Super Limited Inventory

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Here is what I was thinking:


Your character can bring only his equipments, along with a small "battle chest" which can be used to store some more items.


So the battle chest will have limited item amounts (items of same kind stack up, but they still count towards the max)

 

[Chaos Avian]

Like Dragon Quest 8? the bag is pretty much unlimited, but each character can only bring 9 items into battle with them, their equips included as well. Or sort of like the Etrian Odyssey games where you have a maximum of 60 items and same items don't stack, so having 2 potions, takes up 2 slots? If so, I quite like that, teaches you proper management in games and makes you value more items more.

 

[wallacethepig]

Honestly, I don't think it would matter much. In a game without battles it'd be utterly useless, and in a game with battles it'd be more of a hassle than anything else. Players would just equip the best stuff they had and only keep the best potions they could have, while selling or tossing the rest of it. It could work, though – for example, enemies could give out tons of loot and you'd have to pick and choose what you needed. And Chaos Avian is right – it does teach proper item management.

-Wallace

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

that is the idea, you only bring what you really need... everything else, you either maybe sell it or have a stash somewhere


@Chaos - more like the second, though current equipped items won't count to the limit... stacking will still be there, but there will only be a smaller amount of item slots (definitely not 60) and the stack will still count towards the limit... so like 5 potions still take 5 of the total item count even if they show on a "stacked" manner

 

[Chaos Avian]

60 is used because you get A LOT of stuff to sell in town like drops, gathering spots and so forth. But yeah, potions, ethers, (tents if you used them) and revival items are key.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

oh wait.... hmmm... since it will be total item number based, I guess 60 is actually a small number...

 

[Revache]

I've always like games that limit your inventory in some way. I like it better when it's not so much about "Oh no, I have no more room to pick up this loot" but more about "I have limited room, should I pack an extra mega-heal or a poison resistant cloak?". You might also want to consider if you want weight to factor into it. So you might be able to pick up 5 potions or one battleaxe instead of having a 1 to 1 ratio. Though, that always runs the risk of over-complicating things, but it's something to consider!

 

[Zoltor]

that is the idea, you only bring what you really need... everything else, you either maybe sell it or have a stash somewhere

@Chaos - more like the second, though current equipped items won't count to the limit... stacking will still be there, but there will only be a smaller amount of item slots (definitely not 60) and the stack will still count towards the limit... so like 5 potions still take 5 of the total item count even if they show on a "stacked" manner

Yea DW/DQ 2 was pretty good, but try to make it more like the "original" DW 3 instead, where there's a huge Vault in town, so you can just about store a infinite amount of items(well more items anyone would ever have anyway).

 

[Chaos Avian]

Yea DW/DQ 2 was pretty good, but try to make it more like the "original" DW 3 instead, where there's a huge Vault in town, so you can just about store a infinite amount of items(well more items anyone would ever have anyway).

Oh yeah of course *facepalm* of course you'll need a place to store items you want to keep but not throw! >_<

 

[whitesphere]

I wonder how difficult it would be to associate each item with another property, like "Weight" and then set limits on how much Weight each person could carry.

My guess is per-item note tags would be the only practical place to put that information, then use some scripting to iterate over the items, and add the Weights.  Of course, then the question comes:  what should the game do if total Weight is too high?  I can see "no dashing, period" and, perhaps, a major minus to agility and evasion in battle (hard to swing a sword or dodge a blow if you're carrying a few hundred pounds in a backpack).

That offers the same type of item management, while being a bit more flexible than "you can only carry 9 items"

 

[Zoltor]

Oh yeah of course *facepalm* of course you'll need a place to store items you want to keep but not throw! >_<

Lol yea, that annoyed the hell out of me in DW 2, becaese it actually had a pretty sweet treasure hunting aspect(I'm preyyt sure it was the first non-Dungeon Crawler/RPG that had a really good treasure hunting aspect,. The sad thing is however, your equipped equipment took up like 80% of your inventory, so basically each char could only hold 3 items aside from their equipment, after that, you need to start throwing away equipment, just to beable to keep treasure hunting(note I actually threw all my equipment away one time, just so each char's inventory can be full of nothing but Dragon Potions, and yes I actually succeeded in doing so, what a pretty sight that was).

 

[Mouser]

oh wait.... hmmm... since it will be total item number based, I guess 60 is actually a small number...

Try Final Fantasy XI sometime. I forget what the initial inventory limit was, but there was a MAJOR quest you could take every so often to increase your 'bag' space by FIVE WHOLE SLOTS!  - and equipped items counted (nothing but nekkid people all around the Auction House...)

If you're going to limit inventory, then limit it. 60 is a lot of items. If you're not counting equipped items, then everything is a luxury. Start with 20 items and see if you can go lower or need to go higher.

