CallmeMerry

The main goal of this concept is that it should be a relatively easy and quick idea to implement, assuming Rocket agrees with anything here. I agree with either/both a weight and volumetric system, but both of those require the addition of new stats on every item and changing the slot system would require a complete redesign of the inventory. With a potential standalone coming, not everything will be in the mod as people will not buy the standalone if we can play via ARMA and have the same experience. I think there are usually more than enough inventory slots later in the game but the beginning feels a bit inconsistent. By this I mean, I have had experiences finding a hatchet and a rifle with no ammo (or very little). With the starter 8 slot coyote pack, the rifle immediately fills that if the player wants to hold onto it, but still wants to use the hatchet. Being able to use the hatchet in melee without equipping it would be another solution, but that would require introducing a dedicated melee button. I have just seen several complaints about struggling to switch between the hatchet and a rifle, and the sling specifically is a method to (help) fix both problems (like I described in the original post). In the late game, the sling will allow for the option to carry a second rifle which may be more common (like my friend who uses a hatchet in an attempt to preserve AS50 mags). That way a player can use a 1866 or something for general play and pull out the heavy hitter when expecting a firefight. As for the pouches, they aren't really a major concern, but just an easy way to demonstrate this concept (like the ammo pouch).

While these are not all entirely new ideas, but more of a compilation of some of the more common complaints that I think can all be boiled down to one subject: inventory management. The solution (or one possible solution) is the idea of bags within bags. By playing a little bit of inventory inception, several issues can be addressed. First is additional bag space as it is the most simple. At times, players need to carry a ton of supplies (as we should all be aware of). Adding pouches can relieve some of this stress. There can be one size, or several sizes that range from 2-5 slots. Each pouch will use one slot, giving a play 1-4 additional slots, but have to be opened in the inventory like your backpack. By making them less common than bags will allow players who are not lucky enough to find a coyote pack or alice pack the ability to carry enough supplies to survive, but not enough room to be completely comfortable. Secondly, the idea of having a holster and/or a sling into the tool bag section. Holsters work with pistols, slings with rifles/shotguns. They grant the ability to carry a secondary pistol and rifle at the cost of 1 gear slot each (maybe two gear slots for a sling). The player would still have to be responsible for carrying ammo, however. There is also a benefit with the current setup: the hatchet. At times, it can be tedious trying to switch to a melee weapon, but by having an available sling, by right-clicking on your rifle, clicking "sling weapon", your weapon would be unequipped, quickly allowing you to remove the hatchet from your tool bag. If the crowbar is added to the tool bag, then it will work as well for a relatively quick weapon switch. At the current moment, I carry a G17 and an M1911 and there have been more than one occasion where I have considered dropping my M1911 just to get the 4 inventory slots, but I would have been more than happy keeping it if it used up 1 slot. The final piece is the idea of ammo and magazines being separate entities. The easiest way to explain would be using an example; the M1911 and the Revolver (.45 ACP). These two ammo types share the same model in game (the ammo box) and the magazines can be converted into the other. If this is switched so that players have an ammo pouch (using the same principal of adding it to the tool bag or using one inventory slot allowing the player to carry a set amount of ammo), instead of giving one mag, the box will give 25 rounds into the ammo pouch. Then the player will have to find a magazine and reload it from the ammo pouch. This would allow 1 ammo box to be equivalent to 4 revolver mags of ammo and taking up less inventory space. Having magazines will also change the feel of the game (I believe for the better). I currently have an AKM with 11 mags (330 rounds) which has made general play much less stressful than before as I can easily get through some zombie spawns that should challenge me. If I were to only have 2 full mags (60 rounds), even if the other 270 rounds were in my ammo pouch, a few bad pulls could wreck me as I may not have time to reload a magazine from the pouch. This would help retain the stressful feeling later in the game. Also, if a player were to find some generic 9mm ammo, it would work in any 9mm weapon, as long as the player has a magazine needed for the gun (and assuming each gun spawns with a magazine in it so they always have at least 1). For example, an M9 SD mag works in the G17, M9, and M9 SD. However an M9 mag does not work in the M9 SD and the G17 mags do not work in either M9 or M9 SD. All three weapons would only need to find the one ammo type, but would have to rely on the magazines they have. I think these changes would certainly help smooth out some of the issues some players have and all rely on the same idea of having inventory pouches in bags for various items. What do you guys think? Anything you would change or add/remove? P.S. Keep up the great stuff Rocket.

The number before the slash is a reference to how many open slots you have out of the total in your pack, not how many items you have in there.

I was actually thinking about this idea earlier today. I like the idea of consistent magazines, but I think there should be some minor tweaks before that. The first being that having all ammo drops, actually be just that, ammo. I think magazines should be relatively rare. My current survivor right now is sitting on 11 AKM mags and 9 G17 mags. That puts me in the realm of 500 rounds using up 20 inventory slots. With my AKM, I really have no worries in general play. However, even if I had all 500 rounds (or so), but only had 1-2 mags that I could reload, all of a sudden I am sitting at 1/5 of my current firepower to help build a little tension as a few bad pulls could put me into a bad spot. The other addition to help this would be an ammo pouch pickup. It could either just sit in your backpack or main inventory, or use it as a piece of gear. There can be different sized ammo pouches as well, but not really necessary, and players could potentially carry more than one, if they can find multiples that is. This, I believe, would make some fundamental changes that I would enhance the survivor feeling. For one thing, the M1911 and ACP ammo show up as ammo cartons in game. By finding a full box (which is current 1 magazine for either gun) you can add 25 rounds to your ammo pouch. Then you can use specific ammo types to combine with the various magazines to refill them. In this case, if I found one of each, I could refill them both with the same ammo, using a total of 13 rounds, leaving 12 in the ammo pouch. This pouch idea could also extend into more general purpose uses. For example, if you were to classify pouches as different from backpacks, pouches may only have 3-5 slots within them, but the pouches can be placed in your inventory/gear slots. This way you could throw a few magazines into a pouch in your inventory for quick access to spare (reloaded) magazines instead of transferring from your backpack. A bit more abstract use of this would be to add a a holster and/or a sling allowing you to place a secondary weapon (pistol and rifle respectively) without having to use up 4-8 slots of your inventory (plus magazines).

Not gonna lie, I would probably buy all three, but number 2 is my favorite.