D:OS2 Why Does Larian Ignore Improving Inventory Management

Divinity: Original Sin 2

TheMadGamer

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Loved D:OS1 and loving D:OS2. I'm grateful that both games include a proper PC UI. I still wonder though, why a number of "quality of life" improvements haven't been made when it comes to inventory management.

If you search on the subject, you'll notice that most people want the same sorts of changes and many of these changes were being asked for with D:OS1. Changes such as, but not limited to:

-Multiple Selection of Items
-Ability To Access Crafting Materials in the Crafting Screen regardless of who's inventory they're in or what bag they're in
-Ability To compare items across all characters
-Ability To Sort/Filter containers
-Ability To Identify Bags by name and/or Color

D:OS2 then adds another feature that many, including me, don't like at all, which is the game auto adds scrolls and other types of items to your hot bar. There are some work arounds to this and mods that stop it, but it's curious to me that Larian would view this as a feature for D:OS2 when there were a good number of complaints about inventory management originating from the first game.

Just curious if anyone knows any "inside baseball" why Larian just doesn't seem interested to focus on item management issues. I recognize that with the recent release of D:OS2 they have bigger priorities right now, but something tells me most if not all of these inventory management suggestions will probably be ignored as was the case in D:OS1. Does Larian simply disagree that these are issues? Do they want the mod community to address them? So curious about why they don't address these things.

One last thing that I should acknowledge is that in addition to Larian always including a proper PC UI, the D:OS2 UI IS an overall improvement over the first game… so I do want to make sure I say that. I like the bigger screens, I like how I can see everyone's inventory from the same window pane, and I love the looooonnnngggg hotbar at the bottom of the screen to name three things.

Again, not bashing the game or bashing Larian - both their games and the company are excellent. Just truly wondering why they've ignored some of these complaints many of which originate from the first game.
 
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D:OS2 then adds another feature that many, including me, don't like at all, which is the game auto adds scrolls and other types of items to your hot bar. There are some work arounds to this and mods that stop it, but it's curious to me that Larian would view this as a feature for D:OS2 when there were a good number of complaints about inventory management originating from the first game.

That one infuriated me. I'm glad someone made a mod to remove it, but I've no idea why the feature was added in the first place. At the very least there should be a toggle to turn it off.
 
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Yeah if that's considered a "feature", then we need less of those things. That whole concept was beyond stupid, made me have to delete content immediately right off my hotbar. I'd forgotten how much that irked me!
 
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Well, if the game don't have tons of useless items then the game would have not Inventory Management issue.

In my first play through, I abused thievery to swim in gold, but I found constant stealing boring. This is why I include mods which give me hefty amount of gold at the start and make the skill books as cheap as nothing, so I can skip the process of stealing every NPC again and again in my second play through.

Since I don't lack money, I do not need to open every container and pick up every objects anymore. I remember at the middle of the game, my inventory was so full that it taked about 10 seconds for the game to auto sort my inventory in my first play through. And it take 2-3 seconds to open my inventory.

Cheating gold saves you a lot of precious gaming time. You can focus more on the true game play, such as combat, explore and dialogue.
 
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Well, if the game don't have tons of useless items then the game would have not Inventory Management issue.

You point out some work arounds to save time - nothing wrong with that. I do want to dive into the peripheral aspects of the game - thievery... crafting etc. I just wish the UI were more efficient about it because even if we had every efficiency implemented that people have pointed out, there would still be a good bit of time people would spend tinkering with crafting... it would all just go more smoothly and be more fun imho.

My main question remains however is why some of these suggestions that popped up back with D:OS1 have gone ignored. Larian clearly isn't lazy so it isn't about that. So I'm truly curious why they've ignored many of these requests.
 
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I agree completely with all your points. I would also like to be able to autoput loot in the same container, as in ingredients go to blue, consumables go to green etc. But choosing multiple items would make that less of a necessity. But moving one item at a time…not very fun.
 
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Because this game was inspired by Ultima 7, they were purposefully making inventory management as awful as possible!

My all time favorite game is u7. And the reason I’ve never played a full run through of the game since the 1990s is because of the inventory management.... was doable as a young man but not so much now with family and job and lots of time constraints. Loved D:OS1 but if I ever replay it I will not engage crafting or bother with thievery either and just otherwise limit my engagement with the game to minimize my interaction with inventory management as much as possible.
 
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My all time favorite game is u7. And the reason I’ve never played a full run through of the game since the 1990s is because of the inventory management…. was doable as a young man but not so much now with family and job and lots of time constraints. Loved D:OS1 but if I ever replay it I will not engage crafting or bother with thievery either and just otherwise limit my engagement with the game to minimize my interaction with inventory management as much as possible.

If I just knew what things were actually worth to keep it would be alot easier. In the first game that was as far as I remember mainly things that increased resistances, like rubies. If I don't bother with food nor potions nor most consumables like scrolls (I do want the arrows)... Perhaps I should make a list of what to keep and constantly sell everything else, then it would be a lot more manageable.
 
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The only way I can deal with inventory management is to stick all the stuff in bags, and stick all the bags on a single, high strength [Lucky Charm] character. Everything gets auto-inventoried and I only need to pick out arrows for the archer.

Now if I could only label bags…
 
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The only way I can deal with inventory management is to stick all the stuff in bags, and stick all the bags on a single, high strength [Lucky Charm] character. Everything gets auto-inventoried and I only need to pick out arrows for the archer. Now if I could only label bags…

Yeah the player's not helpless... there are certainly ways to take what's there and create a system for yourself that helps keep things organized and accessible as best as you can. Just a bummer that some of the things asked for since D:OS1 didn't make it into the UI.
 
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I think the answer is simply that Larian is still a relatively small team which prioritised other problems and issues when developing dos2. Inventory management is probably on their list of things to improve and there have been some improvements from the first one. I suppose there could be some technical issues regarding improving inventory management also. I certainly want the ability to set a certain container as a potions bag as it takes way too long to sort for me. Hopefully these features will be added by patch. Possibly they could be added by modding.

Ability To Access Crafting Materials in the Crafting Screen regardless of who's inventory they're in or what bag they're in

I wonder if players playing multiplayer would first have to agree to the use of materials first if an item resides in their inventory. That could be an issue I suppose through its a non issue for singelplayer.
 
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I just launched the game to check things but when I'm in the crafting pannel I get everyone's inventory in one box and access to their containers... as well? Also the recipes pull exactly whatever they need out of wherever they are.

Personally I also use the filters a lot for spells and potions, works fine for me. I use the "add to wares" junk option a lot as well.

The only thing I find lacking is the ability to access containers content from a merchant's window.
 
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