I’ve never been a fan of the limited space provided in D2 and PoE and also being further hampered by an item taking up numerous slots to be stored. I’m hoping that later on in development this will not be the case. Perhaps have a tabbed inventory system as well. Where one tab can be quest items only. Another crafting items only, gens only, etc. Multiple general tabs would be a nice QoL addition as well to limit the number of trips to town.
But please do reduce the number of slots one item takes in inventory. In particular 2H Weapons.
I kind of like the limited inventory in some games as it’s more ‘realistic’ - in the context of teleporting, magic and monsters being relalistic, and I think it adds a degree of decision as to what you carry with you, which can be a great thing.
But in some of the games you mention limited inventory is really counterproductive. In PoE there are so many items being dropped that limited inventory feels like a curse, particularly for new players that have no idea what to pickup or use. It only begins to feel about right once you are into Cruel/Act 6 and your loot filter is kicking in to not show 99% of the loot that enemies drop. You’re also doubly penalised by having to spend currency (portal scrolls) to travel anywhere to sell them.
Personally I’d like to see a weight based inventory system in a game like this. Rather than have item’s take up space they instead have a base weight. So starting out you might be able to carry only 3 full suits of armour or 20 pieces of jewelry equivalent. So there’s no real item slot limit other than how many tabs you need to carry all of that stuff. Character progression through base stat or passives could allow for greater encumbrance, and bags themselves could be a nice piece of game loot that could improve you ability to carry gear - either through a greater weight allowance or multiplier, or have a % weight reduction on certain item types. A similar feature could be part of belts in the game, eg. Heavy belt equivalents could allow for greater carrying, much like weightlifters/strongmen make use of them.
It would be important to have a system like this be very intuitive so that your’re not replacing inventory tetris with inventory math. Perhaps items have a 1-10 integer weight scale (where a stack of consumables might in total only be 1) and then allow as many slots as the player wants to have. I have no issue with Quest items taking up weight but make it realistic; if we’re being sent out to collect a black raven feather it shouldn’t weigh as much as as a broadsword. Likewise it shouldn’t be surprising if the 4 Tomes of Nmerand we were asked to locate are a bit of a pain in the ass to lug back to the village.
What they shouldn’t do however is tie inventory size and weight together as a limit (and they definitely shouldn’t then make increasing weight and space a cash-shop purchasable thing. I’m looking at you BlackDesert, for how not to handle inventory management)
Your inventory system of weight and bags brngs back memories of my time spent back on Everquest. Good times, but it was a time long ago. I’d prefer to keep inventory management as simple as possible and have the player invest more time to skill choice and gameplay. No disrespect meant or given.
We’re definitely planning to have a separate inventory page for crafting materials. Other than that, we haven’t really planned.
I don’t think we will move away from the traditional grid inventory system-- weight based systems are interesting for more realistic styles of game but I feel they’re less intuitive than a grid while doing the same thing.
We’ll see how the size of the inventory vs the size of items feels over time, but I don’t think it will change much. Having the items be different sizes makes it a lot easier to tell what type of item they are at a glance, for one.
Firstly, the demo is pretty impressive for pre-alpha. Well done.
Perhaps a system similar to Grim Dawn? If you’re going to have a loot system dropping large amounts of trash loot we either need a larger inventory or loot filters. After a while it gets annoying having your screen cluttered with stuff we don’t want or need. In the end I was only picking up yellows.
I realize it’s earlier days and the next two years will bring many changes.
We do plan to have loot filters - indeed, one developer is already working on them. While I’m a big fan of Grim Dawn’s system, it wouldn’t really fit Last Epoch well as our crafting system incentivizes you to care more about the affixes on an item than its rarity.
I just backed your project because I see its great potential, but I have to say I am glad to have found this topic on the feedback list as it was the thing that bothered me the most in the demo. This is just my opinion of course; but large items that take up multiple grid spaces are a relic of the past that should not be copied in HSARPG’s all the time.
The grid system in Grim Dawn is by far the most advanced at the moment, but I’d take it one step further and give all items a base size of 1 gridbox and ‘large’ items like 2h and chest armor a 2 gridbox slot at most. That way you retain a little bit of insight of the item’s relative size without impacting player comfort too much.
In a game like yours where affixes are important and you want to keep the action flow (aka not having to go to town every 3 min for keeping certain items), this is a crucial decision. It will become very frustrating if you limit inventory space as much as it is in the demo.
I really do not mind the way it is now, although I suppose it will depend on how things go down the road. Running back and forth to town is not a bad thing having a permanent town portal. I mean there is always the option of each item taking up one space on the grid like Torchlight 2 for example. It all boils down to how generous the drops are, when you get a lot of things at once it does take time to sort through it all.
