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Favorite Type of Inventory?
Helleri
Member UncommonPosts: 930
This poll is for getting a better idea of what type of limited inventory people prefer in their MMORPG's (where it is the case that a limited inventory is part of the build). The scope of this doesn't extend to toolbelts, equipement item slots, or banks. I'd also like to stay away from discussion on cash shops and buying spare/extra bags.
I'd like to keep within the realm of 'When a limited inventory is part of an MMORPG which type do you prefer most'.
Beyond the Poll I'd like your opinion on how you feel about things such as:
- The precieved benefits of your prefered type of inventory over one you don't like much.
- Character/Account Bound Items.
- Cross Charecter - Same Account Shared / Transferable Items.
Comments
I went with number of items because of all the things I find fun and like to do in games, inventory management is one of the things the furthest from those.
I view inventory management as a hassle rather than a feature.
agree 100% I hate having manage inventory instead of playing a fun game.
Agree with both ^^
This is something I wish POE would've done better,having some item's take up 6 slot's and other's 1 is somewhat of a pain.Now I know I don't need to pick up everything,but having all item's at 1 slot would be much better.That way if I have a slot left anything can be picked up.
Some day I'm going to put a sword through your eye and out the back of your skull!
Arya Stark
Depends.
If the restrictions are not utilized in any way, to give the player interesting choices, they may as well not exist if they are just a crutch for the developers.
Bound items should be used sparingly, not as a main way to battle inflation, being again just a crutch.
Flame on!
Darkfall 1 inventory
haha presto!
@BanagHran
I agree with what you seem to mean about different methods being good if their implimented well...and i have an example:
I have seen in runescape weight as an additional factor to number of items implimented well.
While your character is never over incumbered by weight, it does effect how long their energy lasts. Energy is used for running and feats of agility (like getting past obstacles and using shortcuts). it is governed (aside from modifiers like weight), by the agility skill. The higher ones agility level is the longer their energy lasts and faster it recharges. When out of energy a player can still walk until it recharges (the longest way to recharge), or elect to use an energy restor effect (from certain jewelry or potions), which is the fastest way to restore it, or listen to a musician (that are placed strategically through out runescape) which is the second fastest method, or simply use the rest option. A player with low agility or who is carrying a lot of weight can toggle run on/off to conserve (as any player can).
While it sounds like it can get in the way of what you are doign it really doesn't. Players mostly tend to run in short bursts between the many places and ways they can teleport across runescape. The test of how long run energy lasts vs. how well you use it really only creeps up in questing sometimes.
Weight of items in inventory can also effect ones ability to do certain obstacles in quests and normaly. There are even certain quests where players have to figure out how to affectively go minus weighing anything to get accross some obstacles or find a go around to using an obstacle at all. (like temporarily droping some items and wearing boots of lightness, or grappling something and swinging or tight rope walk across).
So, while I like the simplicity of just being limited by the number of items I have seen an additional factor as well used in a dynamic and engaging way.
But, there is the potential as you implied for it to also be used poorly.
Also i can see bound items as a deficit should they be over relied upon "well I can't trade it any way, might as well use it until a quest gives me a better item i can't trade".
I am a junk holder. I like to collect things that may not have been meant as a ingame collection. Like Rocks in WoW, or elements in Rift.
also kept all my purples from vanilla and TBC WoW pre hacking. It was a a trophy to me. Since I was more casual/core back then. Never got as deep into WoW since then. So I can't stand running out of bag space once again. Because that means deleting items that meant something to me.
I just really don't like this part of the genre. I rather keep all models in the game but some games the armor and weapons had special powers that made them kind of cool. Like in Vanilla WoW for example. I still have that trinket that summon those 3 level 61 npc to attack enemies. Lol, well at least I believe I have it post hack. Havnt played in so long.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
@MMOExposed
I like to hold onto items for sentiment as well. Another reason runescape is my MMO of choice is that I have a ton of bank space and it facilitates collecting items to some degrre with my player owned house. But more on topic are you saying you prefer a no limitation inventory?
