Inventory Management

Zindaihas

The collections thread got me to thinking about an issue I remember having with EQ and wonder if anyone else had any thoughts on it.  Whenever I found an unknown item, I hated to throw it away because I had no idea if it might be something I would need later.  So I built up quite a collection of items in my inventory and there were times when I would have to search through it for several minutes just to find the one thing I was looking for.  I tried to organize my stuff as best I could, but it wasn't easy.

I was thinking it would be nice if there was some kind of inventory system that would make it easy to find what you're looking for in a matter of seconds rather than minutes.  In EQ, they had different size bags that would allow you to stick small things in small bags and large items in large bags and I tried to do that as much as possible in order to shorten the search.  But it could still be tedious at times.

I wonder if they could give pouches different names in order to help you find something more quickly.  For instance, a "trinkets" bag that you would only stick really small items in so it would narrow the search.  Or perhaps better yet, a system that allowed you to label your bags yourself, such as "weapons", "collections" and "unknown items", so you could hopefully go right to the correct one right off.

One thing I would not be in favor of is having an item fully identified the moment you find it.  That would be unrealistic and take too much of the mystery out of finding items.  Knowing whether or not something might be useful to you in the future should require some investigation and it probably leads to more interaction between players to boot.

Viper482

Crafting items typically get me in trouble. The best MMO inventory systems let you keep these in a separate bank (auto-inventory them like gw2) and all toons can craft directly from that bank without having to constantly run back and forth. I hate having to stop playing the game to play inventory whack-a-mole. It should never be part of gameplay. 

kitarad

I do not like magically being able to craft things with items from the bank miles away.

svann

EQ1 just now introduced an inventory system that is just peaches.  There is a button on your character window that you push and it opens up a window with a list (in table form) of your inventory in alphabetical order.  Each item shows whether it is on you or in bank, and then the bag#/slot#.  It also has a search function.  Maybe overkill for a new game, but for eq it was really needed and well appreciated.

MadFrenchie

This is a touchy one for me.  Poor inventory systems can literally frustrate me enough to stop playing a game.

I don't need unlimited inventory space, but I should be able to get through a whole play session without having to run to the bank/vendor to empty the bags every hour.

Dullahan

I really like the bag progression in most mmos (of the past at least). Just one more thing to build towards. It should be a bit of a struggle at first to get the coin to fill your bag slots, and then upgrade them to ones of a reasonable size. That doesn't mean I want to forever fight my inventory space though.

Amathe

I have never played a game where I had enough bag space. Unless you count Morrowind  (single player), where you could just pile stuff up wherever you want.