Sort Dropdown Menus Alphabetically - Ammo and Warehouses

[FireBrand17]

Ahoy!

This suggestion is about sorting dropdown menus alphabetically, specifically menus for ammo and warehouses.

First lets look at the ammo dropdown menu (see attached images). Over the past months I've leveled 4 new toons, in which I've noticed this issue quite abit as I was getting a new ships every 3 levels. It seems that depending on what ship you're sailing the ammo list will be sorted differently.

I'm not sure of the logic in how this ammo menu is sorted, but it it sure is a difficult when you're in the heat of a battle and trying to change the ammo on individual gun decks. Also in each of the attacked ammo images I had every type of ammo on board my ship. I suggest that this ammo menu be sorted alphabetically for ease of use and repeatability in changing individual ammo quickly.

Second, I've always been bugged by the sorting logic of the warehouse dropdown menu (see attached images). Again, I can't make any logic out of it. At first I thought that the warehouse menu was sorted by region, but that is clearly not the case. Looking at the main map, i lists ports that are sorted alphabetically for ease of use, I suggest that the same be done for the warehouse dropdown menu.

Any comments or thoughts?

Regards,
Otto

[Ho Chi K]

Wow you must have done dailies a lot to have that many warehouses.

[Kerrilyn]

Originally Posted by Ho Chi K Wow you must have done dailies a lot to have that many warehouses.

A lot of those are regional warehouses, if you look closely~

He might have 4 that aren't~

Ones that are definitely regional:
Port Royale (Brit Capitol)
Jenny Bay (Brit Starting)
Tortuga (Rat Capitol)
Marsh Harbor (Rat Starting)
Orange-Stand (the sekret base of the Dutch from which they will launch their assault on the entire caribbean!!)

Ones I think are but are too lazy to look up~
Rosignol
Pensacola

Ones that aren't (as far as I know anyways~)
Bartica (gold, oak)
Bridgetown (adv oak)
Orleans (fir~)

Anyhow, some sensibility to the order would be good.

Personally I'd like to see it have two sorted lists concatenated together, one with regional warehouses and another with econ ports.

For example, instead of this:
A (regional)
B (econ)
C (regional)
D (econ)

use this:
B (econ)
D (econ)
----
A (regional)
C (regional)

with a lil separator in the middle.

Note that the sub-lists are alphabetized, but only within their sub-list.

That way, it would be easier to check up on econ despite having every regional WH~

[FireBrand17]

Originally Posted by Kerrilyn Personally I'd like to see it have two sorted lists concatenated together, one with regional warehouses and another with econ ports. use this: B (econ) D (econ) ---- A (regional) C (regional) with a lil separator in the middle. Note that the sub-lists are alphabetized, but only within their sub-list. That way, it would be easier to check up on econ despite having every regional WH~

Thanks for your post. This is something I've thought about as well. While I agree, I also disagree. 8-)

I agree that segregation and categorization can be very helpful and make things easier to find in moderate to large lists of data. Like finding what ports have rivers, or what ports are in the Antilles, etc.

However, I feel its best not to go overboard and categorize every list. For instance, segregating the list out in full for regional, capital, and new player, and econ ports. You can see that somewhere there we need to draw the line in how far do we categorize; what works the best with the given amount of data and usability.

What I mean is being that our personal warehouse lists are relatively short, I don't see much incentive to split the data into two lists.

For me simplicity is key. When I need to look in a warehouse, I don't what to have to take the extra step to remember, 'oh...that's right, PR is in the second list'. For me that is extra work, something that I have to memorize or keep in mind. Where as just an alphabetized list offers simple and quick ease of use.

This is just like looking up a port on the main map. You don't need to think about what region its in, or what you use it for; its just a straight forward list to help you get to that port info fast and simple.

For instance take a list of your favorite restaurants on your cell phone, where all 15 of them having an extra line of text to categorize them; making the list longer than needed. To me this extra info is redundant as I know what type of food is at 'Bravo's', etc. I just want to get to the number as fast as I can. For me, I know what warehouse/ammo I want even before I pull down the dropdown menu. So the simpler it is to get from point A to point B is desirable.

Have you ever used Lanchy? My top most used freeware software! Is for launching programs, especially programs that I don't use every day. It allows you to find what your looking for very fast without having to search in any way for it through menus, etc. The only catch is that you need to know what your looking for. So if you don't know, that is where categorization helps.

