Originally Posted by Philistine
Realism for me. It's much harder to break the economy that way which is a sure-fire way to ruin a game for me. Also, with a tight inventory, I'm always asking myself:
Which is more valuable to me the thing I can use, or the thing I can sell?
Do I want to keep the things I can use now or the things I can use in the future?
Should I try to complete this set?

Yep, same here.

I love having those issues of "What do I keep?", "What do I drop?", etc. That to me, adds a lot of fun and immersion to the RPG. I love TES approach. It lets you carry a reasonable amount but at some point you're going to have to make some decisions. Also, those decisions can impact you even on the level of what type of armor you're wearing (want to loot more? Wear lighter armor.). Those are some cool things to think about when you're playing the game.

Honestly, I'm very surprised that I'm reading most people dislike the inventory management of RPGs. I thought we as RPG nerds liked this sort of thing?

I'd say all of them, but of course not in the same game. ;-)

As long as the inventory system is designed with the rest of the game in mind, each type can have it's own charm.

Sometimes the pure survival approach where I grab my AK, a knife, a compass and a spare magazine is a bliss. This kind of inventory encourages some kind of pre-mission planning that can be fun. "Should I bring my dragon slaying rod today?"

Sometimes it's a big relief to just be able to loot anything that isn't welded to the floor. And sometimes I like the intricacies and frustrations of a fully detailed inventory system.

As long as the game doesn't expect me to loot 20 chests and put it into 4 slots I'm happy with any approach.


One feature I don't appreciate is hordes of randomized loot. If there is too much loot I don't appreciate it anymore and it just becomes a burden.

For immersion, some limit to inventory is needed.
My problem is that Im a compulsive packrat, hoarding everything I can.
You know, it might be useful down the road…, eventually…

C

Originally Posted by Crilloan
My problem is that Im a compulsive packrat, hoarding everything I can.
You know, it might be useful down the road…, eventually…

C

Ah, the old "I'll save this item for a rainy day" … and then that "rainy day" never really comes… Been there many times myself!

I voted for realism as well. I also prefer if the game makes it so loot hoarding is not nessacary. The gold box games would be a good example of this. You might keep a few magical weapons for sale purposes but everything else you just disregard.

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
The only one I dislike is the "fixed space" system like in Baldur's Gate. You can carry 55,000 pounds as long as it is small enough.

Edit: Opps I see JDR already pointed this out - so ignore this post.

Are you sure you are talking about Baldurs Gate? Carrying in Baldurs Gate is based on standard D&D 2nd edition rules. The higher your strength then the more you can carry. Someone with strength 7 would struggle to carry a single piece of plate armour.

I prefer hardcore if the game lends itself well to survivalist gameplay(ie you have to plan ahead for a trip, pack the essentials food, water etc).

Otherwise I'll just be happy with realism, I hate carrying a dozen swords or guns in my inventory.

I voted for realism, but I'm currently playing Risen and I have to say, I like being able to pick up everything and have no worries about carrying too much. It isn't hurting my immersion or breaking the economy or anything. Obviously it's designed for you to pick up everything in site, and for this game, it definitely works.

Survival, survival, survival.

Fallout New Vegas was improved many times over with Arwen's Tweaks.

Oblivion was also much more fun after modding it to hell and back with survival/needs/crafting/hypothermia mods, etc.

I wish there were similar mods available for other games. Could you imagine DA:O or The Witcher with survival mods?

Looter.

Inventory/encumbrance limits do not add to either immersion or realism for me. I just find them annoying. Exceedingly annoying if I'm halfway through a dungeon crawl, and all of a sudden I can't move or pick up another item because I've reached my limit, and the only way I can continue is to "go home" first to unload/sell the excess (which means repeating the entire dungeon crawl), or figure out what to drop. And, when I have to do it multiple times in a single dungeon, well that's just plain ridiculous.

That's usually when I start looking for/making a mod to fix the problem. If the game is one that doesn't allow that, well, it had better be a really, really good game, because usually the annoyance factor kills any enjoyment I was getting out of the game, and it ends up uninstalled & in the dust bin.

I do realize that this can be taken to an ridiculous extreme and cause game lag, and game developers want to avoid that, but that's not what I'm interested in. I simply want to make it through a dungeon crawl in a single trip, & make it back to town to unload.

Personally, I think that the player should be given an option as to which approach to play, as some of the older games did for blood and gore. I like the option to disable that as well.

i don't get hardcore.. i mean, unless its a hardcore RPG game i get it.

games like gothic really blew me away of how simple life can be without thinking of where to place and what to throw away, its just to most stupid time consuming thing a gamer can do instead of playing and getting excited about the immersion.
well, the quick sell button through the inventory works too, as in DS3 or D3.