Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Inventory Management - Improvement suggestions

As good as the game is overall, there is one element that I am starting to find incredibly annoying the more I play and that is inventory management. From what I've read, other people seem to be equally annoyed and while there are various suggestions like filtering by type and others, I would like to concentrate all possible improvements related to inventory management in one thread for a more focused discussion on the topic. So here's some of my points:

1. Better categorization of items
I'm placing this first as it's necessary in order to properly implement some of the subsequent points.

The display filters on the left side of the inventory are good but in order to better group, find and combine items I think more categories are needed especially considering items that can serve multiple purposes. For example, in consumables you can find potions, food, drinks and also some ingredients; in magical there's both arrows and scrolls. But searching for a specific item can be tedious if there's lots of stuff there, so either subcategories or multiple standard categories could help a lot to reduce the eye strain.

2. Specialized bags
I know you can take containers and put them in your inventory to make your own item sorting, but those containers take a lot of weight and are also not very ergonomic to use. At the moment I have to reserve almost 20% of my carrying capacity just to save my sanity when searching for something in this inventory tetris mania.

We should be able to buy special containers like scroll cases, potion cases, ammo pouches, tool cases, food packs etc where items that you loot, automatically get sent to their respective bag if you have one. I think this simple automatic placement would reduce the amount of inventory management more than any other feature or sorting filter.

3. Sort filter by item type/category
This one is obvious and in combination with point 1 can simplify searching for something specific a lot. Plus, the inventory looks better.

4. Link items on skillbar from containers
It can be done temporarily, but the shortcuts keep getting removed from the skillbar

5. Stacking for all identical items
Currently some items stack, others do not (ex: bonedust)

6. Access container contents in the vendor screen

7. Keep same item sorting/positioning in the vendor screen

Great minds think alike - IMO, the inventory interface is the weakest aspect of the game, especially as it's so pervasive. I've been asking for many of the same fixes/improvements for months, as well as others - check out the list of requests I and other folks have been working on (link below) and see what you think. I doubt some of the more complex requests will be implemented officially at this point, but there are some very basic and frequently requested improvements that should be good for the upcoming official patches, while for the rest, we always have modders to clean things up.

http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=42728&Number=510720#Post510720

Inventory is one of those things that I feel like I spend way too much time managing everything. So much to pick up and sort.

I wish there were a list view of the weapons and armor so I could see the stats without a mouse over. Its a real hassle to check the stats of everything while trading and selling.

I love this game, and like many people I lose way too much time in my inventory (especially when I try to craft).
I wanted to start a thread, but most of the ideas here are very good.
I do agree with Koriel's post, but the following 3 points are for me top priority, and should not be to hard to implement :

Keep same item sorting/positioning in the vendor screen. I loot and steal a lot, and come back once by level to shops. So I keep the items I want to sell packed in my inventory. But in the shops, everything go random (my thief is my best seller so...).
Sort filter by item type/category. Just that. I am about to stop crafting cause it pisses me. I have to sort items by gold value or weight... so logical when you want to craft.
And please : why are some items needed in crafting not shown with components? If i want to have access to all the tools and components at the same time, I have to use the "whole inventory" display... Too much crowded.
Stacking for all identical items Whyyy?
Seriously, why some items do stack, and other ones don't? Why do I have to take each bucket one by one if I want to fill them up in a well? On the other hand I can craft 10 swords at once if I have 10 iron bars... where is the logic?


Larian, you know that if we point the inventory, it is because your game is very good in its other features. But if you want to make people happy to use your nice crafting system, please help by making the inventory less discouraging.

And you just patched the sort filter by item type 10 seconds after I wrote this post.
THAT is what i call "reaction"

Thank you!

Really? Cool! That's one thing done from my list of UI fixes I've been waiting to see. I've been holding off on playing the full game until the major bugs/issues got worked out with patches (and more UI fixes were implemented, if possible), but I'm now interested in what other UI improvements they've been making. For example, there were at least three beta patches where the official changelog mentioned the stacking of identical non-equippable items had been fixed, but every time I had checked, there were still "problem" items that didn't stack. Anyway, there's more stuff in the link I already posted, but this gives me hope that Larian is still working on these requests. Don't stop now!

Nails are so annoying. And I don't grind my skulls (7 different types, really?) to bone dust for pretty much the same reason, even if it would spare me weight.
Pillows (for knifing) would also be nice.

