the order can not be manually changed - aside from editing it via Notepad or something. Even so, I have seen the order of templates change automatically after re-opening build mode. (Or was it after reloading the game?)

 

Also, it would be nice to be able to attach a name to a template.

[SageThe13th]

If you select a template and hit the delete key it gets deleted.

 

It would be super handy to be able to name templates and move them around.

[Kannloar]

Hi !

 

First, thanks for the game, it's really awesome !

 

I dig this topic out because actually i'm attempting to make "modular" ships. So i've a lot of template and it's quite difficult to manage.

(at this moment i'm switching the template xml, regarding to wich part i'm building).

 

So i wonder if there a possibility (or a wish) to improve the template feature ? At least a possibility to manualy sort templates, and why not the possibility to name them or order them in category (inside, top, bottom etc...)

 

Bye

 

Kannloar

[Tampa_Gamer]

100% agree with the above post/request.

 

The flexibility and brilliance of the ship design module is one of the key strengths of this game, but the inability to handle basic windows functionality (from decades ago) mars the experience for new users and old alike and wastes a lot of time (with workarounds).

 

Both the template and ship design area need to handle: (1) the ability to create/name a folder at the point of saving a design and navigate within those folders - this will allow users to self-organize as they see fit; (2) the ability to see what the date of the is (so you can determine latest versions for a particular design/template); and (3) the ability to "save as" or rename a ship design or template on the fly.

 

 

[Shrooblord]

Additionally, the Saved Ships windows to my idea could use a little bit of a rework. Instead of showing 99 versions of Ship X, I'd love to see one instance of Ship X, with when I click on it a subset of design iterations. Almost like a history for each ship design.

 

As a technical implementation, I could suggest doing this by organising the ship designs in the following manner: each ship has a folder inside the ship designs folder, within which each iteration of that ship is housed. The preview thumbnail and "default design" when selecting a ship design is always the latest one. Whether that's determined by "version number" or by "last modified date", I'm not sure which would be better.