Time you spend on inventory management

wrlifeboil

I'm finding that I'm spending a lot of time on inventory management. When your character's bags are full, do you find the nearest vendor to sell the items OR delete items OR port to the bank to deposit the items?

Seraseth

I'm spending so much time on inventory management, moving things into and out of bank, logging and relogging different characters. Around 20mins every 2hrs.

It's actually gotten to the point of making me not want to play, since it will just lead to more boring inventory sorting.

Natjur

The add-on which auto sells junk and destroys 'bait helps for me. (Gives more space) Also the add-one which warns me when getting low on space, so I can start planning heading back to sell.

The add-on which destroys bait, you can also set so it destroys all 'zero' sell items but if your a provisioner, then that is a bad move.

I also recommend changing your inventory to GRID mode, so much easier viewing what you have instead of just an endless scroll

I use Dragon Loot which puts loot in a new window (no longer hidden in the chat spam, and need if you have auto loot all option turned on) and auto sells junk
TESO Essentials which has Bazgrim’s Toolbar Features built in and very useful for tracking bag slots etc
Inventory Grid View for a better way to view your bags
The auto destroy bait and/or zero value items is a macro linked to TESO Essentials

Nox_Aeterna

Pfff , i dont even know how much time i spend on just this OP , i have like 5 bag alts + my main and bank to worry with :P.

SexyVette07

I spend almost as much time managing inventory and bank space as I do playing the game. Its ***.

Make bank alts, lots of them. Screw Zenimax's policy on inventory management.

Seraseth

I have mule alts, but the logging in and out to move stuff in and out of the bank, is such a huge pain. They need a separate shared crafting inventory.

wrlifeboil

Sounds like good advice. I'll try all the suggestions.

Note that I wasn't trying to be negative about the inventory management. I was wondering more about what other players find to be the best way to handle it. I was afraid I was being too hoader-ish because I often rush back to a major city to deposit items in the bank and deconstruct them. It is getting to take up most more game time as I reach max level.

OZGODUSA

Right now I probably spend 15 mins of every hour on inventory management. I'm planning to ultimately level every profession so I don't want to discard or sell anything of use. So I have 3 bank mules that hold mats for different crafts and every hour when my bags get full for a particular toon (I'm leveling 4 at once for variety) I dump everything into the bank and log onto each bank mule to distribute.

Probably every couple of hours I also have to have my main toon deconstruct unneeded weps and armor. I used to keep the ones with traits but I eventually figured given how long it takes to research traits I would end up completely filling up all my mules before researching all the traits I had.

The reason it takes a while is because it's an iterative process...not all the inventory fits in the bank at the first cut so I have to log onto the mules to transfer some of the inventory, then back on the main to deconstruct, then back on the mules, etc. it's cumbersome for sure but I would rather go through it than have to re-farm all the mats.

In sum I probably spend a net 20% of time on inventory management. It used to be more like 30% but I've gotten good at it. I wish it wasn't such a pain but apparently it is intended design.

Seraseth

That sounds very much like my process, except I keep items that have the top traits I want to research first.

Firestar_

I have bank alts:
One for wood, ore, logs and textiles and style stones

The second one has traits, +quality, pork, meat and eggs

The third has grapes, berries, roots, drippings, broths and wheats

The fourth is just a dumping ground for anything left over. Maps, good armor, water that is too high a level, lockpicks, pets, trophies etc

Today I got hit with the bank bug where the 90 slots I bought are gone AND everything in it.
So... I now have yet another bank alt that now holds runes since keeping those in the bank can't be trusted anymore :C

It takes a bit of time out of my day but it is worth it to not have my items suddenly gone thanks to bank errors.

Thunder_Downunder

i only have a problem my inv fills up, which given how much I play is only every few days.

WhiteQueen

Ugh. A better inventory system would free up so much time, it's ridiculous. Also helpful? A junking system that doesn't reset every time you use it. At first I thought it was a bug, but the longer the game's live and it's not changed the more I think that the developers want us to waste our time. Like, riffling through your bag every 30 minutes is "immersive."

