Time you spend on inventory management

k9mouse

ESO is not design for people to keep all loot. Also, a lot of items for the inv helps to keep people not becoming a master of all crafts. ESO is design to have one or two crafts at max, any more then that, a player will into inv trouble.

If one really want to be become master of all crafts, it will take A LOT of time and work to do so. The price can be to high for some....

Seraseth

There's already a restriction on being a master crafter in the skill point cost. It doesn't need to be in inventory as well.

Dysturbed

ya I play to craft....I have 2 accounts and also loke playing alts. This could become enough of a headache to make me stop. EQ Next is coming and they had an awesome crafting skills in eq2...

Mishoniko

I could chop out 15 of that 20 minute inventory management phase if I gave up on Provisioning (which is already at level 50). It'd also chop out an hour of that 2 of spelunking time looting every container in sight in case they have recipes.

Dahlia_Bristow

I'm finding that I have more issues with bank space than personal bag space. I've been feeding my Imperial horse for more bag space and have 76 slots at this point. I don't really get full very often as I'm finding I can make fairly regular use of wandering merchants on the road. Special trips into town to empty bags just don't happen.

I've only upgraded my bank once at this point. I'd like to save my money for a fast horse, so I have three alts that are holding bulk mats and associated items for trait research.

knightblaster

OZGODUSA wrote: »

I wish it wasn't such a pain but apparently it is intended design.

It appears that what is intended is that you limit yourself to one crafting character at a time with 2 crafts ideally, and you are extremely rigorous in your routine (deconstruct everything you can't currently research, sell anything other than one stack of mats for non-consumables, and all consumables mats other than the ones you are currently using to level, and store almost nothing). If you don't do that, it's quite intended that you suffer from frustration in trying to "do more", because that's their "soft cap" -- the cap is equal to your frustration level, and how much frustration tolerance you have over time.

ClaudiaMay

Probably too much, but I do provisioning right now so that makes up part of it. I plan to level it as much as possible, however, in order to move out the majority of low level mats so they don't stick around.

It's manageable

darkkterror_ESO

Too much. Last night I created my second mule character. Never before, in any of the other MMORPGs that I've played, have I ever created a character for the sole purpose of carrying stuff. Two weeks into ESO and I'm already on my second mule.

Seraseth

darkkterror_ESO wrote: »

Too much. Last night I created my second mule character. Never before, in any of the other MMORPGs that I've played, have I ever created a character for the sole purpose of carrying stuff. Two weeks into ESO and I'm already on my second mule.

Same here. I've never in any other mmo made a mule, and I'm up to 2 as well.

byghostlightrwb17_ESO

Too much time. Sadly. It is simply the worst part of the whole game. Last night spent fifteen minutes shuffling enough space between three alts and try to clear my bags out totally.

This game truly punishes hoarders and crafters.

Greydog

As much as I enjoy the shared bank, I absolutely hate that there aren't individual banks for each character.

I really only have two issues with this game. Inventory and trade. They both are way too restrictive and time consuming to be something I can enjoy using. Other than that I think they've built a gem here. (I love the move away from arch-types in groups)

No, this certainly isn't World of Warcraft ..it is beginning to feel like World of Tedium though

Seraseth

Greydog wrote: »

As much as I enjoy the shared bank, I absolutely hate that there aren't individual banks for each character.

I really only have two issues with this game. Inventory and trade. They both are way too restrictive and time consuming to be something I can enjoy using. Other than that I think they've built a gem here. (I love the move away from arch-types in groups)

No, this certainly isn't World of Warcraft ..it is beginning to feel like World of Tedium though

It's so sad, because the rest of the game is amazing. I love exploring, and the questing is fantastic, I get so involved in the stories I lose track of time. But then I get back to town and start sorting bags and multiple logins with alts, and I just want to turn the game off (and often do).

cabbageub17_ESO

Too much. I have 5 characters each specializing in 1 craft. It's madness. Thinking of dropping provisioning.

Kroin

After some time i got the hang of it.

I have 2 mules 1 for Provision staff and 1 for 100 Stacks.

The Provision staff has 90 Inventory Space and the 100 Stack one has 70 right now.

My main has 126 and 100 bank slots so im only missing on bank upgrade.

Since i loot nearly everyhing my inventory gets full pretty fast, but i always loot the same items so i need about 40 for Provision on my main, and since i have 126 on my main thats no Problem at all. But still i need to go back every 2-3 hours because my inventory is more than full but after 5 mins im good to go again. ( Deconstructing my stuff and Storing everything into my bank (Runes, flowers, ore, hide etc) The only thing i keep while playing is provision stuff in only trade that with my mule every 1-3 days.

buffbcub17_ESO

My main now has 85 bag space and 80 vault space, so it is starting to ease up. I still spend about 10 min per hour on inventory swapping with my 5 alts. I probably don't need that many but plan on playing at least a couple of them.

Provisioning is by far the worst culprit, but my Enchanting mats are getting crazy as well.

Resipsa131

Side bar: Should I destroy the CE maps for regions I'm not playing in? they take up ALOT of space in my bank.

Seraseth

I've heard you can use them in veteran content for veteran level gear.

Greydog

Resipsa131 wrote: »

Side bar: Should I destroy the CE maps for regions I'm not playing in? they take up ALOT of space in my bank.

if you don't intend on rolling alts in those alliances ..maybe ..maybe not

Worstluck

Non-stop inventory management. Although at this point, I have literally given up all crafts except for clothing. I do have several alts with hirelings to get nice upgrade materials. It's too much trouble to try to manage the inventory given the amount of items in game and it's not fun; I'd just rather enjoy myself, pick up crafting at a later date I guess. I really loved the way GW2 handled crafting materials.

