Inventory is unmanageable

srfrogg23 · June 2014

Chrysolis wrote: »

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.

Allow certain items to be "Locked": As not to appear on deconstruction/sell lists, this would at least allow for inventory cleanup to be done with greater speed and efficiency without risking your precious [alternate] suit of armor.

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.

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.

I haven't personally had any issue with the rest, but I like the idea of having a non-burdening tab for the costumes/trophies. I'm not too keen on getting rid of my trophies, but they tend to take up a bit of space that could be used for other things. I know some other games have taken to this design philosophy and I think it is a good idea.

Lodestar · June 2014

Blackwidow wrote: »

@Vendersleigh even you admit you use a mule and still say we have enough bank space.

It boggles the mind.

Keep seeing this over and over. The current system id "defended", by imaginative reasons the devs intended it to be this way, by people who play one character and sell everything at nearest opportunity, to avoid overwhelm, people who use guild banks and/or mules, or any combination. And when you call them out on it, they throw "hoarder" or stop trying to get everything your own way.

The ONLY good counterpoint has been that, there was limitations on the database. even then, that just means something needs to be addressed.

JohnD212 · June 2014

While I understand the convenience of sharing one bank vault between all your characters, there should be some shared slots but also some unshared. There just isn't enough room for a 2 or 3 toons to take on different crafting professions. I just grow tired of always having no storage.

TheVindelator · June 2014

Crafting is what crushes your inventory. It's very frustrating.

lasma799 · June 2014

Most of the posters agree that storage is a problem. The ones that don't have their own personal guild bank or are lying through their teeth. Provisioning, alchemy, and enchanting alone can easily take up every single slot in your inventory. If you carry an extra armor set for a different occasion, then it's even more of a problem.

If you read through most of the post, inventory management IS a problem a majority of players have. I find inventory problems much more problematic in this MMORPG than in any of the many other MMORPG's I have played.

Vendersleigh · June 2014

lasma799 wrote: »

Most of the posters agree that storage is a problem. The ones that don't have their own personal guild bank or are lying through their teeth. Provisioning, alchemy, and enchanting alone can easily take up every single slot in your inventory. If you carry an extra armor set for a different occasion, then it's even more of a problem.

If you read through most of the post, inventory management IS a problem a majority of players have. I find inventory problems much more problematic in this MMORPG than in any of the many other MMORPG's I have played.

I neither have my own personal guild bank nor am lying. I understand that inventory management is a problem for some people; it is not for me.

Allyah · June 2014

lasma799 wrote: »

Most of the posters agree that storage is a problem. The ones that don't have their own personal guild bank or are lying through their teeth. Provisioning, alchemy, and enchanting alone can easily take up every single slot in your inventory. If you carry an extra armor set for a different occasion, then it's even more of a problem.

If you read through most of the post, inventory management IS a problem a majority of players have. I find inventory problems much more problematic in this MMORPG than in any of the many other MMORPG's I have played.

Most of the players agree that storage isn't a problem. The one's that don't have horrible guilds or are lying through their teeth. Provisioning, alchemy, and enchanting can easily not take up every single slot in your inventory. If you carry an extra armor set for a different occasion, that is going to take up 7 slots of your inventory.

If you read through most of the thread, inventory management IS a problem most of the forum posters have. I find people who cannot manage their inventory even with advice from others on how to manage it much more problematic in this MMORPG than in any of the many other MMORPG's I have played.

ers101284b14_ESO · June 2014

I only use my bank and my personal space and have had no issues with managing my inventory.

Gillysan · June 2014

Most of your issues are answered here.
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/cat20.html
along with Minion for managing the addon's.

Specifically the following out of the 30 addon's I use.

Advanced Filters
Guild Store Search Extended - calculates some extra info: max, min, avg unit price
InventoryInsight
Item Saver - mark a red dot to the left of an item in inventory
X4D Bank - replaced Mules Management, must have!!!

X4D Bank is really great but I turned off the auto stacker, it was giving me problems. Found Stacked addon does a much better job.

