Just fix inventory management already

Seroczynski · July 2014

I've got the following on my VR12 main character:

50 Provisioning
50 Blacksmithing
50 Woodworking
50 Clothing
41 Enchanting
50 Alchemy

I have 150 bank slots and 111 inventory slots, an active VR3 alt with 110 inventory slots, no further storage alts, and have no problem with the current inventory system.

Just throwing it out there to say it's not a global problem.

j.frank.nicholsb14_ESO · July 2014

Lodestar wrote: »

And thus, you can not level more than one character at a time as I have been trying. And before that I struggled with just one anyway. It looks like it assumes, you do not want to level an alt at the same time, and only want to craft items for your level.

Anyway this is a very contentious hot topic for some, and a mere amusement for others who don't have this issue, and therefore don't think people are, or will leave over this. I have not played for over 3 weeks due to RL, world cup, and this awful ruckass.

I posted this earlier in this thread, from one of our own mods here @Thorwil on the subject and how this discussion is going here.
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/103101/inventory-is-unmanageable/p17

My wife and I have played since early beta. We are both leveling 8 alts each on the NA server at the same time - so it can be done. It did take a while to learn how to manage our inventory, and we did decide to each take 3 crafts instead of both of us taking all 6 crafts. That combined with the use of a few add-on's to help identify what mat's we want to keep and which we can dispose of have made the job of inventory management acceptable. We also make use of our mail to provide long term storage - by bouncing mail off each other we can easily store 6 stacks of 100 mats in one mail so we only need to keep a limited amount in our backs and inventory. That combined with not keeping materials for levels lower than our characters can use greatly reduces the problem.

If you are trying to level 8 alts one at a time all the way up, then yes, trying to keep all levels of all materials is painful. All our alts are in the same level range to use the same materials.

daneyulebub17_ESO · July 2014

LOTRO, for one, allows cosmetics in a separate wardrobe bank, supplies housing chests, puts reputation items and other non-weapon/tools in a "wallet" that uses no inventory space.

And, that game's mechanic of dealing with inventory issues is MUCH better, allowing you to see, AT THE SAME TIME, your open bags, wardrobe and bank slots--and drag and drop between them.

This game, with the insane number of crafting items, should have an even better inventory system and interface, not this terrible limited one--which adds insult to injury by making you hear the SAME. STUPID. BANKER. DIALOG. EVERY. TIME. YOU. SWITCH. BANKS.

Also----
Shove your add-on, I bought a professionally developed game, not a 3rd party maintained LUA script.

Vendersleigh · July 2014

Lodestar wrote: »

Vendersleigh wrote: »

Lodestar wrote: »

And thus, you can not level more than one character at a time as I have been trying. And before that I struggled with just one anyway. It looks like it assumes, you do not want to level an alt at the same time, and only want to craft items for your level.

I am levelling 7 characters at the same time and do not have problems with inventory space.

Would you like a lollipop?

Look, I will wager your a minority here. I know one person here swears there is no issue, but has mules and a personal guild bank. So naturally one wonders how you have achieved this without doing so.

No lollipop required though thank you for the offer

. Just pointing out that this is not a problem for everyone.

And no I do not have a personal guild bank and obviously the 7 active characters are not mules.
I achieved this by: spending money on increasing bank/personal space before buying anything else (so I now have 100 for each of 7 characters and for the bank). When I bought my first (and so far only horse) I chose the pack animal and have done 16 days of increasing its space. In addition I looked up which provisioning materials are for which level and do not keep those below my level.

I do use my 8th character to hold disguises/trophies/treasure maps/pets. And it would be nice if these rp/story items could be set on a separate tab from normal inventory.

j.frank.nicholsb14_ESO · July 2014

Lodestar wrote: »

=
What about the items I find that have traits on them, I require a character to research? I can not research them all at once. So have to keep them. Having not played for 3 weeks and logging in most days to pick up hireling parcels, and keep track on researching, I have gained tons of space back, in my bank. Nothing coming in, on that score.

There are add-on's that will tell you at a glance which items you need to keep for research and other add-on's that will give you a matrix display of all the traits all your alts know at a glance.

I keep all my "to be researched" mat's in the mail. Simply bounce a mail with 6 items to be researched later off my wife and with 10 or 20 mails I have 60 to 120 research items (labeled in the mail title) that are easily accessible when I need to use them.

