An Idea for More Inventory Space

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

I just had a revelation for how to get more inventory space, and it does not take magic or a keyboard that is extra large.
But it does take programming (read: something that I can’t do)

The idea was to create sub-section inventory selection. For example.

Inventory: 
a- Tools
b- Clothing
c- Foods/Drinks/Drugs
d- Books
e- Other
f- Ammo
g- Weapons
h- Whatever-category-you-have

Lets say you pick option b, just because I remember the names of clothes:

a- Monocle
b- Dress Shirt (fitted)
c- Dress Shoes 
d- Dress
e- Heels
... ... ... ... ... ...
[- Backpack
]- Skirt (reinforced)

Looking at the code section it should not be too hard, something like:

do you have tools?         {No-do nothing} {Yes-Print "a-Tools"}
do you have clothes?    {No-do nothing} {Yes-Print "b-Clothes"}
... ... ... ... ... ...

If keystroke=a: {
    list the tools in player_inventory
    associate the keys with the tools in inventory
    }
if keystroke=b: {
    list the clothes in player_inventory
    associate the keys with the clothes in inventory
    }

Any ideas? Can anybody comment on the difficulty of this code idea? Is this idea already being discussed?

Code-wise I think this idea is very practical, as well as game-wise. Theoretically this would open up
(number of mapped characters) * (number of categories) = total possible number of carry-able items.

2

do we really need MORE? I mean shit, they made it so there are not only the regular and capitals and numbers and characters, do we really need /MORE/ slots for items?

the answer is yes. mobettur

3

I would rather a proper container system were implemented.

4

We need something more similar to Dwarf Fortress.
Sure… We are already limited as it is, too how much we can hold, and making a container system similar to Dwarf Fortress’s would honestly make it even harder to carry more stuff (because, I can’t put half the gun in my pocket and the other half in my backpack) but it would honestly make the game so much more entertaining.

But to be honest, the Character Assignment needs to be fixed… Easy Way? Like Dwarf Fortress (Again) just have multiple pages each with items assign as a-z (or whatever) on each page.

5

75 is hardly enough when you’re a base on legs. Drugs, ammo, weapons, tools… it adds up pretty fast.

6

This would be cool. I think a cool feature of this is that if you have 2 backpacks on full of stuff you can drop them real quick in order to lose the encumbrance to your torso, then pick them up afterwards.

In the current system if you drop your backpacks then you’re screwed.

7

This would be cool. I think a cool feature of this is that if you have 2 backpacks on full of stuff you can drop them real quick in order to lose the encumbrance to your torso, then pick them up afterwards.

In the current system if you drop your backpacks then you’re screwed.[/quote]

8

If a nested inventory system were to be implemented, so that you cant break a gun into half, than the same code basics could apply.
Imagine instead of dividing it by tools, clothing and other we divide it by backpack 1, backpack 2, cargo pants, etc.

Inventory: 
a- Backpack
b- Backpack
c- Cargo Pants (reinforced) 
d- Cargo Pants (shredded)
e- Military Rucksack
f- Military Rucksack (cracked)
h- Whatever-clothes-with-inventory-you-have
If keystroke=a: {
    list the items in player_backpack_inventory
    associate the keys with items
    }
if keystroke=e: {
    list the items in player_militaryrucksack_inventory
    associate the keys with items
    }

But if this idea were to be implemented than there would have to be a lot of inventory micromanagement, such as moving objects from one backpack to your pants or some other arrangement.

9

Ugh. I definitely don’t want to see increased inventory micromanagement.

I do not want to have to spend any time at all going into recursive submenus to pull a match out of the matchbook in my pocket.

I also don’t care to waste any time manually moving items between containers.

There’s already enough annoyances with the inventory system having to type weird characters to get the inventory item you want. Any ‘improvement’ to the inventory system should make things more convenient, not less.

10

I’d like proper containers too, and Unicode support. I have all these keys the game is not using, but I could, like öÖüÜóÓőŐúÚéÉáÁűŰíÍäÄßłŁđĐ.
And you could add additional keyboard layouts, so you could just press alt+shift should you run out of characters.
But I think the best would be a Total-Commander style menu with the characters in alphabetical order.

11

[quote=“Endovior, post:9, topic:1653”]Ugh. I definitely don’t want to see increased inventory micromanagement.

I do not want to have to spend any time at all going into recursive submenus to pull a match out of the matchbook in my pocket.

I also don’t care to waste any time manually moving items between containers.

There’s already enough annoyances with the inventory system having to type weird characters to get the inventory item you want. Any ‘improvement’ to the inventory system should make things more convenient, not less.[/quote]

I hear you. However, that’s a rather short-sighted approach.

There are a lot of benefits to using containers and there are also ways to implement it in such a way that we can have our cake and eat it too.

What I would suggest is making it so that containers are automatically given the capital A, B, C, D (etcetera) slots when they are used. To keep things simplified. These would act as submenus. You select them and you get a new inventory screen.