Your other issues involve your grey matter.

brandon · June 2014

The inventory needs fixing like you said I'm constantly within 10 slots of being full and I can't make alts to play because they are all mules thanks to the bank being full

Daraugh · June 2014

The inventory and bank space is a huge problem for me. My husband and I end up mailing stuff to each other just to juggle the other items already taking up space. It took me two hours this morning, to shuffle all crafting mats to the right toons and free up some space. What's worse is it's 10 more bank slots off the bat than it was in beta. I just want to play, craft and pick stuff up, not fiddle with a game of storage. What is the point anyway? Why limit space?

Provisioning and enchanting are out of hand. Most of my main's bags are runes or ingredients. Two runes shouldn't take as much space as a cuirass!

Lotro has a handy idea for when you're out and about, overflow bags. Stuff goes into the overflow, expires in an hour (except for log-out) and can be shuffled as needed when you're in town.

At the very least, a full bank per toon plus a shared bank would help.

Blackwidow · June 2014

xaraan wrote: »

I'm mostly fine with how the bank works now tbh. I craft every profession and have two mules (one simply holding extra stacks of stuff already in bank).

Amazing.

Blackwidow · June 2014

lasma799 wrote: »

Most of the posters agree that storage is a problem. The ones that don't have their own personal guild bank or are lying through their teeth.

That' not completely true.

Some are not smart enough to know that having mules is a problem with the banking system.

Marcusstratus · June 2014

- marcusstratus's wife speaking -

You know what. I love this game, but this evening when I finished one quest and had to stop and once again hurry back to the bank I feel I have suddenly hit a wall. I don't want to play anymore. This is ridiculous. I want to craft, I want to do alchemy, I want to cook, I want to explore and quest! But if I pick up materials as I'm playing and doing quests, I find I constantly have no space. The majority of the game becomes a constant juggle of inventory and bank runs - this is not playing. I spend so much time looking in my bag to see what I can destroy in order to pick up this more needed material, or which quest reward has the same trait as another thing I've already got so I only need to save one of them for research, and all the logging in and out to pass stuff to a bank toon, or check if I actually do have what I need or not. It's totally killing the game for me. I can't play. I feel like all I ever do is sort stuff. I posted here earlier, but I hadn't yet reached the point of disgust and boredom I am now at. Something MUST be done.

-edit- Okay yeah... this sucks. This morning while my husband was playing, he left the bank after emptying what he could into it, collected a few materials on the way to this one quest, and after killing the boss had to go through his inventory to destroy some provisioning supplies in order to loot him and in that time the boss respawned and he had to fight him all over again and nearly died. Then when he returned to the quest giver to complete the quest he was unable to because his inventory was full and he had to stand there and sort through the provisioning supplies once more. And this is nothing new, he and I constantly have to stop and destroy stuff to pick up something else, or waste time in the loot menu selecting what to take every time when it would be much quicker to just take all and then sort it out when you're not in the middle of battle/quests. The time it takes to pause and sift through loot before picking it up slows things down, the time it takes to pause and get rid of less important items when you want to complete a quest slows things down (and most of the time I end up just trashing the quest reward item anyways), the time it takes to run back to the bank in between every quest or dungeon slows things down. The lack of bag space deters advancement in the actual game.

And in response to the 'hoarder' accusations, we both try not to pick up stuff we're not going to use, but there isn't enough space in one's bag or in the bank even with several upgrades to keep even just one stack for each type of material we have a use for. Our bank only has materials in it, and we don't carry alternate sets of armor or souvenirs with us, everything we carry around is stuff we pick up between bank visits to use in crafting, and we only have a couple materials that have more than a single stack.

Hilgara · June 2014

if you choose to level all the professions this is the price you have to pay. Self sufficiency doesn't come easy.

Lodestar · June 2014

Hilgara wrote: »

if you choose to level all the professions this is the price you have to pay. Self sufficiency doesn't come easy.

ZOS knows people will level alts. There are 3 factions of which will draw people in to play. And NO, waiting until playing veteran level is not the same, or an acceptable alternative just so we can get around this banking system.

As is having to make characters, and personal guild banks, just to get around this.

Blackwidow · June 2014

Hilgara wrote: »

if you choose to level all the professions this is the price you have to pay. Self sufficiency doesn't come easy.

So, you don't think each character should be able to do one craft?

