pack animals or beasts of burden

[Lephys]

Turning my adventuring party into what, a caravan? Pass

That... or a prepared adventuring party.

 

I guess if they happened to ride horses to traverse long distances, that would turn your adventuring party into cavalry?

[Osvir]

Why can't the unlimited stash be a quest? I know Sawyer said something about "We don't need to explain why you can carry an unlimited amount of gear"~ not exact words but something explaining the jist of it. I disagree, or perhaps it's simply a wish, I want it to be explained and not trivialized.

The Pack Mule (a.k.a. Stash) could be a Quest you find in the world, or something you buy, or something you acquire past prologue. Simple. And up until the point that you get it, the stash could simply be "inaccessible" or "locked". There doesn't need to be any "visual" assets for it either (maybe 1 single Mule Model would be required when acquiring it). It can be invisible, just like the Unlimited Stash is (because, this idea is pretty much the Unlimited Stash+Explanation):

A descriptive enough text a la "You found a pack mule" should suffice enough, no? The effect this would get is, I would feel like I have a [Pack Mule] or whatever with me on my journey. Whilst if Obsidian chooses not to explain it, it'll feel like I'm carrying around an [unlimited Stash] (because that's the official title it has right?).

"Hey boys, let's put everything in the Unlimited Stash"
or
"Hey boys, let's put everything on our trusty Pack Mule"

 

There is a certain different (obvious) effect, in my opinion.

A part of me want to choose if I want to pick up the Unlimited Stash or not. But that's dependent on how much each character can carry on their own (In the "Top of the Pack"). If they can only carry 3-4 items it might get unmanageable without the Stash (But "challenge" goodies!). Mainly for challenging reasons (Would it not be harder to progress the game without the Stash? Would you not have to think about what you take with you much more?).

Simplifying the suggestion:

1. Change the name of "Unlimited Stash"* to something more "interesting". Or...
2. Make a side-quest**, explain the "Unlimited Stash" in a simple, easy & very early manner***. Keep the fundamental idea of the "Unlimited Stash" (don't change any of the actual mechanics. Just insert an "Need to acquire" parameter before being able to use).

Quest Ideas:
​2a. Pack Mule (Fantasy Beast, Regular Animal etc. etc.)
2b. Pocket Plane (Magical Ability~)
2c. Slaves (Plural) that carry everything around
2d. Tenzer's Floating Disc (or w/e the name of it is)
2e. Caravan

AGAIN: None of these require any sort of visual aid. The only thing required is:

"You found a [insert Method]..."

Because I'll carry whatever I "find" around with me in spirit, in my imagination/mind.

 

*Thus far what I have found is the "Unlimited Stash" and the game hasn't even begun yet.

** The reason why I say "side-quest" is because then it becomes a choice and it allows Players (like myself or other similar minds) to pick up the Stash dependent on Self-Challenge as well as adds a more important "Exploration" factor. We quickly realize that "We don't have enough room for the things we want (not need), so we need to explore to find a solution if we want to carry more". Or maybe even, for those who haven't followed the forums, stumble across the Pack Mule as a sort of "salvation" to their hoarding mentality, or simply a "salvation" in a "I can suddenly carry more stuff! Awesome!" kind of way.

*** There's 2 ways that makes sense to me (and that I can think of) in acquiring a "Stash" like this:
A) You can instantly get the Stash, just simply pick "Yes" or "No". This is the simple method.
B) Reveal the Stash to the Player early early in the first town or whatnot. Now they know they can acquire a Stash, but perhaps there is "requirements" so you can't get it instantaneously, but it'll get the Player to start exploring the actual game until they can fulfill this requirement:

1. A Tradesman is selling his Pack Mule = Gold Requirement
2. A Man is talking about a Magical Spell that can send items to a Pocket Plane = Find Scroll Requirement
3. A Woman lost her wedding ring, willing to trade her Pack Mule for it if you find it = Find Wedding Ring Requirement
4. A drunk has a Pack Mule, and you can fool him/charm him if you have the skill, and if not; See #1 = Speech/Social Skill Requirement or #1 Requirement

This is the Quest method, a sense of purpose. Still optional.

Finally: I think that a restrictive Stash (at first) is important for challenge. Specially if it's an optional thing to pick up. /Advocate end

Edited September 12, 2013 by Osvir

[Michael_Galt]

I love that idea.  It would also remove some of the necesity of actually having a pack animal in your party and having to "worry" about it getting killed.  Personally, I still don't understand why that is so complex, when you essentially had that in Fallout with the car, and in many games there are "NPCs" which are effectively nothing more than glorified pack animals.  But I would love to have a pack animal "war rhinoceros" (which would obviously be VERY expensive to acquire, and difficult to find- probably a quest in and of itself).  Functional AND dangerous.  Damn, I really want pack animals.  Hopefully someone can mod it into the game...

[Lephys]

I'm still voting for the "it's a bag of holding, and, while it's easy to toss something INTO the bag of holding, it's actually a very complex/slow process to get something OUT of the bag of holding" explanation.

 

Seriously... it explains how you can carry so much, AND why you can't immediately get to it at non-rest areas.

 

Also, I believe Josh has emphasized the fact that the Deep Stash may very well not actually be "unlimited." I think the intent of it is to prevent you from having to make multiple sweeps of a given dungeon/area that you've cleared in one go, purely because you lack the capacity to carry all the things available in that area that may be valuable to you for any number of reasons. I don't think there's really a problem with the player being unable to fully loot 17 dungeons without running out of space, for example. I think he was saying that the ability to avoid multiple passes on the same area is more valuable than the minor benefits of typical carry limitations "because reality."

 

So, there's no real worry about explaining the discrepancy between the realistic carry limitations and the abstracted ones, because it's abstraction. The reason for the abstraction is already given, and I think some eventual limitation is still maintained. Also, access variance between the stuff you put in the Deep Stash and the stuff you don't still maintains inventory management.

 

That being said... yes, I'd like it if there was some supportive lore/reasoning behind the workings of the Deep Stash. Like a magical, space-compression bag. But, again, how do you simply reach into a bag of compressed space and pull out the one item you want out of a hundred, on-the-fly?

[kgambit]

I'm still voting for the "it's a bag of holding, and, while it's easy to toss something INTO the bag of holding, it's actually a very complex/slow process to get something OUT of the bag of holding" explanation.

 

Seriously... it explains how you can carry so much, AND why you can't immediately get to it at non-rest areas.

 

 

This.  It's simple, straightforward and functional.  . 

[Osvir]

^Yes, absolutely.

But what does people think about it being something you acquire (optional) and not something you carry around with you from the start?

[kgambit]

Given the way the inventory has been described, I prefer having it fully defined and available from the start.  

 

The bag of holding explanation is just a nice conceptual way to explain how it works the way it does,

[Osvir]

I agree about the conceptual explanation. For me it could be whatever really (Bag of Holding, Pack Mule, Teleportation, A Bird that takes all your Gear, Invisible Rats). But I still, personally, want it to be an optional thing. I know how the inventory is going to work and such, but is it possible (in code) to just "Grey out" the Bag of Holding until a requirement has been fulfilled?

I kind of:
A) Want to either mod it in (Greying out the Unlimitness) for purely Challenge
or
B) Find it in a Quest and then gain access to Unlimitness.

[Lephys]

I'm sure it would be an easy enough thing to, in essence, "toggle" with some code.