Improvements to menu's, selection tools and macros

[Hugoagogo]

Have just got into Rimworld, and have really found some of the menu and selection tools to be very cumbersome.

I know it is still early days for development but, I think some stuff like keyboard short-cuts through all the levels of menu's would be very quick to add and help make the game more immersive. Much the same way as when playing dwarf fortress how after the first few hours you no longer have to pay attention to the menus, and can designate or build anything with just a few keystrokes, want to dig out some rock, d,d want to dump all items in an area d, b, d, build a cage trap b,T,j. A system like this would help cut out having to fumble around with the mouse, and be able to select anything near instantly.

Selection of items, units and buildings is slowed down greatly by suddenly not being able to do anything once more than one kind of item is selected. The most common example of this would be trying to select resources and un-forbidding them, invariably some boomrat, squirrel or colonists will walk through the zone you are trying to select meaning you have to do it as 4 small selects rather than one large quick select.

The best solution I can think of to this is having a tab system, so when you select a bunch of objects you can chose a tab in the selection window i.e. resources, units, buildings etc, and are then given the relevant options for that type, this could possibly even be broken down again into each exact type of item, i.e. food and metal.

One last thing that I would particularly like to see in the game is macros i.e. being able to bind an action to a hotkey, like turning on and off power to auxiliary lights etc.

I am interested to know what other people think of the current system, or what alternative solutions people have.

[Semmy]

For selecting double click on for instance food and all food will be selected in your screen.

[Galileus]

I don't think current menus are even close to being finished, so it's not so curious there are no hotkeys right now. I can't imagine Tynan would give up on them as a design choice or ignorance.

[todofwar]

I would like hot keys for the time controls, like the ability to speed up or slow down time and a pause button.

I do like the idea of hot keys for buildings and structures.

[Galileus]

I would like hot keys for the time controls, like the ability to speed up or slow down time and a pause button.

onetwothreespace

[Hugoagogo]

This could possibly go into cheap ideas as I imagine it is something that should not take that long to impliment

[daft73]

As far as UI goes, I'm positive (99.9%) this will be updated. Ideas I can think of, Bigger fonts, hot keys for colonists' actions, pop-ups with ample info, and a more streamlined way to organize, and access colonists. As of now quick-access is clunky..but it is early, and I have faith in Tynan.