Useless/Unnecessary Inventory Items

[GhostofAnakin]

Honestly, I'd rather quest items just not take up space in the inventory. They can be stored in an entirely different system. Less realistic? Sure, but also less hassle. There's no gameplay reason why carrying that key should stop me from carrying a potion.

 

Or if they do take up space in your inventory, have them automatically be dropped/removed after they're used. That way a]you don't have to worry about needing that item again and b]it clears up space in your inventory when you've finished with it.

 

Items that give me the most issue are gems. More often than not, they end up just being trinkets you can sell for gold. But there are the rare occasions when there are quests associated with them or when you're creating an item or having one created for you that requires X amount of a certain gem. So I end up hording gems because I never know when they'll end up being the latter case.

[Sensuki]

I've never actually used the non-readily accessible storage given to me in any game except ARPGs like Diablo and Titan Quest.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Sensuki

[scipioafricanus]

Honestly, I'm gonna go for unreality, and say I want quest items to be highlighted in gold or something and once you pick them up you can't discard them until you use them. So yeah they should be 'weightless'. As for other things, I prefer a minimum of junk in the word, skyrim had too much 'fine cloth pants' 'old mug' etc, for me. Just give me gold, weapons.armor, potions (but not too many types!!!). Actually picking up too much stuff becomes annoying and you start spending ages of dropping this or that thing, so you can pick up this thing, it detracts from gamesplaying. All my own opinion of course.

[Skirge01]

Honestly, I'm gonna go for unreality, and say I want quest items to be highlighted in gold or something and once you pick them up you can't discard them until you use them. So yeah they should be 'weightless'. As for other things, I prefer a minimum of junk in the word, skyrim had too much 'fine cloth pants' 'old mug' etc, for me. Just give me gold, weapons.armor, potions (but not too many types!!!). Actually picking up too much stuff becomes annoying and you start spending ages of dropping this or that thing, so you can pick up this thing, it detracts from gamesplaying. All my own opinion of course.

 

To me, this is going too far. I don't want to be spoon fed the adventure. I don't want the game to hold my hand and explain what everything is, whether or not it's important, or where it should be used. I want to figure all of that out on my own. If I screw up, OH WELL! This is the reason I don't use walkthroughs or guides or cheats. We don't need to dumb the game down for the lazy. All I want is to avoid wondering whether or not a special gem, key, book, etc, has a further purpose. If it's just a normal book, then I want no indication that's it's simply a normal book. However, if someone tells me to bring them a "special" book, when I do so, I'd prefer that they actually take that book off my hands, so I'm not wondering if they might ask me for the book again at a later date.

 

All I want to avoid is wondering if that semi-special item I just used for this one thing serves any further purpose.

[Tarthrin]

If there is a keychain, you should still need to clean it out occasionally.

 

"Oh hello unfairly locked up prisoner, I will have you out of there in a jiffy, just let me get the key."

/pulls out massive keyring with hundreds of keys

"is it this one?... nope... hmm... this one?, never fear misss I will get you out of there!"

1 hour later... "Ah ha! This is it.. wait.. nope."

 

 

The only issue with tossing out possibly important items is if it prevents the plot from moving along. There needs to be some way to either get around needing the item (maybe it acts as a shortcut) or a way to get the item back (go to the dungeon of lost things and pay out the wazoo to get your ragdoll back)

Edited October 19, 2012 by Tarthrin

[Uomoz]

One thing that could be done are "notes" added to the item description once the character know more about it (like: this key opens that dungeon door). This would alleviate the "should I carry this thing or not" problem.

[JediMB]

I'm all for a "Keyring of Holding" of sorts. Just collect all the keys there to avoid clutter. Make acquiring it part of an early quest, for giggles.

 

Also, it would be cool if keys didn't magically come imbued with knowledge of their use, but at the same time did have enough information attached to them that you'd be able to tell them apart. So if you find a dropped key next to a bar stool, it won't just magically say "Dungeon Key" unless you've actually acquired that knowledge. Instead it will say something like "Key (found on the floor of the Deadbeat Bar)" until more information has been acquired.

 

Also, unless your character has been able to deduce the purpose of the key in-game, the player would have to manually select the key when trying to unlock the dungeon door, and upon success the key would receive its appropriate name.

 

...And here I was just going to say that I'd like a keyring, but then a bunch of other ideas jumped into my head.

