I'd love to see some inventory-assisting items a la BGII - scroll cases and gem bags (and perhaps the potion case, although that always seemed a bit silly). Additionally, there's no reason why some small items should be so difficult to carry - a key ring would be fabulous for keys, and maybe some sort of pouch for small quest items.
Or Add the number of stack-able spaces in your quiver. Like you get three misc item stack spaces. Instead of one for the quiver, make it two or three. This way, you don't have to decide "Do I want to carry arrows, or have space for my phat loot?"
There's a mod component (part of the G3 tweakpack) that will simply allow infinite (or as close to it as it matters for practial reasons) stacking of arrows, as well as make vendors sell larger stacks of them. Same goes for scrolls, gems, potions, etc. Should be an easy matter to manually alter the stacking number to whatever you want it to be. It all depends on to what degree you value that kind of realism, and to what extent you want BG to be a game about inventory management.
Why not just have a quiver where you can place arrows of one particular type into. For example, buy 200 Arrow +1 and stack them all into a quiver. Then you can place the quiver into your ammunition slot.
Wouldn't that work better? It could work with any one type of arrow.
This will be especially important on iPad. If inventory management is tedious with such a precise and efficient device as the mouse, imagine the pain with a touch interface. Everything you can do to remove the amount of inventory sorting and management will be well worth it, and larger ammo stacks (MUCH larger please) is but one relevant example of this.
@Tanthalas Arrows do indeed stack to a mere 20 in BG1. Which is a pain in the a.., especially considering how useful archers are in BG1. What I would like to see is some kind of quiver item. It stores arrows for you like an ammo belt, but you can fill it with arrows and then drop the quiver into the ammunition slots for your characters and it will automatically draw arrows from it while shooting.
Why not just have a quiver where you can place arrows of one particular type into. For example, buy 200 Arrow +1 and stack them all into a quiver. Then you can place the quiver into your ammunition slot.
And this is different from infinite stacking how exactly? Adding one more unnecessary step of having quiver instead of just stacking arrows?
IMO, extended arrow stacks will lead to longer travel iterations, which is negative impact on original gameplay.
If devs want people to visit cities then make it harder to sleep outside. Monsters could ambush you 75% of the time or something, that way you'd have to return to cities to sleep. Personally I've never returned to city because arrows ran out.
I think its an annoyance to constantly be checking if your archers/mages have their projectiles stocked. It doesn't really add anything to the game.
I remember the low (20 in BG1 then 40 in BG2) ammunition stacks was one of the reasons that I actually never played with ranged characters until I installed mods for stacks of 9999. Remember, you still have to switch between your types of ammunition (+1, +2, biting, piercing, flame, cold, whatever) for best effect. That is a pain with small stacks, even with ammo belts making them not eat your entire inventory.
If the iPad version does not have larger than 40 stacks of ammunition or have the ability to mod it, I will probably not bother with ranged characters. On the PC version... I don't know. With larger stacks, I like for all my characters to have the ability to attack with ranged weapons, but the pain of running out of ammo is big.
There is one in-game problem that high stacking could create - the prices of special arrows in shops would go through the roof. I remember my shock the first time I tried to buy a quiver of dispelling arrows after installing ease-of-use mod. The mod increased the standard arrow stack to ... I think it was 1000. The problem was, the game calculates the price of a quiver by multiplying cost of one arrow by amount of arrows in the quiver (perfectly logical). So it means that the price of already expensive arrows was multiplied by 25 , changing it from 'steep' to 'unaffordable'.
I think that the good solution would be to allow the arrows to be stacked in your inventory up to... let's say, 200 pieces per slot, but make it so the shops only sell bundles of 20. (If you want to buy, say, 60 arrows, you buy 3 bundles). Or we could go all out and have the shopkeepers sell arrows one piece at a time, with option to double click and type in the desired quantity, same as we do with potions or scrolls.
No, I disagree. I think stacks of 40, as they are in BG2, is perfect. In this case I rarely ran out of arrows, I didnt have too crowded of a inventory and a person keeping stacks of 40 arrows on them is more believable to. It would also render the 'quiver of plenty' useless to, and I was enthralled when I found that item.
40, 100, 200, 99... let's make all the projectiles unlimited! Let's make monsters weaker and more numerous! Flash and stub, hack and slash! Even more, let's make all the party members immortal and so on...
Guys, if you want "less" strategic planning work while playing, chose another game. Diablo will do, for instance
Otherwise, enjoy the original gameplay. And when you become out of projectile stocks during the combat, switch to the melee weapon then. That is the challenge, that is real BG
I'm pretty torn on this one. 20 per stack seem really small, and managing it does take away from game play. However, inventory management is a part of the game, so I wouldn't want unlimited stacks. Maybe this could be a slider in the options, increments of 20 up to 200 or something like that, to meet the different preferences. For me 99 seems about right.
lol, that's some hyperbole, e3r4t5yn. To equate a small change in ammunition - like 40 to 99 arrows - to any of the large, hugely balance-altering changes that you suggest is funny, but it just isn't appropriate.
