At first I thought that was an insane proposition, but then I realized it’s essentially a difficulty adjustment and we have those in every RPG. You’d have to include an incentive for your average player to turn it on, however, otherwise I’d wager less than 10% of the player base would even use it.
Maybe by making it apply to all creatures in game? Though NPC inventories are usually static. Maybe increased experience, or better items?
My favorite system for immersion, is by far, an encumbrance based system (aka. found in Warhammer fanatasy roleplay 1st edition). And I cannot for the life of me understand why it isn’t used more in video games.
An item is given a value based a combination of weight and size (ease of transportation). (for instance a ladder might be lightweight’ed but still have a high encumbrance due to its structure, while a chainmail would drop drastically in value if it equipped).
Similarly the player has a value based on physical strength and size.
For lightweight action games, I still prefer a slot system though.
That’s pretty interesting. I think 1st Ed. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had some form of that as well. Though, mechanically, that seems very similar to a weight system but with more logical values. So instead of the BioWare standard; “Oh sure, I can carry all 5 of those plate mail armors in my backpack across the continent. I can carry 300lbs without encumbrance. Duh.”
Instead you get, “I can have suit on me, and one in my pack. After that, I’m out.”
That’s what I like about the Dragon Quest games. While later installments have added “The Bag”, a large general-purpose inventory, each character has a (small) personal inventory that can be used during battle. What’s more, this personal inventory isn’t very large, and equipped items count against it. So, if you’re rocking your Infinity +1 Sword, Infinity +1 Armor, +5 Accessory of Noob Slaying, you’ve only got room for roughly 5-7 more items. Did I mention that items that restore MP or revive dead party members are exceptionally rare in Dragon Quest? Yeah…have fun with that.
That seems to be a great idea to me, the incentive.
Well, once you get Osmosis, ala FF9, who needs items anyways? Spellz for dayz
But that’s Final Fantasy, or JRPGs For Dummies. Dragon Quest, you don’t have an Osmose spell (that I’m aware of.) You actually have to budget resources. Scary concept, I know, but somehow it’s survivable. It’s almost like the game is designed around that…
…Oh, wait…
Woah, hold on. You mean having limited resources can be fun if you… design… around that fact?
What sort of witchcraft do you incite upon us!?!
I always liked Ultima Online / Darkfall style, where you just have a bag and put stuff willynilly in there unless you spent time organizing it. I swear I would sit there for hours and move little items one at a time into neat little rows, name lots of little bags and nest them, etc. It was almost it’s own little minigame. Grids are much more efficient, but games aren’t always about efficiency.
There’s a little gem in your reply that I had forgotten about. In games with a heavy focus on inventory management, it’s really nice to be able to name bags (“Potions”, “Quest Items”, etc.). It’s a simple thing that’s very useful and adds a bit of customization that can help a player feel a more personal attachment to the game.
All I did was alter the second incantation, and changed all instances of ‘cheese’ to ‘donkey’. It’s amazing how interchangeable those two words are. …What do you mean, you aren’t actually talking about magic?
Seriously, though, I think @TonyLi has a point. Terraria, from a flow perspective, is an absolutely awful game - there’s too many breaks in the action if you don’t want a horribly-infected world (by the Dark Side as well as the Light Side, actually.) But the thing that makes it really fun, is how it allows you to satisfy your OCD. You can name chests, arrange stuff in chests, build your bases, build you bases exactly to code…
I think we underestimate the latent potential of humanity’s innate OCD in our game designs.
yep, here’s an example screenshot. Might look like a mess but you get used to it lol. Also it is like a birthday present when you find that missing mount hidden under a axe 2 days later.
@tiggus - What game is this?
I always liked - Might & Magic 8 and Diablo 2 inventory.
Darkfall
Didn’t read the whole thread, but I love the M&M 6/7 inventory system. The items have a size and need to fit in the “pack” of the player. And when you equip, you see it on the character – in the pack the items looks as they look, rather than just small icons.
I tend to like the Idea of a weight based/ limited slot Bag system, bit like the wow setup,with different bags for dedicated item or just extra storage
I like the weight-based. I once developed a system (similar to what someone described earlier) that used Bulk. This would factor in both the weight and general shape of the object and assign it a Bulk rating. This rating could then be used for all sorts of different things (how much they can carry, strength needed to use certain weapons, difficulty when trying to conceal an item, etc.)
Seen the Diablo 3 system? It handles inventory really well. Everything is either 1 slot, or 2 slots, which makes reordering REALLY easy. Returning to town is trivial, allowing nearly instant selling or disenchanting. Bank slots grow with the character, and the bank/gold are shared across characters. It’s simple, intuitive, and powerful - keeping the focus on the gameplay, rather than item management.
Gigi
My preferred inventory system is whichever one requires the least attention from me as a player. I’m a particularly big fan of Skyrim’s system with the carry weight modded up so I never have to worry about being overloaded. I can understand that some people think that mucking around and managing your pack is fun, but to me that’s just down time that could be used for something more interesting. It’s not fun to me at all.
I particularly detested Deus Ex : Human Revolution’s extremely limited pack space that required me to spend upgrade points making my bag bigger instead of on cool abilities. Also extremely frustrating in that game was the limited number of energy boost items combined with the fact that no matter how many energy bars I had, it would only fill up one… I ended up never using any abilities that required energy other than takedowns.