This scrolling inventory is so early 80s it would be hilarious if it weren't so frustrating. -- Well, 80s for us PC users. As I understand it, it's actually cutting edge for consoles. (Lame.)

eNumbra

Never had to spend much time on it, until my bank upgrades were wiped. Now I'm constantly moving stuff in and out as my researches all hit the 3 Day+ mark and items start back logging.

kevin19_ESO

I'm spending way too much of the limited time I have to play spending it on inventory management. I'd much rather be questing and exploring this excellent game, than shuffling inventory!

Tiyamel

as soon as my main is full of items, (i sort inventory on the go, only keep green items and above) i port back to bank and deposit it all and log my crafter in to break it all down, then back to my main, takes 5 minutes every couple of hours

Laerian

I spend between 1/3 and 1/4 of my playing time doing inventory management. When my bags get full I start destroying the less valuable items until I have to return to town; then I distribute the items between my alts while researching/decon. Usually, I craft with my provisioner to get rid of ingredients and sell everything.

After all that madness I have to take a break, make some cofee and curse the human stupidity.

zaria

Get an friendly guild and use the guild bank for dumping stuff, then redraw that you want.
Use an alt to store things you want to keep or use later.

Works surprisingly well.

AlchemyDevil

Yeah, I understand your frustration OP. It's almost like a F2P game with a Cash Shop in the way they make us all struggle with our Inv and Bank space and charge an insane amount of in game gold for pack expansions. I will not be surprised at all if they suddenly add a "Pay $5 USD and we'll give you another 10 slots" option on their website.

dark.akarib16_ESO

AlchemyDevil wrote: »

I will not be surprised at all if they suddenly add a "Pay $5 USD and we'll give you another 10 slots" option on their website.

And I would probably immediately pay -.- ... I need every hour 20-30 Minutes to sort my bags and make some place. I don't have much time to play, every hour is precious for me and this is a big time waste.
Just as the Guild Store - no option to search for the items o.O ....

Laerian

/edit wrong thread

Sallakat

I'm spending a lot of time with the inventory too. I actively gather mats for 2 crafting professions and I do all the possible dungeons etc all the time that drop tons of loot and then after a couple dungeons I need to go to the vendor. I have 90 bag space and it doesn't last long.... and also have 100 bank space and that's almost full too. Luckily we have a guild bank and we made a bank guild too where our ppl can put all the mats etc.

But it's a bit annoying that when I'm running in veteran level missions with my guildies going from dungeon to dungeon and we have to go to town so often to craft mats away and run between vendor and bank.

I'm kinda glad and annoyed at the same time about the loot amount. Like I get good upgrades to keep my armor and stats on the correct level, but still the amount it too much compared to the inventory space and time having to spend going thru it.

Coggage

I vendor anything I don't actually want equip/use or refine. You can't be a packrat in this game. The BankStuffer addon certainly makes banking a breeze, since it auto banks items from my inventory to bank slots that already have the same item in there.

It's nice to just click on the Bank option to see 20 or 30 free slots appear in my bags.

Basil_oz

This has been an illuminating thread. There are a few add-ons that you guys have mentioned I'm going to check out.

I spend way too much time doing inventory management. And with the bank slot bug I have been reticent to purchase further slots.

I'm a person who likes to do everything! Provisions, alchemy, enchanting, crafting... the lot! With the limited bank and bag you basically have to stop doing everything and probably run alt characters to enjoying doing other crafts (OK, I'm a slow learner).

In alchemy I particularly find it frustrating that potions are separated so much! You go back to the table and try and replicate that health potion that you stock and 'wham', it now has some magic buffs attached... new slot! Argghhh!

I haven't run an alt character yet. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to so I can find out how the bank/inventory can be shared between each alt.

I might not attempt this until they get a handle on the bank bug.

Thete

It is extremely time consuming. Compared to other MMOs I've played, this one has the most stuff to cart about and by a country mile the least storage space given to cope with it. I have six alts and a 90 slot bank (as well as over 90 slots on my main's bag) between which I have to share out all the useful stuff.

zytukin

I spend about 10-20 mins every few hours, no mules yet.

