Let's talk inventory: No more invisible inventory

[anthonylocke]

I’d like to see an end to the tired “invisible” inventory. If you have a quiver of arrows it’s slung across your back, if you have a bow, it’s there as well. If you’re carrying a sword it’s in it’s scabbard on your hip. A shield, also on your back or in your hand. Letters? Keys? Food? Drink? in pouches or in a backpack. I’d like everything to actually have a place, and that should determine how much you can carry. Maybe you’ll have a bow, quiver, shield and sword all at the same time. Maybe you also have a dagger on your other hip. A quick button selection menu could be used to determine which weapon you’re deciding to draw.

Maybe you use a halberd and a sword, so you’ve got the sword on your hip as you hold the halberd, leaning it against your shoulder (it would be silly to try and strap a halberd or spear to your back.) Depending on the situation you could throw down the halberd and draw your sword (maybe you’re in close quarters.)

Right I think you get the idea. Everything you bring should have a visible place in which it goes (and fits.) So if you wanted to have a second sword I suppose you’d have to sling the scabbard over your back (you can’t draw it, but for carrying only.) The more you bring the more it will fatigue you, possibly slow you down (because running with a bunch of stuff flailing around on your back is not the easiest thing to do, trust me.) It could also effect your stealth ability.

[Joruto]

The only problem is that this will be a first-person game and you will not see any of it. But I agree with you that this should be included in many games.

[Neon_Knight]

Not true I guess, As seen on videos, when you look down, you can see your torso, legs and hands. Also in video cut-talking- scenes, you see your whole character, with everything thats on him - clothes, armor and probably also weapons.

[janfo]

Not really necessary for me but a good Idea nevertheless.
If its not too much work and too complicated it would be a good thing to have I think.
But then you shouldnt be able to carry too much so you have to choose which weapons you carry with you. Swords are not that heavy but other things are.
And since you still have your horse with inventory slots you can storage other things there.

[AndrewvonByzanz]

Agree.
Unlike in Skyrim where one can carry a whole super tanker full of arrows, gold, lockpicks, food and whatever.

[Flashfire]

For a game like this, I think it does greatly help the purpose of what they’re trying to go for if you’re limited to what you can physically carry and keep on a limited number of “slots.” It wouldn’t make sense to have the ability to carry 10 extra swords that are in some hidden inventory, plus a combination of another 20 tops, leggings and boots, 500 gems, etc.

If you have a coinpurse, it’s going to have a limit to what it can hold. Depending on how strong you are, it will affect what you can carry. If you’re in a fight, you’d better have set aside whatever’s going to hinder your ability to attack and defend.

In other words, I don’t think the “packrat” mentality a lot of games allow with hidden inventory systems is a good fit. That may be accounted for if you have someone to help carry stuff, or a cart or room on a horse for a sack, but those would be the only exceptions I can think of. If you need to make a big purchase, you might just have to go back to your place and get more money first in order to do it. Or, if it’s a matter of stuff like copper, silver and gold, go get a few gold coins if you aren’t carrying much on you.

[dominiczeth]

Yeah i hope we will see the stuff that you have in your inventory also on the character. Would be a nice feature

[SerCabbage]

While the idea is cool, I imagine it would be an EXTREME amount of work to actually implement in any game. I’d like to see it someday, but I doubt its going to be anytime soon and I don’t really mind the invisible inventory that much in the first place.

[rataj]

I think you talk about fetaures which are created in mods for skyrim… ?
like “Dual Sheath Redux” and "All Gears Up"
You will see all the equipment on character/Henry in the inventory?

[McWonderBeast]

I really like the menu screen in the Forest. in addition to the OP’s comments I would love to see a similar presentation of items. Its simple this is what you have at your disposal and it shows the means of being carried, Idk how it would be expanded to belts and other item carrying accessories though.

People always gripe about realism in graphics and AI but what about UI, you know what really kills immersion for me? seeing myself in third person next a chart of things with their weight and in some games descriptions.

but thats kind of a null point becuase most players need that info to understand whats happening before them.

[213]

it makes sense in survival game where you’re alone in the wild, but in a game where you’re around other people, and there’s a society, would you really unfurl a blanket on the ground, put all your belongs on it and empty your bag[backpack] on it?

you’ll just open your pockets/bags and take what you need. the inventory menu is an abstraction of this, since properly simulate rifling through your possessions in high fidelity is not worth the pay off.

same reason you don’t take out your virtual deniers modeled on your palsm and start counting them one by one then hand them over to the merchant. some things are pointless/mundane to simulate. so that are abstracted and simplified for expedience.

[McWonderBeast]

I get your First point completely, I still prefer it to a chart.

I would love to see them go through the whole inventory first person but it would be long boring and would be a pain in the ass to code/animate, thus is why I made the suggestion in the first place it was a simpler version of what the OP was talking about.

In the end im gonna be happy with whatever we get and then just MOD the Holy Hell out it later.

[Asgo]

Inventory and realism - a complex topic.
Actually, you could break it down in several topics:
A) Volume, weight, numbers:
the content side, how much you could actually carry
B) Outside visual representation:
How much of what you are carrying will show? Just your current weapon, some symbolic stages to show symbolic the load or everything you carry.
C) Interaction with your inventory:
From the standard UI display to animated unpacking your stuff on the ground or some look into your bag etc.

These are to a degree independent from each other and are mostly design decisions. Another commonality, each of these cost a lot of work if you want to go for realism.
A) interacts with everything item related, loot, quest reward, economy, crafting, storage and transportation. You have to balance them carefully and probably have a strictly limited inventory in mind from the start.
B) You have to ensure it works with every visual applicable item you put in your game, including animations for dropping carried stuff for other interactions (which almost most have to be situation dependent to fit and be really more realistic than the implied storage)
C) You have to ensure that the interaction works situation dependent, similar to B), be relative fast to conserve some ergonomics and still have a good selection/management interface.

Depending on your preferences you might have different priorities for each topic.
If I could choose I would go for A+B in a realistic way and keep for C standard UI stuff, because here the interactivity and playability are more important, but that’s just me.
But in the end better well made symbolic stuff than bad realistic stuff.

[SirWarriant]

I really hope they display all the weapons you have on you (even if you don’t have them equip) on you. I also think it would be cool to have a backpack so it explains where you are storing all this stuff. A coin purse for your money would also be really cool.

[nmk]

My humble opinion: Oh god I hope they will keep the current list-with-stats kind of UI, and polish it. This is a story-driven open-world RPG. I want to enjoy the world of middle ages and the story, I do not also need to be constantly reminded how annoying and slow it is to carry a lot of stuff. I am really not looking for a packing-for-a-business-trip/hiking simulator, I “enjoy” it in my real life. And the stats matter in an RPG, so they should be clearly visible. It’s not a survival game. We’ll be spending most of the time in villages and towns.

As for showing all the items on your person in some kind of packs, pouches, I don’t see why it should matter so much since it will be first-person view only. But even if for the sake of argument you can see it on your character (in the dialogs…), in a real world I never go around doing stuff with a big backpack/suitcase/pouch anyway. I do not want to look like a backpacker, who just arrived from the airport, asking for directions. Any sane person would just leave most of the stuff at his room in the inn or whatever.

Of course I’m all for the current weapon/bow/quiver/small accessory to be visible. Basically just the stuff for your current activity, as in the real world. And as any NPC in the game.

I am sorry, I get emotional about this, since the “fancy” inventory UI without stats was probably the most annoying thing that happened to Skyrim.