Decoration mode UI is frustratingly lacking in basic and simple features and is tedious to work with

[(NSW)Tech_M]

There is a lack of many basic features that would make it much easier and less irritating to work with. I know some of these might be hard to do, but also I am sure some of these are easy fixes. I am baffled that some of these are not already features at this point.

• A cycle selection tool. (a button you could press to cycle through all objects you are looking at so that you may select the one you want to select. Many 3D programs have this option)

This is very much needed, when a bunch of decorations are near each other, especially atmospherics (whose hit-boxes are often way too big) trying to select the right placed decoration can be extremely frustrating, you can be looking straight at it and it refuses to be highlighted. I have on a number of occasions spent over 10 minutes trying to select an object in a tight group. 

• Grid options of 5 units for both placement and rotation

This would just be nice in general, especially since rotation is very jumpy when not bound to the grid, at least on the platform I use, Switch. It would be nice to have some smaller units to work with

• Ascend and descend bound to the Y-axis instead of the direction you're facing

As it stands these are useless when the basic movement already moves you in the direction you're facing, having it actually make you ascend and descend would be useful instead of being redundant.

• Have the decoration menu remember which tab you were in in the dojo.

Having to re-navigate to the tab you were on every time you want to get a decoration (which often you are trying to grab multiple different ones from the same tab) is incredibly irritating. When you place the decoration, it closes the menu and then you have to re-open it and navigate once again to the tab you were on. As more tabs are being added this issue is becoming more and more annoying. This might just be an issue on console though, I assume pc has hot-keys for this, but it needs to be fixed. 

• A preview room decorations button

This would be incredibly nice, when building in the dojo, you can't really see what it will all look like until it's been funded and fully built. The polychrome already has a feature like this however, It would be nice if this option was doable while still in decorating mode though. Something like a toggle-able option to change between a 'preview mode' and a 'construction mode' specifically would be ideal.

• Scale objects in constrained movement mode

I don't see why we can't do this already, if the issue is that it would allow objects to be placed where they shouldn't be, then just make the object go red and don't let the placement be confirmed if there's an issue. Having to place an object again because you wanted to change its scale is irritating, especially if it was in a very specific location that wasn't aligned with the grid.

• the ability for any clan member (even those who don't have decorating permissions) to see the cost and progress of any placed decorations so that they are more likely to help pitch in. 

I think this would be a very nice way to make everyone feel more involved in the decoration process of the clan. I am not suggesting they gain the ability to actually fund decorations directly (though that could be assignable separate permission), just that they could see them and know what to donate to the vault. Another kind of out there addition that I think would be cool would be the ability to set decoration permissions on a room by room case. This way  you could give someone their own room to mess around with, but not enable them to mess with other rooms. This would be another way to get more people in the clan involved with the decoration process. I would suggest that if a person doesn't have global decoration permissions they would not be able to use up personal decorations though.

• Undo/Redo button

This would be very helpful, even if you don't keep a long history

• Multi-select

I understand this might cause some issues, out of all of these features I think this one is the least realist unless you impose harsh limits on the number of objects you can select at once, but I still think it would be helpful.

  Another good feature suggested:

On 2020-09-11 at 11:04 PM, Xarteros said:

• Noclip mode, be able to fly around the bounds of the room, not just the physical interiors. ENABLE FREE CLIPPING TO ALL DECORATIONS DURING PLACEMENT.
  • It gets so hard to not be able to place an object because it clips with the walls/floor/ceiling or other decorations, and it's limiting our art.
  • Make objects that clip have an outline or other visual indicator in placement mode, to show that they are partially or entirely clipping with terrain or other decorations. That makes them easier to spot if you're flying around in No-clip mode (but is hidden once you exit placement mode)

 

I really think these features would go a long way in making the whole decorating process smoother.

If I had to choose only three of these, I would say that a cycle select feature is the most needed, followed by grid/rotation units of 5, and then it's a hard choice between having the decoration menu remember your place and a preview room decorations view toggle.

