Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Inventory Management is still bad

On the subject of food, I actually enjoy the variety. It adds flavor to the world, and the way the food stuffs add to your supply each night can be used to add a little roleplay of what your meal that night is like.

That said the way it is handled now is a bit annoying. I really dislike needing to send each piece of food to my camp individually and I dislike it more that I need to carry the food on hand to the fire pit to start the night. I'd like there to be a way to automatically send food items to a "camp food surplus" container that is automatically accessed when I click on the bed.

It'd also be kind of nice if there was some form of cooking mechanic where the ingredients you add to your meal matter beyond reaching a set limit, but that'd be a lot of work and isn't a priority to me compared to fixing the awkwardness of how food is currently handled.

Without commenting on how gods-awful the current system is to interact with... some visual rp on what our camp meals consist of would be funny. I want to see all of those nights where our daily ''meal' for the entire camp consisted of nothing but beer and wine. That happened a LOT in one play through.

1. I like that we can find random food but there could be less of it. If they do not plan to have us able to make different meals for buffs or use food in crafting, then perhaps we only need to find camping supplies on occasion.
2. This could be streamlined a bit but some variety is good. For example, just have meat rather than ham hock, chicken leg, etc (I don't remember exactly what specific items we have)
3. Stacking more items would be great.
4. I don't mind having lots of containers but they should be able to be looted in groups rather than having to click each one. It gets really tedious to click on 20 things in one room so I tend to not bother anymore. A couple of clicks per room would be much better
5-13. Agree with all

I would prefer it if the send to camp part was optional. That is one of the functions I refuse to use because it is so immersion breaking.

Haven't played Solasta so I can't really picture how it would be better. I prefer having each action on an adjustable hotbar that I can arrange according to my needs. Having to click on something, find something, then click again feels like it would add more annoyance to the game when I already have enough clicking and micromanaging with the awful movement system. If the game had less clicking and more doing, then the thought of popups would probably not feel so bad. I didn't mind the Pathfinder system with the large bottom bar and the pop out sidebar, that was enough space to fit everything I actually used.

I feel that we could all have what we wanted here though, if there were buttons to open the popup menus that some of you want. You could have a tiny bar with these buttons for everything, or these buttons could be removed from the bar which could also be expanded to add anything we wanted to it.

I would like to see examples if you are willing to try. Hard to picture from just words.

Solasta's UI.

Solasta Hotbar

The player selected Spells, so you can see them all at the top in level order. Spell slots available are also clearly displayed.

Also notice that the wizard only has 1 Bonus Action available. It's at the right in a different color so you know it's a bonus action. Bonus Action Spells.

Now look at the druid UI.

Druid Hotbar

All the same options in the same spot except added items like wild shape clearly labeled in the Action section.

Easy to find and get used to. No mess and no UI management required.

Agree with all of the above. A food mechanic is never something I’d have seen as a priority to add to the game, but now it’s there I’d be kind of sad if it were removed or variety reduced because it adds - ahem - flavour. And if we could access camp-stored foods in the selection menu, then it would be easier to pick items that we thought our party might want to eat that night, or just drink all the rum. But I think it should be either supply packs or food, not both. And if supply packs, then it absolutely needs to be possible to split items in the camp chest as they quickly stack into an amount it’s impossible to pick up.

On the topic of the camp chest and send to camp, I don’t mind the mechanic as it’s possible to return to camp any time and it just shortcuts the faff of having to do so. But I think there should be times when it’s not possible to return to camp, and in those situations we shouldn’t be able send to camp either. And the chest should be sortable, filterable and searchable like the player inventory, or just become part of the party inventory when in camp. (And filtering should be better, too.)

Keys are a pain, especially as it’s not easy to know if you’ve opened the lock they belong to. I know there’s a whole other thread about this.

I also find it a pain managing inventory weight, but that’s my fault for running with low-strength parties. It makes sense they’d have more difficulty lugging stuff around, and if there’s something heavy they really want they can send it to camp.

But other than the above, I’ve actually not spent much time on inventory management since the significant changes were made in whatever patch. I just have everything added automatically to the hotbar and find the ability to filter by actions and bonus actions and various other categories useful enough that I don’t have to faff with it other than making sure a few frequently-used items are on the main page or custom tab, and if there’s anything specific I need on a one-off occasion I just search the party inventory. Yes it’s a mess and I’m sure there are tidier ways of doing things, but once I learned to embrace the chaos I found it didn’t really impact my ability to do what I wanted in the game.

There's no "food mechanics" in the game, though.
There are 84 types of different food that play ALL the exact same role, while filling 84 different slots on the inventory (when we are lucky and they stack properly).

