Stats affect upon inventory?

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Here's my issue:  Your agility directly effects the carrying capacity in your inventory by assigning it a number of 'slots.' (ie, I can carry 3 items, or 2 items, or 6 items) A character with low agility can have as little as ONE blank space to pick stuff up in your inventory. This causes severe, SEVERE annoyance.

Lets think about this.

Here's a half-giant:

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>inv
You are carrying:
a small glass marble

>get pebble
You cannot carry a small grey pebble, your hands are full.


Here's an elf:

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>inv
a couple huge stones
a few big logs
a massive stone hammer

>get axe
You pick up a two-handed axe.


Sure, the elves strength probably wouldn't allow him to carry all that (though honestly, I've carried insane amounts of heavy shit with somewhat weaker characters before.)

To me, it seems like this system needs a tweek.

One thing I've seen (that I'm not particularly a fan of) is a mud where when you picked something up it automatically went into either hand as being "held." Ie, if you had two empty hands, you could pick up 2 items. If you were wielding a sword and shield, you couldn't pick up ANYTHING. It was realistic, but ultimately annoying.

I've written in the ideas up above, but please feel free to suggest your own.

Again, the ones I got are:
- the open hand system (described above)

- Inventory capacity is dictated by agility as it currently is, however, for playability, there's a minimum of 2 or 3 'slots.'

- Strength becomes the new deciding factor on "slots." So now weak, agile players can only carry one thing, the jackasses. (Not what I'd like to see,, personally.)

- A weight-based inventory system where strength decides how much you can have in your inventory, pretty much how containers work now. (ie you could carry 100 leaves, but only one or two big rocks) 

- Everyone gets the same amount of inventory slots, since it should just be a temporary holding spot anyways. (5 slots?)

Anyhow, that's my 2 sids on the topic. I turn it over.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I wouldn't mind a solution implementing this:

- Everyone gets the same amount of inventory slots, since it should just be a temporary holding spot anyways. (5 slots?)

That's fine. Anything else, I'd be fine leaving the system the way it is.

[FantasyWriter]

Pretty sure I've heard staff say before that if you're PC can hold three things in your inventory to send a request in and they would fix that for you.

Therefore I voted a min of two or three items since that's how it is now with staff assistnce.

[Lizzie]

I think a combination of agility, strength, and the "bulk" of an item should determine how much you can carry.

For instance, the "average" human, with "average" stats all around, not particularly encumbered - let's say he's at "easily manageable."

No reason why he can't pick up two logs..or, a dozen feathers and one log. Reason for that, is those feathers need to be held or they'll blow away, and that causes some awkwardness when he tries to pick up that second log. So - he can carry one log and a dozen feathers, or two logs. Or, a couple dozen feathers and a branch. Or two pairs of shoes, and ten lengths of sandcloth draped over his arm. Or one bahamet shell - just barely, and he'd have to put his sword and shield away to do it.

Currently, we have those "virtual inventory slots" PLUS wield/hold slots. So we're already being given 2 slots to carry stuff in, that isn't a container or worn on the body.

Hey maybe we can carry a bag FILLED with pebbles.plus one log, and a pair of shoes balanced on top of the log. Maybe, anything that has a strap, can be an automatic "gimme" for a virtual inventory slot, and not count toward the max. Because, theoretically, you aren't needing to carry it. It could be dangling off your wrist.

The problem with trying to come up with alternatives, is that you end up with all those "what ifs." There really isn't any way to solve the problem, without creating new problems that need to be solved.

However, I wouldn't mind it if someone took a look at the possibility of combining agility -and- strength -and- current encumbrance, when writing up the new game's inventory code.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

No reason why he can't pick up two logs..or, a dozen feathers and one log. Reason for that, is those feathers need to be held or they'll blow away, and that causes some awkwardness when he tries to pick up that second log. So - he can carry one log and a dozen feathers, or two logs. Or, a couple dozen feathers and a branch. Or two pairs of shoes, and ten lengths of sandcloth draped over his arm. Or one bahamet shell - just barely, and he'd have to put his sword and shield away to do it.

This is also a good idea.

[FantasyWriter]

No reason why he can't pick up two logs..or, a dozen feathers and one log. Reason for that, is those feathers need to be held or they'll blow away, and that causes some awkwardness when he tries to pick up that second log. So - he can carry one log and a dozen feathers, or two logs. Or, a couple dozen feathers and a branch. Or two pairs of shoes, and ten lengths of sandcloth draped over his arm. Or one bahamet shell - just barely, and he'd have to put his sword and shield away to do it.

This is also a good idea.

thirded.

[Lizzie]

So, you think "bulk" could have a value? Like, any "pickupable" item could have a bulk value. In points. And, your strength + agility + encumbrance stats combined, would determine the max bulk points you can handle. That max bulk points would be applied to things you pick up.

So, if you can handle a max bulk of 20, and feathers have .5 bulk points each - then you could have 40 feathers before you can't pick up anything else. Or, if say, 10 feathers = 5 bulk points..and now you have 15 bulk points left available. Maybe a log is 14 points. So, you could carry a log, 10 feathers, and..a twig, which has 1 bulk point value.

Or something like that. ONly thing is, once you've bulked up halfway, the weight of the items you're bulking up on, are affecting your encumbrance. And your encumbrance is used in combination with strength and agility to determine max bulk points.

So, even though you have 20 bulk points when you're not carrying anything, as soon as you pick up that log, you've just halved your available bulk points AND you have increased your encumbrance..which means your max bulk points is now only 15, not 20. It could get messy. I dunno.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Bulk points are cool. I remember Neverwinter Nights (PC game) had backpacks that consisted of several pages of square grids. A potion would take one grid, while something like a shield would take 3x3, or a sword would take 1 x 4. The pack could hold a certain amount of bulk, but each item also had a weight. So... You could put a whole butt ton of 1 grid bowling balls in there and they'd fit, but good luck picking it up.

Not really arm applicable, but a cool example of how "bulk" and weight mesh together.


Anyhow, anyone hear anything on that "under 3" inventory thing? I'd like to hear a 2nd on it.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

An actual bulk stat would be another thing that would have to be added, in the exact form you are thinking about. But not bulk, in a simplistic form.

We already have packs and belts and whatnot that will hold tons of small stuff, but when you try to put a silt-horror breastplate in the thing, it says, "this item is too large to fit in that pack".

Using this same system for your inventory item would do just fine, and I like the idea a great deal. Limiting the total bulk by your strength, not your agility, and scaling the individual bulk limits by your strength as well sounds like a fine idea.