what kinda inventory system do you like?

[anon20000101]

… i felt like starting a thread about this… lol
mainly cause its probably the next thing iam gonna implement, but iam a little torn which style i should go for

itd be cool if you all could show me some styles or ideas or unique little things ive never seen or heard of, ill share some of the things ive seen

so itd be cool to discuss it, ill just get it started for now, ill probably elaborate in a little while lol
( i shoould be sleeping, but i drink entirely waaay too much coffee LOL)

“Inventory Tetris”
do you like DeusEx / STALKER / Diablo / PathOfExile “inventory tetris” style?

• amount carryable / lootable is restricted by space… on a grid

• makes the player choose what to bring with them

• visually layed out icons, gives some kinda appreciation of items size and value, and pretty / cool pictures

• can take a stupid amount of time to organize manually by the player

• player maybe loses items in the jumble of junk

“Inventory Tetris” Screenies

Deus Ex relatively small “backpack” space, and lol “minecraft” style … err… system shock ? style “belt” toolbar thingy

STALKER(it auto sorts!! … uh sorta, not really, it all is put up to the top, and … sorted by weight maybe? i forget, buut you actually have INFINITE (i think?) inventory tetris space, but youre limited by a weight variable you can carry

Diablo 2
inventory tetris, swappable weapons, horadric cube thingy has an extra little bit of inventory tetris space

Path of Exile (lol quad stash tab) … you can buy extra space as a mtx ( ITS PAY2WIN!!!) lolol

Inventory Tetris, but with auto-sort
and then there’s Titan’s Quest inventory which is inventory tetris but it has an auto-sort
(only game i know of, and played that has this … iam sure theres more)

-auto sort is sorta annoying in a way because it does it by its own criteria instead of someway the player might like it

titans quest

Little square Icons
Morrowind, Divinity Original Sin

its all squares, everything, big page full of squares,

Squares

Divinity Original Sin

fancy looking containers, but its all square slots

Minecraft

Freely Draggable in a UI space
Divine Divinity, Ultima

Freely Draggable - Screenies

Divine Divinity
freely draggable, but there is a slight snapping … (its really inventory tetris style, but ultra small square grid)
when you drop an item on another item, it will snap to a nearby area instead

Beyond Divinity

Ultima (never played em, dont know much about em, but seen video of people playing it)
i guess unlinke Divine Divinity, items can get buried under other items and it can be a mess, but real life spaces and bags and rooms can be a mess, so its intriguing in that way

[anon20000101]

Designated “Set in Stone”
zelda, odallus, crystallis

designated slots

SNES Zelda
these are all the items you ever get in the game, well some upgrade, like that is silver arrows instead of just “arrows” … and there is like 4 or 5 potions that expand/open up when you cursor over the potion

Zelda ocarina of time
same kinda thing here, but they made use of the 3d and its like you are standing in a room surrounded by UI menus

Crystalis NES
kinda the same thing as zelda, you only ever get 4 swords, 4 orbs,
and the bottom row of 2nd page you only get that many spells
but then theres a couple rows on the second page that change, because they have consumable items, or quest items you lose at some point

Odallus - PC game, kinda newish (yeah!) they were going for retro style, the NES feel, and made sure to stick to most… or some of the limitations, like palette and resolution
whats really interesting here is they stuck to 4:3 resolution for the main view of the game, but used the extra 16:9 space to have a “Set in stone” inventory always visible

List of words
and sometimes a little icon showing what category the item belongs to
( i think its total trash in like fallout, skyrim)

list of words

Skyrim - the list sucks, but okay, they have it where you can spin the 3d model of the item around, and there is sometimes puzzles solved by examining the item, thats cool

LOL its hard to find a vanilla screenshot of this inventory, probably cause everyone knows it sucks

Fallout 4 - UNINSTALL ASAP!! - for reals!!!

Oblivion
get that square icons mod IMMEDIATELY!!! (lol!)

Final Fantasy - list of words, its an old game… why is bethesda using an ancient inventory system?? LOL

Visual Immersive (?)
oh yeah this is kinda really awesome, from the game The Forest

• Immersive / Realistic sorta
• HIGH visual representation
• DESIGNATION, no messing around ( i think)

[anon20000101]

another reserved … guess cant have all so many spoilers in one post ??

