Inventory is unmanageable

Chrysolis

Or rather, inventory is manageable only with extreme tedium. I'm surprised that this issue isn't receiving more attention, considering that every person I've met in ESO is having the same problem. There just isn't enough inventory space for the enormous quantity of items constantly being dropped in your lap; generally I have to spend 20 minutes on inventory management for every 60 minutes of game play, which really just seems absurd to me. I've already thrown a lot of my gold at the problem to obtain max personal inventory slots, though I'm holding off on 20k for the next bank upgrade.

I don't really understand if, or how the current system was designed to work. The shared bank is nice for transferring between alts, but the irony is that I can't afford to have any alts because all other 7 of my character slots are mules. I only keep relevant-level materials (and sell the lower ones) and I have about every add-on dedicated to inventory management. Something really needs to be done about this; though I do like my main character, I don't even currently feel like I have the option to make an alt.

I don't want to present a problem without any possible solutions, so I'll give a few suggestions in case this should be seen by ZOS:

• Add a personal bank tab: The shared bank is decent for convenience, yet the amount of inconvenience one suffers through because of the inventory choke hold really eclipses that. With a personal bank tab that was upgradeable, you even have another expense for the compiling gold.
• Add a crafting materials tab: This follows the same idea as above, and addresses one of ESO's worst culprits. Frankly, both of these tabs could be added to the game and we would still need to have mules on top of it.
• Separate and/or remove the inventory slot use of provisioning items: Provisioning particularly is a troublesome beast; in previous elder scrolls games, typically the reason you weren't that limited to picking up food/alchemy items is because they weighed basically nothing. That's not the case here, where a tomato takes up the same amount of space a greatsword does.
• Reduce the gold cost of bank slots: The inventory costs seem manageable; the bank slots are not. 20k is a decent maximum for personal inventory - it doesn't seem like a good spot for less than half of the maximum bank slots.
• Increase stack sizes to 200-1,000: Again addressing the problem with crafting materials, this would at least allow for them to be managed without requiring much of a change to the game.
• Double bank space: I understand it can be difficult to appease all crowds; those who already spent a lot of gold to increase their bank space would be justifiably angry if the costs were retroactively lowered. This kind of change would allow for those upgrades to still remain in effect while helping to address the issue.
• Include a separate, non-burdening category for Trophies & Costumes: These things typically serve no purpose - but, you can't get them again, making for a choice of the lesser between two evils. Since they are utterly non-beneficial, they should be moved to their own category (the way quest items are) which does not use up inventory space.
• Allow items to be "Favorited" (or locked): This was a feature in Skyrim I am sure many people remember; this could essentially be just like the junk list wherein only items marked enter the favorites tab, allowing for quicker access to important items. Instead of having the option to sell all (as with junk marked items), favorite items could not appear in sell or deconstruct windows. This would add some functionality and protect players from mistakes (which might even reduce petitions!)
• Implement better sorting systems: There are mods that do some of this already, but some options are still missing and, really, this should be a standard feature considering the item load of ESO. Most importantly we should be allowed to sort items by level, quality, and type. After that some general polishing & categorization (as is seen with the Advanced Filters addon) would certainly be welcomed, if slightly less important.

Guild banks are not a solution for personal inventory - they are a workaround for a select few that don't mind dedicating an entire guild slot just to this. Few people are willing to simply give you one of their guild slots so you can have a bank. If you share, there are huge risks involved. Regardless of that, it should not be required.

For those sure to comment - I'm not a hoarder by any means, I'm quite meticulous about my inventory. This isn't some kind of personal issue, it happens to literally everyone I play with. If you don't agree with my criticisms or suggestions, feel free to add your own.

For my inventory setup, see here:

Chrysolis wrote: »

EDIT: This post is addressing a legitimate concern in a constructive way; please take the endless flaming and trolling to the hundreds of other threads that do not offer feedback with the intent of improving the game.

EDIT 2: Updated & added other peoples' suggestions to the list. Thank you for contributing.

maholi

I agree! I am not sure why recent games have decided that inventory management is fun. It just isn't.

Grampa_Smurf

Increased stack size, also would like to see things like Disguises not take up bag space but have a separate item list like the quest items you pick up.