I mean, I'm used to all sorts of inventories, I played Ultima VII gods know how many times after all. It comes the point when you have to accept that something is too much and isn't making the game better.

P.S. I'm also COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT to the argument "Decorating your camp" and in fact possibly even a bit hostile to it, because the idea that we are traveling back and forth across an entire region but we'll have a recurring camp that gets more elaborate and "decorated" over time will never stop being an immersion-breaking annoyance to me.

I actually don't mind encumbrance and separate inventories simply because it does actually cut down on how much you carry around. As you start to become encumbered, you start to feel like, "Dang. I really need to go to the merchant and get rid of some of this stuff." So, in that regard, I'm fine with it.

For me, it's the sifting through tons and tons of separate items and trying to figure out what I should sell, what I shouldn't sell, am I going to really need this later - and then finding out that I didn't really need to keep 90% of it at all. I could have sold it all and not dragged it around with me because I get plenty of potions for healing, plenty of weapons to throw - so I don't need apples and pumpkins to throw at goblins - and I don't NEED virtually anything I pick up.

So why juggle and sift through SO much stuff when 90% of it is stuff you won't ever need - EVER! Even IF they implemented crafting to use more of the stuff you pick up, would I need anything that I can craft? They'd better severely reduce food and items you can find if they want crafting to be even remotely worth bothering with.

In other words, if 90 spoons and 6 silver plates make it so I can forge a Breastplate (non-magical, but regular breastplate), but I can find 4 breastplates in the area and even better armor than that - or I can simply buy a breastplate or something better from a merchant in the area for a decent price - why bother collecting 90 spoons and 6 silver plates? The only way it'd be worth it to gather all that junk is if I can't find breastplates or anything better anywhere in the area. And that would probably be more frustrating than anything.

Crafting should be reserved for special equipment like how they have it currently with crafting the Sussur weapons or the ice staff. Forget all the crafting regular equipment and nonsense like that. It's just not worth all the inventory mess.

And even IF you are still going to implement that kind of crafting system, PLEASE make it super simple and easy to sell all Crafting Materials and Ingredients and Wares by tagging them and giving us a MultiSelect function or a Sell All function. That way, if I pick up everything and the kitchen sink, I can sell everything I deem is unnecessary with a few quick clicks.

I more often than not hate crafting systems too.

They usually come in two variants: the one that it's too good and makes loot irrelevant (which leaves a bad taste in my mouth) and the one that sucks and it's a waste of time because loot is typically a lot better (which simply annoys me).

The only flavor of "crafting" I somewhat like is the quest-based one where you get a certain amount of rare material and one NPC will do something with it for you (BG2 or DAO are decent examples).

Yes. 100% agree to all of this. At least if there were food recipes or something like in Pathfinder, it would mean something. Again, can't we have food just auto-filter into the Camp Storage or into Supply Packs? Or, like Niara said, at least make it so that if you are going to drink wine and beer as your sustenance for even an evening there are some consequences the next morning (hangover or something).

For me, it all boils down to value and meaning and purpose. If the item has no real purpose, get rid of it. Don't make me juggle yet another item simply because it has a different picture and label on it but it fulfills the same purpose as another item. If a carrot is Camping Supplies and so is a bottle of wine and so is a boar's head and so is a watermelon, why do I need separate inventory slots for them all, and why not just make them all a Camping Supplies number at the top. However, if a carrot doesn't spoil but a boar's head spoils in 1 long rest after picking it up and wine makes you hung over in the morning, suddenly having different food items makes a BIG difference.

And as for decorating your camp, I am totally against it. This is not some home you're planning on staying at forever. Why would you decorate it? You're not even planning on staying in this area long. From the very beginning of the story, you are pretty much wanting to get out of the region as fast as you can to find a healer and complete companion quests like get Shadowheart to Baldur's Gate and Lae'zel to her people. You would be VERY nomadic and VERY light when it comes to your camp. Travel light would be a HUGE thing for you and your companions; especially in a hostile area.

I think of Maximuus' idea of camp invaders random events even as I'm saying this. The bigger you make your camp, and the more stuff you keep at it, the more likely it should be that you draw unwanted attention like thieves and goblins and animals who want to raid your stores. The more food you keep, the more likely a bear should wander into your camp. So why would you want to decorate it and make it even MORE of a target to enemies?

Same here ...