Edited October 19, 2012 by JediMB

[Aldereth]

I'd love for items like this to simply disappear or drop to the ground (and be unable to be found again) once their intented use is completed.

 

My memory of Planescape: Torment would be much diminished if Fall From Grace's diary would simply disappear.

 

Perhaps, just made key item, undroppable with the PC saying, "I think I better hold on to this."

[Rahkir]

I've noticed that many of the people who want clearly labeled quest items say they will "just check a walkthrough anyway," if this feature isn't implemented. I say, good on you: play the game how you want and use any external resources that you desire to have fun.

But, what is the option for people who don't want clearly labeled quest items? Pretend they aren't in a special tab or colored gold? There's no easy fix like checking a walkthrough or a "quest item list" for people who want to figure out the purpose of an item by the means of their characters' exploration/experimetation and with their own logic and rationality as a player interacting with the game world.

 

As far as checking a walk through breaking immersion, are hints external and directed specifically at the player (not the characters) any different?

[Shadenuat]

Arcanum had keychain. But you did't just get it, no. It was another item.

When you buy it, every key goes into it, and also journal updates with special new page, which states every key you have on your keychain. Keychain itself just takes 2 squares of space in grid inventiry.

 

I was really shouting something akin to "****ING. GENIOUS!!!!111" when I first bought that item in game.

 

As for other items... I agree with Sylvius, marking stuff as quest or not quest takes part of mystery and choice in inventory management away. I'd rather game did't go that way.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Shadenuat

[Sylvius the Mad]

I think some people are looking at this from a rather... extreme point of view.

 

To use a crude example, keys. This game will most likely (hopefully) have a special section for keys, a key chain or whatever. But it's simply annoying in some games where you would have used a key that is part of a quest and don't know whether you would have to use it again. Now I mean annoying in the sense that you have a little key that is taking up an entire slot of inventory space (which doesn't make sense in the first place).

If we have a key ring, then there's no decision to be made about whether to keep the key. Maybe we'll find out later that we need to break into that same guy's house again, and if we didn't get caught the first time then we can use the same key. But if we threw it away, we have to find some other means of ingress.

 

Imagine a plot where there's a locksmith who's been making a master key for all the locks he makes. If you find it, having it disappear would tell you when you'd found all of the locks - I'd rather not know that for sure.

I would *love* for the world to be filled with mysterious items, like the Lady of Pain doll mentioned above for example. But what I don't want to wonder is if I should keep this mystical mcguffin of plot-advancing, because it may or may not be used in the plot again down the line if it doesn't have *another* purpose. If New Vegas had used a classic inventory, the Platinum Chip for exampe would be a prime example of this type of item.

Look at the companion quest items in NWN. You could find those items before even meeting the relevant companions, and you could discard those items before ever meeting the relevant companion.

 

When you find any item, it might be valuable. You don't know. You can make an educated guess based on item descriptions of the circumstances under which you found it or any number of things, and different characters will discard different items for different reasons - telling the player in advance what an item is for (or that it is for anything, or that it isn't) impacts those decisions in a potentially character-breaking way.

[Dangermouth]

Agree. I hate games where, for example, all keys don't fit on keyrings.

[Sylvius the Mad]

 

As far as checking a walk through breaking immersion, are hints external and directed specifically at the player (not the characters) any different?

Exactly right. I've asked in other games for the ability to disable the segmentation of the quest journal so I don't know which quests are main quests or side quests - because the PC shouldn't know those things either.

 

I also hate cutscenes that show me things the PC doesn't know. NWN2 is the first game I recall doing this much.

[Benison]

Keys and notes are one thing. Put the first onto a ring, the second into a binder...

Cool quest items should take up space in your inventory and have weight.

Also, i want to be able to put that "giant red herring" I lugged around for nearly the full game onto my stronghold´s mantelpiece.

[Takamori]

Should be very organized IMO

Armor-

Light armor

Medium Armor

Heavy Armor

 

Rings

 

Amulets

 

Keyring

 

Ammo-

Bolts

Arrows

 

Consumables-

Potions

Food

Scrolls

 

Weapons-

Staffs

One handed weapons

Two handed weapons

Bows and Crossbows

 

Quest Items-

 

Able to open the tab and minimize it

[Hassat Hunter]

I also hate cutscenes that show me things the PC doesn't know. NWN2 is the first game I recall doing this much.

 

BG2 had Irenicus cutscenes. PS:T had that scene where the guy with the orb got killed.

So, could be a good way to tell story or move plot forwards and tell something...