How would you characterize the inventory system in ESO?

Dyvim

Lets get past this idea of quitting or not and focus on the system itself...

Abeille

About average. Decent features and implementation, nothing special in the genre...

About average. Worst than some, better than some. Serves its purpose I guess.
You people love polls. I wonder if you were Sanguine Testers too, the Sanguine section was always full of polls...

Dyvim

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

EDIT: Sorry for the typo, first option, which I apparently cant change after the poll has started, should read: AN Industry Leader...

Dyvim

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

Abeille wrote: »

About average. Worst than some, better than some. Serves its purpose I guess.
You people love polls. I wonder if you were Sanguine Testers too, the Sanguine section was always full of polls...

ikr, but figured it was time to do a decent poll without obvious bias and with some nuance or gradation to it, other than injecting the "quit" word into it. It is one system, one component of many.

Laura

About average. Decent features and implementation, nothing special in the genre...

the problem people have with the inventory isn't that there is anything wrong with it but that there is SO MUCH STUFF in this game (like any other ES game) and people don't know that they shouldn't pick up every-single-thing.

Just because you can pick up stale bread and maggots doesn't mean you should just like i'm sure you didn't pick up every single cup and spoon in skyrim...

it sounds like what people want is to literally be able to pick up everything and never have to deal with inventory management are we really at that point?

Brennan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

The answers are a little confusing.

Option 2 says "More than adequate, better than most. Few if any changes needed..."

Option 3 says, "About average. Decent features and implementation, nothing special in the genre..."

So I picked option 2.

I think it needs changes, a few. It lacks some decent features such as text based searching and the stuff not stacking in the Guild Bank needs to be addressed.

At any rate, the options are somewhat convoluted.

zhevon

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

My vote was a bit unfair, since I have no clue what the industry standard is. But bank size is too small for the abundance of mats; it just is. But in some ways even if the size was fixed its a cluster - no way to sort by mat type - really?

[some might notice a since of frustration]

Dyvim

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

Brennan wrote: »

The answers are a little confusing.
Option 2 says "More than adequate, better than most. Few if any changes needed..."

Option 3 says, "About average. Decent features and implementation, nothing special in the genre..."

So I picked option 2.

I think it needs changes, a few. It lacks some decent features such as text based searching and the stuff not stacking in the Guild Bank needs to be addressed.

At any rate, the options are somewhat convoluted.

Meh, I thought they provided a clear continuum, unbiased from Best possible to Worst possible. I consider adequate = average, and the phrase "better than most" is also a clear indicator that it is on the high side of the curve. I stick by the choices, and its not like I can reword them now anyway...lol. The point was to get the word QUIT out of it, as many of us consider that silly or unhelpful, and get down to ranking or grading the system itself. But along with better than most, I would add more features than most on that choice...IMO there is no way this game fits into that category...it is NOT a feature rich implementation...But I am guessing you feel it is on the positive side of the curve, so I think your vote is accurate along the continuum the choices provide, inspite of any dislike for my wording.

For me the MAIN distinction, from a business point of view, should be does it work to enhance the game and attract players, or does it detract from the game and annoy players. Is it a source of competitive advantage for the product, or is it lackluster compared to its competition and will do nothing to attract or keep customers. That is the yardstick I would use if I was looking at it from the development side. If I was a project manager on this thing, with the inventory system as part of my responsibility, people voting for anything less than option 1 or 2 would bother. I'm sure these guys aren't aiming to deliver an average experience. If my pieces of the pie aren't working to gain and retain customers, I would start doing something differently...like NOW.

Dyvim

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

zhevon wrote: »

My vote was a bit unfair, since I have no clue what the industry standard is. But bank size is too small for the abundance of mats; it just is. But in some ways even if the size was fixed its a cluster - no way to sort by mat type - really?

