UX & keymapping wishlist for engineering

[heaventwig]

ugh. I'm not used to this browser on this OS, and I just lost an hour or more of writing. So I will revise, but with more brevity. A wishlist. First, keymap-able action-buttons:

1. next/prev system selectors (or a row of buttons, Z through dot, each assigned as a hotkey to select a specific system)
2. raise/lower coolant buttons (or a row of hotkeys, say A through quote, each assigned to a specific coolant level)
3. raise/lower power level buttons (or a row of hotkeys, say Q through right-square-bracket, each assigned to a specific power level)
4. a reset-coolant-levels button (takes them back to starting level -- all at zero except life support max)
5. a reset power-levels button (takes them back to starting level -- all at zero except life support; a second push on this button should duplicate the effects of the previous button, resetting coolant to starting levels as well)
6. a pair of buttons to raise and lower shields (or a one-button toggle, or make "shields" the tenth system on the bottom row)
7. silence engineering alarms
8. deploy flare

And I'd love to have more save slots for engineering presets (ten, at least; maybe with more available for those whacky modders making their own IO devices). And the ability to save a preset by holding down a modifier key (like ctrl, shift, alt, opt, or cmd) and tapping the number of the slot I want to save it in.

Seems like it'd be cool for the engineer to be able to activate and release the docking magnets, too.

[smcameron]

more save slots for engineering presets (ten, at least

Where'd you come up with that number? What are you going to do with all those? I haven't found much need for more than about three.

[smcameron]

• 4359b3fcc1b9bdd5011a726ecf9189fb1ed7c152 Make long press of number keys on engineering save preset

Not exactly what you asked for, but it mimics the on-screen buttons, if you long-press those with the mouse, they save the current settings as that preset, so it made sense that the keyboard buttons should work the same way for setting presets. Same as a car radio.

[heaventwig]

Cool! Thank you. My rationales for wanting more presets, and for the specificity of requesting ten slots: I have two sets of ten presets each that I use for different scenarios in Artemis. (If I could, I'd have even more in each.) And there's ten digits on our standard keyboards.

As an engineer, I can listen to what's going on at the other stations and hit my preset buttons at the right moment. Magically, just like when I was lighting theatrical shows in high school, everyone else looks great and nobody notices that the engineer exists.

A few of the systems in that other bridge simulator game aren't duplicated in SNIS (eg torpedoes and missiles come in one flavor each, they have their own tubes, and they don't require loading or unloading time, so there's no power management involved in the management of ordnance), which is fine — a tiny bit less coordination required with engineering. Maybe we lose the distinction between my torpedo-loading/unloading settings and my standard dogfight settings. But as an engineer or captain, I still want settings for all the following activities:

• sitting still and cooling off,
• focused scanning while doing little else,
• dogfighting,
• heavy firefights (more shields, less maneuvering),
• warping to wherever,
• high-energy turns,
• docking maneuvers,
• tactical ordnance at range,
• strafing runs,
• just surviving bombardment while escaping

Which... yeah that's ten. And I may be overlooking something.

[smcameron]

• 317de1ec63da232ab783a7b9feb0be9d62bd143f Make auto button sizing more accurate
• 40c8df3f142abdb485836578a50e9bb44204a2fc Rearrange engineering buttons to make room for more presets
• 2f7da80fd096c68f8d254707b8a45c3809ecd32d Increase number of engineering presets

[smcameron]

• cdd0cf794013bc4016832c821efe59895223ce81 Update engineering help text for additional presets