Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Please give us better Inventory Management...

I'm sure there are hundreds of these suggestion threads. Maybe someone at Larian is keeping a Tally?

I spend crazy amounts of time organizing, sorting and finding loot. The system seems to be designed for multiplayer. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if 4 actual people were managing their own inventories, but playing single player... it feels like I'm that one roommate who is the only one who cleans anything. During launch week 1225 years were spent playing BG3, but I suspect about 1200 years of that was spent managing inventories.

These suggestions were born from that frustration and most should not be surprising.

- Below the Avatar and above the inventory, the game needs predefined filter tabs and sorting options similar to the trade screen. Maybe put the tabs below the avatars and use small icons so that you can fit a decent number of tabs in there. Any screen that shows both the avatar and the inventory should have this IMO.
- Same for the Barter screen, except I would like to also be able to drag my items from the stuff I own or just purchased onto the NPC.
- One of the tab icons should be a Wares/Junk icon and items marked to appear in that tab should only appear in that tab. (Even if you have an ALL tab, wares shouldn't appear there and clutter up the inventory)
- Rather than having an icon hover on every ware item, wares will simply appear in that tab I said. No need for an icon.
- Certain items should automatically go to the wares/junk tab without even having to think mark them. Junk should be the default assumption for things like... cups,pans,spoons and forks. If the only thing you can do with something is throw it... it is a good candidate. We should be able to unmark junk.
- The camp container box shouldn't be just another container. It should open a party/inventory management UI.

Example: When I hit tab, I see all party members and their inventories. Why not have a 5th party member that looks like a Trunk and has no inventory limit. Now I can drag and drop things directly from the trunk to party member inventories or slots and see what it looks like on them. If each avatar had the filter tabs between the avatar and the inventory I suggest above, one could use those same tabs to filter what they see within the trunk. Bonus points if hitting TAB just opens up this new UI . Then I don't have to find the camp supply trunk in whatever camp I happen to spawn in.

- I don't know if the game has bags of holding yet, but if so... instead of making it yet another container, have it simply increase the carry capacity of the NPC holding the item by some amount (100/200/400 lbs?). That way users can avoid using containers and make use of the filters and tabs without having to drill into lots of containers to find things. I misplaced one of the divinity posters I found in game and literally spent 45 minutes searching all the inventories and containers trying to figure out what I did with it. Never did find it...

- I want to be able to review all inventories without having to switch out party members. When I have 1 person selected and hit "I" to go to inventory, the inventory that appears should be a combined inventory with all items from all party members (Not just the ones currently traveling with you). If what appeared could somehow also include the camp supply trunk, it might even eliminate the need for the party Management UI I mentioned. Then I could just have everyone send everything they aren't actively using to "Camp".

Overall, the game has been great, but little overlooked things like this make it feel unpolished and rushed. Fortunately, things can always be improved and finished.

If larian doesn't do the things I mention above, I'm hoping some modder does.

Had the same feeling while trying to organize stuff in random pouches and backbacks. Trying to think of ways to quickly have everything I need when switching out say one spellcaster for another, so they'd have the right amulets and scrolls to take all without a bunch of headaches, but in general yeah. The whole rest of the house can look great, but when the kitchen' is a mess it just has that knockon effect, like dishes in the sink nobody wants to deal with. All these suggestion seem solid to me.

The only thing I would add, is that it would be very helpful if we could reserve a couple rows/columns at the top of the inventory which would not fill unless we put something there manually. Basically a lock/unlock row at the top of the inventory. For all the rest of the rows the autosort will fill whatever gaps, but this means you can't really use your inventory screen properly to sort stuff. Sure you can filter by tab, but that's not the same as trying to organize stuff visually. The way it is currently everything will shuffle if you sort by type vs value vs latest. That's all fine, but we should have a managed inventory that we can lock once everything is organized, and then return to that display after using the filter. Basically I think there's a bit to much shuffling around and opening/closing smaller containers or losing track of something as it's icon is repositioned. Something similar happens in the action hotbar for consumables when you expand it by rows. I think for inventory management to have that satisfying feel, you'd need a couple rows within the inventory where you could set it and forget it. I agree about the management of the party inventory even when the character is not travelling in the group. It should be relatively easy to send items back and forth. I use the send to option a lot, but really we need to be able to retrieve and for that you need the inventory UI. I think this should open in full from the Character sheet where you can get an enlarged view that's focused on whatever, in this case inventory, but same deal for spellbooks. Anything that needs to be managed when you switch a character, if it's a party of 4 but a camp of like 8 or 9 characters where you are periodically switching makes stuff like consumables and rings and such a chore, something like that 5th character box inventory UI would be much appreciated. I spend a little time rummaging around and trying to tidy up at the end up the day, but even then just trying to keep pace with the main is tough, doing the same amount of noodling around for the other camp members is tough, especially if you're having to strip down one to bring a similarly spec'd character. Say Wyll for Gale, or Minthara for Lae'zel or something like that. Anyhow, right on. All good points and solutions

I wish the camp chest had tabs for different types of items at least.