I voted "size and weight". Size is something UO didn't account for, but I loved the backpack. I like a more "realistic" version because that's more immersive to me. I admit it does get a bit tedious at times, but I also accept that for the greater immersion.
Once upon a time....
Great poll Helleri!
I know these games we play are fantastical however I chose size and weight as I do like to see a vein of realsim mixed in. I know how annoying it is when your bags quickly fill but at the same time it makes me have to plan better or unload what I have then continue on. End of the day, if it's the same for all in game I'm not too phased by having to make stops to unload stuff.
In line with my choice of size and weight It would be interesting to have various classes be able to carry different size/weight loads. Warriors because of their superior muscle mass would carry more, a frail Magician less. Plate armour would take up more room to carry as opposed to cloth which can be folded and weighs less.
You may decide to then make your Warrior a miner as he will be able to carry more ore if you enjoy gathering. You could even take it further and have the amount of gear they are carrying slow thier movement speed down of make them fatigue sooner, though if you went with this option I would go with a much larger capacity of bag space as people would cry about not being able to carry much and then also be reduced in speed.
To answer the questions you asked after your poll, my perceived benefit is as I mentioned above with that dash of realism and people having to think about what they carry rather than a no brainer with bottomless bags. It just makes us plan better.
For character/account bound items as long as there was seperate space such as a bank or dwelling to keep these item stored in as well as vanity items I would be happy with that if these we a part of the game design.
Rhino.
I think weight of items makes the most sense. No artificial limitations based on number of vacant slots in your backpack. What if I'm carrying 30 different kinds of herbs? The weight of the herbs would probably barely take up any of the available weight in my inventory. But if my inventory is limited to 30 slots, then I'm screwed.
Weight of items has a special place in role playing and immersion as well. If I'm playing a warrior with an emphasis on strength, then I can carry more weight. If I'm playing a wizard that relies on spell components, then I can carry all my sulfur, herbs, and troll teeth without taking up those precious slots.
Hard to say, I addept towards the games I play.
I do however don't like unlimited inventory space, I am a collector and that would mean I hardly have to think about what I pickup/harvest or loot. It creates another little challenge when knowing you have limited space, limited weight or limited skill/lvl to carry things.
I think it depends a bit on the game's type: If the game has a lot of sandbox elements then also complex inventory management system could make sense. But i think in a theme-park game inventory should be something you can forget.
This also brings into the game special carriers that reduce the weight of items carried within it to some degree. My Monk in EQ was "ever questing" for bags with reduced weight properties because weight greatly mattered to his abilities. Think how valuable a "bag of holding" would be in this kind system...
Then again, EQ still had increase-able character stats that helped increase weight allowance. That's another thing modern MMOs seem to think is too complicated.
This was also one of the causes of the dreaded downtime in EQ. Players had to periodically run to town to sell stuff while camping a spot or dungeon. This allowed for bathroom breaks, drink refills, chatting, what have you during gameplay.
Not everyone will like that. I have a feeling most players want unlimited everything so they can just kill/loot forever.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Is it? It seems to me limited by weight and size is most logical if your looking for realism, and if your looking for simplicity then by number...What is most logical seems dependant one what you are looking for point wise.
But, there comes a point when logic goes out the window in a game to some degree. Because, you just need to make something work and not be a frustrating experience. I think that may be why the majority of people are for the simplicity of limited by number, and the close second is by weight or some combination of the two. So far, few people seem to have a liking towards limited by size. Even those who do don't seem to agree that it is more of a challenge (and appear to like it for that reason - at least in part). [that is of course just my interpretation of the data and information and may not be dead on the mark].
And, I can understand the possible frustration with limited by size, as apposed to by weight or by number. Just last night I was on path of exile and had found a vial I was thinking about using. And, I couldn't fit it. It's size cost was two squares, I had the two squares free. I in fact had three free. But, no matter how I shuffled things around it simply would not work. And, I thought to my self "why can't I just rotate the vial like a tetrimino in tetris?"... And really, yeah...why can't I? Seems simple enough.
If limited by size is indeed meant to act as something more realistic. Then realisticly; If I were trying in real life to fit one item in a container full of other items, I would first try to turn and rotate the item I was attempting to fit in the box, if things were not working out space wise. I might even force things a bit before I try re-organizing the whole box.
