Cluttered inventories ruining gaming

[kypron77]

Is anyone else getting fatigued with the increasingly convoluted and cluttered inventory systems in games lately? The inventory system is seriously becoming my determining factor as to whether I'll finish a game or not.

Fallout 4 is easy to pick on, of course. I quickly got tired of running back to a town every 5 minutes of looting, and cheated to give myself a carry weight of 3000 lbs. Now my inventory and stash have about 1000000 weapons, crafting materials, and nonsense junk. I just hold down the scroll button for minutes at a time trying to find anything. Is all this bloat really necessary? Yet you must collect everything if you want to craft\build. I better pick up another 20 toy cars just in case..... I stopped playing 70 hrs in, just too time consuming and fiddly trying to craft stuff and ditch my junk, wading through bloated slow menus over and over.

I really liked Divinity Original Sin, but had to stop playing after a while for simliar reasons. Why is the inventory of each of my characters separate? Trying to part out all the crafting materials and weapons to the appropriate character over and over just wore me out. I've played through all the Infinity Engine games and never felt nearly so worn out trying to eyeball all this crap.

Probably the worst implemented inventory of all time, Resident Evil 0 remastered. Such a limited (6 items) for each character, and your weapons and ammo take up 2-5 of that easy. Constant dropping of items, back tracking, fiddling, never enough space. Seriously, if you took the inventory constraint out of this game, it would take you about 1.5 hrs to beat it. With the current inventory system, probably will take me 12 hrs. Thats 10.5 hours just of fighting the inventory system, 1.5 hrs of actual zombie shooting and puzzle solving. (Just an estimate)

I think the real issue here is the crafting systems are getting out of hand in games. When you need hundreds of distinct items for crafting, these items should either take up NO space or weight (ie Witcher 3), or else streamline the system with say a dozen items instead of so many. I don't feel it gives me extra satisfaction to go crossed eye looking over massive lists or grids of various baubles and doo-dads. And the biggest issue is that having to fiddle with so much inventory bloat really drags down games, ruins the pacing, takes you out of the story. Would be nice to have a "Crafting" checkbox in the Options menu so that if you wanted you could just turn off the whole collecting, combining, crafting system bloat and just use whatever weapons you found.

 

[sandorski]

Haven't played FO4 yet, but I know that in FO:NV I attempted doing some Crafting a few times, but found it to tedious to care about Crafting. I'd always not have certain items, often having missing items in storage somewhere else. Once in awhile I'd check the Ammo Bench and would be able to craft a few things. Mostly though I just ignored that aspect of the game. From what vids I've seen of FO4 they do a decent job of at least adding in a universal storage system for Bases, but the gathering of items is undoubtedly tedious itself.

That said, some people really like that kind of thing. In FO:3/NV I found that it really isn't necessary or even in Skyrim you can get by with just items found or dropped by Enemies. So to a large extent it's optional, in my experience.

 

[thejunglegod]

That said, some people really like that kind of thing. In FO:3/NV I found that it really isn't necessary or even in Skyrim you can get by with just items found or dropped by Enemies. So to a large extent it's optional, in my experience.

I agree with this. The loot/crafting bit always caters to a particular section of the community in my opinion. I've always managed to play plenty of games such as Skyrim, Dragon age Inquisition, Fallout 3 without even bothering about the crafting element to it. Side quests such as crafting a particular armor set are important to some people and if there are plenty of armor sets such as these then it'll obviously lead to a lot of materials required to craft said sets. Hence, the clutter. As the OP rightly said, The Witcher 3 managed to do it pretty well with the assortment of useful/not useful stuff. However, the crafting in the same game was a serious nightmare for me.
There are plenty of mods that can "unclutter" your inventory and I'm sure there must be plenty of those for Fallout4. Try them.

 

[BSim500]

Seriously, if you took the inventory constraint out of this game, it would take you about 1.5 hrs to beat it. With the current inventory system, probably will take me 12 hrs. Thats 10.5 hours just of fighting the inventory system, 1.5 hrs of actual zombie shooting and puzzle solving. (Just an estimate)

Bingo. A lot of this "crafting for the sake of crafting" is just artificial game-time padding, especially in "FPS's wanting to be RPG's" style games combined with sh*tty inventory systems. Fallout 4's stock inventory system is dreadful and suffers from the usual "Designed by Bethesda" consolization issue of 'you can see all of 10 out of your 1,500 carried items at once in a size 36 font menu that takes up 1/6-1/8th of the screen with the other 5/6-7/8 of the screen wasted'?