[anon20000101]

another reserved

iam gonna keep going on this tomorrow or so… i should go to sleep or something lol

feel free to say whatever
itd be really cool if you show me cool stuff lol

[Ryiah]

My favorite is the List of Words with Spreadsheet Levels of Info. You can find it in the form of SkyUI (Skyrim mod) and Darnified (Oblivion mod). Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas may qualify on their own.

[TonyLi]

Depends on the game. For a mission-based shooter, I prefer a loadout screen where you choose your equipment right before starting the mission, and then you don’t have to manage inventory during the mission.

[theANMATOR2b]

Zelda style or list of words with images.
I pretty much detest managing inventory space. I’d rather just be informed you can carry a set amount of weight and have a total for how much weight I’m currently carrying (skyrim).

[neoshaman]

List is fine on a gamepad

[BrandyStarbrite]

Inventory system?
Zelda style inventory for me.

[anon20000101]

lol i love the inventory tetris, but it DOES become too much micromanaging sometimes

the list is absolute, absolute worst, no game should EVER have it… lol

and the squares is just lame, it makes all the items feel worthless
… i like the “feeling of wow this item is cool” from the inventory tetris style…

like you can FEEL the items or something vs the squares type… the squares type makes all the items feel the same somehow … like, in that divinity original sin screen, it only shows like 1/4 of the bow, and like JUST the axe blade and stuff
to me that makes me feel like “pffft i dont care about these items”

for an rpg game like divine divinity, that inventory i think is top of the top of the top, best inventory ever… i just like it idk
you doo fiddle with it alot, but the game is kinda slow paced, and it matches… you walk around and discover and find things, it gives you a huuge sense of “wow i have this cool item”

… i guess alot of it is the icon art, like the zelda ones look great… and the divinity original sin ones look like trash
(for the bigger items) it doesnt give a feeling like “this is a big item”

and yeah i never liked the list i guess because there is totally 0 feeling for the item,
and its soo weird, for immersion
yeaah i guess its all about immersion
in like skyrim, its like, you have a computer always with you that lists and sorts your items WTF is that?? in medieval setting really??
like how would that be like in real life? the character makes a log of every item always??
who does that?? they carry a clipboard around always?? lool

i guess… thats funny, fallout literally has you looking at a computer screen…
but still wtf where are those items stored?? how does the character store them?
he like scans the item with the pipboy and then puts it in the pipboy or something? and then he picks the item and it pops it out??? or what the frick?? like what??

so yeah for immersion the divine divinity … or actually the ultima is the best

i guess Link has really good organizational skills? he like has belt loops … or like a trenchcoat with loops made for each item or something LOL

the inventory tetris thing like tries to show space, but its gamey too… really, its like a simplified divine divinity style…

hmm really with the squares and the lists, its like
“we need an inventory for this game!”
“okay… uhhh JUST MAKE SOMETHING DONT THINK JUST MAKE IT !!”
0 immersion factor, totally gamey

but really its about player accessibility i guess… but its still really weird and out of place

hmm i think like a row of set in stone … or some little area makes sense, the character would have special treatment for like quest items or special items, or like, belt loops or shoulder mounted or pockets
and then divine divinity style for junk and stuff, the backpack

actually, the STALKER is good, it has the inventory tetris style, but it auto sorts, and the space is actually infinite, but limited by weight, and it has the 4 belt slots

[BIGTIMEMASTER]

I’ve played many RPG’s over the years. I tend to like action oriented more than Diablo types or turn based.

Inventories are usually a chore for me. I almost never use 90% of the junk included in the game. For instance, in dark souls I use one or two main weapons and estus. Never bother with pretty much any other consumables.

Same in the Witcher games.

In games like Arma, I appreciate a realistic backpack style inventory.

For me, the less time I spend dinking around an inventory and the more time I spend battling enemies or exploring the game – the better. I appreciate a design that is fast and intuitive, with minimal searching and without too many buttons involved.