[some might notice a since of frustration]

Yeah, and its not just bank size, its stacking issues and the number of crafting profs/mats/loot, etc. Basically each looted piece of weapon or armor, given the nature of trait research and deconning, is basically a container of crafting mats....AN UNSTACKABLE container of crafting mats...

So one of my ideas is to allow us to decon in the field, without a crafting station, or let us buy portable stations...this has been done many times in other games, and has always been popular...I think it would alleviate the issue considerably, especially if mat based shared storage isn't going to happen...ideally we would get both.

Warlordgreebo

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

Abeille wrote: »

About average. Worst than some, better than some. Serves its purpose I guess.
You people love polls. I wonder if you were Sanguine Testers too, the Sanguine section was always full of polls...

Between no actual AH for players to trade things they harvest/craft, and a *** system for inventory space... the entire craft system is tedious at best, completely failed however since it takes too much effort just to make a potion - you wont find enough ingredients for any line of anything, and if you do.. its just luck of the draw.. which was only had by insane inventory management
-

Brennan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Meh.

Everquest has 2 shared bank slots so this is better than that.
I don't recall FFXI having any shared bank but having any alts in that game was kind of silly since one character could level all jobs. I do recall limitations on the character's inventory and seem to recall having to complete a quest for an upgrade.
From what I remember of WoW and LotRO (which is not a lot), there was shared space but I remember it being dependent on buying either bags from a tailor or buying upgrades from an in-game cash shop (at least in the case of LotRO)
Rift is another that I don't recall that much but also required purchases from the cash shop to upgrade space (IIRC) as well as requiring you to purchase or craft bags.

Eve Online had basically infinite bank space as there was no limit to the amount of crap you could have in a station hangar. The biggest issue there was getting what you needed, where you needed it. You'd have to slowboat your combat vessel to a new mission hub and then shuttle back to grab the hauler with all your ordinance and cap boosters. You could conceivably spend a couple of hours carting stuff around just to run a mission in a different region. And no shared inventory so you either could contract the stuff to an alt or log your alt on in the same station and just trade it that way.

ED: Oh forgot Neverwinter which has a shared bank space of 20-24 slots I think. Though you can upgrade that in their cash shop. Not sure what it would cost to get it up to the 100 that I have now in ESO.

So best in the industry, probably not. Better than most that I've played? Yes.

TerraDewBerry

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

I downloaded Tera online the other day just to take a look at it. They give you a bank with 4 tabs that each have 72 slots. That's 288 slots ESO.. you hear me?!!! The bank is shared with all characters... but that is 238 more bank slots than ESO thought was needed... ESO was wrong... just so very very wrong.

Cats525

Low side of the curve. Worse than average, missing some real QoL features that should be standard...Will do nothing to keep or attract players to the game.

Dyvim wrote: »

Meh, I thought they provided a clear continuum, unbiased from Best possible to Worst possible.

And that's the problem. In a ranking from Best to Worst, everything from average upwards means "no changes needed, it's not like it's falling behind", yet the second best choice, which is still above average, has "few if any changes needed" in it already.

If you wanted a clear answer, you should've cut out the "good" and "bad" and instead rather asked "how necessary are changes to the current inventory system?"

Dyvim

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

Cats525 wrote: »

Dyvim wrote: »

Meh, I thought they provided a clear continuum, unbiased from Best possible to Worst possible.

And that's the problem. In a ranking from Best to Worst, everything from average upwards means "no changes needed, it's not like it's falling behind", yet the second best choice, which is still above average, has "few if any changes needed" in it already.

If you wanted a clear answer, you should've cut out the "good" and "bad" and instead rather asked "how necessary are changes to the current inventory system?"

I disagree...something can be above average and still need changes...meh, like I said, it provides a continuum, and I cant change it now anyway. Unless something is absolutely perfect, it can still benefit from change.

Cats525

Low side of the curve. Worse than average, missing some real QoL features that should be standard...Will do nothing to keep or attract players to the game.