If you really believe that, then I strongly disagree with your point of view.

jimfopao2 · June 2014

I would be happier if each toon had their own bank space which was separate from the shared bank space.
Only having shared bank space is very odd.

All the OP's points are valid for me and some good solutions there.

badmojo · June 2014

Blackwidow wrote: »

badmojo wrote: »

I feel those game mirror the actual inventory management we do in real life when we go somewhere needing supplies. I feel like any similarities to real life are usually(USUALLY!) a good thing in video games like this that try for immersion.

8 characters, some of differing factions, all sharing the same bank space does not fit in reality.

Not having more space to store things in the world does not fit in reality.

Spending 70,000 gold for 10 bank spaces does fit in reality.

Somehow, you think using 4 mules to hold your stuff fits in reality.

Again, if you started with more bank space, you would not have a complaint, but you come here anyway and argue to not have more space.

I can't sacrifice my preference for the good of the majority, I'm a selfish gamer I guess.

Yes.

Yes, you are.

badmojo wrote: »

Yeah, nobody clicked 'disagree' so it must be unanimous.

Show me a thread with more than 73 argees on it.

I think you play dumb on purpose.

I probably would have complained if there was more inventory space from the start. How dare you assume what I would or wouldn't do.

The reason I pointed out the "nobody clicked disagree" was to remind you guys that there is no disagree button. You're looking at a thread that was viewed over 6thousand times, and acting like 73 agrees means I'm the only one who disagrees.

Do you expect people to post in this thread if they disagree? I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment in forum debates, I'll keep coming back for more just to see the messed up crap that comes out of your mind.

Look at my posts for example, all I've ever done in this thread is share my honest opinion and explained the reasons that have led me to those conclusions/opinions. Then, I get people like you trying to find faults in my reasoning, and trying to discredit me in any way possible, all because you disagree with me.

I've posted over ten times, each time having to defend myself. If there were people out there who disagree with this thread, I can't blame them in the slightest for not posting in here. At the end of the day, what you guys think doesn't mean anything to me(or them), why bother subjecting yourself to the verbal abuse for having an unconventional opinion?

Yes, I'm a selfish gamer, I play for my own enjoyment. Yes, I play dumb in discussions like these with people like you, because I can't be bothered taking the time to form lengthy constructive posts bringing up many points, only to have you focus on one stupid little thing and ignore the rest.

Like how you're focusing on my usage of the term "realistic" and trying to point out all the way in which this video game breaks realism. When the realism was just me expanding on exactly why I prefer games that require some inventory management.

Basically I said "I feel like any similarities to real life are usually(USUALLY!) a good thing in video games like this that try for immersion." and then you take that to mean I think everything in ESO is realistic. See the fault in your argument there? See the reason I don't bother responding to you in a constructive manner? You want me to not act dumb when talking to you, don't come back at me with such dumb(and off-topic) arguments all the time.

Evandus · June 2014

Just curious as I don't have time to read 14 pages on this topic. Has anyone suggested to Zeni the concept of storage bags?

One for Provisioning/Enchanting mats would reduce up to 80% of inventory and storage woes for my characters. Just wondering if it's been discussed?

badmojo · June 2014

Epona222 wrote: »

Yajnho wrote: »

I can't fathom why anyone would object to this solution. It hurts no one, and really helps out the vast majority of players.

I completely agree with your post. Unfortunately there are a few players though who seem to think 'la la la everything is OK' and act as though they would be personally damaged in some way by you or I being able to store a few more provisioning mats. It's mind-boggling really.

How is sharing my opinion in a thread on the topic hurting your at all?

Am I supposed to censor my honest opinion, because it might conflict with your desires for changes in this game?

I respect everyones right to dislike the inventory system in this game, and their right to demand for it to be changed to suit them. The least you guys could do is respect my right to feel differently.

What is mind boggling is how people can get SOOOO upset over my opinion.

babylon · June 2014

Evandus wrote: »

Just curious as I don't have time to read 14 pages on this topic. Has anyone suggested to Zeni the concept of storage bags?

One for Provisioning/Enchanting mats would reduce up to 80% of inventory and storage woes for my characters. Just wondering if it's been discussed?