[anon20000101]

sure, thats true, i can see that, like in Path of Exile, its a TOTAL CHORE and it SUCKS
you just wanna dump your crap and go in another map (KILL KILL KILL!)
but i think its part of the design, to make you want to buy more MTX stash tabs… kinda lame that, its really actually poor design and makes me not want to give em money LOL
… but then again… the game is a clone of Diablo 2, so yeah…

actually The Forest inventory is really awesome for immersion,
and theres no messing around organizing stuff

(REALLY fond of the game and inventory) in Divine Divinity, the game really isnt about “GO KILL! ACTION!!” … theres a lot of dinking around like, gathering plants to make medicines and exploring what you can see and stuff, and like i barely remember it, but theres like in the thieves guild, alot of it is you have to really examine your surroundings, everything is a puzzle, everywhere…
and its actually really relaxing … like check this music

Divine Divinity - "Roads Shaded by Green Eaves"

[theANMATOR2b]

the list is absolute, absolute worst, no game should EVER have it… lol

And yet half of the respondants said they prefer lists. Maybe your in a minority view point.

i never liked the list i guess because there is totally 0 feeling for the item, and its soo weird, for immersion

Have you ever played skyrim? They provide lists plus detailed, inspectable views and description of the items selected.

How about an actual inventory placed on the in-game character carrying all the crap they can supposedly carry. That would be epic, the character loaded down with 2 war hammers, 1 battle axe, 3 long swords, 2 shields, a short sword of shining light, 16 potions of healing, 13 mana potions, 6 spell books, 19 scrolls of conjuring, 6 amulets of magical warding, 19,467 gold pieces, 4 complete sets of armor, 1 fireball staff, and 1 staff of freezing.

There used to be a hilarious image of Groo loaded down with all weapons but can’t track it down.
This provides the same meaning.

Don’t forget - my character has a +4 to hit with that sword, even when I’m carrying all this other junk around in a deep dank dungeon.

[ikazrima]

@theANMATOR2b

Have you ever played skyrim? They provide lists plus detailed, inspectable views and description of the items selected.

Skyrim UI is HORRIBLE on PC, without SkyUI I wouldn’t’ have played it much further. A lot of PC players also think this way too.

To OP, if the game doesn’t have thousands of items, Tetris is okay. In games like the early Resident Evils, some do find that managing items adds to the survival aspect.

I’m a hoarder in RPGs, so if you’re doing a Tetris inventory you best bet I want an auto sort.

[theANMATOR2b]

@ikazrima

Skyrim UI is HORRIBLE on PC, without SkyUI I wouldn’t’ have played it much further.

I played on PS3.

[ikazrima]

@theANMATOR2b

I played on PS3.

Interesting. I don’t own any consoles, so can’t comment on that. On PC it seems like there’s so much wasted screen space. With the list taking only a small part of left screen, and the item preview more than half of it.

[neoshaman]

Weell if we are here to say preference, I like list, sorted, and with neat themed tab that keeps type of objects separated, I have a scroll wheel thanks.

[Kiwasi]

A lot depends on the game type. Here are some notable ones for me.

Halo: Two weapons with ammo. Eight grenades. Nothing else. The simplicity of the system was good. Decisions on which two weapons to carry felt meaningful. Do I keep the sniper rifle with only a few rounds left? Or do I swap to the less powerful weapon with more plentiful ammo?

Path of Exile: Most notable for the currency system. Items can be swapped for a wide variety of consumables. This meant that you were constantly searching for specific items to get specific consumables. It also removed the ‘grind enemies for random items to convert to gold’ loop that was present in Diablo 2. The auto-filling potions was also a nice upgrade from Diablo 2.

Factorio: Most notable for the automated inventory management features. In the mid to late game, you have a series of robots that come and add and remove items from your inventory. Thus I can say ‘I always need 100 Steel, 200 Plastic, 400 bullets and 0 wood’, and the little robot minions will make sure I have that amount at all times. Inventory management becomes more about making the high level decisions, and less about manually moving items around.

[Ryiah]

@ikazrima

I’m a hoarder in RPGs

Same. I was slowly improving while playing Skyrim, but then Fallout 4 came out and suddenly my mind refuses to let me step past a roll of duct tape. I’ve tried ignoring settlements but my mind keeps screaming “ADHESIVE!” until I pick it up.

[neoshaman]

Joke aside, one of the early design lesson I learned is that things I find pointless (inventory tetris, junk item, to only point at rpg) some player do truly like them, they like the manipulation and the sorting, it’s like finding a great deal on a bazaar market, like gardening, or doing sudoku, it’s calming to them or even enjoyable. Streamlining those thing will distress these player, no design can ever be pure and efficient, that’s a mirage.