MrMT · July 2014

j.frank.nicholsb14_ESO wrote: »

There are add-on's that will tell you at a glance which items you need to keep for research and other add-on's that will give you a matrix display of all the traits all your alts know at a glance.

What are the addons to do this with? Also, can it tell me what various food ingredients are for - what level recipes etc?

Vendersleigh · July 2014

Jarnhand wrote: »

I have all 8 char slots used. 2 played chars, and 6 bank mules.
Says something doesnt it.

The people who does not have a problem either sell everything, does not craft, and relay on guildies for all their crafting needs.

And to people having the illusion its a good solution to sell all but 1-2 crafting line materials while leveling, and later craft up the others, I say; good luck with that!

I have 7 active characters, all of which craft (50 Provisioner x 2, 50 Alchemist, 48 Woodworker, 47 Clothier, 44 Blacksmith, 31 Enchanter). I craft food and potions for guildies and friends along with the occasional glyph and other item.

I sell/give away/destroy everything I do not need and thus find there is enough space.

_Eivar_ · July 2014

When you have extremely varied crafting supplies for trade skills, it typically follows that bag space will be an issue. Why don't stacks go to 200? 500? Why are there all these different types of wheat for every level? How many kinds of flour are really necessary? I don't think it's the bag spaces, I think it's the silliness surrounding stack limits. These are database items, we don't actually see ourselves holding craft supplies or the finished product (except for armor/weapons). Stack them better.

Theosis · July 2014

I have 4 mules, with all the Maps, Trophy's, things I need to research still, things I need for other chars to research, things I need for other chars to craft, things I need on my main to craft, this bag space issue only gets worse. Even with the mules I still don't have enough space to switch out items to get items from my mules.

I'm holding out for housing but I'm starting to feel like all the others that are leaving. I love this game but all the work it takes to play the game is ridiculous.

I work enough without logging in. When i get home I want to play once my kid goes to bed. Not work so I can play in an hour. By then I'm already ready for bed.

Also, in before all the those elitist who are saying I am playing the game wrong..

We all pay to play the way we PAID to play. I save things I need as well. I don't save grubs and rotted foul skins.. I only save items I'm using. I'm saving my Trophy's because I like them. I'm saving maps because I use them.

Fairydragon3 · July 2014

I believe my system suits my needs quite nicely, but I like the idea of storage for trophies and costumes. I craft everything, save everything and consume anything that will give me xp, and mark everything i need to keep or research( that is not a material) as Junk.

When I go to town, i decon (unless I need to free space), store, sell, takes 5 minutes, and I'm back on the road

neueregel · July 2014

I have 7 alts/mules. They all have horses (imperial that cost me 1g each) and I feed them daily. I get their bags to 80. Each mule has a category I store on them. For instance, my mule that carries provisioning, my mule that carries alchemy mats, a mule that carries jewelry I want to keep and so on... Then when I need stuff, i know where it is, or where to put it. When i need to make food or potions, I just dump it all in the bank, so that my main player can use... when I am done, I move it all back to the mule... rinse and repeat...

Also, I have leveled each of these 7 mules crafting so that each of them have 2/3 hirelings, including provisioning. This is great because I get a ton of mats from them each day. I get rare provisioning items like oats and tomatoes and pepper. I also get golds too... I use them often too and keep them in banks so that I can search the containers, and get motifs to sell often.

gwillard_ESO · July 2014

It's tedious and expensive. I can't play for very long without having to go to a town and sell, find a crafting table to decon and refine and then to the bank to transfer stuff I need to save. And then log on an alt-mule to withdraw mats, maps, disguises, etc.

All my extra gold goes into bag and bank space.

God forbid I get to the end of a very long (usually very enjoyable and immersive) quest line and am about to do the final step and !! no bag space. It's happened more than once.

maeiia · July 2014

Please remember this is not a standard copy cut mmo. There are reasons as to why they did not add the standard that you will normally see in a STANDARD mmo. I do though have read that this is set to be in the list of addins.

alreadybaked · July 2014

They need to do something and there are many ways to solve or improve this situation. IMO the amount of gold for bank space is really insane, that needs to be reduced significantly. Also maybe start every character with higher inventory space

Whisper292 · July 2014

Here's a radical idea: if you don't have a use for something, don't pick it up. Nobody is going to die if they skip over the 500th Iron Peat they find in one day.

sotonin · July 2014

Theosis wrote: »

What MMO has trade items that don't take bag space?