Dyvim wrote: »

I disagree...something can be above average and still need changes...meh, like I said, it provides a continuum, and I cant change it now anyway. Unless something is absolutely perfect, it can still benefit from change.

But it won't get that change, because money and time have to go into making it, and that won't happen if that change is not needed and it's not needed as long as it's "adequate".

Dyvim wrote: »

I consider adequate = average

Brennan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

And industry leader...best of the best, will help keep and attract players with its features...

For me the MAIN distinction, from a business point of view, should be does it work to enhance the game and attract players, or does it detract from the game and annoy players.

I don't know that I've ever seen any article or heard any feedback from the gaming community to which I belong that talked about how awesome the inventory system in any game is.

Inventory systems don't attract players. Innovative combat and a deep, thoughtful character progression attracts players. Cutting edge graphics and challenging AI attracts players.

But no one has ever said to me, "Dude! You have to play this game! The inventory system is awesome!"

If you wanted to make a poll with a scale, why not just have from best, better than average, average, lower than average, worst? The answers are full of commentary and that biases the poll.

Imryll

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

In addition to bugginess (10 days and still no compensation for my 40 lost slots) and being too small to support crafting on multiple characters, the account bank lacks the ability to sort/organize items based on function or character. Instead, the lists co-mingle mats for different professions, and recipes, food, and motif books (because they're all consumables). :rolls eyes: Certain runes stack only to 20 causing them to occupy extra slots. You can't store the CE map containers in your bank. You couldn't even remove them individually from the distributing email so that your Ebonheart character could carry the Ebonheart container and the Daggerfall character could carry the Daggerfall container. Trophies, pets, mementos, etc. can't be stored in character-specific space. It's too easy to deconstruct gear that you want to keep for RP use or trait research.

Gillysan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

http://minion.mmoui.com/
http://www.esoui.com/addons.php
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info312-GuildStoreSearchExtended.html
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info285-ZolansJunkHandler.html
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info35-LootdropContinuedAllinOne.html
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info140-BankBagSearcher.html

...and more ideas than you can shake a staff at.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/657887/#Comment_657887

I think they should work closely with the modding community. Maker sure the API provides the data and features they need. Unless of course that leads to some exploiting, balance or security issues.

There are plenty of solutions out there already. All you have to do is look and...

Jeremy

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

I really don't think the inventory system is bad.

It's better than most other games I have played. It offers you categories to focus in on different aspects of your loot. And to be honest, you have quite a bit of bag space. I'm almost up to 90 spaces in my bag already, and I'm only level 18. So that is likely to increase significantly.

The real problem is certain crafts just have a morbid amount of materials you feel compelled to hang on to. Enchanting for example - and all of those runes. And the shared bank is likely to annoy players who like to create numerous alternate characters.

It's best just to do a couple of crafts I think. Because the real problem here is people trying to do more crafts than was obviously intended judging by the design.

Brennan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Jeremy wrote: »

I really don't think the inventory system is bad.

It's better than most other games I have played. It offers you categories to focus in on different aspects of your loot. And to be honest, you have quite a bit of bag space. I'm almost up to 90 spaces in my bag already, and I'm only level 18. So that is likely to increase significantly.

The real problem is certain crafts just have a morbid amount of materials you feel compelled to hang on to. Enchanting for example - and all of those runes. And the shared bank is likely to annoy players who like to create numerous alternate characters.

It's best just to do a couple of crafts I think. Because the real problem here is people trying to do more crafts than was obviously intended judging by the design.

We may not agree on the Auction House thing man but just about everything else.

Though to be fair I am doing all my crafting on a single character but in spite of that I am managing my inventory just fine.

