Forming groups of colonists

[Grimandevil]

Maybe it would be nice if u could add colonists into groups.
Like if u want to make a group of snipers, and another group of assault troops, w/o searching them 1 by 1 every time (esp when u got alot of dudes).

U could add a new tab in overview.

[HatesYourFace]

Maybe it would be nice if u could add colonists into groups.
Like if u want to make a group of snipers, and another group of assault troops, w/o searching them 1 by 1 every time (esp when u got alot of dudes).

U could add a new tab in overview.

Like all good ideas, it's simple, elegant, and solves an existing problem. +1

[BetaSpectre]

Yeah most games let you hold crtl and a number to assign a group.
Pretty much any RTS game does this.

[Grimandevil]

Yeah most games let you hold crtl and a number to assign a group.
Pretty much any RTS game does this.

Indeed.
i only suggested a special tab b'coz 1 colonist may be a member of several groups, to do different roles, thus it will be more visually clear. Besides num keys already taken.

[cj9999]

agree

[Ink.]

Bumping this because I just was about to write a thread when I remembered to search first. Here's what I had wrote:

So I thought of this idea. I like to split my colonists into groups. Those who are capable of fighting are my soldiers and handle soldier responsibilities and hauling. Those who cant, help the colony through the other methods such as cooking, cleaning, growing, etc.

One of the hard parts is if I'm on the overview screen or trying to gather my soldiers together for a fight, it's somewhat hard to do because I basically have to regroup everyone and sort out the characters who aren't military from those who are. This is where my idea would be useful.

Being able to assign a custom groups to colonists. You could then sort and select colonists by groups. So, if I wanted everyone who is listed as part of group military, I could select them, draft them, and move them where I want them.

Now, in addition to that, I bolded the S on groups above for a reason. As I think colonists should be able to be a part of multiple groups. So let me explain why by giving an example scenario.

A pirate band is setting up for a raid and I've been alerted. I select all of group [MILITARY], draft them, and bring them to the staging area. Now, not everyone in group [MILITARY] fights in the same way. Snipers and Mortar operators don't sit on the front line. So what I do is I select everyone who has the [SNIPER] group assigned to them and move them towards the sniper ambush locations. Then I select [MORTAR] group and move them towards my mortars. I individually move them from there.

In that case, not only did I grab and select every colonist that is capable of fighting. I managed to split them up quickly and efficiently. The snipers went to the ambush, mortars went to the mortars and the front lines went to their cover.

But it doesn't have to have a sole military purpose. Let's say I have group [NON-MILITARY]. I could also have a sub-group of that called [MINERS]. I could then manage all the colonists responsible for mining by selecting them.

But this doesn't necessarily have to mean just moving colonists around. Perhaps you could also select my group in the overview screen. So if I created a new group of [MINERS] and I wanted to set them all priority 1 to mining. By selecting the group and then setting the priority, it could do it for the entire group instead of manually setting minors by finding which names are designated miners and selecting their priority (hoping that I'm hitting the right line).

It can definitely help colony management.

[Varnhagen]

I can top all that!!!

I just don't want to group only colonists. I want to group everything.

• Under Attack? Select your non-essential lights by pressing "0" and switch them off at once. Select "9" for the main turret group and these cool red lights you spammed and power 'em up!
• Raining again? Some power drawing tidbit is still not roofed because your imp prefers sleeping to living (WORK is LIFE), select it and the (modded) on/off switch for the batteries with a quick key and solve a problem!
• Lost in the Wilds? A pod dropped off some useful crap but for the life of you, you can't find it on your mega-map? Would have been cool if you'd have booked it. Tap once to select, tap twice to be taken there. Woohoo!

And much more. Infinite possibilities!
And as a free give-away on top: I want more (MOAR^TM) mappable keys. Use any non-hotkeyed key. CTRL-L: Lights!

Lastly, a convenience issue: It'd be great to double click some drone in the overview and be taken right to them.
Possible in A7! All praise the Devs!

[Ink.]

I can top all that!!!

I just don't want to group only colonists. I want to group everything.

• Under Attack? Select your non-essential lights by pressing "0" and switch them off at once. Select "9" for the main turret group and these cool red lights you spammed and power 'em up!
• Raining again? Some power drawing tidbit is still not roofed because your imp prefers sleeping to living (WORK is LIFE), select it and the (modded) on/off switch for the batteries with a quick key and solve a problem!
• Lost in the Wilds? A pod dropped off some useful crap but for the life of you, you can't find it on your mega-map? Would have been cool if you'd have booked it. Tap once to select, tap twice to be taken there. Woohoo!

And much more. Infinite possibilities!
And as a free give-away on top: I want more (MOAR^TM) mappable keys. Use any non-hotkeyed key. CTRL-L: Lights!

Lastly, a convenience issue: It'd be great to double click some drone in the overview and be taken right to them.

Well, speaking for the first one. You can double click on it and all lights of the same type that are visible on your screen will be grabbed (up to a certain threshold). You can then modify their power input all at once that way. This works with zooming in so you can zoom in on only the section you want to change.

Or, if you have more than what you want selected, I believe if you hold shift and either click or drag the box over the ones you don't want, it'll deselect them. Then you can do like above.

Case you didn't know and are trying to do that IG currently.

[Varnhagen]

Well, speaking for the first one. You can double click on it and all lights of the same type that are visible on your screen will be grabbed (up to a certain threshold). You can then modify their power input all at once that way. This works with zooming in so you can zoom in on only the section you want to change.

Or, if you have more than what you want selected, I believe if you hold shift and either click or drag the box over the ones you don't want, it'll deselect them. Then you can do like above.

Case you didn't know and are trying to do that IG currently.

Sure you can, quite handy. But having to select them every time anew when all hands go to battlestations is tedious compared to single keystroke selection.

[Ink.]

Well, speaking for the first one. You can double click on it and all lights of the same type that are visible on your screen will be grabbed (up to a certain threshold). You can then modify their power input all at once that way. This works with zooming in so you can zoom in on only the section you want to change.

Or, if you have more than what you want selected, I believe if you hold shift and either click or drag the box over the ones you don't want, it'll deselect them. Then you can do like above.

Case you didn't know and are trying to do that IG currently.

Sure you can, quite handy. But having to select them every time anew when all hands go to battlestations is tedious compared to single keystroke selection.

Exactly. It can get quite bothersome. This would also be good for things like, imagine you have a set of machining tables and you have them all suspended. Being able to un-suspend a line of them at once would be useful.