Similarly, in potbs once you get your bearings, I tend to think that most people know what their looking for, they don't need a category to tell them. In other words, Launchy only works if you know the name of the program you're looking for.

I hope this sheds some light on my basis for using only simple alphabetized lists; taking into account the best balance of categorization and/or segregation depending on the amount of items/data in a given list.

Kerrilyn, you have any examples of how your idea might work more effectively?

[Kerrilyn]

Originally Posted by FireBrand17 Kerrilyn, you have any examples of how your idea might work more effectively?

So many long posts @.@

One thingie I wanted to mention is that my idea of breaking it down by regional and non-regional is that people tend to use regionals as like personal banks, and the non-regionals for doing econ.

At least that's how I do it, and several of my friends.

If I'm looking for an econ thingie, I'm looking in non-regional ports, and if it's a mod or quest item, it will be in a regional port (capital for ship items, some convenient place for avcom items).

Also, the econ ports are generally going to be limited to six or less for cost reasons, whereas some of my older characters have pritty much every regional WH~~~

A more ideal solution would be a quick filter option, that would prevent certain port types from showing up at all, but that would involve new buttons etc. A clever programmer can easily slip in sorting options by um trickery with the names themselves (ex. prefix every port name, and separator, with a 'E' for econ, and 'R' for regional, and then sort normally, and when displaying simply pass the strings Ptr+1~) .. new buttons may involve much more complexity and stuffs...

BTW, one nice thing would be to be able to actually search the warehouse contents themselves~

[FireBrand17]

Originally Posted by Kerrilyn ...that people tend to use regionals as like personal banks, and the non-regionals for doing econ. At least that's how I do it, and several of my friends. If I'm looking for an econ thingie, I'm looking in non-regional ports, and if it's a mod or quest item, it will be in a regional port (capital for ship items, some convenient place for avcom items).

Aye, that could be the case for most of the players. But it seems to me that there is a reason why we do this; why do we? hehe

It seems like most players use the Regional and Econ warehouses to be able to segregate their items and/or groups of items; to better keep track of them, as its the best overall way to find things.

I have done what you mention with some, but not all warehouses/items; I have a mix. So what I want to watch out for with this drop-down menu suggestion is that we don't lean to far to one side, but find what works best with many different play styles, etc. See my comment below....

Originally Posted by Kerrilyn A more ideal solution would be a quick filter option, that would prevent certain port types from showing up at all, but that would involve new buttons etc. A clever programmer can easily slip in sorting options by um trickery with the names themselves (ex. prefix every port name, and separator, with a 'E' for econ, and 'R' for regional, and then sort normally, and when displaying simply pass the strings Ptr+1~) .. new buttons may involve much more complexity and stuffs... BTW, one nice thing would be to be able to actually search the warehouse contents themselves~

I like the idea for toggle, but I totally agree with a search ability! Searching across all warehouses and even ships would be so nice!

I wonder if our highly defendant need to segregate items to different warehouses would regress, more like we would just keep groups of items in certain areas instead of specific ports, with being able to easily find anything via search. Eh? 8-)

[Remus]

Wow, Firebrand; Something new in the Suggestion Box!

I had always been mildly irritated by the warehouse list on Tristram Yorick, with St John's appearing so near the bottom (and Tris probably has the full set of twelve freebies, although only three econ warehouses - I very rarely find the need for more and when I do I usually sub out to another alt), but never really thought about what the sequence actually was.
I am pretty certain that within each character the warehouse sequence is always the same, with the exception of the port you are in being at the top.

I recommend listing warehouses with current port top and either the rest in alphabetical order or the econ warehouses next in alphabetical order and the twelve freebies last in alphabetical order. Either way you should be able to work out pretty quickly where the port you are looking for is in the list.

But more important surely is the ammo list.
No wonder I struggle to find the ammo I want to load.
I dare say this is why I tend to use hotkeys or taskbar icons even when I really want only to load one deck/side.

[FireBrand17]

Originally Posted by Remus Wow, Firebrand; Something new in the Suggestion Box!

Thanks Remus!

You bring up some good points as well as Kerrilyn has!

I think a good enough point has been made with this discussion.

Cheers....

[Aegir]

Aegir likes this

I'm not sure if it'd be something easy to do or not with not being in the department, yet I'll pass along all the same, as I do like this

[FireBrand17]

Originally Posted by Aegir Aegir likes this I'm not sure if it'd be something easy to do or not with not being in the department, yet I'll pass along all the same, as I do like this

Thanks Aegir!

Looking forward to seeing some nice menu lists.