WhimsyDragon

I'd like to see more bag and bank space at a more fair cost. I'd also like the ability to sort things in my own way as people often do when they have separate inventory bags. I know that you can sort by the baked in options like armor or materials, but for instance, maybe I want to have a bag for all my saved armor pieces and other trinkets that I swap out. Totally agree though--I spend wayyy too much time on inventory management moreso than any other game I've played. I'm also constantly maxed out, both bank and bags so it's like, what am I most willing to delete? Let me spend half my game time deciding...

snowmanflvb14_ESO

well you can buy additional bank and bag slots. There is also the guild bank you could use. What I do is transfer items for what I am going to do that day through the bank to an alt to hold and transfer them back when i need them. Since i have all crafting skills lines I can tell you it is possible to work with the system as it is.

hk11

I don't see the problem with letting people store a ton of stuff. I guess the idea is that people wont sell stuff if they can store it?

I would rather have a game with no currency than all these gold sinks.

badmojo

IMO people who complain about inventory space and don't have a guild bank are doing it wrong.

I don't have problems with inventory space, unless I start to hoard massive amounts of weapons/armor, and I don't even have my bank/bags upgraded fully yet.

I throw unique items and all my race/trait materials into my bank since all crafting characters need access to those.

Then my guild bank is used for provisioning and enchanting materials which are my mains professions. So I don't have a full bag all the time. I also use the guild bank as a place to swap lots of weapons & armor to alts for deconstruction. And also a place to store full stacks from my bank.

After that I have 4 characters who hold associated materials. Tailor, Blacksmith, Woodworker, Alchemist. Leaving 4 main accounts for me to play on, which are the four classes & three factions.

The only pain in the ass is that guild banks don't stack items, so I do a lot of manual restacking of provisions.

Islyn

[Moderator Note: Removed per our rules on Spamming]

Say what? How did I spam? At least PM me and tell me rather than *only* editing my thread lol.

I am NOT a spammer.

I55UE5

I am sorry, but how in the hell are you spending 1/3 of your time managing the inventory? There is more wrong there than just the game.

Chrysolis

I don't think every player should be required to utilize a guild bank to manage their own items - that's not what a guild bank is made for. I'm not walking around with a full inventory, but in order to maintain some semblance of order I am unable to have any alts really as they are all packed with crafting materials or research items.

Furthermore, this is a constructive post and not intended to cater to children.

Mortosk

I55UE5 wrote: »

I am sorry, but how in the hell are you spending 1/3 of your time managing the inventory? There is more wrong there than just the game.

I can believe he spends 1/3rd of his time managing inventory. The inventory system in this game is a joke. I just created my 7th and final mule yesterday. Just the time it takes to log them in and out with the loading screen that takes forever is enough to make you want to pull your hair out.

Ish_Fingers

When I first started, I collected everything. Very quickly (within maybe 2-3 days) I reached about Lv.10 in all crafts and became disillusioned with the system: it just seemed too easy!

I soon came to realise that one way of slowing this progress down - and thus selecting what crafts I would rather focus on (Woodworking & Clothing/Leathercraft) - was through inventory management. By not being able to hoard all the items and selecting what I wish to keep, I'm limited to just 2 or 3 crafts at time. For this reason I think ESO has made inventory space a strategic luxury.

I'm not saying it could not be better; the menus/layout are a bit simplistic, the bank system seems lackluster (but a nice idea, just needs work) and the lack of player housing makes me forfeit items that I may with to keep for sentimental aesthetic purposes. But having to pay a small fortune to increase inventory space is, IMO, for the better. And it's not like gold is spent much elsewhere really, is it?

Sharee

Take a good look at your inventory and ask yourself whether you really need to keep all that stuff.

Then throw it away.

Worked for me.

Turial

"I'm surprised that this issue isn't receiving more attention"
Excuse me but have you actually read the forums?

"There just isn't enough inventory space for the enormous quantity of items constantly being dropped in your lap"
Welcome to the Elder Scrolls, you could never hold everything you picked up in the game and if you say that you did not have to manage inventory in Skyrim or previous games then you must not have played them.

• Add a personal bank tab: I don't get this, you want another bank tab on top of your inventory and bank tabs?
• Add a crafting materials tab: While I do love games with crafting materials space I do know that it aint gonna happen here.
• Reduce the gold cost of bank slots: You pay the same for inventory/bank slots and bank slots cover all characters, not just one.
• Increase stack sizes to 200-1,000: Neither for nor against this.
• Double inventory/bank space: As you put it - "I understand it can be difficult to appease all crowds; those who already spent a lot of gold to increase their inventory space would be justifiably angry if the costs were retroactively lowered." - and that is a good enough reason not to.

