Inventory management mega request (for all Infinity Engine games)
__Q__
Member Posts: 29
Hey Beamdog,
Longtime Baldur's Gate fan here. I love the games, but I really hate managing my inventory. It's so tedious and time consuming. I'm glad to see you improved containers and added them to BG1 and allowed ammo to stack more. I also really love the quick-loot bar. It's hard to believe I ever made my way through BG1&2 without it. But even with the changes you guys made, I still think there's a ton of room for improvement.
I have a bunch of requests that are applicable to all the Infinity Engine games:
Auto-sort button/hotkey – This would be a button/hotkey that automatically sorts the items in a character's inventory or in a container with the goal of making it easier to find things. The idea is to put similar items together. For instance, all weapons would be grouped together. Similar weapons/armor/etc would be grouped together (e.g., all swords would be grouped together and, within the category of swords, all long swords would be grouped together). Where applicable, items would be sorted by power (e.g., non-magical long swords would come first, +1 long swords second, +2 long swords third, etc).
I'm not 100 percent sure what should be done with unidentified magical items. They should either be grouped with similar items (e.g., unidentified long sword should appear right after all your identified long swords) or all unidentified items should appear at the very end to make them easier to find.
Every character's inventory and every container should also have a checkbox that, if checked, will automatically sort new items so that you don't have to keep clicking the button.
Hotkey for sending items to container – This would be a button that, if held while clicking on an item that's on the ground, in a chest, or in a character's inventory, automatically transports the item to a container in the character's inventory. If applicable, the game would first try to use an item-specific container (e.g., a gem bag). If you don't have an appropriate item-specific container or they're all full, the item would be deposited in the Bag of Holding.
If you don't have an appropriate container or all containers are full, the game would attempt to add the item to a container held by another party member. The other party member would need to be standing close enough to exchange items or it would not work.
Finally, if no containers are available, the "inventory full" sound would play.
Take-all button – This would be a button that allows you to automatically grab all items from a chest or item drop. The game would add items to the selected character's inventory until they run out of space or the next item would cause them to become encumbered. It would then move on to the next character who is close enough to the selected character to exchange items until all the items have been taken or you run out of characters. If any items were left over, the "inventory full" sound would play.
If you hold down the hotkey mentioned above while clicking the take-all button, the items would be added to containers instead of your inventory.
In addition to the regular take-all button, there should be a second button that only takes magical items.
Container say how much space is left in them – When you open a container, it should tell you how many items are in it and how many more can fit.
Examining an item should tell you how many you have - With the exception of unidentified magical items, when you examine an item, it should tell you how many you have (between all your characters, including equipped items, their inventories, and containers). This would be really helpful when shopping, especially for ammo, scrolls, and potions.
Easier identifying – When you examine an item, the game should not necessarily use the lore value of the character holding the item. Instead, it should use the highest lore value of any character who is standing close enough to exchange items with the character holding the item.
Also, the item should not need to be in the inventory of a mage for the mage to cast "identify" on it. The mage should just need to be standing close enough to exchange items with the person holding the item.
Also, you should be able to cast identify on an item even if it's in a container.
Finally, to use an identify scroll, a mage should not need to have it in his or her inventory. He/she should just need to be standing close enough to exchange items with someone who has the scroll. Also, identify scrolls should be useable even if they're inside containers.
Examining items that aren't in your inventory – Currently, if you right click on an item that's on the ground or in a chest, nothing happens. Right clicking should allow you to examine and, if applicable, identify an item. This would make it easier to decide whether you want to add an item to your inventory.
Easier transfer of items from container – It should be possible to drag an item from a container to the portrait of the character you want to give it to. This should work as long as the character is standing close enough to whoever has the container. If it's a stackable item, it should ask you how many you want to transfer after you've dragged the item to the portrait.
Higher ammo stacking – This has probably been brought up before, but I still want to mention it: Is there any reason why ammo stacks can't go up to 100? Also, can you put an Ammo Belt somewhere in BG:EE? When I played through it, Imoen's entire inventory was taken up by arrows by the end of the game.
Quick loot bar should be disabled during combat - This would actually make inventory management slightly more annoying, but it's still kind of an exploit that should be fixed. As much as I love the quick loot bar, it's kind of cheap that you can instantly pick up any item during combat without even walking over to it. The quick loot bar should be grayed out and non-functional during combat, even if it's just an optional setting.
Quest items disappear from inventory when no longer needed - I've found a bunch of quest items that stay in your inventory when they no longer serve any purpose. It would be nice if these items disappeared to save you the trouble of dropping them.
