Inventory Management

Remember when we said that Gameplay should be fun: It is a game, it should feel like a game? A modern game has to cut the bullshit. Players come to RPGs to have an adventure with their friends, not to spend an hour moving their inventory around every time they come back from a dungeon. Learn from games like Doom (yes, all games can learn one thing from Doom), whatever it is your players come to your game for, this is what you should focus on delivering. So ask yourself: do you think the player came to have an adventure with his friends or did he come to spend an hour managing his inventory every time he comes back to town?

Maybe players would listen more to the quest stories if they did not lose hours of gameplay playing Wilmot's Warehouse: Inventory Management instead of out in the world, being chased by a troll with friends, or defending a small town that get's attacked by werewolves, right?

Players should have more time to play the game they came to play, this is key.

Side games are ok, as long as they are optional. Don't force anyone to

Inventory systems in MMOs are very bad at this:

• often force players to move items between their personal inventory, vault inventory, guild inventory etc;
• force players to carry multiple item-sets around, wasting precious inventory space;
• loads of 'useless' items that aren't worth anything and confuse new players;
• make it a chose to purchase and craft items (first buy at the AH, then get the mail, then move to...)

We think a good part of MMOs is the thriving economy, and for that a complex inventory is important, but there are many ways to improve on that:

• don't require players to move items between the hero and the vault all the time;
• don't fill up the hero's inventory with useless/trash items;
• make it easier to find items;
• don't simplify the systems, but simplify the management of those systems.

How:

• always make the full inventory visible (personal + vault) but only allow access in cities;
• allow players to have items they wish to automatically restock (ex.: keep a minimum of 10);
• display the full inventory as one bag, but allow players to group items under custom labels, like grouping iOS apps on an iPhone. Allow sorting items by: labels, type, lvl, seller price;
• drop less items. make it less loot, but make it worth more. Make any loot rarer and more valuable;
• less item diversity (especially trash and resources);