So, here is a question. Would a limited by size inventory be less or more desirable if you could:
1 ) Rotate items to fit better in the space alloted.
2) Force fit items to some degree (lets say where an item takes up a space not required for the image to not be overlapping another image comes into contact with another such space of a different item, the new items empty square sits on top - layerd - of the other items empty box space).
Further more, would those who currently prefer the limited by number inventory, be likely to change their preference were these two things the case in a limited by size inventory?
I fully believe that items should be rotate-able to fit.
LOL Just had a thought. Instead of inventory being "square" based, how about "octagonal" based? Now diagonals work
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I love how people want to pretend that *ANY* of these inventory systems are remotely realistic. You're talking about someone being able to wander around carrying a dozen full suits of armor, a pile of weapons, all the crap from fetch-quests and still be able to fight, carrying all of that? That's absurd. Add in the millions of coins that people are often able to carry around and it gets even more ridiculous.
Stop worrying about realistic, none of it is. Start worrying about fun.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
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I liked how it worked in EvE, By volume alone.
Total number of unique items in one container was also limited to 9999 I think and that usually wasnt a hassle, unless you were moving all your stuff from one place to another.
Having mass playing a role would have made sense I guess and I recon other games should have some sort of encumberance system on top for added realism.
I will have to insist on (almost) unlimited bank/vault space. It is so annoying when you have to make alts just to store crap or resources.
@ AlBQuirky
A hexagonal system of storage while pheasible, I think to fit within an MMORPG would have to work within an MMORPG where the movement is also based on hexagonal tiles. I can vaugley recall having seen some RTS in the past that worked off griding anything which needed to be grided hexagonaly (there were also a ton of paper pencil games during the 70's and 80's that did this). Things do actually fit together better in such a system of griding and they do rotate better as tiles. I may play with this idea a bit.
@ Cephus404
When I talk about realistic I mean more concisely, reasonable within respects to what we are doing. yes, it is unrealistic for a single player to carry dozens of suits of armor and other thigns and still fight. But, it is also unrealistic that they can do magic. So, we have to assume for what ever game we are playing, that we are within a universe where the laws of physics work a little differently.
If you take these games back to their roots (Dungeons and Dragons) we had bags of holding. You can fit a sword, some fully prepared meals, camping gear and potions and other things all in one small bag. And we are not effected much - if at all - by it's weight. We can even put the remains of fallen allies in the bag of holding for ressurecting them at a later point. The bag is magically enchanted. Things placed in the bag are not even really in the bag. The bag is better described as a portal through which we access a pocket dimension. But, even bags of holding have their limits (usually the limit directly corrilates to the limit of the power of the person who created the bag and the materials they used).
A fair rationalization is that our characters, usually within a world permiating with magical forces are working under some similar system of storage. Especially given that the first MMORPG's were attempts to bring Dungeons and Dragons like play into a virtual environment. And, that none of them have fully escaped this frame work or some of the key concepts for paper and pencil gaming
@ WW4BW
As for not limitation at all...I think limitations are nescessary in most MMORPG's for the health of the game as whole. Having to at some point make a choice as to what to do with items we have regulates the economy in a game to some degree. A player will likely choose the most useful objects to them and leave less important things. what the player decides to sell vs. keep, collect vs. disgaurd...every player participating in this helps determine what is available on the market, what is harder to find, and what is junk beyond a certain level.
The nescessity to make that choice at some point in order to progress in a smooth manner forces the player to take time out to deal with that as well. Meaning that beyond rate of drop items have a bare minimum amount of time they can be gathered in any amount of bulk in. The need to return to some sort of center for storage and comerce also slows the helps regulate the time in which level can be gained if they player hopes to profit otherwise while doing so.
A limited inventory of some fashioon being far more common then an unlimited inventory and; that having some limitation can be good for the health of the game is why the scvope of this topic is limited to 'where it is the case, which do you prefer most and why?.' though i do realize with the last poll option I left it a bit open to steppoing outside of what is being discussed here.