Gillysan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Imryll wrote: »

In addition to bugginess (10 days and still no compensation for my 40 lost slots) and being too small to support crafting on multiple characters, the account bank lacks the ability to sort/organize items based on function or character. Instead, the lists co-mingle mats for different professions, and recipes, food, and motif books (because they're all consumables). :rolls eyes: Certain runes stack only to 20 causing them to occupy extra slots. You can't store the CE map containers in your bank. You couldn't even remove them individually from the distributing email so that your Ebonheart character could carry the Ebonheart container and the Daggerfall character could carry the Daggerfall container. Trophies, pets, mementos, etc. can't be stored in character-specific space. It's too easy to deconstruct gear that you want to keep for RP use or trait research.

This doesn't solve all your points, but...
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info163-SousChef.html
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info111-ResearchAssistant.html
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info300-ItemSaver.html
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info165-InventoryMod.html
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info245-AdvancedFilters.html

jasterslegacy2000b14_ESO

Among the worst in an MMO of this size/budget/price - ever. Missing critical features given loot/mat centric nature of the game. Source of serious frustration and a potential contributor to loss of subscribers.

I originally thought the shared bank was a great idea, but then found out all characters had access to a single bank, terrible. They should make both the starting bag/bank spaces higher and make buying increased bag/bank space cheaper.

Or make every character have their own bank with a shared tab. With all the crafting materials in the game you can't go very long without having to log back and forth between characters trying to free up space again.

Jeremy

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Brennan wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

I really don't think the inventory system is bad.

It's better than most other games I have played. It offers you categories to focus in on different aspects of your loot. And to be honest, you have quite a bit of bag space. I'm almost up to 90 spaces in my bag already, and I'm only level 18. So that is likely to increase significantly.

The real problem is certain crafts just have a morbid amount of materials you feel compelled to hang on to. Enchanting for example - and all of those runes. And the shared bank is likely to annoy players who like to create numerous alternate characters.

It's best just to do a couple of crafts I think. Because the real problem here is people trying to do more crafts than was obviously intended judging by the design.

We may not agree on the Auction House thing man but just about everything else.

Though to be fair I am doing all my crafting on a single character but in spite of that I am managing my inventory just fine.

Yeah it's a manageable system I think. It might just take setting some priorities or devoting a character to crafting as you have done. Which is a good idea.

Gillysan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Warlordgreebo wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

About average. Worst than some, better than some. Serves its purpose I guess.
You people love polls. I wonder if you were Sanguine Testers too, the Sanguine section was always full of polls...

Between no actual AH for players to trade things they harvest/craft, and a *** system for inventory space... the entire craft system is tedious at best, completely failed however since it takes too much effort just to make a potion - you wont find enough ingredients for any line of anything, and if you do.. its just luck of the draw.. which was only had by insane inventory management
-

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info286-GuildMarketExporter.html
http://esomerchants.org/

http://eso.warlore.org/alchemy/

http://tamrieljournal.com/crafting-and-professions/enchanting/
Gillysan's Enchanter Leveling Spreadsheet

I'm just linking stuff because of inventory griping attrition. Once people get to higher levels and they have more gold they will also have maxed out bank space and all their characters will have maxed out backpacks, maxed out horses.

Brennan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Jeremy wrote: »

Brennan wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

I really don't think the inventory system is bad.

It's better than most other games I have played. It offers you categories to focus in on different aspects of your loot. And to be honest, you have quite a bit of bag space. I'm almost up to 90 spaces in my bag already, and I'm only level 18. So that is likely to increase significantly.

The real problem is certain crafts just have a morbid amount of materials you feel compelled to hang on to. Enchanting for example - and all of those runes. And the shared bank is likely to annoy players who like to create numerous alternate characters.

It's best just to do a couple of crafts I think. Because the real problem here is people trying to do more crafts than was obviously intended judging by the design.

We may not agree on the Auction House thing man but just about everything else.

Though to be fair I am doing all my crafting on a single character but in spite of that I am managing my inventory just fine.

Yeah it's a manageable system I think. It might just take setting some priorities or devoting a character to crafting as you have done. Which is a good idea.

