Lots of Small Suggestions
-
TPT overall is an awesome game, but like any game it has it's flaws. Here are some things (Some useless) that I would like to see added or changed within the game. Most of these things are simple small tasks that can be changed with a few some lines of code. So please consider them.
1. More functionality for signs. Right now signs show tempreature, pressure, link saves/threads, spark and not much else. It's really easy to add more uses such as displaying life, pressure, vecloity, kelvin temp, id, tmp2, GOL generation, ctype, version, etc... and running commands (Maybe not), searching for saves, and other stuff like selecting the color (Maybe a color tag) (or maybe not...). It's easy to implement (most of these) and very useful. Also make the signs slightly longer, it's like writing on a piece of tape as of now.
2. The HUD. The current HUD doesn't display a lot of important information, such as kelvin temp, id, tmp2, flags, velocity, air/gravity mode, etc... Although I doubt someone would use something beyond tmp2, it's still pretty nice to have it as an option. I mean look at this. It's like a TPT modder's dream.
3. A delete everything tool. Jacob1's mod has one, and it would be very useful for vanilla TPT.
4. A percision PROP like pressure setting tool. Easy to set exact pressures. And bursh size indicaters. Don't know why, but it might help someone.... you know what just skip this one.
5. Again from jacob1's mod, a loop edge mode where particles warp to the other side when they reach the edge.
6. Slightly more options for some elements. Ie ETRD would make an arc out of it's ctype, dust isn't flammable if tmp=1, SING uses gravity if tmp2 = 1, AMTR explodes when tmp2=1 and when it touches something, etc...
7. DECO FLOOD FILL. It's a pain to color every single tiny pixel on a huge percision project, so why not just add flood fill? It would color all of the same element the same color.
8. Auto-save to server every 5 minutes? It would help some forgetful people.
Builds bunker to protect myself from spam
Edited once by Lord_Bowserinator. Last: 1st Jul 2015 -
@boxmein (View Post) Not if I publish my mod first!
-
1. There is not currently an easy way of providing an interpretation of all particle properties, such as tmp2 and ctype, that is friendly to less technical users. Though I suppose one could do some sort of format specifier in the sign to determine how to display it - integer / hexadecimal / element name / photon wavelengths graphic / etc.
Command signs and why I think they are bad have been discussed at length previously.
Searching for saves has been implemented but not yet released.
Sign colour is really for indicating what the sign does, rather than decoration. Sign length limit is supposed to discourage people from filling saves with huge amounts of text, but maybe it could be a bit higher.
5. Has been implemented but not yet released.
6. I believe in keeping options for elements to a minimum, and in the principle of least astonishment.
Unnecessary extra options make TPT more complicated to use, since people have to memorise what all these hidden values with strange names do. Options should be necessary (i.e. extremely useful, rather than just "meh, why not"), and if possible, easy to understand (e.g. ctype affecting the input/output type is a widespread convention so fairly easy to remember; but tmp2 doing different random things on every element, not so much).
Least astonishment: Elements should behave consistently - two particles of the same element that look the same should do much the same thing, they should not behave in radically different ways based on non-obvious factors (e.g. particle properties that are only ever set manually and produce no obvious visual difference). If two particles do very different things, they should really be separate elements. E.g. non-flammable dust - there are many non-flammable powders, and they are separate elements.
(principle of least astonishment is also why I hate particle order... :< )7. Should it really flood fill all particles of the same type, or would it be better to attempt to flood fill all particles of the same colour (possibly minus glow effects)? As an interim solution, you could use the PROP tool to flood fill dcolour.
Edited 4 times by jacksonmj. Last: 1st Jul 2015 -
Fair enough.
-
1. Good idea
2. Maybe it would be a good idea - Just make sure it only opens when you press 'D' twice
3. Possible, but remember, you can always 'cut' an area using CTRL+X.
4. Useless, since you can't even save pressure.
5. Read @jacksonmj's comment
6. Yep, and I also think ETRD should have tmp2 channels, just so that you can connect only some ETRD to each other. But since there is already EQVE which won't burn, the DUST thing is not required.
7. I strongly agree.
8. No, because if someone accidentally broke a save, and had spent a lot of time on it, they wouldn't want to auto-save because it would ruin it. There is a 'history' function, but you wouldn't want to be the one trying to search through every auto-save trying to find the non-screwed-up one. Maybe add it as an option?
-
On an unrelated note, DOWNLOAD MY MOD!
-
@Lord_Bowserinator (View Post)
1. I think some signs like life, type, and random others like ambient heat could be nice. We already have a pressure sign, and not sure signs for random properties like tmp2 are a good idea. It might be nice if you could type a message in those signs, like "Deut life: {tmp}" (if we allowed things like this then a tmp sign could possibly be a good idea)
2. We would need a better options menu to add this, but it would definitely be very nice. My mod has custom HUDs but the interface to select them is terrible.
3. Would be nice, I might also make it not a wall shape.
4. You can set pressure with lua, idk what else you are asking for but it doesn't sound too useful.
5. Already added as people already said :P
6. My mod has that SING one but I might remove it (just so that there are no random differences). I'm not sure if more hidden properties is a good idea, it might be nice if there was a way to select versions of elements with alternate properties though (like, you do something with FILT and a something comes up with all the different FILT types).
7. didn't realize we didn't have it. In my mod it just flood fills that element with the color but I had plans to do what jacksonmj said.
8. Auto save locally, sure :P. I had this in my mod but I removed it because it is slow to save a save (and it is also even slower to upload it). The freeze every time it does this would get annoying. In my mod you just press ctrl+s and it saves it for you, you can use the reload button after that. Very useful but I need to add history ... -
jacob1:
8. Auto save locally, sure :P. I had this in my mod but I removed it because it is slow to save a save (and it is also even slower to upload it).
I don't have any issues with save speed on your mod, but then again I've got a Core i7 4790k and an SSD.
-
@ChargedCreeper (View Post)
I have an i7 and an SSD too, in general fairly good :P. The lag is only from compressing the save. Try floodfilling anything (even diamond) and then doing ctrl+c over the whole screen and you will notice it freeze for half a second.
