Trendy and Inventory

So... what are people's thoughts on this topic?

If people will provide me with more thoughts on the functionality of how you want to and intend to use inventory and items, I can do a rough mock up of the ideas and provide a simplistic design or two.

To get the thoughts going, first you want to look at:

1) What is the most important function of the inventory system 80% of the time you use it?  Is it dealing with newly collected loot, is it outfitting your character and looking for better gear to wear, looking to upgrade items you aren't already wearing, having everything sorted and organized so it's easy to find exactly what you're looking for?

2) What auxiliary uses or information would you like displayed on the main inventory page (the one with all the items)? How do you want the currently equipped items and empty slots on the hero to be displayed (I personally am not a big fan of the current UI for this)? How do you want to be able to select/compare/sell/lock items?

3) What sorting filters or algorithms would actually seem useful to you?  Sorting by individual stats or only show items with certain stats?  What about having two inventory pages/tabs/windows where one is used for quickly accessing your sorted items and working with those items and another is just a "show all" with a bunch of advance filter options?

4) What thoughts do you have on making it look nice vs pure functionality?  A lot of people seem to complain about "wasted" space with little graphics, etc.

There are a few unknowns I can think of right now that may prevent me from making great recommendations:

1) Cross platform, what kind of restrictions will be imposed on size and layout (if any) to the computer platform to fit better with the other platforms?

2) I haven't had extensive use of items in DD2, so I'm not familiar with all of the options that will be open to us with items (upgrading, selling, equipping, etc... what else?).

3) Those darn unknown unknowns!

yeah, I'm not thrilled about the inventory system but considering its still early in the game. I would like to see inventory sorting options i.e. rarity, type, item power etc...

The inventory system has been taking some changes from time to time, i still got hope for the future, i mean for pre-alpha this one does definitely do the job x_x

I'd like to stay away from the "oh it's pre-alpha so we can't judge."  Just curious on people's thoughts in general on this topic and always welcome if people can point out something that is really good about it.

The inventory is a big part of why I want to see them let people use UI addons.

Everything about the inventory system in place is lacking.

I would really love to see some filters in the inventory screen, as well as a more intuitive ui for stat display. at the moment, finding things in the item box(es) is pretty frustrating. Thankfully, though, I know trendy has plans to add filters soonish, but tbh id rather them focus on something else at the moment.

Yeah, they really never have gotten a solid inventory system yet. DDE's was probably one of the better ones (not flawless mind you, but I liked it better than DD1's and DD2's).

Hopefully they'll get things sorted out by the time it hits full release.

Hope they bring back folders so we can further organize our stuff.  Glad they added the Sell All button, though.  Definitely shows that they have been working on it and would like to make it better.

With the bag system in place, it is unlikely that folders will make a return. I do also hope that we will have a way to better organize our gear though, because at the moment it is quite a chore.

lets not forget adding a way to lock gear. that would work wonderfully with the sell all function.

Has Trendy given much information on where the inventory system is headed or at what phase of development they will be doing (if any) serious improvements?  I know they just did a tweak to improve the pouch system and add more space/premium pouches + sell all feature.

@draemn quote:

Has Trendy given much information on where the inventory system is headed or at what phase of development they will be doing (if any) serious improvements?  I know they just did a tweak to improve the pouch system and add more space/premium pouches + sell all feature.

It's likely going to be one of those things that is iterated on every update. In fact, I think it HAS been iterated upon every content update since even before early access launch.

Hey Draemn,

Thanks for starting this thread! We’re always looking for more feedback on our UIs especially the more critical ones like inventory. We are well aware that player interactions with the inventory are currently far from ideal and we've been steadily making improvements to that which we hope are making things better bit by bit. We’re still listening so any advice you all have or things you really dislike make a note of them in this thread or another! Thanks!

This is the best way to make change happen, critical threads that have productive feedback. ^-^

Inventory scroll speed is like a dead snail that's lying on a sleeping sloth. Speed it up, please. I really like my UI's to be quick and responsive. 

