Construction interface

Started by Armorat, April 12, 2014, 12:16:14 AM

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Armorat

I think there's got to be a better name for the "Buildings" submenu, considering none of the items within it are actually buildings. It's not an intuitive handle, and despite playing Rimworld since the first alpha (though not obsessively) I still can't habitually find the right tab when I'm looking for generators (those are structures, right?) or comms console (why not sorted with the other colonist workstations?).

I can't really think of a better title that encompasses the current contents, as it's something of a miscellaneous category right now...considering it's mostly power items but also contains graves and gibbet cages. Raises the question of UI organization in future updates, though. I can't imagine that all of the future additions will fit in these 4 tabs without leaving them too cluttered. On the other hand, I don't think you'd want to add many more buttons to the existing set, or it will start consuming too much screen real estate.

One possible solution, just spitballing: there's a single construction button in the left box, instead of the 4 we have now. Click this, and a row of tabs slide up from the bottom of the screen with the different building categories. Select one of these and the individual options pop up above in a row of their usual boxes. This would allow for more categorization options, making for a more intuitive breakdown of items. Would also provide the space for modders to add their own new tabs, if they were adding something they felt was a unique category. I'm no designer, though...any other thoughts?