Ive never heard of such a thing. I know many people complain about the bag space and bank space..

I'm not overly fond of this aspect but I have improved it by investing in more space. This is what they intended. I have plenty of bag space now.

Bank space is a bit more of a problem as all my chars use it. That wasn't a bright idea. They should have had a bank space for my char and a bank for all my chars.

Things like costumes and trophy's should not take space though.

Lots of games.... At the very least they have special high capacity bags you can get that store ONLY those tradeskills items... AND you can put these high capacity bags INSIDE your bank. Which ESO doesnt allow containers in the bank.

TRIP233 · July 2014

MrMT wrote: »

In what universe does anyone actually enjoy the drudgery of ESO inventory management?

Just fix this already. It is so dull, immersion breaking, and morale sapping to deal with this game's endless turgid trips to the bank.

I have no idea what of the endless rubbish in my bags I do or don't need for my crafts. There are no clues to say I have a trait, or what ingredients I need for what recipes etc and so on. This makes the whole checking what I need, what I can sell, what I should save for later the most boring and quit-inducing part of this game.

As every other recent game has worked out,trade items should take up zero inventory. Any other solution is simply not fun.

Please Zenimax Ignore this! There is nothing wrong with the Inventory management. The people complaining about it don't know how to quit picking up Trash that they don't need.

The only problem with the Inventory management is; those that complain about it don't know how to manage it themselves.

Lodestar · July 2014

TRIP233 wrote: »

Please Zenimax Ignore this! There is nothing wrong with the Inventory management. The people complaining about it don't know how to quit picking up Trash that they don't need.

Your right, after all I bought this game AND 3 time cards.

Look, seriously what is it to you? Why do you busy bodies need to come here? What are you trying to defend that is so precious to you?

Whisper292 wrote: »

Here's a radical idea: if you don't have a use for something, don't pick it up. Nobody is going to die if they skip over the 500th Iron Peat they find in one day.

And the cyclic argument continues. Just when we make sense, someone comes along and derails it, ignoring all the points that show the usual blanket statements don't work.

If you don't like the thread and it's subject matter, why keep it alive by asking the same questions and the same blanket statements?

Maybe if people want to derail the thread by cheap shots on how we play the game, I should derail it by making cheap shots on their impulse control problem? No? You want to be civilised? Good! Let us have an end to it then. Please and thank you.

Lodestar · July 2014

Whisper292 wrote: »

There are add-on's that will tell you at a glance which items you need to keep for research and other add-on's that will give you a matrix display of all the traits all your alts know at a glance.

I keep all my "to be researched" mat's in the mail. Simply bounce a mail with 6 items to be researched later off my wife and with 10 or 20 mails I have 60 to 120 research items (labeled in the mail title) that are easily accessible when I need to use them.

First of all I already said my piece on add ons. They should not need to be a necessity, and they do not solve hardly any of the issues I have raised. And can go out of date any patch, and less and less people are working on them.

Case in point. What happens to the items identified then? The add on creates extra storage for them, to be kept in stasis until required? No. So I am stuck with them until I can research them.

Anyway, I have already stated, it is going against my better nature to respond to the same questions and blanket statements. So I am going to go with my better nature (no disrespect intended to you there, it is for my sake not yours).

Blackwidow · July 2014

In all these threads, not one person even tries to explain the bad side of adding more bank space, other than the old "limits crafting" which it does not. It just makes it very tedious.

Limiting crafting per character, I could understand. Limiting crafting per account has never even been tried as far as I understand. Yet, that is what ESO is trying to accomplish by limiting the banks.

What a horrible idea. It does not stop anyone. I have one character all maxed out on all crafts. Why spread them out among all my characters? It's all the same bank. Hell it was easier to do it all on one character, instead of multiple characters, because of the limited bank.

If you want to limit crafting, do some real programming and limit the crafting on the actual characters, not some arbitrary bank size that just ticks off a large player base.

There is no counter argument to making the bank larger, so it's all...

"Play how I play or you are playing wrong"
"I don't have a problem, so there is no problem"
"I have my own personal guild bank, bank space is fine"
"I use 6 mules, and I don't see a bank problem"
"This does not affect me, could you please stop posting on bank space, I'm not mature enough to not read these threads, so I come here to bump them"
"There is no downside to more bank space, but I still don't you to be happy"

Amazing that some people will fight even the simplest, basic changes to make the game more fun for others, even with no down side for them.