 

 

Additionally, I would like to request types of dojo decorations that are very lacking

• Gardening is very lacking, it is hard to put plant beds that look realistic in a lot of cases. There are dirt patches that can be seen in things like relays that are being used exactly the way that we are lacking the ability to do easily. The best (and really only good way imho) for making a plant bed in non-nature rooms currently is messing around with zen garden islands, which are all a weird shape and hard to frame. Simply putting them on the floor of non-nature rooms looks bad. The most usable ones for this purpose have a rock which really stands out as repetitive if used multiple times.
  • Good planting beds that actually have dirt and stuff in them
  • Dirt in general (There is no dirt yet somehow), having some various shapes to work with would be very helpful
    • Sand. Same thing as dirt.
    • Usable patches of grass, currently the ones we have look nice until you look downwards and can see significantly more floor than grass. I would suggest the same thing as dirt
• More water-themed decorations. There is only one water-themed decoration that fits into the tech aesthetic, which would be the koi pond, whose railing becomes very awkward when the object is enlarged.
  • More ponds and the like that fit into different aesthetics aside from natural would be nice.
  • Aquariums would be cool, whether this is an object or even a room where you could place caught fish.
  • A river or horizontal flowing water of some kind.
• more livelihood/furniture type objects
  • I really think stuff like food/drink cups/plates, more seating and tables, beds, books (could be personal smart tablets), and just general living stuff and furniture would be a nice touch. I know quite a few of these can be convincingly assembled from various other decorations, but it would be nice to have them. I am not suggesting to go out of the games aesthetic, I know assets for these kinds of things already exist but are just not present as dojo decorations, I just ask that they become dojo decorations.

When I look at parts of the game, especially things like Larunda Relay (Venus), the way it blends nature with plant beds and fountain areas and the like, I just think, 'this would be really nice if we could make stuff like this' why can't we do stuff like that without major headache? I think you should consider some of these needed areas when you go to add the next round of decorations, because you keep adding stuff that is cool, but doesn't do a good job of filling out a lot of areas I think decorations are lacking in. You seem to instead be mostly adding things similar to what we already have, and I know there are plenty of assets already in game that would fill out the areas decorations are lacking in, you just need to add them as decorations. I think it might benefit you to have whichever group at DE is working with decorations just sit down and try to decorate stuff in a clan dojo for a few days, to try and make as many different themed rooms as they can while being very perfectionistic, you will quickly come to realize how weirdly limiting the current catalogue of decorations is. However, I also know this is absolutely not a priority as this only affects a small portion of the player base, so it is understandable that it is like this, but it really needs some love in the right places.

And PLEASE, from the few people I've talked to, it seems we would much rather you make the decoration mode easier to use first before you add more random decorations. The mode has been too frustrating for way too long.

[Xarteros]

What I really want

• Unify all gardens into JUST large or small. Make garden type selectable and fill the terrain in. Opens up doors for easier customisation (DE can just make selections like Base: Water/Sand/Snow/Ash/Infested/Dirt/Grass, Path: Wooden/Stone/Paved/Catwalk/None etc)
  • At the same time, do the same for Temples (change statue in middle), and Halls (change/remove/add stairs and walkway configurations, columns etc)
  • Also at the same time, allow us to set most rooms/walkways to have different flooring (so we can make grassy halls without looking weird) and options like ceiling windows etc.
• Noclip mode, be able to fly around the bounds of the room, not just the physical interiors. ENABLE FREE CLIPPING TO ALL DECORATIONS DURING PLACEMENT.
  • It gets so hard to not be able to place an object because it clips with the walls/floor/ceiling or other decorations, and it's limiting our art.
  • Make objects that clip have an outline or other visual indicator in placement mode, to show that they are partially or entirely clipping with terrain or other decorations. That makes them easier to spot if you're flying around in No-clip mode (but is hidden once you exit placement mode)

there's more, but you've covered a lot of what I want as well anyway.

