this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
405 points (100.0% liked)
Gaming
30530 readers
114 users here now
From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!
Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.
See also Gaming's sister community Tabletop Gaming.
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but I'm more baffled why game devs continue to implement inventory limitations at all. I have yet to see a game that wouldn't be significantly improved by just giving the player infinite inventory space.
If you have infinite inventory space, then you need a way to navigate through infinite items. Towards the end of the game, a player could easily have nearly every item in the game. For some games, that would be fine, but for many, that would make the list of items prohibitively long. Filtering and searching would help, but if you're looking for an item that you forgot the name of, a search doesn't necessarily do much.
Then there's balance reasons. Some games use their inventory system to limit the player, making sure they don't start a level with enough health potions and grenades to cheese every fight.
In survival games, a finite inventory sets the gameplay loop: you go exploring/mining and then return to base, drop off your stuff and head out again. It makes your base valuable, if only because that's where you keep most of your resources and moving would be hard. It also gives the player a break from one task. I played a Minecraft mod that gave me an effectively infinite inventory. I went mining for so long that it started to feel like an awful slog. Because my mine shafts went on too long, getting back was itself a hassle. When I reverted back to a more typical inventory size, I could feel how a full inventory breaks up the grind and prevents mining from getting out of hand.
Keywords are the answer. If the player forgets whether the healing item is called "medkit", "first aid", or "bandage", just let them search for "heal".
That's better solved by just not giving the player that many to begin with. Some games adjust their item drops based on what you already have, so if you're running low on pistol ammo, they'll give you some. If you already have five grenades, you won't find any more until you use some. That achieves the same goal without limiting your ability to pick up different types of items.
That's exactly one of the things that I hate about limited inventory space. It's effectively the same as hauling vendor trash, and that's something that I view as an unnecessary interruption of gameplay. "You've had fun killing mobs for five whole minutes, time to do a chore!" Yeah, no, that can fuck right off. All the way off.
But that was your own choice...?
Plus you can put the items into categories. Fallout/Skyrim games still have a weight limitation but even in the middlegame most players are carrying hundreds of items. The devs helped alleviate frustration by categorizing everything. Need health? Go to the "aid" tab. Need new armor? Click the "armor tab." Etc
I love how modded minecraft has infinite different options for inventory management. Enderchest in a pouch, automatic pickup and sorting, intelligent sorting buttons, autopopulating hotbars, auto delete, entire mods like AE2 just to organize your chest system with a searchbar. It's a nice commentary on how difficult balancing a game around collecting limited resources and accessing them can be. The fact that certain people like certain inventory mods is telling.
Pathologic 2