The Crap Game Design Document

[fog]

On the other hand i quite liked the way Oblivion managed it's inventory system.
Items displayed in a list were quick to navigate and equip / de-equip.

Yeah the Oblivion system was ok, although still a slight chore to search through things when using a joypad.  Whatever the system there must be plenty of sorting options an filters.


I wonder if there's a more flexible system for deciding how much you can carry as every system right now seems to be very black and white.  You can either carry something or you can't and, as in Oblivion, if you carry 1 gram more than you should you immediately can't move.

A system that lets you carry anything (within reason) up to a limit and then beyond that your speed and stamina slowly decrease.  Much more realistic and much less frustrating for the player.

[T_M_C]

I wonder if there's a more flexible system for deciding how much you can carry as every system right now seems to be very black and white.  You can either carry something or you can't and, as in Oblivion, if you carry 1 gram more than you should you immediately can't move.

A system that lets you carry anything (within reason) up to a limit and then beyond that your speed and stamina slowly decrease.  Much more realistic and much less frustrating for the player.

It's that problem of realism v fun again.

I find encumberance and limits on what you can carry really frustrating.
I find that if i have to make a choice and drop some gear, i never go back for it.
Which is really frustrating.

Other systems have been used in games to circumvent this.
Teleports back to town and then back to the loot, or loading up a pack mule or another party member and sending them back to town with the gear.

Or a magical endless backpack, where any amount of objects can be placed in it with no weight restrictions.

Just get rid of the encumberance system in the first place.
As it's just a barrier to fun imo.

A hangover from the old D&D system.

TMC

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Yeah, not having any inventory limit does away with the problem altogether. 

[T_M_C]

And i think all games allow limitless carrying of gold / coins.

Which is bit ironic for the games that use an encumberance system.

I remember a friend of mine had ammassed a couple of million in gold in Oblivion, and was still allowed to carry it around with no penalty.
That must have weighed several tonnes.   

TMC

[fog]

And i think all games allow limitless carrying of gold / coins.

Which is bit ironic for the games that use an encumberance system.

I remember a friend of mine had ammassed a couple of million in gold in Oblivion, and was still allowed to carry it around with no penalty.
That must have weighed several tonnes.   

Hah yeah I'd never really considered the weight issue with money.


It's kinda bizarre that in real life every object we interact with has limitations due to weight, shape and quantity and we don't even think about it, yet as soon as you introduce even one of those limitations into a game it becomes horribly fiddly, non-intuitive and time consuming.