New Inventory system complications

Feedback/Feature Requests
111

The problem with planning ahead is a design issue. The game was designed with an inventory where being able to swap equipped items could be executed fairly fluidly. To the point that being able to use consumable items directly from the inventory was not a supported function, and its absence was, at best, a mild inconvenience. The process was to open your inventory, notice the brown medkit icon, drag it to your quick bar, back out, equip it, use it, go back in, and replace it with the medkit that replaced it’s previous position in the inventory.

The game that exists now, after the altered inventory does not place all the relevant information in front of the player in an efficient way. Equipping a new consumable, such as a medkit outside of combat is significantly more time consuming, to the point that I’ve basically stopped using simple medkits to patch up outside of combat, because it is so inconvenient to: Go into the inventory, page over the weapons, the sidearms (because, as well all know, a handgun isn’t a weapon), over to the consumables menu, find the simple medkits which may have scrolled off the page, equip them. Back out of the inventory. Pull out a grenade because the keys are next to each other. Pull out the medkit. Use the medkit. Open the inventory back up. Page over the weapons. Page over the sidearms, and realize that there’s an entire page dedicated to a single item. Page to the consumables, find the Standard Medkits. Requip the Standard Medkit. Back out of the inventory.

The old system even allowed you to swap weapons if you had a moment during combat, assuming the weapon had ammo. However, the new system is nowhere near as forgiving on that front, and is prone to “forgetting,” what attachments (including ammo types) were loaded into a weapon when it was last equipped.

Saying this is a balance consideration is somewhat accurate to the state of the game three months ago, as your belt and equipped slots did not consume inventory. However, that is no longer true, and the inventory is far clunkier and more time consuming than its original design.

While I understand the sarcasm, this is a good idea within the framework of the game today. In large part because swapping weapons under time pressure has become significantly more complicated than it once was. Before, you had six dedicated inventory slots for weapons, and modifications to weapons reliably bundled into that gun.

Today, we have weapons that are prone to losing attachments (especially ammo.)

Frankly, the inventory system we now have is a far worse fit for the game than the original one. The game was not designed with this system in mind, and it has far reaching ramifiations, as the new inventory is far less fluid than the grid was. You can see echos of this in every post about needing dedicated ammo swaps in combat. That was a minor quibble last month. Now, it’s critical, because the game is designed around being able to swap ammo types in combat, but it’s become significantly more time consuming.

7 Likes
112

I hope devs fix this new awful inventory system soon…

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An aspect of the game I didn’t touch on in my 20 hours of play thread, was inventory. Here are my likes, dislikes, suggestions and thoughts on the current inventory system:

Likes:

  1. The inventory system isn’t as strict in terms of carrying capacity as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. That’s about the only nice thing I can say

Dislikes: NEARLY EVERYTHING

  1. There is no method grouping / sorting of items in any particular category. Ex:
  • If you have all the various types of ammo they are not grouped together. So if you are looking for FMJ (full metal jacket) and Armor Piercing for 7.62mm for the Automatgevär 4, you will find the FMJ then have to go down past any number of other ammo types to find the Armor Piercing.
  • If you have multiple weapons, you have to scroll through the list to differentiate between the tiers. So if you have a Tier 1 and 2 Automatgevär 4 in your inventory, they are not grouped together.
  1. Weapon Attachments
  • Weapon Attachments are not clearly indicated whether or not they are attached to a weapon. It took me over 20 hours in to notice the little white triangle in the bottom right corner on an attachment indicating whether or not an attachment is equipped to a weapon or the binoculars.
  • If you attempt to recycle or store an attachment there is no warning prompt notifying you that the attachment is in use by a weapon or the binoculars. So you may accidentally recycle or store an in use weapon mod and not even notice.
  • NO SORTING OR GROUPING METHOD. THIS. IS. BAD. I can’t stress enough how aggravating it is to go through my inventory after hours of playing and look through all my attachments to find the ones that aren’t equipped to see if they are better than what is on my weapons currently. Like the ammo, they are not sorted by ANY means and there is no available way to sort them. The most efficient way would be to group them by weapon type, and then by quality tier. But as things are now, you can see a tier 1 SMG silencer in the inventory, then an assault rifle mod, then a shot gun mod, then a pistol mod, then an SMG mag, then more non-SMG mods, then finally a tier X SMG silencer.
  • Attachments still show up in the weapon attachments section of your inventory when they are actually attached to a weapon. If this was changed so that they no longer show up in your inventory the benefit would be two fold. Firstly, you wouldn’t have to sort through them to find other mods you are looking for. Second, they presumably, wouldn’t count toward your encumbered weight limit. If the desire from developers is to have them count toward your weight limit, simply add the weight of the attachment to that of your weapon. So if you have weapon that weights 5 units add an attachment to it that weights .25 units, make it so the the weapon weights 5.25 units but the attachment no longer shows up in your list of available attachments in your inventory.

Overall impressions of inventory:

It’s in a bad spot right now, but with a few tweaks, it can be much better. Add the following:

  1. Ability to sort weapons by:
  • Quality Tier (1-6 stars) ascending / descending
  • Weapon Type
  1. Ability to sort ammo by:
  • Associated Weapon / Weapon Type
  • Ammo Type
  1. Ability to sort gear by:
  • Type (I.E. Consumables like healing items and adrenaline, Dropable items like explosive tanks, and Throwables like grenades)
  1. Ability to sort attachments by:
  • Associated weapon type
  • Attachment slot (all barrel mods grouped together, all sights grouped together, etc.)
  • Quality Tier ascending / descending
  1. Do the above for the storage chest as well as player inventory.
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Relevant topics merged.

//Mod

115

The inventory system is terrible. Its a company killer. Please revert back to the old grid style inventory.