Even tho i must admit that i would not mind if the game would send "autolooted" items to one of my followers completely empty inventory, once im, or even better would be Encumbered ...
I may be triviality ... but when i create my Custom character i want to play my Character ... and it would feel much more natural, if i would not switch to Lae'zel or Shadowheart after searching every crate, or corpse in order to loot it. :-/

Okay, fair enough it’s pointless, but I still kind of like it except for niggles already mentioned. And while rummaging through piles of empty or near-empty containers bugs me as much as it does anyone else, and agree there is too much food, I actually find it more realistic that there are plenty of items in the world that it makes sense to leave where they are and I appreciate that the game encourages me to interrogate my pack rat tendencies. Once I’ve built up a bit of a buffer in my camp supply chest for any (currently unlikely) lean days, for example, I now simply wouldn’t pick up more food in a day than I need for that night’s long rest unless it were an item I particularly liked the look of, and this seems to reflect sensible, well-adjusted behaviour.

All that said, I’m not particularly wedded to it and if it vanished from the game then I’d be slightly sad for a short while then get over it!

I do agree with the frustration about not knowing what items, books or notes might come in handy later, though, and also am not a big fan of crafting outside quests.

I usually decorate with at least stuffed animals for the pets and a teapot, which any camp would need.😜

As for a bear wandering into camp… 🐻

You can be against anything, except a lot of people like it. And a lot of people not always all that serious attitude - why I need this and why I need that? While you have the fantasy to suggest decorating your camp is bad and camp is not a home, I have a good enough fantasy to imaging it a hidden alcove of harmony amongst the wilderness where I travel to rest through the Netherese portal. Oh man sometimes those threads are exhausting. Leave the food alone!! :P

+1. I LOVE that idea. Auto-transfer newly picked up items to someone NOT encumbered on the team. YES PLEASE!

I mean, isn't it cool that we can do something like this in the camp?
This is the only thing I've found, but I have much more cool camp decorations in the game. Setting this up is like meditating...

Not particularly'?

And if i may be so bold ...
I would also like to repeat one reeeeeealy old suggestion ... please allow us to set certain type of items to certain party members, when autolooting.

I mean i know im a little compulsive about order in my things ... but i also know that im not the only one (and concidering some screenshots and videos some of you are even worse than me, i love you all for that ) ...
So what i do is this:
All Scrolls i loot goes straight to Gale ...
All Consumable potions goes straight to Tav ...
All Food, or camping Suplies is carried by Shadowheart ...
All Poisons, and Arrows goes straight to Astarion ...
All Throwable stuff takes Wyll ...
And every arms or armor i loot, will carry Lae'zel ...
How you ask? I mod, obviously, but lets keep focused on the matter.

So i would really apreciate, if i could pick single follower and tie him with his "type" of items (scrolls/arrows/food/consumables/etc.) that he will allways receive, when i click loot all.

Yes, im aware that i can right click every-single-item ... and then one-by-one give them to those characters ... thats what i do.
But its slow and gets boring really fast. :-/ So this would make me really happy. ^_^

Yeah. I get it. Some may think it's fun and say, "Stop being so serious. It's just a game. It doesn't have to make sense or be believable."

I think for me I just don't get the whole Camp concept for BG3. In DOS 2, they even had bedrolls and campfires in places as you go. That makes sense if you are only going to stay in an area for a few days. And it also makes sense that you make a camp wherever you go. First camp might be near Silvanus' Grove or in it. Next camp might be in Blighted Village. Next camp might be in the bog. Based on the story and setting, common sense would say "Do NOT decorate the camp. We don't want attention drawn to us and we are only going to be here for a day or two anyway at the most."

There's some sort of video game MMORPG thing where owning a house or home base and decorating it however you want is a thing. It reminds me of Final Fantasy 14 where you can get a house and special items to decorate it however you want.

But that's just bizarre to me for the story and setting of BG3. It's weird for ADVENTURING. In an adventure, you don't have a home base. That's kind of the point. You travel from place to place journeying and adventuring, and so you camp wherever you can.

Yeah... I don't know. I guess if you are touched by the Feywild it would make sense to decorate your camp with whimsical decorations and such - even IF the rest of your party should probably protest. I personally think giving us the option to decorate is a total waste of time and resources that could be spent on Day/Night cycle or something else I think fits the game more, but if they implement decorating the camp, whatever. I wouldn't use it.

You haven't seen it all yet!! You might still be impressed


May be not camps but a keep of some sorts? Or a fortress? In the later stages of the game?


Oh, no, I didn't mean implementing new stuff!! Everything we need to add flavour to the camp is in the game now. Jars with minds, huge cauldrons, glowing books! And all those mundane items are performed by prop artists, while day/night cycle is worked by another team (I hope, because I want it badly..).

If we get a permament keep with the current item system i will feel like a child at a candy store. Btw, props for the boat. 100% would watch again.