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There are a number of different threads focusing on specific inventory aspects like camp mechanic or the buy/sell functions. In this thread I want to point out all kinds of different flaws I found in the current inventory system and with flaws I mean things that seem to be there without any reason or impact to gameplay other than making our lives harder and gameplay less fun:

1. Camp rations

This system was introduced with patch 5 and while I am a huge fan of it there are some aspects that are simply not thought through enough.

=> Why do we have different kinds of food if they are only used for camping. Wouldn't rations just suffice? Ok, possible answer: Crafting
=> If we only can use food in the camp why not having it sent to camp immediately when looted/bought? Ok, again possible answer: Crafting, But here we could have at least an option to transfer them automatically to camp.
=> Why is food in our chests in the camp not calculated or shown when we want to select it for resting? I do not have a satisfying answer here. Possible bug.
=> Why is when selecting food for resting the complete stack (that's at least the case with controller on Stadia, for example 5 sausages) selected instead of one element per click? Again I do not have a satisfying answer here. Possible bug.

2. Individual/Party inventory

In BG3 each character has its own inventory instead of one party inventory (for example Pathfinder Kingmaker). This is ok if this fact actually adds something to gameplay or is necessary (for example Multiplayer).

=> Each character has certain thresholds when he/she starts to get encoumbered. A party inventory could solve the same issue by summing up the thresholds of the current characters of the party.
=> Looting/Encoumberance is no fun: You usually control the main character and pick up everything you see with him and the main characters inventory gets overcrowded while the other party members have barely anything within them. Result: Tedious item swapping to balance encoumbering.
=> During combat you can access the inventory of every character even if he/she is not even in the current chain and miles away. As a DM I would at least require them to stand close together or use an action. I remember that even in DO2 something like that was not possible during combat. But if individual inventories are not even separated then why even have them instead of a party inventory? Either lock other characters out of the inventory or create a party inventory. The current implementation has no benefit for player.

My suggestion: The looting/encoumberance problem is solved when calculating encoumberance on a party level. Sum up character thresholds to do so. Keep the individual inventories but lock other characters out during combat. Or do it like Pathfinder Kingmaker and define a personal inventory which is much smaller and contains what you have currently equipped as well as a few consumables for combat combined with a party inventory for loot. Or let anything marked as Ware count to party inventory but being not usable during combat. There are a lot of possiblities that do not require a big rework of the inventory system but do really improve it.

3. Merchant stuff

=> There is no reason why I cannot access the chest content of my camp during trading when I can access the camp at the same location. I understand if thats not possible in unsafe regions (enemies nearby). But if the current way is fast travelling to camp and back just to get the chest content to the trader then there is no actual gameplay benefit for the player. We should be able to have the inventory of our chests displayed during trade.
=> Why can I only trade the inventory of the currently speaking character? Again I understand it for Multiplayer to a certain degree (but why would I play with someone who intentionally tries to cripple me) but for Singleplayer it actually makes no sense at all. Just tedious and nothing else.

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Originally Posted by Zorax
=> If we only can use food in the camp why not having it sent to camp immediately when looted/bought? Ok, again possible answer: Crafting, But here we could have at least an option to transfer them automatically to camp.
=> Why is food in our chests in the camp not calculated or shown when we want to select it for resting? I do not have a satisfying answer here. Possible bug.

100% on both of these. It's just a chore to send to camp, then pull from the inventory before sacking down.

Originally Posted by Zorax
=> Each character has certain thresholds when he/she starts to get encoumbered. A party inventory could solve the same issue by summing up the thresholds of the current characters of the party.

My assumption here is that this might be a future difficulty setting option. No encumbrance on story mode, and we're playing EA on normal

Originally Posted by Zorax
=> During combat you can access the inventory of every character even if he/she is not even in the current chain and miles away. As a DM I would at least require them to stand close together or use an action.

I think this could hopefully be also a difficulty mode setting. Magic pockets is super helpful for chucking a potion to someone who needs it, but should be disableable for anyone that wants to not have it combat

Originally Posted by Zorax
The looting/encoumberance problem is solved when calculating encoumberance on a party level.

100%

Originally Posted by Zorax
3. Merchant stuff

100% to both your points here, perhaps as optional difficulty settings

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Originally Posted by Zorax
=> During combat you can access the inventory of every character even if he/she is not even in the current chain and miles away. As a DM I would at least require them to stand close together or use an action. I remember that even in DO2 something like that was not possible during combat. But if individual inventories are not even separated then why even have them instead of a party inventory? Either lock other characters out of the inventory or create a party inventory. The current implementation has no benefit for player.

This is really mind-boggling.

Why did they implement individual inventories if every PC has instant free access to any item even in combat? Drinking healing potions and transferring barrels from literally anyone's inventory even if they're miles away? It completely defeats the purpose of having an individual inventory in the first place!

Why are there weight limits if you can just teleport every heavy item to camp with a click of a button? It's like Larian wants weight limits and they don't want weight limits. The whole purpose of carrying capacity is that you have to LEAVE some items where they are.

