Improvements to Contract UI

[Damhest]

I believe, the Contracting UI can use some love it has missed for so long.

1. Expired contracts rework.

• We need a “delete all” button, since this is the only option we get when dealing with such contracts.
• A “Relist Contract” button (suggested earlier) would be nice - it would just use the same “create” dialog, except with all fields pre-filled. Or maybe just relist it with the same parameters.
• More of a bugfix - after clicking “X contracts require your attention” in the Contracts window i expect to go directly to the Expired Contracts list, not to the “Last Used” list, like Outstanding or Completed…

2. Copy Contract improvement.

• It should not be limited to your own contracts. Why can’t i copy someone else’s contract? Why not my alt’s? If it isa Corp contract - why can’t all corp members copy it?
• Create multiple contracts simultaneously. As for now, if i want to put up 10 fitted ship contracts, i have to go though the “copy contract” procedure 9 times beside setting the original contract. It is way better than in the old times, but still 4 clicks (times X) too many. I am aware that some ships, which may look the same for the contract UI, can in reality be fitted very differently, but i’m sure this can be worked out. Or just ignore the check and let the “multi-contract” select whatever “identical items” it finds satisfying and just offload this problem to the contracting person, so that he has to tidy up in advance.

3. “Find in contracts” tweak.
   For the love of Bob, please, do NOT let this menu option reset all the contract-finding options to defaults and search the whole universe for a pack of ammo just because you misclicked and now have to re-set everything. Or just remove it altogether, i don’t believe that it has any frequent use. I think most clicks to this menu item are by mistake, and not intended.

4. Contract templates
   Similar to “Copy contract”, but you don’t need a running or finished contract to create one. Just save a contract to a template, and when you need - right-click it and get a “create contract” window with all stuff pre-filled. Very useful for corp contracts and fuel requests.

5. Copy items from clipboard to “request from buyer”.
   Also an earlier suggestion, it would be really nice to have a “paste from clipboard” option in the “also request items from buyer” part.

[Zhalyd_Lyehin]

• You should be able to add corps and characters to the ignore list manually and not just if you have a contract that you can right click and use the Ignore This Issuer option.
• Filters and column sorting for Couriers should not carry over to Item Exchange. I sort things by different values in both fields and have to reset the columns every time I switch between the two. We have tab independent column sorting for the overview. It is time that we get it in the contracts as well.

[Archer_en_Tilavine]

You have a lot of solid ideas here!!!

[Piotr_Leusten]

Here are a couple of other suggestions:

1. When I’ve selected items to put in a contract, only those items should go in a contract. It’s really annoying to get a “quantity has changed” message at the end of the contract-creation process, forcing me to start all over.

2. We could avoid the first problem, and make life better for everyone, if one could contract stuff directly from a container, rather than having to drag everything into the item hangar. That would also avoid other annoyances, like the following:

a. I collect a bunch of stuff in a container – items, ships – for eventual contract.
b. When I’m ready to contract, I have to drag everything into the item hangar.
c. When I do that, ships return to the ship hangar.
d. To make the contract, I first have to select everything in the item hangar, hit “create contract”, then manually select the ships in the contract wizard.

[Mkikaden_Tiragen]

I would love to have the option to Drag and Drop selected items into the ‘Contract’ window to add them to a Contract, just like the Trade window functions. The whole checkbox approach is silly.