I really liked Divinity Original Sin, but had to stop playing after a while for simliar reasons. Why is the inventory of each of my characters separate? Trying to part out all the crafting materials and weapons to the appropriate character over and over just wore me out. I've played through all the Infinity Engine games and never felt nearly so worn out trying to eyeball all this crap.

It didn't stop me from finishing DOS, but I agree the inventory system was definitely a weakness and more a chore than fun. 500 items in your inventory, all the same sized reused generic icons and you had to mouse-over them one... by... one.... Even the enhanced edition didn't fix the major annoyances for many people (the need to loot virtually everything even when not playing as a thief when seemingly innocuous items turn out to be unprotected critical quest items so you have to remember who you sold that magic barrier removal scroll to because it looked like the other 49 worthless sheets of paper, etc).

I think Dragon Age Origins got it right - a simple mostly non-cluttered list with text on each item already visible (no need for individual mouse-over) combined with minimal world clutter in general and sensible quest item protection that doesn't punish you for not being psychic over the obscure. Is it "realistic" that you don't have the freedom to pick up 200 wooden spoons, 223 ceramic bowls, 48 buckets, 92 sets of tongs, 76 brooms, or every single book on a shelf in every house (only for most of them to be repeated over & over throughout the game)? No. Is it more fun & enjoyable to have a simple non-cluttered inventory without "76 different ways to make a health potion" over-redundancy? Yes, by a very large margin.

I think the real issue here is the crafting systems are getting out of hand in games.

Crafting as a predominant game mechanic makes sense in pure survival games like Don't Starve. But I agree the way they're over-used in first-person "RPG-hybrids" is often obvious "how can we make the game seem longer than it actually is" filler that conflates "more content" with "more time spent standing still micro-managing your stuff". :sneaky:

 

[ArchAngel777]

ESO seems really bad with it. So much sheer garbage in that game. All sorts of veggies and fruits like 12 different stones that correspond to styles. The problem is all the 'common' junk and most of it cannot even be sold as vendor trash (0g).

 

[zinfamous]

It is my biggest weakness, probably, and I would say the primary reason that fatigue sets in and I am unable to complete most games these days. I think I first accepted this back with Witcher 1--the first game that I actively realized that my habit for mucking around with inventory junk, crafting, looting everything was pulling me out of the game, and so I just quit entirely.

But, that's really a personal thing for the most part. Most of such games don't really require it and it only becomes a problem with those particular individuals whose tendency towards completionist clashes with their tendency to be efficient and not muck around with trivial junk. I'm one of those, but at some point you realize you just can't have it both way.

Haven't played FO4 yet, but I know that in FO:NV I attempted doing some Crafting a few times, but found it to tedious to care about Crafting. I'd always not have certain items, often having missing items in storage somewhere else. Once in awhile I'd check the Ammo Bench and would be able to craft a few things. Mostly though I just ignored that aspect of the game. From what vids I've seen of FO4 they do a decent job of at least adding in a universal storage system for Bases, but the gathering of items is undoubtedly tedious itself.

That said, some people really like that kind of thing. In FO:3/NV I found that it really isn't necessary or even in Skyrim you can get by with just items found or dropped by Enemies. So to a large extent it's optional, in my experience.

especially this. At one point in Skyrim, I finally accepted that and realized my only way to enjoy the game was to just move on and ignore the junk...because so much of it really is trivial. For those games, you can also calculate the weight/cost burden and easily ignore much of that trash and still be wealthy and tricked-out in the end. Up until FO4, much of that junk really is junk. FO4 gives you a direct reason to pick up every piece of crap, but that is also if you want to get bogged down in the settlement building aspect. Which, like most games, seems like a great mechanic and very diverse in the beginning, but like everything else becomes junky filler in the end. Still, depending on your creativity and focus, it is a pretty cool system, just not integral to the game at all.

It is almost necessary to cheat carry weight in FO4, and I have no qualms about it. I'm rather proud of my 12k carry weight and the few times I play that game now (Still haven't finished the story), like to spend a few minutes scrolling and scrolling through all the junk, haha.

