Alpha 7 UI "regression": Choice of material limited to those in stock

[scode]

As of Alpha 7, only those materials you have in stock are allowed to be selected for use with walls and other objects. This ends up being annoying, because you can no longer queue up building something without first waiting for resources to come in. E.g., a temporary lack of wood prevents you from queuing up simple wood walls.

A possible solution may be to white list materials that are expected to churn, or maybe just sort them in order of stock status to avoid the special case so the UI behavior appears more consistent. Or - always keep the full list, and default to the most recently picked one.

Relatedly, it seems the icon changes to reflect the most recent choice - but you still have to actually pick the material despite the icon seemingly reflecting the most recent choice.

[RemingtonRyder]

Yeah, I found it a bit annoying in the early stages where I would keep running out of wood for walls.  I ended up making basic metal outer walls because hey, it's cheap and the metal was plentiful.

[Haplo]

Personally I don't find it too much of a bother.
I think it's a perfect reminder, that you are out of this and that material and you should do something about it.
So I think it is a nice reminding tool as it is

[JonoRig]

I like the new system, but i would prefer the UI to just say "Wall, Door, Bed" and then the drop menu is the material, rather than suggesting the last thing it was built out of, I just feel it would look... "Cleaner"??

[MajorFordson]

On the flipside of that ^ I wish it would remember the last material you wanted, instead of constantly popping up the material list.

So first time you click Door, the material menu comes up. Select wood, then left click from then on the Door icon will auto-ready a wooden door. To change the material you would then right click the Door icon and choose a new material. Would make building things repeatedly much easier.

[JonoRig]

Or that, at the moment though, the last used material feels useless, not a bad thing, i just feel it should either be utilised, or removed so it looks nicer in the UI

[christhekiller]

I'm pretty sure it'll show you the stuff for whatevers on the map. I was still given the option to build metal walls despite all of it being not in a stockpile

[Matthiasagreen]

Or that, at the moment though, the last used material feels useless, not a bad thing, i just feel it should either be utilised, or removed so it looks nicer in the UI

It will be better in A8.

http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=6443.0

[Kagemusha]

I will add a plus one to the idea that wood and metal objects should simply be available options at all times. The likelihood of not being able to obtain those resources is close enough to null that it's not worth considering.

It certainly can be dealt with but it can be a bother to not be able to lay down your plans before the resources have been transferred to a stockpile. Add to that that early game I often don't make a stockpile immediately since the trees being chopped are in the area I want to build anyway so it's more efficient for the colonists to grab resources straight away.

[Dr. Z]

The options availible depend on the resources availible on the map, not in your stockpiles. To proof I just started a new colony. As you can see in the picture below it's day one, right after the crash. I teared down some ruins, every resource on the map despite the stone blocks in the picture is forbidden and I have no stockpiles at all, but I'm able to build with metal, wood, silver and stone, even without reaserching stonecutting.