I think the issue with low arrow stacks is that, while it increases the cognitive load of the game, it does not do so in a way that's fun. It's just an irritating form of book-keeping to most. Use of items and character's abilities - that's the kind of strategy people want to see more of.
I think 99 is as high as I'd go. Why even quantify ammunition if you're going to make the stack higher than that? If you can get a 1000 of it, it's probably just better to give it all. I agree that inventory management is part of the game, but currently arrows take up way too many slots and offer way too little value in return.
my problem with limited stacks was that way too often i simply forgot to refill them. I never actually ran out of space or arrows if restocked timely, but forgetting to shop for them was a pain, considering i wasnt a range user and it, realistically, is a responsibility of whoever is using ranged weapons in this case Dynaheir/Imoen.
Most of my party on my last play was using ranged weapons. It was real pain to stack all this ammo (bullets, arrows, bolts) and it used half of my inventory space. So bigger stacks are good option.
I remember one game I had a PC in BG2 who was an archer. At higher levels they can shoot something like 4 arrows per round. Even a stack of 100 is gone after only 25 rounds. With the default stack of 40 only 10 rounds.
The fact that 40 arrows takes up the same amount of space as full plate mail takes inventory management to the level of classic Resident Evil. (hmm... do I want the rocket launcher or the key? only have room for one...)
The reason the quiver/bag of plenty was so special is because it contained infinite MAGIC ammo. I believe they started as +1 and could be upgraded to +2. That would still be pretty good loot for a ranged character at high level, while a mundane bag of arrows/bolts/stones/darts would be a godsend at BG1 levels. Throwing axes would have to remain the exception since they have weight.
Comments
I think there's another one actually.
EDIT: Found it. Merged this discussion with the older one.
Wouldn't that work better? It could work with any one type of arrow.
IMO, extended arrow stacks will lead to longer travel iterations, which is negative impact on original gameplay.
Arrows do indeed stack to a mere 20 in BG1. Which is a pain in the a.., especially considering how useful archers are in BG1.
What I would like to see is some kind of quiver item. It stores arrows for you like an ammo belt, but you can fill it with arrows and then drop the quiver into the ammunition slots for your characters and it will automatically draw arrows from it while shooting.
I think its an annoyance to constantly be checking if your archers/mages have their projectiles stocked. It doesn't really add anything to the game.
If the iPad version does not have larger than 40 stacks of ammunition or have the ability to mod it, I will probably not bother with ranged characters. On the PC version... I don't know. With larger stacks, I like for all my characters to have the ability to attack with ranged weapons, but the pain of running out of ammo is big.
I remember my shock the first time I tried to buy a quiver of dispelling arrows after installing ease-of-use mod. The mod increased the standard arrow stack to ... I think it was 1000. The problem was, the game calculates the price of a quiver by multiplying cost of one arrow by amount of arrows in the quiver (perfectly logical).
So it means that the price of already expensive arrows was multiplied by 25 , changing it from 'steep' to 'unaffordable'.
I think that the good solution would be to allow the arrows to be stacked in your inventory up to... let's say, 200 pieces per slot, but make it so the shops only sell bundles of 20. (If you want to buy, say, 60 arrows, you buy 3 bundles).
Or we could go all out and have the shopkeepers sell arrows one piece at a time, with option to double click and type in the desired quantity, same as we do with potions or scrolls.
Guys, if you want "less" strategic planning work while playing, chose another game. Diablo will do, for instance
Otherwise, enjoy the original gameplay. And when you become out of projectile stocks during the combat, switch to the melee weapon then. That is the challenge, that is real BG
I think the issue with low arrow stacks is that, while it increases the cognitive load of the game, it does not do so in a way that's fun. It's just an irritating form of book-keeping to most. Use of items and character's abilities - that's the kind of strategy people want to see more of.
I think 99 is as high as I'd go. Why even quantify ammunition if you're going to make the stack higher than that? If you can get a 1000 of it, it's probably just better to give it all. I agree that inventory management is part of the game, but currently arrows take up way too many slots and offer way too little value in return.
The fact that 40 arrows takes up the same amount of space as full plate mail takes inventory management to the level of classic Resident Evil. (hmm... do I want the rocket launcher or the key? only have room for one...)
The reason the quiver/bag of plenty was so special is because it contained infinite MAGIC ammo. I believe they started as +1 and could be upgraded to +2. That would still be pretty good loot for a ranged character at high level, while a mundane bag of arrows/bolts/stones/darts would be a godsend at BG1 levels. Throwing axes would have to remain the exception since they have weight.