 

[zinfamous]

also: recall that initial release of Witcher 3 didn't separate craft items, books, mission stuff into their own inventories, and they also had weight. The current system is great, and has been seen in other games before (particularly MMOs where looting and weight/space is a big deal, obviously), but it only exists because of refinements and community response and was updated some ~month or so after the game released. Not complaining, of course, but it was addressed as an early problem with the design.

 

[Subyman]

Witcher games were always bad about inventory. That is the only area I'll use mods to cheat. I put on a no-load limit mod in Witcher and it made the game so much more enjoyable.

 

[Midwayman]

I find crafting tedious in game. Huge time sink. I hate random loot in general. I feel compelled to pick up every trinket. Destroy every barrel you see just in case there is something good in it. I'd rather only have important stuff drop and everything else just be money. Inventory management sucks. FO4 was super bad. I spend more time managing my inventory than playing the quest line.

 

[ControlD]

I think the Borderlands games did loot / inventory management about as well as any games I have played. I mean, the whole game is basically about loot, but even with a fully expanded inventory you can carry a pretty small amount of items. So when you run across some loot it was a fairly simple task to compare items and either keep the old one or switch to the new.

 

[sxr7171]

I agree and that's probably why even though I own The Witcher 3 and FO4 I didn't really play them. It's just a feeling of dread thinking about how tedious managing those inventories can be. I may never play them for that reason.

The best thing to do at this point is to allow everything to be stored and managed via smartphone app. The app should just give you suggestions and even auto crafting/selling. It should let you do this when you have a spare 5 minutes in your day to have it all ready for your evening play.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I think the Borderlands games did loot / inventory management about as well as any games I have played. I mean, the whole game is basically about loot, but even with a fully expanded inventory you can carry a pretty small amount of items. So when you run across some loot it was a fairly simple task to compare items and either keep the old one or switch to the new.

I agree, but only after the initial learning curve. At first, I spent too much time comparing things. Once you have that ability to take a quick glance and know if it is junk or worth keeping it is smooth sailing.

 

[thejunglegod]

I agree and that's probably why even though I own The Witcher 3 and FO4 I didn't really play them. It's just a feeling of dread thinking about how tedious managing those inventories can be. I may never play them for that reason.

That is a pretty silly reason to not play, well, at least The Witcher 3. It is an amazing game and you can easily ignore the crafting/inventory elements and go about finishing the main questline.

 

[sxr7171]

That is a pretty silly reason to not play, well, at least The Witcher 3. It is an amazing game and you can easily ignore the crafting/inventory elements and go about finishing the main questline.

I'll probably give it a try. I just like shorter games these days, but you never know when the time may come when you have time for a longer more involved game. But I will ignore all the crafting stuff for sure.

 

[Spungo]

Fallout 4 is easy to pick on, of course. I quickly got tired of running back to a town every 5 minutes of looting, and cheated to give myself a carry weight of 3000 lbs. Now my inventory and stash have about 1000000 weapons, crafting materials, and nonsense junk. I just hold down the scroll button for minutes at a time trying to find anything. Is all this bloat really necessary? Yet you must collect everything if you want to craft\build. I better pick up another 20 toy cars just in case..... I stopped playing 70 hrs in, just too time consuming and fiddly trying to craft stuff and ditch my junk, wading through bloated slow menus over and over.

The trick is to rename the stuff you use. Useful things start with a_ and they appear near the bottom of the list because lower case characters sort after upper case characters. No-longer-useful items start with z_ and will appear at the bottom of the list. Anything that doesn't start with a_ can be sold.
Of course, this only works if the game is modded. Without mods, each vendor has 20 caps or less and can't buy anything you want to sell.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I agree, I am tired of the games built around crafting. I don't want to craft, or if I do, I want it to be so obscure and surprising it actually makes it worth it....not whole quests or half the game revolving around mundane items and endless item collection.

When I say obscure and surprising, I mean that you don't even know there IS crafting, you just happen to accidentally say use 'this' item with 'this item' and you built yourself a taser.

Or simply when there are TOO manythings...ME1? That inventory was pointless.

 

[thujone]

i'm way more of a fan of inventory systems where you get X slots for stuff and once you're full... you're full. while the weight based ones are more realistic and force you to make more survival based decisions... doing that CONSTANTLY makes it feel like you're spending more time playing Inventory Simulator than whatever game it is.

all that being said... my diablo 3 stash is completely full of junk and i spend a lot of time just trying to find space for things i might need later. *shrugs*

 

[Craig234]

One problem is free to play games that storage. That incents them to add lots of things you want to store. Inventory is pretty much a major part of a game I play.