A "Magic pockets" type feature is fine outside combat so you don't have to spend 5 minutes looking for a key. In combat, it should matter who carries what. It's a decision you have made before combat since everyone has their own inventory. We already have Throw to transfer items between PC's.

As a sidenote, it really shouldn't be called "Magic pockets". That implies a spell or a magic item when it's just a mundane transfer of an item. A player convenience feature in a video game shouldn't be implied to be actual magic in the game world. Those are two different things. Larian should learn to make this distinction instead of making everything magical and flashy. Same with the fast travel system that didn't have to be an actual magical teleportation system that doesn't make ANY SENSE in the context of Forgotten Realms.

It just makes actual magic unexciting when game systems and features are "magic".

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Magic Pockets is literally a 1:1 carryover from DOS:2. It was called the same thing there too, and worked exactly the same way. I don't expect that to change on a mechanical level, because I suspect it's intrinsically tied to what Tuco calls the 'toilet chain' system, and both are systems largely designed for multiplayer functionality above all else. The system makes complete sense when you look at it from a multiplayer standpoint, but it's absolutely awful from a single player standpoint. I feel like a lot of current UI/control design only really make sense if things are being internally tested mostly in multiplayer sessions rather than single player.

Honestly, the entire party might as well have a shared inventory for single player if magic pockets is going to remain a thing. It would at least be an improvement in that we wouldn't have to poke around everyone's inventories trying to remember who we gave that one specific item to. But I don't think the game has any way to differentiate between a single player or a multi-player session, especially when other players can hop in and out of any session at will right now and differentiating them brings a whole other set of assumed downsides that might not be worth the trouble.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 16/08/21 09:39 AM.
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Just some comments about your summary.

Originally Posted by Zorax
1. Camp rations

Keep in mind they have reused a lot of thing from DOS series to save money.
Camping was not present in DOS but crafting of food was used to make what they call "dinners" which give you some PV + a buff.
Since the crafting is not available yet, my assumption is they have tried to make two hits with one stone : try to limit the number of of long rests and use the food which was pretty useless. Why eating a cuncumber when you can drink an health potion more efficient ? The idea is quite good, the result is not very efficient.

Originally Posted by Zorax
=> If we only can use food in the camp why not having it sent to camp immediately when looted/bought? Ok, again possible answer: Crafting, But here we could have at least an option to transfer them automatically to camp.
=> Why is food in our chests in the camp not calculated or shown when we want to select it for resting? I do not have a satisfying answer here. Possible bug.
=> Why is when selecting food for resting the complete stack (that's at least the case with controller on Stadia, for example 5 sausages) selected instead of one element per click? Again I do not have a satisfying answer here. Possible bug.

Because this is not into the specification smile
And because it has not been specified, it has not been developped so it is not a bug since the system is not supposed to work like that.
Trust me on this point. I see this everyday on my job wink

Regardng these options :
Option 2 => Not a big fan because this is not realistic. I prefer the idea to have the items flaggued as "send to camp" sent to a dedicated container (to avoid tomatoes mixed with books in the same chest) only when you arrive at camp.
If not, managing the encoumberance is useless.
Option 3 => why not but it seems to be a lot of work for a small benefit
Option 4 => not understood what you wanted to say smile

Originally Posted by Zorax
2. Individual/Party inventory
Personnaly, when I loot a chest, I dispatch immediatly stuff between members of my group. It is not a big deal for me so I don't have the issue you have.
The main issue here is to have to select items one by one. Multi-selection could improve inventory management a lot.
Fully agree on the fact that during fights, it should not be possible to use an item from other character.
A global encoumberance is not a good idea for me since if the group becomes overloaded, all members will suffer the buffer. Does not make sense for me.

Originally Posted by Zorax
3. Merchant stuff

I don't understand why you are sending stuff to sell to the camp to retrieve it later instead of going directly to the merchant with your stuff ?
If the chest is in the camp, why stuff should teleport magically to the druid sanctuary when you are speaking to a merchant ? wink
For the second point, fully agree. I have already suggested that all items flaggued as "to be sold" of any members near the speaker can be transfered into the negociation UI using the button already existing.


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Originally Posted by Saito Hikari
Magic Pockets is literally a 1:1 carryover from DOS:2. It was called the same thing there too, and worked exactly the same way. I don't expect that to change on a mechanical level, because I suspect it's intrinsically tied to what Tuco calls the 'toilet chain' system, and both are systems largely designed for multiplayer functionality above all else. The system makes complete sense when you look at it from a multiplayer standpoint, but it's absolutely awful from a single player standpoint. I feel like a lot of current UI/control design only really make sense if things are being internally tested mostly in multiplayer sessions rather than single player.

Just a question before I answer this interresting thread.

Why would it be a problem in MP if there were only a big shared inventory ?

Not sure how it works in MP but can't you pick (or give) in everyone's inventory ? If you can, isn't there an option to lock our inventory ?

Last edited by Maximuuus; 25/08/21 07:33 AM.

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Originally Posted by Maximuuus
Not sure how it works in MP but can't you pick (or give) in everyone's inventory ? If you can, isn't there an option to lock our inventory ?