I started with trying to do provisioning. I spent more time moving things around than enjoying the game so I just decided to stick with one thing.

I don't know how they could improve this, unless they want to give us more inventory space.

Imryll

It was onerous when I had 100 bank slots. Now that the bug has reduced me to 60 it's a constant pain, aggravated by the fact that I'm afraid that switching characters may be a bug trigger.

knightblaster

Worstluck wrote: »

Non-stop inventory management. Although at this point, I have literally given up all crafts except for clothing. I do have several alts with hirelings to get nice upgrade materials. It's too much trouble to try to manage the inventory given the amount of items in game and it's not fun; I'd just rather enjoy myself, pick up crafting at a later date I guess. I really loved the way GW2 handled crafting materials.

I started with trying to do provisioning. I spent more time moving things around than enjoying the game so I just decided to stick with one thing.

I don't know how they could improve this, unless they want to give us more inventory space.

This is working as intended -- the intention is to frustrate you if you try to do more than 1-2 crafts at a time, account-wide. It's a soft cap based on your frustration tolerance, so by doing what you did, you're doing what they intended you to do -- pare it down to 1-2 crafts account-wide. Working as intended.

I don't like it, either, but this is what they intend.

Seraseth

knightblaster wrote: »

I don't like it, either, but this is what they intend.

Where did they ever say we don't want you to do more than 1-2 crafts per account? They made a point of saying you could max 2 comfortably on a single character, or even them all if you wanted to take the time to get more skill points.

7788b14_ESO

I sell everything at vendor. Put craft materials only in bank when I can. I don't even craft that much anymore, just use quest rewards and drops. Inventory management can be a big time sink, not going to play that mini game.

7788b14_ESO

Thunder wrote: »

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.

Takes more then five mins.

knightblaster

Seraseth wrote: »

knightblaster wrote: »

I don't like it, either, but this is what they intend.

Where did they ever say we don't want you to do more than 1-2 crafts per account? They made a point of saying you could max 2 comfortably on a single character, or even them all if you wanted to take the time to get more skill points.

They did say that this is a soft cap when asked why the inventory is so stingy relative to the amount of materials. It's why I said 1-2. You can probably do 2 comfortably if you expand the bank and are very rigorous about what you pick up and very much limit retaining things for future research and so on, as others have described. Trying to do all of them on one character is not forbidden, so technically possible, but going to be very, very frustrating due to the inventory system. That's what a soft cap is -- you can still do it, but it's going to work in such a way that you may get discouraged from doing it.

Having said that, if you are willing to spend the points, you could probably do 1-2 at a time, and then start with another 1-2. I don't think that the inventory system is designed to frustrate that -- that's where the skill system comes into play as a "soft" limiter -- i.e., no cap on how much you can spend on crafting points, but consequences if you do spend a lot there. The inventory works the same -- you're not forbidden to level 8 alts at once with different crafts active at the same time -- but there are high frustration consequences if you try to do so.

Seraseth

Yes, I have the 'option' of giving up crafting and gathering. But crafting is a major part of mmo's to me, I always raise every single craft, making alts to accommodate limitations. Any game that doesn't have crafting, or has a system I can't stand, I end up leaving fairly soon.

The problem is, this game has crafting, and it's damn good. You can make useful items the entire way up, you can make a variety of styles and levels. I even enjoy the researching traits.

Being forced to choose between giving up a major part of the game or wasting a large percentage of my play time having to manage my inventory, is just bad design.

knightblaster

I'm not disagreeing -- I don't like these limits, either, but that's the intention it seems.

This is from an interview in early March of this year with Paul Sage:

Inventory / Bank Space

Q: Since crafting materials take up space in our inventory…Would it be possible to implement crafting bags for strictly crafting materials?

A: Our inventory space and bank space provides a much needed gold sink. Something useful to spend your money on. Currently, that friction is useful to the game, and removing that isn’t something I think we want to pursue at this time.



Q: Items for crafting take a lot of place. Will you implement an interface dedicated to crafting items like GW2 or Neverwinter ?

A: Bank space and inventory space are friction elements for the economy. It is unlikely we will have a dedicate crafting inventory in the near future. Choice is important.



Q: I love the fact that you can leave items in your bank and still use them for crafting. My concern is, I guess I horde to much of everything since I’m crafting everything, and run out of space really really quick. Is there away to fix this, or should i simple just keep selling my mats and make low level items to makes space?

A: I would say you are going to have to make some choices about what you keep and what you don’t. Bank space / inventory space is another limiter to being able to work on all crafting skills at once. It isn’t impossible, it is just harder if that is what you choose to do. There’s also a TV show about your “problem.”

http://tamrieljournal.com/tesoelite-crafting-qa-summary-paul-sage/


Seems like the philosophy is clear, unfortunately. They may change it at some stage, but it doesn't sound like they have any intention of doing anything with it anytime soon, by their own intentional design.

Greydog

There’s also a TV show about your “problem.

I wonder if marketing approved that little piece of wisdom

Laerian

It's discouraging that the dude "in charge" is using the "economy" argument -in a game where people can farm gold to death- to justify an inventory smaller than most other mmorpgs.

I wonder if they'll change their minds when those pissed customers start to make those important choices that he said.

MasterSpatula

I spent about a quarter of my game time on The Inventory Shuffle before I got his with the Banking Bug. I now spend more like a third of my time doing it.

As gold-sinks go, they really could stand to concentrate more on things that will hit you in the end game and less on things that will hit you as a beginner.