Longtime Baldur's Gate fan here. I love the games, but I really hate managing my inventory. It's so tedious and time consuming. I'm glad to see you improved containers and added them to BG1 and allowed ammo to stack more. I also really love the quick-loot bar. It's hard to believe I ever made my way through BG1&2 without it. But even with the changes you guys made, I still think there's a ton of room for improvement.
I have a bunch of requests that are applicable to all the Infinity Engine games:
Auto-sort button/hotkey – This would be a button/hotkey that automatically sorts the items in a character's inventory or in a container with the goal of making it easier to find things. The idea is to put similar items together. For instance, all weapons would be grouped together. Similar weapons/armor/etc would be grouped together (e.g., all swords would be grouped together and, within the category of swords, all long swords would be grouped together). Where applicable, items would be sorted by power (e.g., non-magical long swords would come first, +1 long swords second, +2 long swords third, etc).
I'm not 100 percent sure what should be done with unidentified magical items. They should either be grouped with similar items (e.g., unidentified long sword should appear right after all your identified long swords) or all unidentified items should appear at the very end to make them easier to find.
Every character's inventory and every container should also have a checkbox that, if checked, will automatically sort new items so that you don't have to keep clicking the button.
Hotkey for sending items to container – This would be a button that, if held while clicking on an item that's on the ground, in a chest, or in a character's inventory, automatically transports the item to a container in the character's inventory. If applicable, the game would first try to use an item-specific container (e.g., a gem bag). If you don't have an appropriate item-specific container or they're all full, the item would be deposited in the Bag of Holding.
If you don't have an appropriate container or all containers are full, the game would attempt to add the item to a container held by another party member. The other party member would need to be standing close enough to exchange items or it would not work.
Finally, if no containers are available, the "inventory full" sound would play.
Take-all button – This would be a button that allows you to automatically grab all items from a chest or item drop. The game would add items to the selected character's inventory until they run out of space or the next item would cause them to become encumbered. It would then move on to the next character who is close enough to the selected character to exchange items until all the items have been taken or you run out of characters. If any items were left over, the "inventory full" sound would play.
If you hold down the hotkey mentioned above while clicking the take-all button, the items would be added to containers instead of your inventory.
In addition to the regular take-all button, there should be a second button that only takes magical items.
Container say how much space is left in them – When you open a container, it should tell you how many items are in it and how many more can fit.
Examining an item should tell you how many you have - With the exception of unidentified magical items, when you examine an item, it should tell you how many you have (between all your characters, including equipped items, their inventories, and containers). This would be really helpful when shopping, especially for ammo, scrolls, and potions.
Easier identifying – When you examine an item, the game should not necessarily use the lore value of the character holding the item. Instead, it should use the highest lore value of any character who is standing close enough to exchange items with the character holding the item.
Also, the item should not need to be in the inventory of a mage for the mage to cast "identify" on it. The mage should just need to be standing close enough to exchange items with the person holding the item.
Also, you should be able to cast identify on an item even if it's in a container.
Finally, to use an identify scroll, a mage should not need to have it in his or her inventory. He/she should just need to be standing close enough to exchange items with someone who has the scroll. Also, identify scrolls should be useable even if they're inside containers.
Examining items that aren't in your inventory – Currently, if you right click on an item that's on the ground or in a chest, nothing happens. Right clicking should allow you to examine and, if applicable, identify an item. This would make it easier to decide whether you want to add an item to your inventory.
Easier transfer of items from container – It should be possible to drag an item from a container to the portrait of the character you want to give it to. This should work as long as the character is standing close enough to whoever has the container. If it's a stackable item, it should ask you how many you want to transfer after you've dragged the item to the portrait.
Higher ammo stacking – This has probably been brought up before, but I still want to mention it: Is there any reason why ammo stacks can't go up to 100? Also, can you put an Ammo Belt somewhere in BG:EE? When I played through it, Imoen's entire inventory was taken up by arrows by the end of the game.
Quick loot bar should be disabled during combat - This would actually make inventory management slightly more annoying, but it's still kind of an exploit that should be fixed. As much as I love the quick loot bar, it's kind of cheap that you can instantly pick up any item during combat without even walking over to it. The quick loot bar should be grayed out and non-functional during combat, even if it's just an optional setting.
Quest items disappear from inventory when no longer needed - I've found a bunch of quest items that stay in your inventory when they no longer serve any purpose. It would be nice if these items disappeared to save you the trouble of dropping them.
Post edited by __Q__ on
2
Comments
I have similar requests here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/67634/ease-of-use-improvements-for-2018
I am creating tickets for my requests, as Julius suggested. It's actually pretty simple.
I'm not doing the shared lore feature since there are already multiple tickets for it. Strange they have never implemented.