I DO want to play inventory Tetris

[Starwars]

I like inventory tetris myself, it's pretty fun in my opinion though yeah... Clearly there are people that hate it.

 

Just no clinical inventory lists devoid of all kinds of personality. And I want the inventory management to be meaningful, minimizing the "gotta pick up EVERYTHING" mindset.

[Astanas]

This kind of inventory always reminds me of the Might and Magic games. There's a certain appeal to it. I dunno how fitting it would be for Project Eternity, though.

[norfar]

I prefer inventory tetris to gothic style universe big bag of holding. but why not implement a real pack mule, seriously! Hee-haw hee-haw! Here i come

 

Edited September 18, 2012 by norfar

[Shades]

I'm fine with a system that takes into account item size (as a property) and item weight, and ensuring that the player has the space to carry it.

 

Ultima VII was like this. I couldn't put a Two handed sword into a tiny bag, nor could I carry something if I was already over burdened.

 

I was just thinking of Ultima myself, though it could get bit unorganized/hard to find things with the way items could overlap. Ah, food hoarding. Hmm, didn't Betrayal at Krondor have a bit of inventory tetris too?

 

Anyway, the IE way is fine with me, though I do like having different bags for ammunition, scrolls and potions.

[Nakia]

I think the inventory system I liked the best was in Prince of Qin. You had personal inventory that consisted of your equiped items then you had party inventory. You also had tabs for different types of items. To pick up items you simply clicked on the item and the nearest party member went and got it. Arcanum was cute because party members would walk over and stand on an item to pick it up but also annoying because you had to go into their inventory and get rid of the junk.

[Sensuki]

Titan Quest had an AWESOME inventory sort button

[Freddo]

I think the inventory system I liked the best was in Prince of Qin. You had personal inventory that consisted of your equiped items then you had party inventory. You also had tabs for different types of items. To pick up items you simply clicked on the item and the nearest party member went and got it. Arcanum was cute because party members would walk over and stand on an item to pick it up but also annoying because you had to go into their inventory and get rid of the junk.

Yeah, a party inventory is very nice. I found it very annoying in the IE games that you had to micromanage and split the general inventory items between the party member slots all the time.

[Muzrub333]

Inventory management is good if: it forces you to make difficult choices. Do I dump these spare shotgun shells for these healing herbs?

 

Inventory management is pointless if: it forces you to drop vendor trash because you're full up. "Whelp, time to drop the items with the worst space:cost ratio."

 

Well said.

 

I enjoy juggeling items in my inventory to an extent, but having to start doing so after a winning a few battles is tedious. Give us a bit of inventory space to play with.

[dan107]

Never was a big fan of having those ridiculously large inventories that are a D&D staple to begin with. So I say keep it realistic. You should only be able to carry the armor you have on your back, your primary weapon, a backup weapon and some potions/bombs/scrolls/etc for when things get really hairy. Picking up everything that isn't bolted down then dragging it to the nearest town to sell is neither realistic, fun, nor particularly epic. I want to play a hero, not a junk peddler for crying out loud.

[daz23]

I prefer the weight option also. I would love to be able to use the companions as pack rats. It gets very frustrating when you loot everything and you can't fit it in your inventory.

[kenup]

I would prefer inventory tetris, with item rotation, as well. The thing that annoyes me about weight systems that you can carry a lot huge items as long as they don't exceed your weight capacity. How can my character carry 5 miniguns always frustrated me. Having a few small pocket sized items that weight a lot is fine, but where the f' did all the guns go, did they shrink or something? The best thing would be a combination of both, but how much would that work or sell is arguable.

[Chunkyman]

Meh, I say just use an item # system or a weight system. I find shuffling things around in a grid to be tedious and unnecessary.

[Shadowless]

Classic IE system, just with more stuff stacking (unupgraded weapons **** like that) which is balanced by the weightlimit.

[PsychoBlonde]

I don't mind inventory tetris, but I would like the ability to stack identical items. The Baldur's Gate thing where SINGLE GEMS took up as much space as an ENTIRE SUIT OF PLATE ARMOR was ridiculous. Please don't have 300 kinds of gems/nonmagical jewelry and let us stack em all/put them in bags. Ammunition in particular should have ENORMOUS stacks.

[IEfan]

No inventory tetris. IE system works fine.

 

If the massive amount of load/weight carrying realism (full sets of platemails in inventor) bothers then implement that the world has discovered bag of holdings and that those automaticly extend the inventory weight limit over the limited STR limit. The holdings are expensive upgrades and are found from specific places. Maybe you can lose them through some events eg. inventory robbed or partially destroyed (never would happen though). Actually that/this kinda stinks a little but I honestly don't see atm how to compromise between usability and realism otherwise!

 

Inventory SORTER for IE-type of system (under a button) would rule though! You could use it at will if you want to. (yes)

 

@PsychoBlonde: The gembags were annoying in BG2, for scrolls and arrows (the 99 arrows is still a lot) are kinda fair-game since they were pr important in battle so you had to make a decision between inventory space and arrows/scrolls. The containers in general were a bother to use though, could really use some integrated/easy of use interface between container and inventory. Even NWN didn't get this right, too much clicking.

