backpack improvements

[meilodasreh]

The inventory feels a little small, especially because more or less the first row is "dedicated" to stuff like food, drink, ammo, meds,...that I guess noone leaves home without.

Just making it have more slots (like many mods do) can make it somewhat tedious to organize it, because it gets cluttered up fast.

 

Following idea might work to have a bigger inventory whilst being able to keep things organized:

 

Keep standard size of the backpack as is, but add "mod slots" to it, that add specialized compartments that can only contain stuff that fit into a certain "category" like meds, ammo,...

These compartments could maybe hold up to 2...4 items only, and would be arranged around the main inventory (more or less same as with real backpack addition pockets)

 

So if you find such a compartment mod, you get the additional slots, but can only put in stuff that fit into the corresponding "special category".

Therefore you gain some "common space" in the main compartment time after time when you find more of them.

 

"special compartment mods" could be for example:

 

-tool compartment (up to 3 mining/harvesting tools, like pickaxe, ratchet,...)

-ammo compartment (up to 4 full stacks of ammo)

-med compartment (up to 3 medical supplies like splints, 1st aid kits,...)

-fluid container compartment (up to 3 stacks of different beverage)

 

Each additional compartment could make you a lil bit slower, or chew into your stamina usage, just to add some downsides.

 

There could even be a book series about the backpack, e.g. for unlocking the crafting of the compartments (e.g. fluid container could use cooling mesh and insulation mods),

compartments don't slow you down so much, add one more slot to them, and so on...

 

 

Thank you for your thoughts on this.

 

Edited July 30, 2023 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[Syphon583]

Honestly, there's no need to overcomplicate it. I kind of wish they switched player inventory to a weight-based system similar to Undead Legacy. I think that overhaul mod takes things to the extreme, but if they changed it so that the player had more slots, but based their carrying capacity on weight, it would accomplish the same thing. You could also introduce new mods to increase how much weight you can carry or work that aspect into the skill tree. Pack Mule could become useful which wouldn't open more slots, but allow you to carry more weight. There've already been hints in their teased armor sets that ignore encumbrance for certain item types based on what armor you are wearing.

 

That last bit is speculative, of course. Nothing has been officially announced.

[Riamus]

Weight really doesn't make sense for this game.  Not if you want to avoid it appearing to be hyper-unrealistic, anyhow.  You would never have the option to pick up a vehicle, so if it falls into somewhere that you can't get out of, you can't pick it up.  Realistic? Sure.  Good for gameplay? No.  You couldn't carry a stack of blocks to build with.  Realistic?  Yes.  Good gameplay?  Nope.  There are just too many things that weight way too much to realistically carry.  When you do not mention weight restrictions, you can turn a blind eye to that.  But when you add weight restrictions, any way you handle it will be blatantly unrealistic and not so easy to turn a blind eye to.  If you say a person can carry 200lbs, then you can't carry heavy things like I mentioned.  If you say a person can carry 10000lbs so they can carry everything, including a 4x4, then it's ridiculous in the extreme because of how badly unrealistic that is.  If you say you can carry 200lbs and reduce the weight of everything so you can still carry everything, including a 4x4, then it's also ridiculous in the extreme.

 

I don't really think there's any issue with inventory right now.  Sure, it takes some management.  So what?  Besides, once you get a good vehicle and a drone with cargo mods, you can carry a ton of stuff.  No need for any changes, imo.

 

However, if they were going to change inventory management in some way, they should do something that isn't going to completely break reality.  I don't care about realism in most cases but when it is so hugely unrealistic as it would have to be to use weight, it just isn't a good thing.

[Syphon583]

10 hours ago, Riamus said:

Not if you want to avoid it appearing to be hyper-unrealistic, anyhow.

The system is already hyper-unrealistic. We already carry vehicles and stacks upon stacks of ore that would be impossible.

 

Making the system weight-based doesn't mean you have to make everything have a realistic weight. However, it also presents new opportunities for strategy and planning. Like I mentioned, I think Undead Legacy takes things to the extreme when it comes to weight. I'm not suggesting TFP do that. In fact, I'm not proposing they make a change at all. I know they're not going to since we are supposedly close to a gold release.

[meilodasreh]

I'd hope a weight based system will not be implemented.

I fear this would end up being even more tedious because when you're on a looting run, you would get cluttered up in two ways, not only because of limited inventory slots, but also because of weight.

My idea was about somewhat mitigating a "filled too fast" inventory. A weight system seems to even add to the already existing "problems".

 

The limited stack sizes now already do more or less the same thing as "weight" in priciple, and these sizes are already sometimes weirdly chosen, just for keeping the game playable...what could it do better when you call it "weight"?

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[Old Crow]

I just want to be able to "lock" slots in my backpack.

[Riamus]

15 hours ago, Syphon583 said:

The system is already hyper-unrealistic. We already carry vehicles and stacks upon stacks of ore that would be impossible.

 

Making the system weight-based doesn't mean you have to make everything have a realistic weight. However, it also presents new opportunities for strategy and planning. Like I mentioned, I think Undead Legacy takes things to the extreme when it comes to weight. I'm not suggesting TFP do that. In fact, I'm not proposing they make a change at all. I know they're not going to since we are supposedly close to a gold release.

As I mentioned in the beginning of what I said, the fact that you can carry heavy things is unrealistic but you can overlook it because it's a game and there isn't anything in your face showing exactly how ridiculous it is.  But when you add weight, that's an in-your-face notice of exactly how ridiculous it is, making it far harder to ignore the unrealistic nature of things.

 

Simply put, I wouldn't want weight in this game.  There are other ways to deal with inventory.  But as you said, it's not going to change (or is very unlikely to), so it doesn't really matter.