 

[Kyutaru]

Personally I would only find such systems a nuisance.  I hardly ever use items at all in RPGs, and I don't sell them either.  I just pack rat horde them and end the game with 99 of every single type of potion.  Unless the game goes beyond that.  Then I have 453.

I rarely if ever find the need to use some kind of item because proper battle tactics and exploiting enemy weaknesses limits the need to.  I might use one in the rare instance that my white mage is knocked out, probably because the tank was too busy being stunned that turn and she got one-shot, but other than that I tend to go itemless.  Having to then micromanage my inventory like some horrible MMO would make doing anything beyond a beeline for the end game too painful to bear.  I know the story of Final Fantasy XII because that's all I did in it.  Screw the rest of that crap.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I still think 60 is quite small... you might easily fill it up with potions for example...


@white - that's easy to do actually. and there are already scripts out there for that if you wanna implement that on your own project.


I'm thinking of slots since I was thinking more of you have a battle chest on your adventures so it's more of how many items can I fit inside? Probably gonna have specific slots for different item types... like potions only have X slots, extra items have Y slots and equipments have Z slots.

 

[Harmill]

Suikoden has a combination of item stacks and limited inventory per character. You have your main bag, which in itself has limited space, and you don't have access to that bag during battles. Each party member can have up to 2 "items" equipped and those can be healing items and such. Each item has a different amount of "charges" per item slot, though. So basic healing herbs would have 6 stacks per slot. Fill your two item slots with those herbs, and you have 12 healing items. I kinda liked it. I guess I'm indifferent because I don't find they make THAT much of a difference. I think if you're going to try and limit inventory space, you should spend time thinking about how you can encourage players to WANT to use items and why your game benefits by limiting them. More often than not, in a game that let's you have 99 of each item, I never wind up using more than a handful of them anyways.

 

[Zoltor]

I still think 60 is quite small... you might easily fill it up with potions for example...

@white - that's easy to do actually. and there are already scripts out there for that if you wanna implement that on your own project.

I'm thinking of slots since I was thinking more of you have a battle chest on your adventures so it's more of how many items can I fit inside? Probably gonna have specific slots for different item types... like potions only have X slots, extra items have Y slots and equipments have Z slots.

60 items only seems small, becaese you''r use to playing FF games, trust me, if you're allowed 60 items, not counting your equipment, that's a lot of items.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

when I say equipment, it means equipment that is currently equipped. any picked up equipment is part of the limit... + potions do take up space per potion even if they look stacked up. if for example I bring 10 HP, 10 MP and 10 status cure potions, that's already 30 items... so in case you won't bring any other items, that leaves you with just another 30 slots for picking up items on the go...

 

[Mouser]

when I say equipment, it means equipment that is currently equipped. any picked up equipment is part of the limit... + potions do take up space per potion even if they look stacked up. if for example I bring 10 HP, 10 MP and 10 status cure potions, that's already 30 items... so in case you won't bring any other items, that leaves you with just another 30 slots for picking up items on the go...

I'm still going to say 60 is a lot of items. Tweak your battles and treasure tables so you don't need to carry a pharmacy's worth of potions with you.

The danger is the 'middle ground' (often a good thing, but not here) - where you can carry everything you need, so there's no real 'prioritizing' of items, but you keep bumping up against the ceiling. At that point, it's just annoying. If you're going to limit inventory, the player's normal state (or quickly reached state, anyway) should be "If I pick this up, what do I have to throw away?" Then it becomes part of the gameplay.

That also encourages players to USE those potions and thrown weapons and any other 'consumables' rather than hoard them, since any they find that they don't pick up are essentially 'wasted'.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

not if you can balance it... yeah it gets harder to balance if you allow more items... so what? in the end it's all about if you can make it work with the game so that it becomes a good feature... if you can still balance it with a larger limit, why not?


IMHO, talking about exact numbers is kind of worthless here (or at least, can be very inaccurate) since we still don't even know how the game will go. so how can you be sure that a certain number is good or not?


like if I design it such that you won't need potions if you build your support, then a smaller inventory will fit. now if battles are item based, then you will probably need a larger limit.


So I would really prefer if we just stick to whether you think the idea of limited inventories is nice or not.

 

[Zoltor]

when I say equipment, it means equipment that is currently equipped. any picked up equipment is part of the limit... + potions do take up space per potion even if they look stacked up. if for example I bring 10 HP, 10 MP and 10 status cure potions, that's already 30 items... so in case you won't bring any other items, that leaves you with just another 30 slots for picking up items on the go...

Yes, I'm aware of that, It's still a lot, unless you plan on making unequipped equipment take up more then one spot.

Keep in mind after treasure hunting for awhile, you're "suppose" to return to town to sell/store the uneeded loot anyway.

Seriously 60 items is a "LOT" of items, in a game with a limited inventory space.