Seriously it sounds like you need to manage your inventory better and sell off some crap. You cannot hoard everything, I don't really feel like writing a speech here but my advice is to start prioritising the crap you are holding on your alts too. Tha inventory space is fine once you get to higher levels and finding what you really want or need.

AshleyLee

Shortly before launch they also changed Guild bank space from 1000 to 500. This is also crazy, Myself along with a few crafting friends have 2 EXTRA guilds just for materials and gear sets. so out of 5 guilds 2 are taking just for managing inventory. In addtion to 6 characters acting as mules. I am in one "main" guild with friends met before ESO and since. I am in one trade guild and one PvP guild.

The sheer volume of loot from questing and farming is unbelievable. I strongly agree we need to:

1)half all bank expansion costs.
2) increase stack sizes signifcantly. 200-1000
3)Double Guild bank back to 1000 spaces like it was during Beta.
4)double the amount of listable items in the guild store. 30 is not nearly enough.
5)Please Please Please, reduce/elimiate the Guild bank loading lag.

badmojo

Chrysolis wrote: »

I don't think every player should be required to utilize a guild bank to manage their own items - that's not what a guild bank is made for. I'm not walking around with a full inventory, but in order to maintain some semblance of order I am unable to have any alts really as they are all packed with crafting materials or research items.

Furthermore, this is a constructive post and not intended to cater to children.

You're not required to do anything. You're not even required to increase bag & bank slots. You're certainly not required to make 7 mule alts. We just want to make life easier for ourselves, so we do everything in our ability.

It's like complaining about having to walk everywhere cause you don't think you should be required to buy a horse. You're gimping yourself by ignoring the guild bank space, don't complain about it.

Blackwidow

@Chrysolis you forgot these. Please add this to you OP list.

Being able to lock items so you can't accidentally destroy or sell them.

Being able to list items by level and type.

JackBarr

I'm doing alright in terms of inventory management, but I wouldn't spit on a little extra. Maybe an additional 5-10 inventory and 10-20 bank space would be enough. 200 stack size doesn't sound bad either.

My experience with guild banks was pretty bad:
- rights management can be annoying. Once, I didn't have the rights to take back items I put in one of my guild's bank and had to wait for someone with the proper rights to show up.
- random people can potentially take your stuff without warning, so for some items I'd rather use my personal storage. I'd tried to create a "storage" guild but I don't have enough irl/trustworthy friends playing eso to create my own.

Chrysolis

Ish_Fingers wrote: »

When I first started, I collected everything. Very quickly (within maybe 2-3 days) I reached about Lv.10 in all crafts and became disillusioned with the system: it just seemed too easy!

I soon came to realise that one way of slowing this progress down - and thus selecting what crafts I would rather focus on (Woodworking & Clothing/Leathercraft) - was through inventory management. By not being able to hoard all the items and selecting what I wish to keep, I'm limited to just 2 or 3 crafts at time. For this reason I think ESO has made inventory space a strategic luxury.

I'm not saying it could not be better; the menus/layout are a bit simplistic, the bank system seems lackluster (but a nice idea, just needs work) and the lack of player housing makes me forfeit items that I may with to keep for sentimental aesthetic purposes. But having to pay a small fortune to increase inventory space is, IMO, for the better. And it's not like gold is spent much elsewhere really, is it?

That may be more of an issue with the main 3 crafts than inventory space; they do indeed seem easy, but I don't consider bogging a player down with loads upon loads of items to be a particularly elegant system for limiting craft options if that was, in fact, their intent.

I would personally disagree that gold isn't spent elsewhere - I certainly never have enough. Crafting materials can be pricey, motifs are shockingly expensive, and horses are 43k+12.5 to make optimal. Re-speccing also runs a rather hefty fee - and, while you might argue that it's not necessary, it's definitely fun to play.

On a side note, it's a bit funny that people completely neglect to read my whole post and start criticizing me, personally, about topics I've already addressed. Do I need my crafting materials? Well, if I want to craft, yes. As I've mentioned I'm not alone on this issue, so try to keep your comments at least minimally constructive.

Blackwidow

Turial wrote: »

Welcome to the Elder Scrolls, you could never hold everything you picked up in the game and if you say that you did not have to manage inventory in Skyrim or previous games then you must not have played them.

Unlimited storage is in TES games. If you did not know that then you must not have played TES games.

Add a personal bank tab: I don't get this, you want another bank tab on top of your inventory and bank tabs?

It gives each character their own bank space as well as a shared space. Have you never played an MMO before?