Edited September 18, 2012 by IEfan

[entrerix]

items should have two different encumbrance numbers

 

volume

weight

 

you have a limit on both, dictated by character strength/endurance for weight, and the types of bags/packs for volume

 

too much management? stop picking up everything you see, or wait until you get some magic bag of holding or something.

[WDeranged]

I'd be fine with the Infinity Engine style of inventory, just with a few tweaks like an auto sort button and the ability to access all party members from a shopping window.

[Olauron Mor-Galad]

Inventory tetris was pretty fun in Might&Magic RPGs. Some of the ideas above like danger of combining different items in one inventory look rather interesting.

[PsychoBlonde]

 

@PsychoBlonde: The gembags were annoying in BG2, for scrolls and arrows (the 99 arrows is still a lot) are kinda fair-game since they were pr important in battle so you had to make a decision between inventory space and arrows/scrolls. The containers in general were a bother to use though, could really use some integrated/easy of use interface between container and inventory. Even NWN didn't get this right, too much clicking.

 

I like the way DDO does containers: you can set the container to "auto gather" items that fit in that container, or not, if you don't want random BS items wandering into your sorted containers (in DDO there are like, 4 major types of containers--ingredients, collectibles, gems, soul gems). The container has limits on total number of DIFFERENT items fit in it, as well as how many you can STACK in a different slot. (So you can get better containers as you go along.) and vendors have a "sell gems" button that sells ALL the gems in your inventory and gem bags. (Gems are the only junk-that-turns-into-cash item in DDO.) You can also (mostly, still some bugs with this) use ingredients and collectibles directly out of your bag without having to first a.) find them and b.) drag them to inventory.

 

They could also have a storage site (presumably in your Player House) where you can drop off items you neither want to sell nor carry.

 

The ammo problem isn't too bad because generally you use up the ammo as you find stuff to replace it. It was mostly an issue in Baldur's Gate because of the Strangely Enormous Gems and also because Ranged Weapons Were King.

 

Quivers are also interesting in DDO, because there is a Quiver equip slot (and some quivers actually have magical bonus effects on them), and it pulls arrows from that quiver in the order you have them sorted when you run out. They work like other bags in that you have a max of different items as well as a max stack for each item. You can also put quivers on your hotbars and switch between them. They could also have an option on vendors where you buy ammo to "fill current quiver" with the selected ammo type for easier restocking. So the containers CAN be done in a way that doesn't require you to constantly be taking **** out and putting **** in.

[salty]

You can play real inventory Tetris: http://gangles.ca/2009/02/01/inventory-tetris/

 

The only way it makes sense to be able to carry everything you find is if you have to open a door to another dimension every time you access your inventory. You have to create a magical pocket in space and time, wait for the door to another dimension animation, walk through it, wait for the cell to load, look around your magical closet, and then reverse-repeat as you leave.

[Ashram]

As long as it is handled relatively balanced between weight/volume I am good. Please add in a sort function and maybe make the ammunition sizes greater than 99 or 20 in some cases like previous games. Perhaps adding in some sort of inventory device....pack animal or magical in nature would be a good way to help relieve some of the stress of inv tetris.

[Scab]

I don't like grid systems for inventory. (Re)arranging items is just tedious, to be honest. I do think there's an appealing strategical element to limited carrying capacity though, but I'd prefer items were assigned some form of encumbrance value (weight or somesuch) and characters have a certain carry weight/somesuch, relative to their relevant attributes. Just spare me the manual tetris.

[kenup]

You can play real inventory Tetris: http://gangles.ca/20...ventory-tetris/

 

The only way it makes sense to be able to carry everything you find is if you have to open a door to another dimension every time you access your inventory. You have to create a magical pocket in space and time, wait for the door to another dimension animation, walk through it, wait for the cell to load, look around your magical closet, and then reverse-repeat as you leave.

 

Wouldn't be against a nearly impossible to find "bag of holding". However if there are backpacks, they shouldn't be combined and add slots/weight limit points to the main inventory.

[Sylvius the Mad]

I like inventory tetris because it allows me to sort my inventory as I see fit. I see it more as a usability feature - sortable inventory just makes the UI better.

 

With a list inventory (like KotOR, or Dragon Age), if I want something from my inventory I need to browse through the list and find it every time. That's really irritating. But with sortable inventory (like the grid in Dungeon Siege or NWN, or the slots in BG), I can know where things are before I go looking for them. If I need a healing potion in NWN, I know I've sorted them along the bottom left of my first inventory screen, in ascending order of strength.

 

Sortable inventory is a usability feature.

 

Also, I suspect the reason we lost grid inventories (tetris) is because it's difficult to use them when playing a console game. Since Project Eternity isn't a console title, there's no reason to accommodate their limitations.

[alanschu]

I'm fine with a system that takes into account item size (as a property) and item weight, and ensuring that the player has the space to carry it.

 

Ultima VII was like this. I couldn't put a Two handed sword into a tiny bag, nor could I carry something if I was already over burdened.

 

I was just thinking of Ultima myself, though it could get bit unorganized/hard to find things with the way items could overlap. Ah, food hoarding. Hmm, didn't Betrayal at Krondor have a bit of inventory tetris too?

 

Anyway, the IE way is fine with me, though I do like having different bags for ammunition, scrolls and potions.

 

There's nothing stopping improvements on the Ultima system though. You can make it text based really. Or add a grid so that you can still easily find unique items and so forth.