Just my 2p

[(NSW)Tech_M]

23 hours ago, Xarteros said:

What I really want

• Unify all gardens into JUST large or small. Make garden type selectable and fill the terrain in. Opens up doors for easier customisation (DE can just make selections like Base: Water/Sand/Snow/Ash/Infested/Dirt/Grass, Path: Wooden/Stone/Paved/Catwalk/None etc)
  • At the same time, do the same for Temples (change statue in middle), and Halls (change/remove/add stairs and walkway configurations, columns etc)
  • Also at the same time, allow us to set most rooms/walkways to have different flooring (so we can make grassy halls without looking weird) and options like ceiling windows etc.
• Noclip mode, be able to fly around the bounds of the room, not just the physical interiors. ENABLE FREE CLIPPING TO ALL DECORATIONS DURING PLACEMENT.
  • It gets so hard to not be able to place an object because it clips with the walls/floor/ceiling or other decorations, and it's limiting our art.
  • Make objects that clip have an outline or other visual indicator in placement mode, to show that they are partially or entirely clipping with terrain or other decorations. That makes them easier to spot if you're flying around in No-clip mode (but is hidden once you exit placement mode)

there's more, but you've covered a lot of what I want as well anyway.

Just my 2p

 

This also, please, DE.

[(NSW)Tech_M]

One other thing I've noticed, is that a fair amount of rooms, including parts of the orbiter, seem to not be well aligned with the grid with just 10, 25, and 100 grid units as options, so I would hope that this be kept in mind when making new rooms. For instance, the newest room that just good added (the Entrati one) has these circular divots in the ceiling on its four corners. These divots are not aligned on the grid in a way that is divisible by 10, 25, or 100 units on both the X AND Z axes, though they are on a coordinate divisible by 5 units (They seem to be 5 units off of the 100 unit spot on both X and Z axes). This means that the easiest way to center anything on those divots is to

1. Place the object on 100 units snap
2. Move the object 10 units twice in one direction on the X or Z axes
3. Move the object once 25 units in the opposite direction
4. (Potential) Realize you screwed up and moved the object a net 5 units in the wrong direction on the X or Z axes, and if you haven't made it to step 5, start from step one, if you have, repeat steps 2 and 3 twice to move it into the right spot.
5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and potentially 4 for the horizontal axis you didn't do it for.

Plus, if you're going for a completely symmetrical build in that room, you have to do that process 4 times for every thing you want centered relative to the divots. This would be made better by having 5 units as a grid option because it would simplify step 2 and remove step 3, though I would also ask for the grid to be kept more in mind when adding more rooms in relation to focal points of the rooms design, such as those divots so we don't even have to do that.

[ZarZuf]

I support this request.

[(PSN)SABRETOOTH1971]

Good thread. I agree on all counts. Any improvements to dojo building is gladly welcomed by me. I'd like to see more greneer objects added, too, as the great updates to objects recently have left the greneer table looking considerably empty by comparison.

[Krilexis]

What would be great too is to have "Personal decorations" as a tab of decorations, its tedious to go back and forth to look for decorations and see that you have in fact cool stuff you forgot.

[--CA--Tazemi]

the preview room would be so useful

[icodious]

yes please with all you have done for our dojo creation address the core element that has been requested for years . i love all the previous ideas but would be happy if you could at least stop making placement options share keys depending on what mode were in.  So tired of surface snap coming on because i was shifting last object.   And the massive open spaces and all the new decorations along with increased capacities, can we please get a contribute to everything in the room option.  Don't make us donate 1600 times in each room please.     Another UI issue that NEEDS to be addressed is that default option in our warframe appearance screen sitting right there next to the back button with no conformation needed.   that one has had me do a walk it off break more than once.

[icodious]

also can you leave the collision value of decorations we purchase from you the way they are when we bought them.  Every elva i bought was originally purchased just for their collision so i could make supporting surfaces.   All 42 of them are completely useless to me now and donated to can.   if you need change an aspect as major as that with stuff at least give us the option to return  previously purchased ones that will no longer do what they were bought for.