Perhaps we could have a general inventory screen that lists everything you are carrying like it currently does just so players know what they are carrying without having to keep a notepad, as well as an interacting inventory that has everything in it’s proper bags for actually using the stuff.
For actually using the stuff there could be a number up at the top that tells you how many moves are spent as you go but not actually spend those moves until some action is confirmed. Like if an item is in a bag within a bag it will tell you at the top how many moves are added to your action just to get to it. Dropping multiple items will tell you how many moves would be spent dropping all the items til you exit, so you always have a general idea how long it will take before you do the action.
If you really wanna get crazy with it you could even bring the character back to the main screen and give a message that your character is rummaging through the gear, and make you have to wait once for every 100 movement points taken. Allowing the player to continue to be aware of their surroundings while rummaging, and cancel it if they feel the need to.
Those are good suggestions I’m just starting on messing with the actual inventory code so I should be able to easily get a function made to list all of the items, sorta like a grocery list: battery x 500, shovel x 1, thread x … you get the idea; containers would be listed in here too so you know what options you have for containing things outside of the normal inventory view. I want to have it be tabbed like the crafting screen [& key] with a ‘list’ and ‘inventory’ tab.
The actual inventory view will probably look a little bit like this:
Containers in the inventory will be pulled from the list of worn items and displayed.
a - backpack [0/40]
b - messenger bag [3/20] [v]
| a - meth [30]
| b - aspirin [100]
c - mil. rucksack [xx/80] [v]
| a - backpack [0/40]
| b - backpack [5/40] [>]
…and so on. the [>] denoting it has something inside it but not displayed, [v] is displaying the items. I might limit it to only one container open at a time so that the screen doesn’t get filled up with stuff too much. As you can see, each of the containers has a letter, and the contents are lettered relative to the container itself. I’ll likely make it so that you press the key for the container, then a direction keys to open/close. Might make it direction key based entirely, similar to the construction menu (* key). I haven’t really figured that out though
I like the idea to display moves used to interact with items a lot. Not sure about the last suggestion, but I will give it some hard thought
All of this is still subject to wild changes though, so don’t take this as a finalized format.
Edit: derped about the named of the crafting screen [& key]
[quote=“GalenEvil, post:22, topic:454”]The actual inventory view will probably look a little bit like this:
Containers in the inventory will be pulled from the list of worn items and displayed.
a - backpack [0/40]
b - messenger bag [3/20] [v]
| a - meth [30]
| b - aspirin [100]
c - mil. rucksack [xx/80] [v]
| a - backpack [0/40]
| b - backpack [5/40] [>]
…and so on. the [>] denoting it has something inside it but not displayed, [v] is displaying the items. I might limit it to only one container open at a time so that the screen doesn’t get filled up with stuff too much. As you can see, each of the containers has a letter, and the contents are lettered relative to the container itself. I’ll likely make it so that you press the key for the container, then a direction keys to open/close. Might make it direction key based entirely, similar to the construction menu (* key). I haven’t really figured that out though :P[/quote]
Aagh this is exactly what I didn’t want. This is fine as an option, but terrible for general usage. The containers should be transparent to the player the vast majority of the time.
Okay! Revision time, yay!
First revision will start as the following:
2 (possibly 3) tabs: one a flat list of all items that you are in possession of that you can only look at (as per Greiger’s suggestion), one that is a flat version of the last proposed inventory UI with various information about each item such as interaction cost, and the third (potentially non-existant) being the one I proposed earlier (but always fully open instead of closable list parts) so you can see exactly where all the stuff is at in each container.
Second revision:
Various sorting methods should be available; sorting by tagging items to go into specific containers, sorting for interaction time costs, and/or others that will need to be suggested to me.
So much stuff to change! This that I thought would be a relatively simple overhaul is turning into a rather major one! Should only be another day or so before I have something playable for the devs to look at and playtest though
Got distracted by meatspace things and haven’t really had time to do much looking at the cata code I’ll find time in the next week to buckle down and work on this. It’s nowhere near as easy as I thought when I first began to work on it, and has turned into a near complete overhaul of how the game accesses the inventory (which in itself entails an inventory UI rewrite) >.<
Don’t take too long, or my item handling rewrite will hit, and then YOU will have to merge MY code instead of me having to get your stuff to work with mine.
I’m just starting on messing with the actual inventory code so I should be able to easily get a function made to list all of the items, sorta like a grocery list: battery x 500, shovel x 1, thread x … you get the idea; containers would be listed in here too so you know what options you have for containing things outside of the normal inventory view. I want to have it be tabbed like the crafting screen [& key] with a ‘list’ and ‘inventory’ tab.
I’ll find time in the next week to buckle down and work on this. It’s nowhere near as easy as I thought when I first began to work on it, and has turned into a near complete overhaul of how the game accesses the inventory (which in itself entails an inventory UI rewrite) >.<