SteveCampsOut

badmojo wrote: »

Chrysolis wrote: »

I don't think every player should be required to utilize a guild bank to manage their own items - that's not what a guild bank is made for. I'm not walking around with a full inventory, but in order to maintain some semblance of order I am unable to have any alts really as they are all packed with crafting materials or research items.

Furthermore, this is a constructive post and not intended to cater to children.

You're not required to do anything. You're not even required to increase bag & bank slots. You're certainly not required to make 7 mule alts. We just want to make life easier for ourselves, so we do everything in our ability.

It's like complaining about having to walk everywhere cause you don't think you should be required to buy a horse. You're gimping yourself by ignoring the guild bank space, don't complain about it.

Tell you what, you put all of YOUR legendary crafting material in an unguarded guild bank and see how fast it disappears! Yeah, nobody would be that insane, but your still telling people that they need to place their loot on the floor basically and hope it will still be there when they're ready to craft with it! I can guarantee you it won't be! If you don't have anything useful or constructive to contribute, how about just not contributing to the thread at all?

Chrysolis

badmojo wrote: »

Chrysolis wrote: »

I don't think every player should be required to utilize a guild bank to manage their own items - that's not what a guild bank is made for. I'm not walking around with a full inventory, but in order to maintain some semblance of order I am unable to have any alts really as they are all packed with crafting materials or research items.

Furthermore, this is a constructive post and not intended to cater to children.

You're not required to do anything. You're not even required to increase bag & bank slots. You're certainly not required to make 7 mule alts. We just want to make life easier for ourselves, so we do everything in our ability.

It's like complaining about having to walk everywhere cause you don't think you should be required to buy a horse. You're gimping yourself by ignoring the guild bank space, don't complain about it.

Your analogy doesn't work. Guild banks were not made to give you personal inventory space; they were made to allow guild members to trade with each other. I'm in several trading guilds and one main guild - I wouldn't simply trust everyone with my deposits. I didn't complain about guild banks to begin with, only stated their purpose.

Pusyboots

Im sorry to hear that some people can't manage their inventory! I know that the game should have had some things done a little different but there are ways around it!

Myself and a couple of mate, created a guild bank for 500 spaces of the not so important items and a place to transfer items between characters! Yes my personal bank is full, but only full of items that are less common and more important! The inventory layout did suck at first, until i got a great addon that broke down your inventory into more tabs, such as materials, then the types of materials, blacksmith, woodwork, enchanting, etc etc!

Yes the prices are high to buy more bag space and bank space, but, what else do you really have to spend your gold on!...... Motifs!!!! lol

I have only 1 mule, and 1 suggestion that i do have for the game is that, trophies etc should not take up inventory space, just like quest items!

And the guild bank loading problem and the not stacking of the guild bank is an issue.. fatstacks helped there!

I have bout 20 addons......this should not have been the case, the game should have these issues addressed....

Thanks for listening to my opinion!

SteveCampsOut

Pusyboots wrote: »

Im sorry to hear that some people can't manage their inventory!

Nobody said they couldn't manage their inventory, the said they were tired of it taking up 1/3 of their playing time. Two different birds my friend.

Lox

Personally, I have 1 mule alt (to hold maps, disguises and other mundane bank filling items).

I have 3 toons on the go covering most of the crafting types and yet I have no problems with inventory management other than it being a bit slow at times. I have upgraded my bank and bags maybe 3 times, that's it.

If you have a full rack of alts with full bags + your bank being full then you need to look at what you are hoarding and why you are hoarding it.

Don't get me wrong, the system isn't perfect but it is quite manageable.

Blackwidow

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

Nobody said they couldn't manage their inventory, the said they were tired of it taking up 1/3 of their playing time. Two different birds my friend.

QFT.

Banks are there to help relieve inventory problems, not make things worse.

PBpsy

As a Dunmer I really wish I had one of those lizard slave thingies that I could send sell my garbage in town

Chrysolis

Turial wrote: »

"I'm surprised that this issue isn't receiving more attention"
Excuse me but have you actually read the forums?

"There just isn't enough inventory space for the enormous quantity of items constantly being dropped in your lap"
Welcome to the Elder Scrolls, you could never hold everything you picked up in the game and if you say that you did not have to manage inventory in Skyrim or previous games then you must not have played them.

Seriously it sounds like you need to manage your inventory better and sell off some crap. You cannot hoard everything, I don't really feel like writing a speech here but my advice is to start prioritising the crap you are holding on your alts too. Tha inventory space is fine once you get to higher levels and finding what you really want or need.

