I agree with probably most of what's been said. In fact I've probably made the same requests in various other threads. I especially agree about this thread existing.
the Items/Inventory Management aspect of the game is probably one of its biggest negatives right now. So tedious and clunky and frustrating.
Yes. Actually, what is certainly one of the biggest negative aspects is the entire UI and controls. And this across the whole game, from character creation to world exploration to inventory screens. In fact, when I wrote my first feedback reports, I hesitated between putting "UI, controls and QoL" or "Roleplay, Story, Immersion" first, as most important. I think UI and control are first because if they are not good, then it doesn't matter how good or bad the roleplay and story are, or how interesting or cheesy the combats are. I don't want to have to wrestle with the UI to merely be in-game.
Suggested fixes (as I am not writing this to open up a window for negative griping comments about the inventory. If you don't have a workable solution, don't just gripe here about how you hate the inventory, please)
I have a different view on this. One section of this
GMTK video (at 7:50) articulates the idea that game designers listening to player feedback should
identify problems, not solutions.
Ultimately, video game is entertainment. The aim of the designers is to create an experience that players find fun. Whether it's making people think and puzzle, act skillfully and react fast, play as another character in an imaginary world, the goal is creating good time. Thus, the emotional response of the players is important.
Of course, players saying "I don't like X" isn't particularly more useful than "please change X to XX". I think that saying "system X and feature Y combine to create negative experience Z" is more useful (though not always easy or possible). If the designers intend to create experience Z, then alright, maybe the players are just not the intended audience of the game. If experience Z isn't at all what designers want, then they can probably find solutions. Our suggestions won't hurt, but I think they're not necessary. And not as useful as pin-pointing the problem.
So allow me to propose no solution :
Larian, your UI and controls are horrible (or dreadful, if you don't mind me keeping a near-meme alive). We have to do way too many clicks for simple things, clicks don't always get registered, options are not well organised ... the UI is clumsy, clunky, cumbersome, tedious and the cause of regular frustration. I'm not saying you have purposefully made everything UI/control-related more complicated than it should be, but you certainly haven't done enough make the experience smooth (yet ?). Please remove the unnecessary obstacles between the players and the actual game.
