A moment of pedantry for the cargo vest and magazines...

[Land Squid 22]

Namely it's infinitesimally small carrying capacity. While I get the concept of a limited inventory this thing just so far outside the bounds of logic as to completely prevent any suspension of disbelief.

 

For those who have handled the British assault vest you'll note that the model shows 6 large magazine pouches, and it's actual cargo capacity is 2x4 inventory slots. This amounts to a grand total of four magazines for the M4. Four. The reason I find this particularly absurd is that any one of those pouches in the object's character model would be able to hold that. A vest like that should be able to hold at least a dozen magazines, plus a few miscellaneous items. For what it's worth, one of the pouches on my personally owned vest could hold six magazines on it's own. The size to storage discrepancy really is that large in this case.

 

Now, rather than just pump up the inventory space my suggesting is to treat it in the same manner that First Aid kits and ammo boxes are. Make what is stored inside that vest restricted, specifically in this case to magazines and pistols. With that done a 4(6*)x10 or 4(6*)x12 inventory size for the load bearing vest would seem to be appropriate, allowing up to 10-12 magazines, or a few less if your also wish to store your pistol in your vest (a not uncommon practice).

 

*Only if the following on magazines is also taken into consideration.

 

Magazine sizing is also currently a bit off regarding relative sizing to other objects and each other, so these are my suggestions for a change up regarding them. These currently refer to the M4 mags only.

 

10rd - is actually what I'd call correct, 1x1.

20rd - also correct at 1x2.

30rd - should be bumped up to 1x3

40rd - should be bumped up to 1x4. This would make it obnoxious to use, even in the adjusted load bearing vest, but the size of this magazine is an odd one out being generally too long for most magazine pouches on the commercial market.

60rd (jungle clipped magazines) - should be bumped up to 2x3. It's two magazines strapped side by side. They don't magically get smaller to match the width of a single 30 rounder, and being able to fire all 60 rounds without having to swap between the two mags is advantage enough already.

 

 

Ideally I think the inventory system needs a general overhaul regarding space, mainly to account for more variance in differently shaped and sized objects, but I'll save that for a different posting.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Land Squid

[jaginun 87]

I agree, although I would see it done in a system like the pistol holster and the unimplemented gun bag. Partion off a 3x6 part of the space soley for the use of magazines of any kind, as long as they fit (so 30round or smaller with your size adjustment). This would create the same effect with less hassle, as getting items in and out of the current storage boxes is a bit more cumbersome than it needs to be.

[(TMW) Merino 507]

I've been thinking about this for a while too. My hands-down favorite related inventory system comes from the Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 mod that puts an awesome touch on the former "8 small slots and 4 large slots" inventory: there are a multitide of different pocket types that can accept different items. Also, different pieces of clothing, packs, load-bearing equipment have a set number of pockets appropriate for their type. Here's a screenshot:
 

 

The various slots have a silhouette that describes the kind of pocket. You have a slot for a knife (filled with the swiss one), the over the shoulder sling for a rifle (aside from the one in your hand) which is empty, and a vest slot. Depending on the equppied vest you have multitude of pockets: AR mags, pistol mags, grenade pouches, general small (=sewed on with a button and a bit of volume), general tiny (think pocket of jeans or similar). Then you have your leg straps, one for each leg. The screenshot has a pistol holster with a single spare mag and large ammo pouch plus three medical pouches. There's a number of different pieces available, such as extra grenade pouches, AR mags, long mags (think Bizon or Calico), etc. Then there's a bag that fits at your lower back, in this case it can take three large items and has a ring to dangle a canteen off of. And lastly there's your backpack with four general large pouches, but there's also others with a multitude of different capacities suitable for any specialization a character in your squad may have. Since the game is also about weight and endurace, you may opt for a lighter loadout for stealthy characters, with plenty of pistol mags for the silenced Glock. Go for a number of grenade pouches for the guy with the strong throwing arm, give more utility slots to your mechanic. Or recepticles for 200 round ammo boxes to your machine gunner rather than "one size fits all".

 

Now this is obviously quite a bit overboard for DayZ, but I'd still love to see elements of this in the standalone. With the modularity that Rocket is aiming at, aside for the dedicated gun bag he also mentioned attaching items like a hatchet to slings of a backpack rather than having it magically stick to your shoulder.

 

When it comes to modularity, I would also love to see MOLLE gear at some point. Find the bare vest and attach up to, say, four different pouches with a varying number of specialized slots. One may hold four AR mags, one could take a medkit, one works like a pistol holster.

 

See Nutnfancy for example. I just love how he sets up his gear for high practicality, which pretty much always includes a pistol holster.

 

 

But I'm starting to get way more excited than I should be... hope some of this makes it in the game, 100% on your page and side, OP.

[OrLoK 16187]

Hello there

 

FYI inventory and item sizes are always being tweaked.

 

Im also a JA2 modded Inv fan btw.

 

It would be nice to have modern vests modular as is my UK one. But I suspect thats wishful thinking.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

[Etherimp 1323]

Another feature which I would like to see implemented is the ability to "rotate" objects to fit into your inventory.

[terminal_boy 860]

Let's no go overboard and make pouches (sewn-in or modular) too specific.

Rifle magazine pouches should hold any 30 round rifle magazine or 30 rounds of loose or stripper-clipped rifle ammo.

Pistol magazine pouches should hold any pistol mag or 15 rounds of loose or half-moon clipped pistol ammo.

Canteen pouch should hold any canteen or 2 drinks cans/bottles.

General purpose pouch around 5-6 slots for everything else or 1 x 100 belt of machine gun ammo.

[Land Squid 22]

Great points with the modularity of load bearing equipments. Molle and Alice is pretty much world wide standards now, but even going back to the most basic of load bearing gear, the belt.

 

You start with a heavy duty belt. That's nice. Probably helps keep your pants up when running from the zombies. Now you add a holster to the belt. Pistol needs some mags, so now you add some magazine pouches to it. Be nice to carry some snacks so you add a small butt pack. Hmm the belt is getting kind of obnoxious now what with the added weight, tends to slow you down, so you add some suspenders to it, and voila, you have a load bearing ensemble.

 

Belts or vests, some are hard stitched and can't be changed, such as a fly fishing or camera man's vest. But more and more the police and military gear allows for modularity and customization. Attachments really only limited to the available "real-estate" on the belts and vests.

 

 

 

The only practical limitation for you as a person is the weight you're willing to bear, so remember, pack mule you ain't, and you might just need to be able to run from the zombies.

[Land Squid 22]

Hmm, regarding depth of objects. With a 2d plane you only get to set an object's height and width, but objects are 3d. The solution I came up with was setting their "width" in game based on the object's circumference. Thoughts?

[OrLoK 16187]

Hello there

 

We tried to take width into account with many objects, for eg I proposed that strapped together mags needed to take up more slots (i think it was me, it was a long while ago) in one of the devchat channels when R was asking for opinions.

 

ATM I dont *think* there's an assigned value to widths rather a guestimate to width vs slottage. Again expect tweaks to be regular.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

[Land Squid 22]

Hello there

 

We tried to take width into account with many objects, for eg I proposed that strapped together mags needed to take up more slots (i think it was me, it was a long while ago) in one of the devchat channels when R was asking for opinions.

 

ATM I dont *think* there's an assigned value to widths rather a guestimate to width vs slottage. Again expect tweaks to be regular.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

 

 

What about dividing the current inventory slots down further, so 1 current slot = 4 new (smaller) slots? This would probably allow greater variation in item sizes without needing to completely overhaul the current system.