@Blacksmith quote:

Hey Draemn,

Thanks for starting this thread! We’re always looking for more feedback on our UIs especially the more critical ones like inventory. We are well aware that player interactions with the inventory are currently far from ideal and we've been steadily making improvements to that which we hope are making things better bit by bit. We’re still listening so any advice you all have or things you really dislike make a note of them in this thread or another! Thanks!

Well, now that I know you'll get a notification for this post... *evil grin*

1. First and foremost, INCLUDE STATS ON THE INVENTORY PAGE. Can't tell you how frustrating it is to not be able to see my stats when swapping out gear.
2. Give us more room to drag/drop items into other bags. It's quite irritating having to try and scroll with an item in your hand.
3. Stop with the double-bag hiding thing. Remove the minus/plus sign in the upper right of each open bag, and just use the bags on the left to open and close them.
4. Don't scroll available bags on the left. This makes it very difficult to transfer stuff between them.
5. You're wasting SO MUCH screen real estate by filling half the screen with our character. For equipping cosmetics, sure, give me half the screen! But for gearing up for stats, I only care about the numbers.
6. Why is that silly little face avatar in the lower left? It has no point, especially when I can see my entire character on the left side of the screen.

Here, I even made a mock up of what I'd like it to look like:

As you can see, this mock up:

1. Includes stats on the inventory page! Yipee! No more having to constantly swap tabs to get your tower ratios the way you want them.
2. Gives us tons of room to drag and drop items into other bags.
3. Doesn't scroll available bags. It even has room to expand once the bag limit for players is increased.
4. The player is moved over to make much more room for the inventory UI. In fact, if you wanted it to take up the entire screen, I would not have any complaints against this. You can always adjust the size of the interface depending on the context; so if I swap to the cosmetic UI, the black box could shrink to make more room for the hero's appearance.
5. Removed the silly little cartoon face avatar, because it does not serve any purpose.

That looks good, but I bet it would make my computer chug more than it does now. (when opening inventory)

Stats on the inventory page would be nice.

Two good ideas mentioned in the forums, that are somewhat related:

1) Item compare.

2) Holding shift to view the original stats of an upgraded item.

I can't wait to see how things evolve.

I hope it all comes together nicely. :)

Hey Gigazelle...

That's fantastic! Thank you so much for taking the time to put that mock together and writing the post. You have a lot cool ideas there, I passed the post around internally as well so a lot of the people on our team got to see it as well. I'll make sure we evaluate your mock (maybe we can incorporate some elements) when we have another pass at the inventory.

Thanks again!

(also if anyone else has more ideas and suggestions... Keep'em comin!)

@gigazelle quote:

@Blacksmith quote:

Hey Draemn,

Thanks for starting this thread! We’re always looking for more feedback on our UIs especially the more critical ones like inventory. We are well aware that player interactions with the inventory are currently far from ideal and we've been steadily making improvements to that which we hope are making things better bit by bit. We’re still listening so any advice you all have or things you really dislike make a note of them in this thread or another! Thanks!

Well, now that I know you'll get a notification for this post... *evil grin*

1. First and foremost, INCLUDE STATS ON THE INVENTORY PAGE. Can't tell you how frustrating it is to not be able to see my stats when swapping out gear.
2. Give us more room to drag/drop items into other bags. It's quite irritating having to try and scroll with an item in your hand.
3. Stop with the double-bag hiding thing. Remove the minus/plus sign in the upper right of each open bag, and just use the bags on the left to open and close them.
4. Don't scroll available bags on the left. This makes it very difficult to transfer stuff between them.
5. You're wasting SO MUCH screen real estate by filling half the screen with our character. For equipping cosmetics, sure, give me half the screen! But for gearing up for stats, I only care about the numbers.
6. Why is that silly little face avatar in the lower left? It has no point, especially when I can see my entire character on the left side of the screen.

Here, I even made a mock up of what I'd like it to look like:

As you can see, this mock up:

1. Includes stats on the inventory page! Yipee! No more having to constantly swap tabs to get your tower ratios the way you want them.
2. Gives us tons of room to drag and drop items into other bags.
3. Doesn't scroll available bags. It even has room to expand once the bag limit for players is increased.
4. The player is moved over to make much more room for the inventory UI. In fact, if you wanted it to take up the entire screen, I would not have any complaints against this. You can always adjust the size of the interface depending on the context; so if I swap to the cosmetic UI, the black box could shrink to make more room for the hero's appearance.
5. Removed the silly little cartoon face avatar, because it does not serve any purpose.