Yep, storage bags for crafting mats and storage bags for social items (pets/costumes/fishing bait/trophies/etc) has been discussed many times, and ZOS has not ventured into any thread, instead they seem happy to let the guys run around as above saying how we all need to l2p.

My personal opinion is ZOS has a database problem (for example look at the bank bug where people's banks went poof just after launch), and just don't want to cough up the coin to upgrade anything for this game.

Chrysolis · June 2014

Evandus wrote: »

Just curious as I don't have time to read 14 pages on this topic. Has anyone suggested to Zeni the concept of storage bags?

One for Provisioning/Enchanting mats would reduce up to 80% of inventory and storage woes for my characters. Just wondering if it's been discussed?

Somebody has brought up the idea of bag storage in reference to Enchanting before, I believe. However I'm not really sure what the difference is between this idea and having a crafting materials tab in bank storage.

I would assume that it basically accomplishes the same thing except with a physical "bag" component, which I'm not too sure about simply because ESO doesn't really revolve around physical storage containers and likely wouldn't want to start there. If you feel like elaborating on the concept then, by all means, I still visit this thread to see if any ideas should be added to the main post.

TRIP233 · June 2014

I don't have a problem with the Inventory or with my bank space. I can manage the items I want to keep with the items I know I'm going to break down, research or sell. I also know which food items to focus one with my character. It's not like I have to collect everything and hoard it.

DeLindsay · June 2014

I'm not against having more inventory space but the way ZoS has it now works just fine. I mean seriously other than (1-2) 42K mounts and a slew of ultra expensive Epic Provision recipes what else do you have to throw gold at currently. You get 240 Account bank slots total and up to 169 personal, per 8 characters. That's a CRAP TON of inventory spaces. Sure it takes some investment of not only in game gold but time, but why shouldn't it. This is an MMO, not a standard TES game and everything is usually planned to last years for MMO's.

Besides you have FAAAAAAR less inventory space in a regular TES game, unless you want to spend 2 hours walking at the speed of smell back to town with your 5000 encumbered weight worth or random crap you've looted the past hour.

babylon · June 2014

DeLindsay wrote: »

what else do you have to throw gold at currently.

I don't have gold to throw.

zhevon · June 2014

babylon wrote: »

My personal opinion is ZOS has a database problem (for example look at the bank bug where people's banks went poof just after launch), and just don't want to cough up the coin to upgrade anything for this game.

Might be right. Plus within recent memory there have been scattered reports of this happening again.

The other sign of odd DB behavior is sometimes the guild bank will never load and the only way to proceed is exciting the menu and re-entering.

timedilation · June 2014

The OP is awesome.

Collectively, I've spent an ENORMOUS portion of my time simply managing inventory. All 7 of my ALTS are mules as well!

In other MMOs I've played, a comfortable 300-500 bank slots were available to use. In ESO, the amount of bank slots we start with is simply RIDICULOUS. The cost to expand bank slots to a decent size is RIDICULOUS. And the stack size limit of 100 is RIDICULOUS.

Sorry, but it's almost as if the person in charge thought- "what's the best way to make the player spend less time actually PLAYING the game?"

Please do something about this ZOS!

Blackwidow · June 2014

timedilation wrote: »

The OP is awesome.

Collectively, I've spent an ENORMOUS portion of my time simply managing inventory. All 7 of my ALTS are mules as well!

In other MMOs I've played, a comfortable 300-500 bank slots were available to use. In ESO, the amount of bank slots we start with is simply RIDICULOUS. The cost to expand bank slots to a decent size is RIDICULOUS. And the stack size limit of 100 is RIDICULOUS.

Sorry, but it's almost as if the person in charge thought- "what's the best way to make the player spend less time actually PLAYING the game?"

Please do something about this ZOS!

I think it was more like, "we better set this up for free to play now, so we can sell bank slots when we switch over".

Have you noticed, even with the massive outcry for bank fixes, ZOS has never said a word?

Soloeus · June 2014

Chrysolis wrote: »

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.

Allow certain items to be "Locked": As not to appear on deconstruction/sell lists, this would at least allow for inventory cleanup to be done with greater speed and efficiency without risking your precious [alternate] suit of armor.

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.

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.

Or make wiser choices about the items you keep instead of just hoarding absolutely everything. How many stacks of Jute do you really need?