Feature: UI: Add orders to front of order queue

This is a problem that we've all had when queueing up orders for a unit:

Say you tell your commander to build a bunch of extractors and solar panels, but in the middle of carrying out his orders some planes fly overhead and you suddenly need to build air defenses. There should be a way to do this without discarding your existing order queue.

EDIT: This problem has an analog with factory build queues.

When you queue up orders for a unit, you hold Shift and either right click or select a command and click. You could easily add the ability to hold Ctrl and Shift, which would append commands to the front of your build queue instead of the back. Here is an example:

You issue some commands while holding Shift, and your unit is in the middle of command #3:

Code:

{ 1 2 3 4 }
      ^

You then hold Ctrl+Shift and issue some more commands:

Code:

{ 1 2 ( A B C ) 3 4 }
        ^

(The unit abandons command #3 for now, since it could take a while and you want your pre-emptive queue to happen immediately. If the building in progress disappears, the command would be automatically reissued.)

Since you held Ctrl+Shift without letting go while issuing this new queue, the commands get inserted in sequence. If you let go of Ctrl between each of commands A, B and C, it would look like this:

Code:

{ 1 2 ( A ) 3 4 }
{ 1 2 ( B A ) 3 4 }
{ 1 2 ( C B A ) 3 4 }

Because every time you let go of Ctrl, it starts a new sequence of commands.

That's it! This lets you interrupt your current plans without losing them, a problem I've consistently run into in all of the TA-family of games.

I suggested this feature almost 6 years ago when Supreme Commander was in beta.

I like it. Definitely need to try it first, to see how intuitive is though.

ZK has this.

It works.

It's also important for factories on repeat. In ZK alt-click adds a single non-repeating order at the front of the queue.

Already here so you could try it to see how intuitive it is. It works better if you only have to hold one key to insert to the front of the queue and then that key + shift to insert late on in the queue.

Sounds like a plan.

:mrgreen:

It would be also great if engineers could initiate the upgrade of buildings.

Remember Supcom FA, where most players supported the upgrade process of the mexes with engineers. You always had to upgrade the mex with a click, and then let the engineers support it. It would be really nice if u could use the queue for these kind of upgrades.

I agree that the way the modifier keys work could use some improvement. It would be great if the build queue of a factory and the order queue of a unit work in exactly the same way with respect to modifier keys and clicks, to reduce cognitive load on the player.

I'm sure the Uber devs will review all of the UI functionality they have and choose the optimal set of modifier keys so all functionality across different but similar contexts are as close as possible to each other.

Just to be explicit, the idea is mentioned in Ideas from Zero-K has this idea, but different. Search for "Command Insert" on that page.

Essentially it will insert a command in to the existing queue path at the point which it makes the shortest path. This seems a lot better than my idea, because that's usually what you want to do, and it would avoid the cognitive load of managing order stacks in your head.

Awesome

Was always a pain to have to re-queue everything when you suddenly have to do something, or forgot to add something in early on.

Might I add? :

viewtopic.php?f=61&t=36166&p=541399#p541399

This is already implemented?

http://planetaryannihilation.gamepedia.com/Controls

I just did it in a game today?

Personally I think of the sims.

I think that they got it right, and rts's should copy.

When you select a sim a bunch of boxes appear in the top left, its their que of things to do. you can click on them to cancel them and move them around.

I like this idea. Exact execution may vary - but some way of being able to do this would be awesome.

thank the lord!

Adding orders to the beginning of the build queue is already implemented?

Pretty sure its already in, I have been holding ctrl and clicking to add stuff to the start of the queue in the last game I played.

You have just described one of my major pains in game. I sometimes resist leaving my planned queue and take losses rather than detouring then re-queuing again.

imagine having multiple fabers each having their own queue in your base, then u had an emergency - to double click selecting all to quickly build a laser turret, then having to re-queue everything back. what a pain

tell me about it, you queue 10 things and the last factory's ramp path is blocked or it is a bot factory while u want air. delete the whole queue and start again, why!