Shared Structure Construction Indicator and Structure Placeholder

[Zillvr]

We often find ourselves having the dilemma of which structure goes where and end up leaving the whole base construction to one person in the group while playing with other people. Sometimes it's nice to be able collectively and easily decide on how a base should look like and not waste too much time pinpointing and having back-and-forth looping conversations on where exactly in the base you plan to place a structure or series of structures. In the spoiler below would be one scenario that we all may have already experienced at least once or a much longer convoluted variation of it.

"I'm going to build a row of crockpots over here." says Wilson.
"Over where?" asks Wendy.
"Over here." replies Wilson as he tries to indicate where exactly by standing in the spot.
"A row of crockpots going from there to.." Wendy runs in a line from where Wilson is and stops a few steps towards the right "...here."
"No, from here to..." says Wilson as he moves towards the left "...here."
"How many crockpots?" asks Wendy.
"At least four." answers Wilson.

 

Suggestion:
That simplified scenario's conversation time could've easily been shrunk down by a considerable amount if we as players are able to see other player's construction indicators or have placeholders for every placeable structure. These are listed below and explained as much as possible. To simplify the explanations I'll use the Crockpot as the structure being built.

• Shared Structure Construction Indicator - the indicator I'm pertaining to is the green/red silhouette (if placeable or not) of the final structure that is seen when we are trying to build structures. If this indicator is seen by all nearby players then this will allow us players an easier way to tell another player what we want to build and exactly where we want to build it. I'd like to believe this suggested feature will not require any extra effort outside of coding. 

• Structure Placeholders - this suggested feature would however include one new image which will be used for both the Placeholder Button and built Placeholder. To make this simple and somewhat more convenient to use early on in-game, making the placeholder would only require one twig. The in-game representation of this placeholder would be a stick standing on the ground(will refer to this as the Standing Stick Image).
  • Placeholder Button  - would only be the image of the Placeholder on a clickable button right beside the Build Button of every Structure that can be placed on the ground. This would be called the Placeholder Button. Upon clicking this button the Structure's Silhouette as usual will appear and upon placing it on the ground, the Placeholder will be built in its place.
  • Placeholder - would be the Standing Stick Image. If a player builds a Crockpot Placeholder then other players can hover their mouse over it and the words "Build Crockpot" will appear.

When enough materials is gathered to make the crockpot, the player with the materials can simply left-click the placerholder and automatically build the crockpot right where the Crockpot Placeholder is. This would also eliminate having to mouse through your own crafting menu and click the Build button for the Crockpot. Once the structure is built in the placeholders position, the twig used for the placeholder will pop out of the ground and can be picked up to be used again for anything else.

 

Holding Alt and hovering over the Crockpot Placeholder the words "Examine Crockpot Placeholder" will appear and left-clicking it will make the character say "A crockpot will be built here." While Force Examine(holding Alt by default) is being used as the mouse is hovered over the Crockpot Placeholder, the right-click icon will appear with the word "Remove". Alt-Right Clicking the Crockpot Placeholder will remove it. If the placeholder is removed then the used twig will return to your inventory, much like picking up items on the floor. 

 

If someone is appointed to build and plan out the base then having the Structure Placeholder feature would allow the base planner to simply plop down how the base should look and where every structure should be and have other players build the structures themselves. This would in turn streamline the process wherein the Gatherer Player gives the Builder Player the necessary requirements to build the structure(s) in question.

 

Final Thoughts:
I do hope all of this makes sense and isn't too poorly structured to be misunderstood. If there are questions/criticisms about the idea, let me know. I'd love for this idea to be part of DST vanilla cause that would be awesome. Although having these features as a mod would be great too. Either way, I just believe having features like these can help with properly/easily interacting with other players when it comes to building bases and such.

 

If you had the patience to read all of this, thank you very much for taking the time. Cheers.