Containers would only be container items like backpacks, purses, pouches, etc - they come with a Volume Cost (when not worn) and have a total volume they can contain, but anything in them does not add to your total volume. Their weight is equal to the weight of the container plus its contents.

Your carry volume capacity would be limited to what is granted by your clothing. Pockets, etcetera. Basically your first inventory screen is whatever is easily accessible by the character; in your pockets, hanging around your neck, held in your hand, worn on your body, etc.

Optionally, make it require a tick of time in order to use/add/remove something from a container. You can’t access your backpack as easily as you can access your pockets.

This does two things which I think are interesting; it means you must make a strategic decision about where stuff is kept on your person. You could keep all your meds in your backpack but that means you might not be able to access them as safely in a dangerous situation. But if you fill your pockets with meds then that is less room for other stuff like ammunition. It also makes clothing with extra volume valuable in a way that container items cannot reproduce; by giving you more pocketspace, you have more room to keep stuff that you can access instantly. A backpack adds lots of volume but it’s not as easily accessible. It’s where you’d keep stuff you won’t need at a moment’s notice.

It also means you don’t have multiple pages worth of junk and special characters to type every time you look in your inventory. By essentially limiting the amount of stuff you can treat your basic inventory screen almost like a ‘favorites’ menu. It’s the stuff you use the most often. Without all the special characters cluttering things up. In your containers you keep stuff you use less frequently. And again, without all the special characters.

Ideally you would be able to remove a container item and have that container retain its contents, so that entire containers can be dropped, picked up, swapped, as necessary.

Also ideally, give the option to rename containers or add notes to the end of the names, so that a pouch could be renamed to Pouch (Medicine) or Pouch (Ammunition) to keep things better organized.

12

When I personally think about Hyena Grin’s system I think of the Arma2 or DayZ inventory (anyone play that?). Basically his system is very accurate representation of the system that they protray. But in order to get that system working we would need to range the time taken to access each and every single piece of clothing and how long it would take to access it’s storage, meaning that it would take a fair bit of re-coding. But apart from that the movement of items within the inventory would be like when you select an item in the inventory then select an action. Say you open up your backpack and then open up the first aid window. After activate, wear, drop and all those options there should be an option to move to another container. After selecting that an pop-up window would ask you which container, and then it would be over with. If the code works properly.

13

Yeah it’s similar to Arma 2’s inventory system. Except in Arma 2 you can’t use an item until it has been removed from the container and placed in your inventory. I wouldn’t go that far; you should be able to activate an item in a backpack without removing it first, it should just take longer to activate it.

I don’t think we need to model the time it takes to access items held in clothing/pockets etc. Just treat the basic inventory the same as it is treated now. If we simply change the way we handle containers then we really only need to add either a generic time requirement to access all containers, or specific time requirements for specific containers (like it takes longer to access an item in a backpack than a purse).

In other words, for everything except container items, the volume system would not change. It would just mean that because containers don’t add to your maximum volume, people would be playing with a much lower volume than they are now. And would need to use containers to supplement their carrying capacity. For people who don’t want to bother with a bunch of containers, they can always wear clothing with lots of extra volume, like the trench coat and utility vest.

But yeah, you’ve got a good idea with the move option.

We might need a special Complex Take command that brings up a list of your containers so that you can immediately pick up an item and put it into a container without having to go into your inventory and do it manually. That would be what makes it tedious - having to individually place every item after picking it up. So something like: Complex Take Button > Select Container > Select Items… would make things easier.

14

I like where this is going as long as bootstraps and holsters count as quick access.

15

Totally in favour with Grins proposal.

Suggestion: After [e]xamining (/picking up) and marking the things you want, you can choose whether you want to put the marked items into your backpack(s)/containers or “normal inventory”/pockets.

E.g:
[e]xamine item pile
mark the stuff you want to pick up
after pressing enter/space to pick the marked items up press:
-a/A or 1 to put stuff into pockets or
-b/B/2 to put stuff into container (possible 3,4,5,c,d for various containers.

That way you only have to press one key more unless there is a pile you want to split/pick some stuff up for pockets and containers, in which case you’ll have to examine the pile twice.

16

The only possible thing would be to create a database (dB) and store unique IDs for every item collected. After that, mouse implementation would be only an easement, if any.
I don’t think throwing hexa identifiers is even a remote possibilty altough it was done in the past, only to remove keypressing. ToC system is much better, as tables can be used to enforce existing routines and push container “windows” when called from Advanced Inventory Management.
I’d prefer a more original solution to the problem, such as:
§ockets and straps - keyboard numbers
(B)ackpacks and pouches - keyboard letters
©ontainers for various comestibles - keyboard uppercase

After which a contents’ table is called upon, which holds a hexadecimal defined array.

17

A simple container system implementing the ability to quickly drop your backpack full of stuff and pick it back up just as easily? As a player who primarily uses melee I have to say that I’m all in.

18

You just defined table-top roleplaying oneonone in a nutshell.
If you are jumped - DM resolves your encumberance in the perception-check round:
“You see, you drop, your stance now”.
The extra two-rounds for handling ins/outs from containers is what’s gotta pay, though.