Can we NOT over-enhance inventory!?
Wikkid_Suhn
Member Posts: 136
I think making scroll cases, gem bags, and potion satchels available in BG is a great idea. I am not so certain, however, that enhancements such as making items stackable to 99 is an improvement.
This argument is sort of in line with the "rest" debate. How some people felt you should be able to rest anywhere and be able to recover all your spells, and some people felt that there should be certain limitations in place to not make resting a quick-fix to a tough situation. Well, in a similar way, I think that you should not automatically be able to bag every single item you come across in a given quest. I mean part of the fun was in deciding which item was worth for, and whether it made sense to pick up common items npcs dropped for a few extra gold pieces a pop.
Also, not sure if this has been advocated or not, but the Bag of Holding is an item of immense value and should not be easily accessible, if at all, in BG. We are dealing with characters that range from levels 1-whatever the new cap is going to be, and just because it is convenient, it is not necessarily an improvement on gameplay.
Bottom line for me is, ease-of-use does not necessarily make the game better! The challenge is a core part of the game!
This argument is sort of in line with the "rest" debate. How some people felt you should be able to rest anywhere and be able to recover all your spells, and some people felt that there should be certain limitations in place to not make resting a quick-fix to a tough situation. Well, in a similar way, I think that you should not automatically be able to bag every single item you come across in a given quest. I mean part of the fun was in deciding which item was worth for, and whether it made sense to pick up common items npcs dropped for a few extra gold pieces a pop.
Also, not sure if this has been advocated or not, but the Bag of Holding is an item of immense value and should not be easily accessible, if at all, in BG. We are dealing with characters that range from levels 1-whatever the new cap is going to be, and just because it is convenient, it is not necessarily an improvement on gameplay.
Bottom line for me is, ease-of-use does not necessarily make the game better! The challenge is a core part of the game!
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Comments
it makes no sense to me for one scroll, gem or big metal unit suit to occupy the same slot, that's why i think higher stacks or scroll cases should be introduced, but items in higher stacks produce more encumbrance. (i think scroll case alone weights more than all the scrolls it contained together)
it should not be possible to contain all the item in the game at once, but bag of holding also has a limit and encumbrance is also a big factor when you carry too many items.
also, i love organized inventory.
In a recent BG1 playthrough I recruited Safana and was constantly going into her inventory to put another stack of 10 throwing knives in her weapon slot.
Even with stacks of 20 arrows/bolts/bullets/darts its simply an annoyance.
I have 2 options here, one easy to do, that is copy the Vampire: Redemption bag feature, where you in fact truly manage the items in your inventory, and each item use a set amount of slots based in their size. There you have more or less 60 slots if i'm not wrong, and items vary in size based on what they are, as armors used 6 slots, scrolls 1 slot, daggers 2 slot, long swords 3 slot.
Another option is to completly remove all slots from inventories, make all characters use the design of bag of holding to preserve the already existent feature or create a scroll button on the inventory with infinite slots as the need comes, and only limit inventory based on weight.
I agree with you on scroll cases and also think gem bags and potion cases should be introduced, like in IWD. Those are reasonable features that would reduce clutter in the inventory. That would be interesting!
I would like to see a situation where you still have realistically small stacks of knives, but it's also easier to re-equip, taking away some of the headache without losing the immersiveness of having to re-equip manually. Think 2 or 3 keypresses on the keyboard rather than lots of pointing and clicking. Or maybe just have a programmable AI re-equip but it uses up a round of action to have it do that?
Or maybe make stacks unlimited, but have (optionally) a window pop up every time a certain number of finite ammo is used, to stop the character burning through it too quickly. You can confirm continued use of the ammo or a switch to melee.
If the inventory has decent item sorting (alphabetically, by class, by weight, and customizable--and maybe 'group by' as well) it should be easier to re-equip even if you did have to use point&click as there'd be a specific place to return your mouse to.
Ideas like having items take up different amount of space would be a nightmare to implement code-side, and would break a lot of mod compatibility.
Caruga, regarding keyboard shortcuts - remember a key feature of BGEE is iPad conversion, where that kind of thing won't help. One fix that'll work on PC and iPad is better, imo, than the team spending time for two fixes.
That way, a scroll case will save you four inventory slots' worth of scrolls (or more than that, if you've got a bunch of unique ones), a gem bag will save you ten, and a potion case will save you three or four slots. Not enough to get out of hand, but enough to successfully group similar items together in a way that makes sense.
I would also put these items fairly early on in the game. I recall one mod putting them in Gorion's inventory; I don't know how I feel about that, but you should definitely be able to acquire them at around the same time.
I hope ammo belts are also added.
I can live with a Bag of Holding not being available in BG1.