Hell, they would even be getting some more bank space, if they would stop fighting this, but I guess picking fights is more of a reward for them.

Gix · July 2014

I have a hard time seeing how the inventory management can be a problem.

You got tabs. Crafting materials go in a tab called "crafting materials". Select the other tabs and sell everything you don't need.

Weapons : You probably picked up a crap ton of weapons. I'd assume you only use one or two kinds of weapons. Sell everything and then check the stats on the remaining weapons.

Okay, done.

Armour : You probably picked up a crap ton of armour. I'd assume you only use one or two kinds of armour types. Sell everything and then check the stats on the remaining armours.

Okay, done.

Potions : You probably picked up / crafted a crap ton of potions. I'd assume you only use one or two kinds of potions. Sell everything and then check the stats on the remaining potions.

Okay, done.

Crafting Materials : You have a problem with inventory management so you probably craft a crap ton. Don't sell anything from this tab.

Okay, done.

Misc : You probably picked up a crap ton of trophies and trinkets. Different kind of soul gems might clutter your inventory but that's pretty much it. Sell the ones you don't want.

Okay, done.

It's a process that takes, like, 2 minutes.

Crying about inventory space is one thing, but that's not management... that's just space. Management is something that you do (and the game helps you filter the information so you can manage stuff easily) with that space. If you got a problem with the space you currently have, no amount of space will fix your problems.

There's nothing to "fix". Congratulations! You're a pack-rat!

Blackwidow · July 2014

@Gix you forgot to mention the downside to more bank space.

Okay, done.

Zebug · July 2014

I just don't want the devs wasting time on something that isn't broken. There are things much more important than to have them spend time making pack rats happy.

There are addons that help you ID what you need and what you don't, if you don't like addons, then use the good old pencil and paper (which is what I do for provisioning, I have a list next to my computer of the few cooking mats that I want to hold onto, everything else is sold). Same can be said for *insert crafting skill here*

Adapt and overcome

AreoHotah · July 2014

Lodestar wrote: »

AreoHotah wrote: »

This again??? I'm so tired to tell ppl install 3 addons and stop QQ. Omg...

Well stop reading it then. And do these add ons, add extra inventory space? No! Well clear off about it then!!!

A game is so mind numbingly poor due to oversight, and your "solution", is to go to a third party site, download a program from somone else, that may be made out of date at any moment, and not officially supported by the devs, by a dwindling add on community, that may even cease. To paper over cracks the devs should not have in the first place.

Install an add on? I think I am uninstall ESO.

Well you go and do whatever you want. I'll keep my 3 add-ons wich helps me manage my bank and inventory space in 2 minutes tops when full bag...

Blackwidow · July 2014

Zebug wrote: »

I just don't want the devs wasting time on something that isn't broken.

..use the good old pencil and paper (which is what I do for provisioning, I have a list next to my computer of the few cooking mats..

"I don't have a problem, so there is no problem"
"Play how I play or you are playing wrong"

Only fix things you don't like. Got it.

Lodestar · July 2014

Zebug wrote: »

I just don't want the devs wasting time on something that isn't broken. There are things much more important than to have them spend time making pack rats happy.

There are addons that help you ID what you need and what you don't, if you don't like addons, then use the good old pencil and paper (which is what I do for provisioning, I have a list next to my computer of the few cooking mats that I want to hold onto, everything else is sold). Same can be said for *insert crafting skill here*

Adapt and overcome

I have told you about add ons. They do not address the problems, are easily out of date, and are in your own words, here to make a paper over a dev design issue.

And if add ons are such an easy option according to you, and will solve all our problems (they won't, but you will not have it), why will it be more hassle for the devs than the add on writers?

kewl · July 2014

MrMT wrote: »

In what universe does anyone actually enjoy the drudgery of ESO inventory management?

There are few design elements that make inventory management difficult for me:

Crafts that require allot of mats (specifically: provisioning, alchemy and enchanting.)
Having a shared bank across eight accounts.
Steep price of bank and bag upgrades.
Trophies and vanity pets occupy space.
Opaque economic system (difficult to measure supply and demand.)
Minimalistic inventory UI.

