[Proposal] Expand or Collapse Property list categories

[alt3rn1ty]

I would like to be able to collapse stations / fleets / ships so that they take up less vertical screen space
Currently we have ..

!PHQ Station
!Shipyard
Hull Parts Factory
----------
Fleet 1
Fleet 2 etcetera
----------
Ship 1
Ship 2 etcetera

What if we had ..

+ Stations
----------
+ Fleets
----------
Ship 1
Ship 2 etcetera

CLick the plus to expand the stations

Reason: On my laptop with not much vertical screen height to play with, if I have too many stations and fleets, favourite ships go off the bottom of the screen so I would need to scroll to them all the time.

With the advent of the new Wide Area Sensor Array module, having multiple cheap small stations which act as a huge range Advanced satellite so we dont have to spam Advanced satellites everywhere is attractive .. But then they push all your favourite ships off screen, as stations always go to the top of the property list.

I use the right click context menu on individual ships or fleets in the Property list far more than I do on Stations.

[H34Dru5H]

At the top of the list is a menu selection for just Stations, Fleets, Unassigned ships, etc.

[Scoob]

I always wanted a "Don't show it twice" button. I.e. I have a ship that's dock at - but not assigned to - another ship or a station. Currently, it will show in the "Docked" list of the Ship / Station and on its own later down the list. I see why it's shown twice, but it's annoying. Additionally, when trying to select multiple ship using shift + click, a ship being in two places can break the selection, leading to far more things being "selected" than actually were.

While the selection options for just Stations, Fleets, unassigned etc. exist, I've never found them useful. They don't do what I want.

Finally, it'd be great to be able to colourise things. There are ways to add colour to ship names by using certain characters in the text. However, a more formal way to do this with a simple click would be quite nice. I tend to have a sea of green, when I'd perhaps like to have Destroyer Fleets show up in RED, with Civilian fleets in BLUE for example. Some way to more readily distinguish between the vast number of Stations, Fleets and individual ships that the player can have.

I think alt3rn1ty's collapse option would be more useful in practise than what we have now. I run at 1440p, so I don't feel I'm compromise with vertical space, however, equally, I have a LOT of stuff.

[alt3rn1ty]

At the top of the list is a menu selection for just Stations, Fleets, Unassigned ships, etc.

Why does my brain not even try looking at those
My god I am getting old.

[alt3rn1ty]

I always wanted a "Don't show it twice" button. I.e. I have a ship that's dock at - but not assigned to - another ship or a station. Currently, it will show in the "Docked" list of the Ship / Station and on its own later down the list. I see why it's shown twice, but it's annoying. Additionally, when trying to select multiple ship using shift + click, a ship being in two places can break the selection, leading to far more things being "selected" than actually were.

While the selection options for just Stations, Fleets, unassigned etc. exist, I've never found them useful. They don't do what I want.

Finally, it'd be great to be able to colourise things. There are ways to add colour to ship names by using certain characters in the text. However, a more formal way to do this with a simple click would be quite nice. I tend to have a sea of green, when I'd perhaps like to have Destroyer Fleets show up in RED, with Civilian fleets in BLUE for example. Some way to more readily distinguish between the vast number of Stations, Fleets and individual ships that the player can have.

I think alt3rn1ty's collapse option would be more useful in practise than what we have now. I run at 1440p, so I don't feel I'm compromise with vertical space, however, equally, I have a LOT of stuff.

Oh yes, I want one of these too.

Hyperion on its own, with a Geometric Owl docked. Geometric Owl shows in the + of the Hyperion and in the list on its own .. It nags at me too.

[CBJ]

I always wanted a "Don't show it twice" button. I.e. I have a ship that's dock at - but not assigned to - another ship or a station. Currently, it will show in the "Docked" list of the Ship / Station and on its own later down the list. I see why it's shown twice, but it's annoying. Additionally, when trying to select multiple ship using shift + click, a ship being in two places can break the selection, leading to far more things being "selected" than actually were.

OK, but in which of those two places would you want it to not show? And would you not forget that you'd set that setting, and then come and report it as a bug that it's not showing up where it should?

In all seriousness, the sheer number of "bug" reports that we'd get from it is a pretty strong reason for us not adding that option!

[alt3rn1ty]

I think just like it happens in a Fleet, in the case I mentioned the Geometric Owl docked at the Hyperion, is just in the + of the Hyperion. When it undocks it goes back to being just listed as an unassigned ship.
But yeah, probably right on the bug reports

[PV_]

Its long standing request to make arbitrary grouping for player's assets. Current filter for stations/fleets/unassigned has next to zero usability as most of the time I undertake interaction between these groups at the same time. Like send ship to station, assign it to the fleet, remove station subordinate and assign new role to it, etc...
It not necessary to have mixed groups, like fleet and station at the same time. But being able to put gate keepers in different sectors or defense platforms or unassigned auto-miners/traders under single line will make UI a lot more friendly and convenient. But I have an anticipation that staff responsible for UI is satisfied.

[Scoob]

In all seriousness, the sheer number of "bug" reports that we'd get from it is a pretty strong reason for us not adding that option!

Make it a very well hidden option, and only let alt3rn1ty and myself know about it.... problem solved

The UI in X4 is both a blessing and a curse, it's what allows us to interact with things to the degree that we do (good), but also gets a bit cluttered and confusing at times. It's a bit of a meme now that X4 is "death by menus", though it's meant in a tongue in cheek way. Once you understand them, they're pretty powerful, when you're new, not so much. You also have to tune in to the "Egosoft" way of looking at things, so they're intuitive, but not your intuitive if you see what I mean lol.

Maybe, and this is a bit of an ask, we retain the "Stations & all ships", "Stations & subordinates" etc. view options, and add a custom option. In this option we can configure it to our personal preferences, but, if that tab isn't selected, we simply retain the current view options. If our "Custom" choice were remembered during a session, but reset to the default after loading a save or starting a new game, that should mean less potential for confusion I'd hope. Add to this some options to perhaps hide certain things entirely, then this custom view tab become very powerful indeed. I'd LOVE such a tab in my current modified game (SWI) as I have sooo many assets under Property owned, some I'd like to hide. Having docked ships "hidden" by virtue of them only appearing in the "Docked" section of the Stations they're docked at, would eliminate a lot of clutter all by its self.