Ship Designing Improvements

from GalCiv2 Forums
I was just thinking of small changes and little tweaks that could make ship designing a little easier and less time-consuming. Here are my suggestions:

1) First of all let me say that i can't rotate neither the main map nor the ship designing window with the middle mouse button. It just doesn't work. That said i'm hoping that you add some hotkey or something so that anyone with this problem will be able to rotate. I don't mind so much about the main map but when designing ships it's a real drag rottating with the directional buttons on the screen.

2) I was thinking that we should be able to scale the different parts even if they are on the ship. This way ship design will get less time consuming and more fun in my opinion.

3) It would also be very nice if the hardpoints were implemented in a different way so as not to cover the whole ship preventing us from seeing underneath. There are some times where i can't find a spot for a part because there are so many hardpoints that the ship is covered in red! Maybe you could change their colour or make them a bit transparent or even both.

4) This is more of small feature request: I would like to be able to test my design before saving it. It could be like the battle screen minus the battle! There would be some options to test the aspects of the ship like: test weapons , test defences, manouvering, speed......

1-3 are things that in my opinion are needed to improve the overall designing experience. 4 isn't that important. I merely wrote just to make a suggestion.

So what do you think? I really want the first 3 ones.
8,296 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
1. I don't have a middle mouse button, but when I hold down the scroll wheel, I can pan the ship with no problem.

2. It would be nice to be able to scale pieces after they are applied. It is sometimes tough to see how a piece looks for size till after you have snapped it onto the ship, and then you want to change the size which involves, deleting, resizing and then fiddling to get it onto the correct hard point.

3. Not a bad idea, but not a biggie for me. I zoom in pretty close to the ship when applying pieces so I can see where it is going and to get it to snap onto the correct hard point. For me, getting the piece to grab the right hard point is a little finicky, and I have to rotate the ship around a lot to get the piece to line up.

4. No biggie for me. I would probably not use it anyway.

5. To add a suggestion: I would like the option to mirror a piece onto the opposite side of the ship. If I put a wing on one side, I would like the option to auto-place one on the opposite side for instance.

All in all, I love the ship design function even as it is.

Tony
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I would say the only annoyance I've come across in the ship editor is the inability to mirror accessories on a ship. I tried to make an enterprise type ship w/ upward curling pieces on the back and I would get one side on and then go to get the other side attached and it would curve down instead of up. I can rotate the mount point in different directions but then all I get is the curved piece either into the ship or backwards... I have not dl'ed the collector pack so it may be fixed there....
thoughts?
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Montag007, in most cases, curved parts have a counter-part that curves in the opposite direction. However, it can sometimes be hard finding said counter-part.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
BlizzardGR,

You are supposed to click the scroll wheel and rotate not the middle mouse button. If you click down on your scroll wheel and move the mouse I think you will be satisfied with the rotation.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
There is no way i can rotate. If i could rotate that way i wouldn't be complaining about it now would I?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
In most games when I "click" my mouse wheel the game crashed or alt tabs. I may have to check on my mouse settings.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe if i change my mouse settings it will work because now when i click on the wheel it goes to the desktop. Any idea what setting to choose for it? There are several options: back, forward, disable, maximize, minimize, new, open etc.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
BlizzardGR, I might know if you list all the options, I don't know what it would be called beyond "middle mouse button"
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Nevermind, i found the correct setting. When set to autoscroll the rotating function works. The default was "Next window". I own a "Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0" by Microsoft.

Anyone having the same problem i had (not being able to rotate with the WHEEL BUTTON) should change the "wheel button" setting ,under the "buttons" tab in the mouse properties, from the default "Next window" to the "AutoScroll" setting. That should do it.

PS: When i said "midle mouse button" i meant to say "wheel button". I thought it was the same because besides being a wheel it's also..... a button! I hope i cleared up any possible confusion.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
BlizzardGR, technically, it is the middle mouse button. If you use a sofware driver that doesn't remap the buttons at all, the mouse sends the same code as the third mouse button on a scroll wheel press. I thought that was pretty weird when they started coming out with mouse wheels, wanted a real third button (unix/X propeller head here) and didn't trust the mouse wheel as a button. I have since adapted.