Saved templates, like using the ship fitting simulator and saving your load out would essentially eliminate the clicks and would be frankly the best QoL change PI could receive
Imo - if we could also preselect commodities/routing even better.
If not, then:
Followed by ‘shift’ click routing or even better en masse optimisation pick your final product (say p2 commodity) and everything below it optimises in the basic factories etc. Probably not possible, but you would remove 95% of clicks only thing left to do would to be to place extractors/time and away it goes.
I might have missed this, but a quick QoL item might to be to have the option of managing extractor resets without going planetside? I note that the PI window is getting refreshed, could a option to restart extraction be included there that would again remove the dogma of clicks that is PI gimps (and our wives) hate
Also gg so far the renewed attention is appreciated
I don’t know if this has already been mentioned, but I have a small suggestion.
When a user opens the planet interaction, the view is always centered on the command center. It would be nice if the user could have some sort of flag or marker they could plant so that the planet would open on that point instead of the command center. Because you cannot move the command center after it is planted without destroying it, your entire setup can end up on the other side of the planet view which forces the user to scroll to the extractors or whatever they need to focus on for that planet. A focus flag would certainly reduce clicks or mouse movements in this situation if that is indeed what your goal is here with this pass of improvements.
Allowing the user to move the command center without destroying it would be another fix for this situation as it would essentially be the focus flag I am suggesting here.
Make the extractors scalable. From 100% to 1000%. In that case one extractor can provide the output of 10. Or i can have one extractor for 200% and one for 800%. Saves us the tedious placing of 10 extractors over and over again, when we have to move to another spot.
How about adding some Skills while you are at it. Ones that would give greater PG/CPU as you train up (and/or ones that would reduce PG/CPU for assorted things). Maybe other skills that would increase the efficiency of extractors/factories/links/etc.
Maybe also add some mods (or rigs, i.e. Planetary Storage Expander Rig I and II) that could be used to increase the capacity of different things, or ones that increase CPU/PG (etc, etc). Just like we have for ships/structures (etc, etc).
(More mods/rigs, skills and blueprints - a CCP trifecta !)
PI has been pretty stagnant for years now (as far as updates and improvements). I still remember what a real click-fest it used to be when it was first brought out. 300 clicks was child’s play !
Running 6 colonies on 6 toons was turning “fun” into “work” to the point where I just gave up on it. (I “pay to play” so I don’t look to PI as another way to earn enough to play for free. When it stops being “fun” there isn’t much point in doing it anymore.)
How about being able to set a specified production run for a commodity. When I make multiple P2/P3 on a planet I get seepage from one build into another throwing my calculations off - a surplus of one item built and a shortage of another. Keep the infinite build as default but allow me to build, say, " 60 Superconductors" then stop taking the inputs from my storage.
A more sensible selector for extraction times than the existing tiny, and finicky slider. Something that makes it easy to select certain milestones (1 day, 7 days, 14 days, etc).
The ability to save a default extraction time (IE: I use 23 hour cycles on a regular basis. Let me set that as my default instead of having to start from 0. Every. Single. Time).
Ability to move all extractor pins in one go instead of having to move each one individually. Either some form of mouse-drag to select pins to move, or the ability to assign 1 pin as a ‘master’ and all other pins move when it is moved, maintaining layout (bonus points for ability to rotate all pins relative to to the master pin.
Saved layouts (including factory setups and routing).
Probably other stuff that I’ve forgotten since I find it hard to motivate myself to do PI due to the outstanding issues.
To reduce the click… also some submit button usage can be removed… for example when you choose the extractor cycle you have also to hit the submit button in the top left… doesn’t make much sense… also, what is frustrating is to wait for the extractor to complete a cycle in order to route the resource to the proper factory… and wait for the factory to conplete a cycle to run the lvl2 one… you should look for a way to ease the routing somehow…
And another way to ease the proces could be to have a flag in the storage window to set the facility as default output… so everytime you build something it will send all the resources to that facility unless manually routed somwhere else…
This may sound weird but I would prefer if it wasn’t made even quicker after this patch by saving whole layout’s and 1 clicking your whole setup. All players in eve would use them and PI prices will drop 3-4X to the point where its not even worth doing any more. Initial setup sux but you only have to do it once so w/e time invested afterwards its completely fine takes 3-4 minutes to refresh 16 planet’s a day which is great reward/time invested.
Thank you CCP and specifically CCP Hellmar for introducing it at Fan Fest and expressing at least some of our exasperation with PI. This is nothing short of an EPIC improvement for the PI system. I look forward to seeing any and all improvements to PI introduced going forward.
dont forget to have a button that centers your view on the launchpad , not just the command center. we rarely have a need to go to the command center, we go to the launchpad and assoctiated extractor=s daily
yes, i understand that some people have more than one launchpad in their setup. even so, they will be in close proximity.
@CCP_Claymore : currently launching 10 extractor heads by clicking 10 radio buttons is insane. Please add a ‘launch as many heads as grid and cpu allow button’ (obviously with a niftier name).
Also, when we route from ECU to silo, instead of "sorry, that’s too much stuff to fit in the pipes’ message, just underneath make the UI offer:
that’s too much stuff, would you like to reduce it to 125,000 units (or whatever number would be 100% link capacity)
that’s too much stuff, would you like to upgrade the link (details about available grid and requirements in parentheses).
These would help a lot! (and I think would be quite easy to implement)
To reduce the “Clicks”, could we have some Preset setups. For example a preset with Command Center, Launch Pad, Storage Facility, all connectd. That would reduce the amount of the clicks…
Other than the massive number of clicks, the biggest PI initial setup barrier for me is trying to accurately place pins next to each other. Ideally, if I position a pin overlapping another pin either (a) snap it to a ring at minimum distance, or (b) snap it to the nearest hex grid position at minimum distance. If it’s a factory pin, there should be an option to automatically add a link when it is placed.
…you run 250 individual production planets? Seriously? that’s like 4 (assuming multi-boxing) hours of work every 12 hours if you only spend 2 mins on each planet. Talk about commitment.
So far the most “tedious” thing about pi is setting the routes that material takes.
What I mean is I have to set a factory to build something, then route it, which is sorta easy,
But what could be improved is if I have a stock pile of materials, I should be able to ctrl or shift click the material in storage, then click what factory it goes to and finish.
Just as easily as building a route in the first place, while giving it the same function
Would save a few more clicks.
Templates ftw!