When my bag is almost full I head to a town and craft provisions, weaps and clothing, then sell everything that I don't have a use for. Everything else goes into my bank account.
My inventory goes down to around 15-20 and I go back to collecting every single item I can find.

Thunder

Have to learn to let go. Exorcise your inner hoarder!

I too used to spend a ton of time clearing my inventory, but then I realized I started with empty bags and there's nothing I picked up along the way that can't be gotten again.

When my bags fill I...

1. teleport to a town with a crafting station (saves time and you're going to earn back the gold when you vendor)
2. hit the vendor and sell everything that doesn't relate to my crafting
3. hit the crafting station and research anything good
4. grind up the rest into crafting materials
5. craft new gear for anything that is beat up
6. teleport back to the closest shrine to where I was

Takes like 5 minutes and I'm back in the action.

At the end of my gaming session I throw any blue items that might be useful for alts in the bank.

Riksis

That management takes a crap load of time, especially as my char has already 90 slots (I think), whereas my bank is fixed on 60 (I already lost some upgrades, I don't dare to upgrade again).
So to move all the stuff to the proper characters for deconstructing / research it takes usually more than just one relog.

Hopefully the issue gets better once the bank bug is solved (IF it gets solved anytime soon - it took them how long to at least acknowledge that there is a bank issue?).

Of course, I still have just tier 1 and 2 materials, so even with a bank fix it might stay bad.

Thunder

Riksis wrote: »

So to move all the stuff to the proper characters for deconstructing / research it takes usually more than just one relog.

I think this is the problem for most people. I understand the desire to move all those heavy armor items through your bank to your heavy armor crafting alt, but they constructed the game to dissuade you from doing that very thing.

Your heavy armor crafter will get plenty of junk to grind up at the anvil on his own, so when you're on your light armor crafter, just play him, vendor all that heavy gear. Save the bank transfers for rare stuff like blue and better items.

Just my two cents. I'm not telling anyone how to play, I'm just giving advice that might help minimize your time spent managing inventory.

Riksis

Thunder wrote: »

Riksis wrote: »

So to move all the stuff to the proper characters for deconstructing / research it takes usually more than just one relog.

I think this is the problem for most people. I understand the desire to move all those heavy armor items through your bank to your heavy armor crafting alt, but they constructed the game to dissuade you from doing that very thing.

Your heavy armor crafter will get plenty of junk to grind up at the anvil on his own, so when you're on your light armor crafter, just play him, vendor all that heavy gear. Save the bank transfers for rare stuff like blue and better items.

Just my two cents. I'm not telling anyone how to play, I'm just giving advice that might help minimize your time spent managing inventory.

You might be right that this was the intention of that system.

On the other hand, I don't want to just vendor the stuff now if it means that later I have to spend more time grinding crafting levels, especially as deconstructing own stuff yields so few experience.
So all items I find get moved to the appropriate crafter (I have all craft professions between my chars).

In the beginning I kept all researchable items (one per trait) on all my chars - that was a utter disaster as all chars had full inventory.
Now I only keep traits that I consider useful short / mid term and deconstruct everything else.

So yes, the system definitely encourages not keeping things. But it also pushes me to deconstructing every single item I find as these pieces yield better deconstruction xp.

Thunder

Riksis wrote: »

So yes, the system definitely encourages not keeping things. But it also pushes me to deconstructing every single item I find as these pieces yield better deconstruction xp.

Like I said, I'm not telling anyone how to play, but I'd rather play the toon I'm on and worry about my alts when I play them than spend 20 minutes shuffling through the bank and logging in and out of 8 different characters.

From my experience, the bank shuffle certainly isn't necessary. My crafting levels have kept up with my gearing needs just fine simply by tearing down the stuff I get from questing on that character and crafting new armor.

Mie87

dark.akarib16_ESO wrote: »

AlchemyDevil wrote: »

I will not be surprised at all if they suddenly add a "Pay $5 USD and we'll give you another 10 slots" option on their website.

And I would probably immediately pay -.- ... I need every hour 20-30 Minutes to sort my bags and make some place. I don't have much time to play, every hour is precious for me and this is a big time waste.
Just as the Guild Store - no option to search for the items o.O ....

I would so buy this as well...