Enhanced Copy and Paste events between projects idea

Would there be support among users if we were able to copy and paste events from one project to another, and rather than be told that it references objects not available in this project, you would be prompted to create the missing variables/objects at that point?

I know that you can create the objects/variables in advance but it can be difficult with larger projects to remember all of them. This way you would be presented with a list of the missing elements and you could simply choose to create those element with a button press.

I will submit a feature request if others think it would be useful.

Definitely would like that option.

Another check would be for possibility of object names that already exist but have different contents, ex. sprite with another images/animations, different effects/behaviors on the object.

It then should give the usual cancel, paste new name (ex. OriginalName_new).

Don't think the option to delete and replace is very good here since it could affect the events on the project.

Would choose to manually replace the OriginalName for OriginalName_new manually on the code.

The main reason this is not done is it is exceptionally complex. Even if we did it, the complexity would probably result in pasting doing unexpected things, and possibly making a mess of your project.

There are dozens of tough problems like: what if you paste events referencing a family instance variable, but one of the members of the family already exists in the project, but that object has a behavior using the same name as the family instance variable? Now you cannot paste the event because there is a name collision. It would have to rename something. But then pasting events ends up renaming random bits and pieces of either your existing project or the things you pasted, so there's no guarantee that what you pasted will actually work like you expect afterwards.

By requiring all the relevant references to be in-place before pasting the events, all these difficult problems are avoided.

I'm assuming Ashley was mainly answering what i proposed (warning and allowing to copy with a new name).

Personally I would still like to see a list of problems found (similar to the list find in project), and be allowed to paste duplicate objects with an extra _copy, _new, ...

As i see it i would paste the events on a clean sheet (duplicating anything needed with the extra _) and then go 1 by 1 switching the "reference_copy" to "reference", and delete the extra stuff. (would be more useful the bigger the number of things to change between projects)

But what about the suggestion of copying also missing objects if no "collisions" are verified when comparing the missing names of objects connected to the events that are being copied? (ex. objects just don't exist in the new projet)

Ashley Thanks for sharing some of the technical issues around this. I assumed it would not be a simple thing to do but you haven't said it is impossible. I'm still not sure if it would be a benefit to others but for me the improvement to workflow would be huge. Being able to quickly create a separate project to nut out some particular issue and then copy it straight into your main project, or having the ability to quickly merge your templates together when starting a new project.

I'll add the feature request and hope for the best. And thank you for all your work on developing Construct into what it is.

Link to Feature Request page: https://construct3.ideas.aha.io/ideas/C3-I-1553