116

I’d actually argue this. STALKER had realistic weights for the weapons, while GenZero still uses the old grid inventory to calculate “weight.” But, STALKER, particularly Call of Pripyat was more forgiving. Your default carry weight was lower, but your value per kg was much higher (assuming you knew what to take, and what to abandon.)

Though, even then, I’d rather have a straight copy of STALKER’s inventory (with a grid base, where weight is the only thing that really matters) than this.

1 Like
117

I can do this. Grid system mixed with the weight system. But not the new inventory ui.
I loved the stalker series.

1 Like
118

I’d take the grid over current layout.

I like being able to map everything in front of me

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119

The new inventory is not complicated it is just plain stupid. In the middle of combat you have to stop fighting and go into the inventory then search for your weapon and choose attachments then select ammo then select the ammo you want to load and then exit the inventory.

By about step two you are dead. How on earth can anyone with half a brain screw up something so simple in a game like this.
Seems when the devs bring out updates they take one step forward and 3 steps back…

2 Likes
120

I’ll give you an educated guess as to why it was done - and it’s something I was thinking about for a while now.

Once the move item / cancel glitch was found in the tile menu - it basically opened the flood gates to whatever you wanted to put together. For example…

Magnum - Chamber specific 5 rounds i think

With the glitch, you could put a 5* KMV Mag, using .50 BMG Rounds

Basically, a Magnum with a 150 odd clip - that shoots sniper rounds. My theory is they had it flagged to them and had to re-design the inventory over xmas to stop the manipulation.

My theory…but would explain such a drastic layout change that is…questionable.

121

Managed to get another question into Pontus on the Twitch stream earlier.

Recommended the tile system be a toggle option so you can revert back. Says he will put it forward to the devs. Here’s hoping!

2 Likes
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I don’t think it was that, I think it was a legitimate attempt to improve things. There’s a legitimate argument that the old grid system was non-intuitive, and some people do deeply dislike inventory tetris. That feedback was probably taken to mean that the UI needed to be overhauled.

There were also, legitimate, limitations in the old UI, such as not being able to see the rarity of the attachments on a weapon, not being able to split stacks, and so on. This overhaul was designed to address that, but the result was a net downgrade.

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Hi i’m a new player! I really like the game but some systems are are really taking the joy out of the gameplay loop.

When I first played with the inventory system, I was surprised of how hard it was to manage all the different ammos and items I was looting.
I found the lack of sorting options surprising because its not really something that’s hard to code and implement. I mean sorting by alphabetical order is the most basic form of listing.
A List-Based inventory system needs a sorting system. Items need to be sorted. Item category sorting is useless if the items in each category are not themselves sorted.

You get used after a while but the problem resurfaces when you get close to your weight limit, both in your inventory box and your character’s inventory. Do I already have this particular mod? Is this mod better than the one stored? It sure is painful to make that small verification when you have multiple guns and accessories type.

We need to be able to clearly identify items, with a simple look. We also need to be able to clean our inventory easily. A mark-as-junk feature would help a lot. The crafting system is needed here to improve the gameplay loop, where the junk items could be transformed into wanted or useful items.
I’m throwing away loot because there are no use for them and I can’t store them.

I play PC with both a Xbox controller and Mouse/Keyboard
A loadout option would also benefit the gameplay. Being able to make presets of gun loadouts (mods and weapon slot) would benefit console and PC players alike. You could change it by going into the inventory. That would reduce the number of click/button presses for a ammo change.

2 Likes
124

nah, i think you’re both wrong.
I think it’s pretty simple: the grid style doesn’t work with a controller on console.
So now everyone gets a shitty list style inventory.

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I posted this on Steam so might as well copy it here:
To the devs.
I recently got GZ game during the April sale and so far I like the game, I myself did not see the previous inventory until later but as a new player the current (new) inventory is not user-friendly.
Then I began looking at GZ videos and saw the old inventory and that old grid system is much more user friendly and simple to use and manage.
It appears that you want to move into a somewhat more “realistic” game mechanic which is fine so let’s see if we can help with that and also make it user-friendly.

  • Return inventory to grid system where all inventory items can be seen in 1 screen.
  • Keep the weight system but allow unlimited stacks on the grid squares for consumables and ammo.
  • Same-quality attachments, (1 star silencers can be stacked, 4 star gun magazines can be stacked. etc.) should be limited to maybe 5 per stack.
  • Attachments currently on a weapon do not appear on inventory unless detached (weight still counts overall.
  • Increased inventory space/weight skill increases weight limit and number of grid slots.
  • Safe house storage remove weight limit, (its pointless to use weight at storage) but use grid system.
  • Allow manual or automatic sorting on both inventories.
  • Use same grid system for clothing so it can be sorted and explored easily and see bonuses more clearly.
1 Like
126

The old user interface was also riddled with bugs. Weapons would be invisible, ammo would attach to the wrong weapons, you couldn’t pick items up unless you had the exact slots, weapons and attachments disappeared, the list goes on.

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Hello,
Though I agree with the sentiment @Zesiir is also correct as I posted HERE maybe some sort of hybrid system can be worked out. On console the multiple tab system simply does not work/flow well without a pause function. This is very similar to the system used in games like AC but all those games offer a pause function (though a pause function in this game would ruin the combat flow). This is a tough one because weight based does work better than item based but the grid works better than tabs on console IMO.
SPP

1 Like
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Pontus confirmed it yesterday. Amazingly, he actually asked the dev’s about my idea to allow for both inventory’s to be a toggle option - but sadly the response was they don’t intend on changing it because they worked too long on developing it.

1 Like
129

Just like skyrim, mods will have to develop a better inventory interface since the devs “worked to long on developing it” but apparently did not test it enough… heh.

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Ha!

My man, releasing without testing is the Avalanche mantra.

1 Like