So yeah, still a few to go there.

There are 7 different types of skulls right now? It'd be cool if the different types had different crafting uses, but if they all simply make the same bone dust, sounds like a massive case of item overload - especially considering the inventory is a little inconvenient to manage already.

Yup, sorted items on type, and 7 skulls side-by-side. And I'm only at Silverglen, could me more varieties up ahead.
A few are worth more, but I'm not sure if there's any other variation amongst them at all.

Well that's just... silly.

*checks ingame*
Hmmm, it's actually 4. It seems like 6 stacks in my game since 2 piles of broad skulls and 2 of jawless skulls don't stack.
Guess it's not as bad as it seemed then (provided those 2 similar stacks of the same item aren't actual different items aswell).

The other 2 being skull and ancient skull (the only one being different, albeit only because of base price).

Okay, they are *infact* different items... same name, but ingame they face a different direction; and thus different item.
Also found a 7th type skull, which is also called 'broad skull' but is much larger ingame, and thus another skull item.

Don't forget Novok's skull

I started out collecting everything. Cooking, crafting, blacksmithing. However I am slowly giving up on it after 2 rerolls. Inventory management is far too tedious and outside of a few exceptions crafting is not very rewarding. Cooking especially.

A larger inventory by way of having 2 independent screens for character and ivnetory. It's a pain to craft items b/c the inv is so small.

Seconded on the stacking proposal.

The problem I have is using backpacks to separate important items, then forgetting which backpack has what, and having to open them all up again. I really like you're idea of specialized cases for scrolls, potions, materials etc with unique looking inventory icons - or at the very least, be able to 'name' each backpack so when you hover over it has a custom label - or alternatively be able to dye your backpacks different colors. And I agree about stacking, it seems inconsistent... So I basically stopped bothering to collect stuff and can't be bothered crafting as it's just not fun trying to manage the inventory... Just my 2 cents.

Plus I have a new bug introduced in v1.0.78 that stopped the game remembering inventory panel positions... but that's a whole other problem...

Yeah, this is my main gripe. I can deal with the pouches of Bonedust not stacking, though buckets logically should ... they're clearly shaped so they'd nest. The seemingly random "I'm just don stacking this type of item" thing, though, needs to be resolved. It isn't even max stacks, as sometimes I get three stacks, one of maybe 2, another of 3 and a third of 10. (That example is currently pulled from the blue mushrooms in my bags.)

This is pretty basic stuff, one would think. I can't imagine, not being a developer of any sort, why it'd happen ...

Considering this is about my only gripe, I really can't complain but ...

Edited to add forgotten: Naming pouches and backpacks sounds good but I suspect it'd be more of a pain than it's worth to implement. I like the idea of scroll cases, etc, but a simple mechanism might be to allow easy color coding of pouches and backpacks. I found some dye, so it may be possible and I haven't yet figured it out.

As I've been requesting since the alpha: every non-equippable item should stack with other identical items of the same type in the inventory - including arrow shafts, arrows/arrowheads (identical types), books (including all identical recipe and blank skillbooks), bonedust, empty bottles, folded shirts, golden cups, golden spoons, nine inch nails, parchment, pillows, pixie dust, rope, soap, starfish, wooden figurines, etc. etc. etc. Simple, right?

Also, though I linked a much longer list of would-be-nice-to-have UI features earlier in this thread, I'm still hoping Larian fixes at least the below three extremely annoying issues in a patch:

1) Items should be consistently arranged in the same item grid slot order in all NPC trading and current player inventory menus

2) Left-clicking (instead of left-clicking-and-holding/dragging) an item within the inventory menu should allow you to pick it up

3) Activating a character via its portrait or "F1"-"F4" should also switch to that character's inventory or skills menu, if open


Peace!

1) Make all (crafting?) items stackable
2) Adjust the weight of some of the crafting items, like dust
3) Colored backpacks
4) An additional "junk" tab where you can move items that you want to sell - alternatively a "keep" tab in your inventory for items that should not show up at the vendor
5) Don't make gear that is store in backpacks disappear from the quickslot after use

I use backpacks and pouches to keep the things I don't want to lose on my "market" character while being able to then just sell off everything else quickly. It's close enough to a Junk tab for me, at least.


This one is particularly annoying. I'd love to be able to store all my rogue's arrows in a pack and hotbar them. As it is, I store most of them just to avoid clutter and only keep the main ones out.