[Mod Idea] TechTree GUI

[skellitor301]

So I've been playing for a while and one thing I've been annoyed with is the difficulty of having techtree goals when you dont know which branch a certain tech is under (mostly from mods). So my idea is to have a panable GUI for the research screen, much like the achievement list in Minecraft. Another idea I had that went with this is if you select a research that's further down the tech tree, and you have several prerequisite tech that needs to be researched first, the GUI mod will automatically map out the line and set the current research to follow that line automatically. This'll make it so your researcher can continue to research what you want up to that goal without you needing to go in for each level of research

[1000101]

While there isn't such a mod as you are looking for, and I agree that the in-game research menu well...sucks.

I have written a simple tool to create a bitmap (.bmp) for the tech tree of your installed mod order.  It can be found here:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12064.0

Not usable in game, run the program to create the bitmap and you can at least refer to it by alt-tabbing or view it concurrently on a second monitor.

[skellitor301]

I know it doesn't exsit, which is why I'm mentioning the idea for any mod author's who like the idea can do it if they so desire

[1000101]

I know I have thought of it, it's the actual implementation to turn the xml into a usable tree graph which is the problem.

The tool I made has quite a lot of work to do to generate the output it does and the logic is not practically feasible as an actual menu replaced (which was what I was thinking of doing).  There isn't enough information carried in the research project defs to easily assign placement of nodes in the tree.  Although the node placement is an easy step, making the links showing who links to what is where it gets messy as it has to create "bridge nodes" between some research projects, then after all the bridges are created, it has to optimize the nodes (so you don't have one tech with 10 bridges when it only needs one main bridge and spurs to the destinations).

If some of this information was contained or pre-generated, all would be good.  About the only way I see a research menu replacement is if the user pre-generated the tree after installing mods so it could create the additional data the in-game menu replacer would use (so it can worry about just showing everything and not worry about where everything is).

I might try to tackle this if people would be willing to do this first-pass processing with a separate program.  It wouldn't be run every time, just when you install a mod with research in it so it can be incorporated into the placement data set.

[skellitor301]

If some research requires prerequisite research, wont that info be in the defs? As for the pregenerating of the tree, it could be easier if it generates separate trees per mod if applicable. Like one for Miscellaneous and MIA separate from MD2 for example. Would make scrolling through the tree a bit easier to work with in the end

[1000101]

True, not many mods use the core research as prerequisites.  Although, only the ship building in the core uses prerequisites and that's just the ship basics and cryptosleep (for ship caskets).