The one thing they got right was... if you click on an inventory slot (Say someone's ring slot), the game does a search of all inventories and containers and shows you a list of items that can go in that slot, even items being worn by other companions. However, Ddoesn't really help with organization and the search is still limited to active party members. That is, it doesn't include items in the camp chest. Also doesn't help you locate items that do not fall into an inventory slot category. For example, if you want to locate all those parasites you've been collecting over the coarse of days/weeks and stashing in various places... good luck.

@Black_Elk: I really like the idea of lockable rows. Once you get a row where you want it, lock it. Now your rogue will always have/stack their primary tools at the top of their inventory.

@DumbleDorf: Yeah, I was surprised the camp chest was just another chest... with the same 4 filters as every other chest the game...

Honestly I just want a single party-wide inventory.

Not just the screen we get when pressing tab and seeing the 4 active people.
A really party wide inventory.
Opening the inventory screen and being able to see everything held or equipped by the entire party, active or not, with who's holding unequipped items not being a distinction.

Anything players can do with no actual progression of game-time, they should also be able to do without needing to take up any real-time.

Whenever you want, you can put a bunch of loot on one companion, teleport to camp, swap them out, teleport back with the new companion, and pick up loot with them.
Anytime you want you can just move stuff between your active companions, using no actions or anything.
The game already lets you use consumables directly out of another characters inventory, even during combat.
The game even lets you move throwables between characters during combat (not taking any actions or anything), then throw it as the character you wanted.

There's simply no point in characters having separate inventories.
Just give me one big inventory that is the carry weight totaled from the what the entire party would have.
From which I can change the equipped gear of everyone.

And the camp chest, or lord the camp chest.
I can't even expand it's window horizontally. Really? I can only make it taller, not wider?
At least let us expand that window in both directions, if nothing else.
And really if we're in camp, we should be able to access the camp chest's contents from the same main inventory screen we use everywhere else, not have to walk each character up to the chest to compare what they're wearing to what's in it.

Same

Also rather than a boring chest, they should have given us a pack animal. A donkey (named Lucius, obviously! lol) and this would help to provide some sensible suspension of disbelief for some of the Monty Haul. He should be with us at camp, whether we're in the big camp or out on the road. BG3 has some cows and oxen, but very few horses or mules. I don't know that I need need a mount in a game like this (though they did figure out how to get that done in ultima online like the summer before BG1 came out hehe.) We never really had any horses in BG1 or BG2. I suppose we can't have them here, because we wouldn't be able to look up to see someone on horseback the way the cam is currently, but still, for flavor I think that could work rather well. It would help ease the burden on a party that isn't juicing STR, and provide a narrative explanation for all this extra weight we can lug around.

Another interesting Inventory-esque character, would be a camp goat who wants to eat all those rotten tomatoes, or maybe some kind of drifter pack rat or a bird who wants anything shiny to build a palace out of random spoons. Since we already met one of those among the druids. Basically giving a personality to the compost heap/recycle bin that is the "take all" option, with an easy button that just shoots all the junk to them. After a while there might be a story payoff, when they collect enough junk, or enough of the right junk. But anyway, something like that I think would work alright, since we got the animals of the forest angle coming from the druid camp. Our camp Urchin might also have a need for all the random stuff, like maybe we could build a fort out of boxes and rogue plates and cutlery. We could also arm a group of bit players with all the regular equipment, so that it continues to have a purpose, and send that directly. When they get enough reg equipment we get story payoffs there. That might have some charm. For a more villainous crew, perhaps we get a couple pack animal characters who lean more towards the darkside or maybe a Goblin horder, who functions in a similar way but with more malevolent designs on all the junk.

Anyhow, that's all just sorta narrative support to describe what would be largely QoL for inventory management.

ps. just to keep kicking that idea hehe...

Baphomutt: "The Greatest of All Times" A black Goat/camp follower who draws a dark and mysterious power from rotten camp supplies. He occasionally rewards the party for delivering on the goods and has some special dialog for warlocks. Also a penchant for ruminating by the fire and glaring ominously. Scratch doesn't trust him and they sometimes butt heads.

Templeton and Jackie: A pack rat with a pseudo-draconic bloodline who's out for the smorgasbord, and a Jackdaw who hordes the junk with a zealous need for the shine. They compete for our trashware.

Then Lucius the Donkey, Francis the Mule, and Ed, as our standard camp pack animals. Later Josephine and Big Al (a cosmopolitan camel and streetwise alpaca we can meet when we get to the city). You get the idea