In DOS2, you have a lock to prevent others players to use your inventory. I am pretty sure this is already implemented in BG3.


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All I want is a scroll holder & potion purse tbh. My hotbar ends up getting far too saturated with every other item I pick up and add to my inventory and I HATE having to switch hotbars because if it's not on my screen I end up forgetting I even have it. I want to be able to create 'folders' in my inventory like mini backpacks, purses, scroll holders etc, where I can add all of a certain type of item, and then add the 'folder' to my hotbar so when I click it, it expands like spells do when you have to select a spell level. That way I have access to all my scrolls and potions in my hotbar without cluttering it with hundreds of icons.

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Originally Posted by lilaque
All I want is a scroll holder & potion purse tbh.

You can already do that. I assign my backpack into the hotbar and I can open it during a fight to take a potion, a scroll or a grenade. Should work also with a purse or multiple containers if you want to have a specific bag per item type.

Last edited by Starblaireau; 25/08/21 09:47 AM. Reason: Typo issue

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Originally Posted by lilaque
All I want is a scroll holder & potion purse tbh. [...] I want to be able to create 'folders' in my inventory like mini backpacks, purses, scroll holders etc, where I can add all of a certain type of item, and then add the 'folder' to my hotbar so when I click it, it expands like spells do when you have to select a spell level.
This needs to be taken even further. I want the game to automatically put all potions in a dedicated scroll holder & potion purse, without me having to do anything besides possibly the initial designating of said container as such.

The problem with using backpacks as potion/scroll cases is that the game only automatically places a newly picked up potion in that backpack if there is already a copy of said consumable in that backpack. Otherwise, the consumable goes in my main inventory. This system disincentives using the last unit of any consumable because then you have to do more inventory management.

Either all characters should have scroll cases & potion purses into which ALL picked up scrolls/potions go into (with a dedicated UI button to access), or I should be able to designate backpacks as being associated with a certain type of consumable, into which ALL picked up consumables of that type are put into. Regardless of whether said picked up consumable is my 1st or 100th copy.

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Originally Posted by lilaque
I want to be able to create 'folders' in my inventory like mini backpacks, purses, scroll holders etc, where I can add all of a certain type of item, and then add the 'folder' to my hotbar so when I click it, it expands like spells do when you have to select a spell level.
As otehr mentioned you can do that using containers (put any container like backpack or pure unto your hotbar, and put items you want to have access to in there). Couple problems:

1) It's a lot of work - you can't specify a container as "potions", "scrolls" etc. and have to manually put everything there (unless there is already a type of an item stashed there). Then try ot remember which container has what on each companion. I have a system for that, but that doesn't change the fact that I am having to find ways to create a basic functionality in an underdeveloped UI.

2) it makes alreay tedious hotbary system even more tedious to navigate - especailly when trying to managed containers on hotbars on the whole party - it is not enough to send scroll to Gale, I have to either send it to him, the find the scroll and put it in the bag (bad idea), or better, switch to Gale open container I am looting, the open container on my hotbar, and move item from one container to another. Also sometimes things just don't work. Trying to move things directly to hotbar sometimes works, sometime doesn't.

3) Containers can't be opened during trading - your rogue is overflowing with traps or arrows? Sorry, you have to go to the inventory, split item stacks, move it to "main inventory" and then you can sell it. That or sell entire container.

4) speaking of containers - things get very confusing when you get additional containers, I discarted a bag full of scrolls and kept an empty bag on one occasion. frown


Something that I have been asking for is automated system - assign "scroll", "arrows", "potions" etc tags on the hotbar, and clicking on it will show all such items in that character inventory. I would also love the same thing for spells. Let me assign a button 1st, 2nd 3rd etc level spells, rather then having to constantly manually manage the hotbar after every levelup or switch in spell repeortoire after long rest.

Last edited by Wormerine; 25/08/21 02:07 PM.
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I've been enjoying the inventory system in...I was going to say Pathfinder Kingmaker, but I realize I've seen it in at least a couple of other games as well. There's a single shared party inventory and then each individual has what they are wearing, a few weapon sets, and a few slots for consumables/usables (the ones you keep tied to your belt for quick access; not the ones deep in your backpack). The shared inventory isn't accessible during combat, so your options are limited to what you planned for, but you get enough slots to have some versatility.

I find that it works really well because you don't have to fiddle around with who is carrying what to avoid encumbrance - either the whole party is encumbered or it isn't. Reducing your options item in combat actually serves to speed combat up a bit and decreases decision fatigue. And it dramatically simplifies the UI - you've got 5 spots for usable items and they're always in the same place. Everything you pick up just goes into the shared party inventory with category buttons at the top, so you can e.g. just see all of the potions. Everything stacks and sorts automatically.

The sell-your-junk option in Kingmaker is pretty good, too. No need to mark items - it's just a single button press with a few options that you can set to specify what counts as junk.

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What??? Cases for separate items? That's just way too much work!

*cough* containers *cough*

Last edited by Boblawblah; 25/08/21 03:41 PM.
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I love what you suggest Boblawblah wink


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