Again, please read the full post. I am VR5, I'm pretty sure that qualifies for higher levels. The only things I keep are un-researched trait items and crafting materials - not even low level crafting materials, just VR1+. Perhaps I don't need to be invested in every form of craft, but that's what I prefer to do and uses up the majority of my skills as well. And yes, I played Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind. Storage space is unlimited.

bugulu

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

Pusyboots wrote: »

Im sorry to hear that some people can't manage their inventory!

Nobody said they couldn't manage their inventory, the said they were tired of it taking up 1/3 of their playing time. Two different birds my friend.

That is inventory management, sorry.
If people want to stack up on every single item in their posession, then that's their choice.
If people want to level every profession at the same time, that's their choice.

I honestly don't see the problem here, it's your own choice hoarding up those items that drops.

What works for me has already been stated, take a good look at your inventory once every day and really ask yourself, what do I really need?
Half of the crap you have in the bank is most likely things you can afford to throw away.

Do you really need more than one stack of each racial stone?
Do I really need to keep all those provisioning mats in the bank or bag?
Do I really need to keep weapons/armors in the bank in case an alt needs it?
Do I need to level up all the professions at the same time? Could I just focus on two professions at the time?
Do I need the lower level mats for the professions? Can't I just put those stuff in the guild bank so some lower leveled person can use it and make them happy?

Sorry, if you are having inventory management problems despite creating 7 mules, you are doing it wrong.
I leveled 5 professions at the same time while leveling and had maximum inventory bag space and some decent bank upgrade and I never had to use more than one mule (and that mule only had half of his bag inventory space occupied).
You just need to ask yourself those questions above (my character ended up with 3 stacks of moonstones and other racial stones, is that really necessary? No!)


Now, I'm not opposed to this idea. It benefits everyone and if people deem that inventory management is taking too much of their play time due to poor judgement, then by all means, make the task smoother by increasing the inventory space.

MaxBat

Chrysolis wrote: »

I'm surprised that this issue isn't receiving more attention.

Oh it got my attention today as I finally broke down and decided to organize the inventories of 6 different characters. I started with - admittedly - some pretty heavy disorganization. That, and a six pack of beer.

Four hours later - yes, that's four hours - I finally got stuff organized, thanks the incredibly frustrating bank, backpack, and character system that the geniuses at Zenimax envisioned. Meanwhile, I drank all six beers.

I did notice the inventory system became more tolerable after five beers - which may be an indication how the system was originally designed.

Chrysolis

bugulu wrote: »

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

Pusyboots wrote: »

Im sorry to hear that some people can't manage their inventory!

Nobody said they couldn't manage their inventory, the said they were tired of it taking up 1/3 of their playing time. Two different birds my friend.

That is inventory management, sorry.
If people want to stack up on every single item in their posession, then that's their choice.
If people want to level every profession at the same time, that's their choice.

I honestly don't see the problem here, it's your own choice hoarding up those items that drops.

What works for me has already been stated, take a good look at your inventory once every day and really ask yourself, what do I really need?
Half of the crap you have in the bank is most likely things you can afford to throw away.

Do you really need more than one stack of each racial stone?
Do I really need to keep all those provisioning mats in the bank or bag?
Do I really need to keep weapons/armors in the bank in case an alt needs it?
Do I need to level up all the professions at the same time? Could I just focus on two professions at the time?
Do I need the lower level mats for the professions? Can't I just put those stuff in the guild bank so some lower leveled person can use it and make them happy?

Sorry, if you are having inventory management problems despite creating 7 mules, you are doing it wrong.
I leveled 5 professions at the same time while leveling and had maximum inventory bag space and some decent bank upgrade and I never had to use more than one mule (and that mule only had half of his bag inventory space occupied).


Now, I'm not opposed to this idea. It benefits everyone and if people deem that inventory management is taking too much of their play time due to poor judgement, then by all means, make the task smoother by increasing the inventory space.

I don't keep common racial stones.
I only keep provisioning items of level 50+
I don't keep weapons or armor for alts
I don't keep lower level mats for the professions
Do I need to level up all the professions simultaneously? No; but it should not be made a near-impossibility. Crafting is supposed to be a viable aspect of the game.

Though I appreciate your trying to be respectful, this "doing it wrong" critique is far from the truth of it. Many of the other players in my guild are restricted to 1 character for the same reasons. Some have a single alt - which would work well enough for me.

Thank you for pointing out the fact that this would not hurt anyone. If it's beneficial to some and benign to the rest, I don't see what the problem is.