Ways to sort Planet and Ship/Fleet displays?

[Sockum]

In general I like the UI of SE4, but I haven't figured out if its possible to do the actions listed below. Can somebody tell me if I'm missing something, or if I'm just out of luck?

1. After researching new Colony tech (Rock/Gas/Ice), is there an easy way to figure out which colonizable planets are within range of my Colony Ships? So far, all I've been able to do is sort the list by Value or whatever, and then go through the list one by one and note which ones are close enough to colonize. This is a pain in the mid-to-late game, when I've explored lots of systems that are out of range of my Colony Ships.

2. Ship/Fleet Screen questions:
A) When viewing the Ship/Fleet list, is there a way to exclude ships of a certain class or name from the list? For example, if I have 20 remote mining ships out and about, can I somehow exclude them from the list so I can easily see the ships I care about?

B) When I choose to only display Fleets, the sort buttons don't seem to work. For example, when I'm viewing only Fleets and click the Name or Move Left categories, the list isn't resorted. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

C) Is it possible to customize the sort categories in the various Ship/Fleet screens? For example, on the General screen the defaults are Pic-Name-Size-Type-Move-Dmg-Supplies. Is it possible to add categories from other screens, like Maintenance cost or Cargo carried or Orders, to the General screen? Or vice versa? Specifically, I would love to be able to have Class as a Category on the General screen. And I don't find the Cargo / Maintenance / Order screens very useful since they don't show important info like Move or Dmg or Supplies.

Sockum

[Phoenix-D]

"1. After researching new Colony tech (Rock/Gas/Ice), is there an easy way to figure out which colonizable planets are within range of my Colony Ships? So far, all I've been able to do is sort the list by Value or whatever, and then go through the list one by one and note which ones are close enough to colonize. This is a pain in the mid-to-late game, when I've explored lots of systems that are out of range of my Colony Ships."

A work around is to mark far-away systems as "Systems to Avoid" and mark the "No Systems to Avoid" checkbox on the planets screen.

"2. Ship/Fleet Screen questions:
A) When viewing the Ship/Fleet list, is there a way to exclude ships of a certain class or name from the list? For example, if I have 20 remote mining ships out and about, can I somehow exclude them from the list so I can easily see the ships I care about?"

Unfortunately not.

"B) When I choose to only display Fleets, the sort buttons don't seem to work. For example, when I'm viewing only Fleets and click the Name or Move Left categories, the list isn't resorted. Is this a bug or am I missing something?"

Probably- I'd have to test it.

"C) Is it possible to customize the sort categories in the various Ship/Fleet screens? For example, on the General screen the defaults are Pic-Name-Size-Type-Move-Dmg-Supplies. Is it possible to add categories from other screens, like Maintenance cost or Cargo carried or Orders, to the General screen? Or vice versa? Specifically, I would love to be able to have Class as a Category on the General screen. And I don't find the Cargo / Maintenance / Order screens very useful since they don't show important info like Move or Dmg or Supplies."

Unfortunately not.

[Katchoo]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
"1. After researching new Colony tech (Rock/Gas/Ice), is there an easy way to figure out which colonizable planets are within range of my Colony Ships? So far, all I've been able to do is sort the list by Value or whatever, and then go through the list one by one and note which ones are close enough to colonize. This is a pain in the mid-to-late game, when I've explored lots of systems that are out of range of my Colony Ships."

A work around is to mark far-away systems as "Systems to Avoid" and mark the "No Systems to Avoid" checkbox on the planets screen.

As you establish colonies in each System, it'll help to have at least 1 Shipyard in each System. This way, if you colonize on the borders of your current space, you'll be able to build colonizers that can reach out, or leapfrog, into the next system.

Aswell, dedicate one Shipyard to producing Colonizers that can colonize all the habitable worlds in that same System. This will eliminate the headache of clicking through 5 different screens to find habitable worlds. You'll also want to have a Transport bring extra population from your Homeworld to provide something to Colonize with

"2. Ship/Fleet Screen questions:
A) When viewing the Ship/Fleet list, is there a way to exclude ships of a certain class or name from the list? For example, if I have 20 remote mining ships out and about, can I somehow exclude them from the list so I can easily see the ships I care about?"

Unfortunately not.

A work around for this would be to sort alpahbetically. Label ships you don't have any need to see with a "z" at the begining of the Ship name (eg: "z Schmoopy Frigate 0001" or "zSchmoopy Frigate 0001"). Each class can be represented by a letter in the alphabet, so when you hit the "Name" tab you'll get to see everything from most important to least.

"B) When I choose to only display Fleets, the sort buttons don't seem to work. For example, when I'm viewing only Fleets and click the Name or Move Left categories, the list isn't resorted. Is this a bug or am I missing something?"

Probably- I'd have to test it.

I've never used any of the sorting options in the game, so i'll defer this answer to everyone else

"C) Is it possible to customize the sort categories in the various Ship/Fleet screens? For example, on the General screen the defaults are Pic-Name-Size-Type-Move-Dmg-Supplies. Is it possible to add categories from other screens, like Maintenance cost or Cargo carried or Orders, to the General screen? Or vice versa? Specifically, I would love to be able to have Class as a Category on the General screen. And I don't find the Cargo / Maintenance / Order screens very useful since they don't show important info like Move or Dmg or Supplies."

Unfortunately not.

Like Phoenix-D said. This information is probably hardcoded.

[Grandpa Kim]

As the others have said, some of things can't be done, but here is a way to make life on the ship screen a lot easier.

Sort your ships by name -- you can do this from any of the screens.

Go to the general screen and sort by type -- your ships will be sorted alphabetically by name within each type, also sorted alphabetically.

Go to the fleet screen and sort by fleet -- all your fleeted ships will be at the top sorted as above. All unfleeted ships will appear after the fleeted ships also sorted as above.

Try this, I'll think you'll like it.

[Sockum]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I'll give your suggestion a shot Grandpa Kim.

Thanks again!

Sockum