Also, I'm at work right now but think I have 5 Diamonds if you are still looking for them. I've got Honing Stones and Dwarven Oil but, like most people, am holding on to that until end game.

Brennan

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Gillysan wrote: »

Warlordgreebo wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

About average. Worst than some, better than some. Serves its purpose I guess.
You people love polls. I wonder if you were Sanguine Testers too, the Sanguine section was always full of polls...

Between no actual AH for players to trade things they harvest/craft, and a *** system for inventory space... the entire craft system is tedious at best, completely failed however since it takes too much effort just to make a potion - you wont find enough ingredients for any line of anything, and if you do.. its just luck of the draw.. which was only had by insane inventory management
-

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info286-GuildMarketExporter.html
http://esomerchants.org/

http://eso.warlore.org/alchemy/

http://tamrieljournal.com/crafting-and-professions/enchanting/
Gillysan's Enchanter Leveling Spreadsheet

I'm just linking stuff because of inventory griping attrition. Once people get to higher levels and they have more gold they will also have maxed out bank space and all their characters will have maxed out backpacks, maxed out horses.

Thanks for all the helpful links Gilly. Hopefully it helps some people out.

Jeremy

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Brennan wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

Brennan wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

I really don't think the inventory system is bad.

It's better than most other games I have played. It offers you categories to focus in on different aspects of your loot. And to be honest, you have quite a bit of bag space. I'm almost up to 90 spaces in my bag already, and I'm only level 18. So that is likely to increase significantly.

The real problem is certain crafts just have a morbid amount of materials you feel compelled to hang on to. Enchanting for example - and all of those runes. And the shared bank is likely to annoy players who like to create numerous alternate characters.

It's best just to do a couple of crafts I think. Because the real problem here is people trying to do more crafts than was obviously intended judging by the design.

We may not agree on the Auction House thing man but just about everything else.

Though to be fair I am doing all my crafting on a single character but in spite of that I am managing my inventory just fine.

Yeah it's a manageable system I think. It might just take setting some priorities or devoting a character to crafting as you have done. Which is a good idea.

Also, I'm at work right now but think I have 5 Diamonds if you are still looking for them. I've got Honing Stones and Dwarven Oil but, like most people, am holding on to that until end game.

I am always on the look out for diamonds Those damn things hide from me.

Not sure how long you will be at work, but I'll probably be back on the game soon as maintenance is over. I think I have 5 sardonyx I can trade you if that is what you want for them (I think I remember you saying those were your preferred gem).

You can send me a private message with your character's name to my inbox and I'll add you to my list so we can meet up and trade if you like.

rtx

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

I like ESO inventory system for its UI.
With bag search and inventory grid view addons it becomes best inventory screen in all TES games.
However, I would really like to see sub tabs for materials used in different professions, light/medium/heavy/jewelry in apparel, meele/ranged in weapon tab, food/potions/other in consumables.

AlexDougherty

It's alright, it just needs a sort option allowing you to sort items how you want

GLaDOS

More than adequate, better than most...few if any changes are needed...

Having played more than 20 MMOs over the past 20 years, this one is no where near as bad as some of the other games that I have played as far as having space for things.

That being said, there is still room for improvement and I look forward to any positive tweaks that may occur.

This game is about making choices for me. Do I wanna level all profs on one toon? If yes, then I will need an army of mules. No? Then I can spread stuff out a bit more to keep it balanced.

I don't think I have ever played a single game where you could just keep everything forever unless you hacked your inventory to have unlimited carry space. Decisions and choices had to be made.

It isn't fun to decide, but it's just one of those things like death and taxes. Unavoidable.

Opioid

About average. Decent features and implementation, nothing special in the genre...

I would classify it as:
"Infuriating if you're a hoarder with 8 alts all leveling crafting at the same time so you feel compelled to save every single bit of crafting material you pick up; completely usable if you're only focusing on one or two characters and using the space wisely by not hoarding tons of low level materials that you're no longer using."