If people will provide me with more thoughts on the functionality of how you want to and intend to use inventory and items, I can do a rough mock up of the ideas and provide a simplistic design or two.

To get the thoughts going, first you want to look at:

1) What is the most important function of the inventory system 80% of the time you use it?  Is it dealing with newly collected loot, is it outfitting your character and looking for better gear to wear, looking to upgrade items you aren't already wearing, having everything sorted and organized so it's easy to find exactly what you're looking for?

2) What auxiliary uses or information would you like displayed on the main inventory page (the one with all the items)? How do you want the currently equipped items and empty slots on the hero to be displayed (I personally am not a big fan of the current UI for this)? How do you want to be able to select/compare/sell/lock items?

3) What sorting filters or algorithms would actually seem useful to you?  Sorting by individual stats or only show items with certain stats?  What about having two inventory pages/tabs/windows where one is used for quickly accessing your sorted items and working with those items and another is just a "show all" with a bunch of advance filter options?

4) What thoughts do you have on making it look nice vs pure functionality?  A lot of people seem to complain about "wasted" space with little graphics, etc. 

There are a few unknowns I can think of right now that may prevent me from making great recommendations:

1) Cross platform, what kind of restrictions will be imposed on size and layout (if any) to the computer platform to fit better with the other platforms?

2) I haven't had extensive use of items in DD2, so I'm not familiar with all of the options that will be open to us with items (upgrading, selling, equipping, etc... what else?).

3) Those darn unknown unknowns!

Loving the mock up [[31834,users]].

I just want to add that when I have a lot of items in the inventory, I get almost a second of screen freeze, probably due to loading all the images. In general the inventory, and the whole UI/menu system needs to get faster and more user friendly.  At the moment it is pretty, well bad. Does not respond well, scrolling is terrible, 

Plus, we need better icons for items, more clear colors for the rarities, more clear in general. It is getting there, but still needs work. 

UI in general, either delay the animation when things "roll in" or let us click at the UI before it is fully "rolled in to the screen". Currently, you have to wait to click on the UI for a brief time, especially in options menus etc. If you can click on it on screen, it should do something!

Would be great if you reworked a little the Inventory system, I'll add my ideas when that comes!

Today I sent 3 bugs regarding that... the last one was quite funny!

Before you tell me :
 I gave detailed description in the ticket...
 No no.. that "Legendary Totem" maybe bad, but NOT THAT MUCH!! I used a bug to make it's value -84,920!!
 

Haven't tried taking my current gold into negative.... could be fun! 

//Naki

@Batophobia quote:

Hope they bring back folders so we can further organize our stuff.  Glad they added the Sell All button, though.  Definitely shows that they have been working on it and would like to make it better.

^ 100% agree

New items need to be fixed as to where they land. As of now some of the bags don't register every single available space. So it is difficult to tell where some of the items will end once a certain bag fills up. So either having the first bags filled or something so that they will land on the succeeding bags.

Everything that Gigazelle mentioned is 100% correct. There is a bug that when you don't have so many bags open that it scrolls very slowly. So having a large Temporary Box while trying to put an item at the bottom of a large bag or in a specific spot is quite annoying.

The ability to see the difference between the item you have equipped and what you are inspecting is really nice and it fits as being able to press shift, but i think there is a glitch where it never goes away. How everything looks is not really my concern. Just as long as what's needed is there.

Love the idea and it looks like a really nice setup with the stats and items on the same page and selling. I think they should add card drops to, to be able to sell them for steam money.

@NakiCoTony quote:

 I gave detailed description in the ticket... 

 No no.. that "Legendary Totem" maybe bad, but NOT THAT MUCH!! I used a bug to make it's value -84,920!! 

Haven't tried taking my current gold into negative.... could be fun! 

Don't worry, i tried it, you dont lose money :P