Feature Request: Transparent Object Targeted Placement
Recently I was placing a house plot, and found myself wishing that I could place many things in a similar way when I was working on decorating that house plot. When you are trying to place a plot or a house, you will see a transparent version of what you are trying to place which makes it a lot easier to eyeball its position when you're trying to find a valid location for it. The same is true for boats: when trying to place a boat on the water, a transparent version of the boat will follow your mouse cursor showing you where it will appear.
I think this concept could be used for the placement of all objects, whether single tile or multi tile. Any kind of deeded add-on, for example could be made a lot easier to place (especially the multi tile addons) if you could see a visual representation of where it was going to land instead of having to guess the tile. The transparent version could also highlight red if an invalid location is being targeted.
This method could also be extended to single tile addons and even normal "non add-on" items. For example, how many here have had to struggle with placing large objects (like a tree graphic for example) using various tricks and methods or resorting to axing a box to get it in place? My desire would be that we could target the tile where we want an object to be placed, and be shown a transparent version of that object that shows how it will appear on that tile. (note: this isn't meant to replace the classic method of dragging and dropping things on the ground, but as an additional, optional way of placing objects).
To go a little further, I would also suggest that when placing an object, you can use controls to turn, raise, or lower the object while it's in transparent target mode. For example, the middle mouse button could be used to raise and lower the object's position before its placed, and another key could be configured to turn it (if turning is an option, and if this were the case I would say that east/south versions of addons should be replaced by a single version that can be turned during placement).
And to go even a little further than that, I think it should be optional to place non-addon objects as "statics" similar to addons, in that they don't highlight when moused over, or appear as object handles. The utility of object handles goes away completely when stone wall/tiles and other similar items start going down in large numbers, and a lot of these types of items, like floor and walls, are objects that I might not want to appear as an object handle.
This is mainly a quality-of-life suggestion but I think it would be used mightily amongst the UO population.
I think this concept could be used for the placement of all objects, whether single tile or multi tile. Any kind of deeded add-on, for example could be made a lot easier to place (especially the multi tile addons) if you could see a visual representation of where it was going to land instead of having to guess the tile. The transparent version could also highlight red if an invalid location is being targeted.
This method could also be extended to single tile addons and even normal "non add-on" items. For example, how many here have had to struggle with placing large objects (like a tree graphic for example) using various tricks and methods or resorting to axing a box to get it in place? My desire would be that we could target the tile where we want an object to be placed, and be shown a transparent version of that object that shows how it will appear on that tile. (note: this isn't meant to replace the classic method of dragging and dropping things on the ground, but as an additional, optional way of placing objects).
To go a little further, I would also suggest that when placing an object, you can use controls to turn, raise, or lower the object while it's in transparent target mode. For example, the middle mouse button could be used to raise and lower the object's position before its placed, and another key could be configured to turn it (if turning is an option, and if this were the case I would say that east/south versions of addons should be replaced by a single version that can be turned during placement).
And to go even a little further than that, I think it should be optional to place non-addon objects as "statics" similar to addons, in that they don't highlight when moused over, or appear as object handles. The utility of object handles goes away completely when stone wall/tiles and other similar items start going down in large numbers, and a lot of these types of items, like floor and walls, are objects that I might not want to appear as an object handle.
This is mainly a quality-of-life suggestion but I think it would be used mightily amongst the UO population.