Even to the point of being the primary game sometimes. Diablo II didn't sell storage, but massive storage party of gameplay if you wanted to save armor weapons, gems, etc.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I have a rule that started with FO3. I only loot containers, corpses, and pick up unique items. Otherwise if it's in the world space I leave it there. Still I have too much crap to manage in Skyrim. And of course this is no help in games like Borderlands. But so far it at least keeps my OCD in check enough to actually enjoy the games.

 

[Denithor]

Fallout 4 is easy to pick on, of course. I quickly got tired of running back to a town every 5 minutes of looting, and cheated to give myself a carry weight of 3000 lbs. Now my inventory and stash have about 1000000 weapons, crafting materials, and nonsense junk. I just hold down the scroll button for minutes at a time trying to find anything. Is all this bloat really necessary? Yet you must collect everything if you want to craft\build. I better pick up another 20 toy cars just in case..... I stopped playing 70 hrs in, just too time consuming and fiddly trying to craft stuff and ditch my junk, wading through bloated slow menus over and over.

Perhaps the designers' intent with the low carry capacity was to limit the amount of "crap" you were carrying around? If you only carried reasonably rare stuff and you'd never end up with 1000000 weapons, crafting materials, and nonsense junk with endless inventory screens to scroll through.

This is actually one thing I like about most of the Diablo-style games, limited inventory/stash tabs prevents you from saving EVERYTHING you find out there (which I would be prone to do otherwise, LOL).

 

[Nashemon]

I spend a lot of time managing my inventory in games. I get a lot of grief about it in multiplayer games when my team has to wait for me while I sort through all my loot every time we go back to town.

It's usually MMOs (LOTRO) due to the amount of crafting items and multiple characters I have with different trades, so I keep nearly everything. Also happens in dungeon crawlers like Diablo 3, Torchlight 2, and Path of Exile, but also games with no crafting like Borderlands. Borderlands 2 made it much more tolerable, cause my friends would just play on the slots while I sorted my weapons. Same with Torchlight 2 with the fishing.

 

[rogerdv]

I think Dragon Age Origins got it right - a simple mostly non-cluttered list with text on each item already visible (no need for individual mouse-over) combined with minimal world clutter in general and sensible quest item protection that doesn't punish you for not being psychic over the obscure. Is it "realistic" that you don't have the freedom to pick up 200 wooden spoons, 223 ceramic bowls, 48 buckets, 92 sets of tongs, 76 brooms, or every single book on a shelf in every house (only for most of them to be repeated over & over throughout the game)? No. Is it more fun & enjoyable to have a simple non-cluttered inventory without "76 different ways to make a health potion" over-redundancy? Yes, by a very large margin.

Well, I consider that as one of the best inventory systems and I wanted to implement one like that in my RPG project. Yet, DA: Inquisition inventory is as bad as Fallout 4 inventory system, maybe worse.

 

[Martimus]

Well, I consider that as one of the best inventory systems and I wanted to implement one like that in my RPG project. Yet, DA: Inquisition inventory is as bad as Fallout 4 inventory system, maybe worse.

I liked the Witcher 2 inventory management, because you could sort by weight, worth, alphabetically, and I think some other options. I loved that it highlighted items picked up since the last time you accessed the inventory. That way I didn't have to pay close attention to everything I picked up.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Fallout 4 inventory is only as bad as you make it to be. If you collect everything you come across and never sell anything, of course you're going to have a convoluted inventory. You're drilling holes in the side of your home then bitching because it's cold.

The same can be said for most games. Witcher 3's inventory seemed really cluttered to me until I realized I don't need 99% of the junk items. I can either not pick them up or just sell them. The same with the extra swords and armor I find - since those are extremely heavy and I had thousands of orens, I didn't even need to pick them up unless I found an upgraded piece of gear.

 

[thejunglegod]

Fallout 4 inventory is only as bad as you make it to be. If you collect everything you come across and never sell anything, of course you're going to have a convoluted inventory. You're drilling holes in the side of your home then bitching because it's cold.

I'd rather pick up everything I come across and be ready for something that I may have to craft at a later date rather than having to backtrack for the same items.