Having said that, I understand unlimited space isn't realistic. Furthermore, making choices and weighing tradeoffs is part of what makes MMOs challenging and fun. I took the following step to improve my experience:

Limit collected research mats to the items my main and alts use. As a result, all medium armor and Two Handed weapons except: fire, ice and resto staves, were deconed.
Eliminated beverage crafting.
Created four additional alts to act as mules.
Across all characters, I upgraded banks, bags and horses to point of diminishing returns.
Enforced mat caps. For example, no more than five stacks of a low lvl mat like Jute or Steel.
Stopped collecting mats that could not be used by my main or alts, i.e. no leather.
Destroyed all trophies and vanity pets except for my beta monkey.
Extensive use of addons:
- Bank Manager, automates transfers between bank and mules. A must have, but the developer is not active. http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info291-BankManager.html
- Personal Assistant, reported to do what Bank Manager does and more. http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info381-PersonalAssistant.html
- Advanced Filters, the SkyUI of ESO, MUST have. http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info245-AdvancedFilters.html
- Item Saver, never mistakenly decon or sell an item again. http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info300-ItemSaver.html
- ins:JunkYard, or any auto junk seller. http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info63-insJunkYard.html
- Price Tracker or any of the other guild store addons. http://www.esoui.com/downloads/cat94.html

None of my suggestions can fix the underlying issues with inventory management. But they have alleviated allot of the monotony. Hope others can recommend methods to improve our experience.

wrlifeboil · July 2014

gwillard_ESO wrote: »

It's tedious and expensive. I can't play for very long without having to go to a town and sell, find a crafting table to decon and refine and then to the bank to transfer stuff I need to save. And then log on an alt-mule to withdraw mats, maps, disguises, etc.

All my extra gold goes into bag and bank space.

God forbid I get to the end of a very long (usually very enjoyable and immersive) quest line and am about to do the final step and !! no bag space. It's happened more than once.

Just use an addon which removes items from your bags. Then you don't have to go back to town to unload items.

robertlive2014 · July 2014

The vanilla experience is very minimalist, which is part of the thematic to this game. However, there are numerous add-ons that increase quality-of-life for interested players. Add-on developers have my sincere thanks. Keep in mind that some add-ons can negatively impact game performance or cause outright bugs. I'd say, be especially careful with data mods that accumulate large data files, they seem to break the game eventually (never-ending loading screens, etc). I recommend installing the Minion tool from ESOUI (http://www.esoui.com/) for add-on management.

Favorite Add-ons

Advanced AutoLoot
Advanced Filters
AI Reserch Grid
AlphaTools
AutoInvite
Azurah (fixed by Garkin)
Equipment Level (fixed by Garkin)
FastReport
Foundary Tactical Combat
Inventory Grid View
Inventory Item Borders (fixed by Garkin)
Item Saver
Lootdrop, Continued
Mute NPC
Recount
Research Assistant
Roomba - Guildbank Stacker
Shopkeeper - Sales History and Alerts
Show Motifs, SoftcapInfo, Srendarr - Aura, Buff & Debuff Tracker
Wykkyd's Framework.

dan0311 · July 2014

Most of you experienced players know this, but for newbs, this tip might help:

Try to make each mat take up only one slot...either a slot in your inventory or a slot in your bank...not both.

If you are a blacksmith and you know you are going to pick up a piece of iron ore five minutes after leaving the bank, don't ever put iron ore in the bank, as it would now take up two slots. On the other hand, if you have any Iron ingots left over from your last blacksmithing session, put them in the bank, as you will never see Iron Ingots out in the wild.

Rare provisioning ingredients such as Salt, Potatos, etc should be banked. Common ingredients for your current level of food/bev should remain in your inventory. And if you are not planning on using level 3 recipes, never collect those ingredients, or sell/trade them asap.

Avoid Enchanting. It will free up a ton of slots and ready-made glyphs are available from merchants. If you must enchant, collect and bank ONLY Aspect and Potency Runes. If you actually get enough to use, then go out and find an essence rune, which are common as dirt.

Add bag/bank slots and a horse ASAP.

There is also an Addon called "Banker" that will automatically transfer any mats into your bank if you already have one in there. Saves a ton of time.

Having said all that, yes inventory management is boring, and has been ever since Morrowind. Quest quest, sell, craft, bank, rinse, repeat. Even worse in this game since the things you create are virtually worthless. I used to be able to make big bucks crafting potions in Skyrim. Now they are worth a buck or two. Wouldn't mind the grind if the rewards were greater.