Inventory management idea for stand alone game

[decoman 45]

Edit: I have since incorporated the concept of 'general inventory' to be the upper part of a backpack. People with no backpack will have no such "general inventory" for quick access and must look for items in the pockets in the clothing on their character.

Summary:

The following idea is meant to be an intuitive inventory management system, that graphically looks nice insofar as it represents the actual clothing of the players character, while also featuring a unique way of both placing items and stacking items in a meaningful way.

A character will have two different ways in keeping items in his/her inventory. One way is by the use of a clothing specific management system that allow for placing items onto the body in an optimal way and for stacking multiple items of the same kind, while the other will be for use with a general inventory that does not allow stacking but allows an overview for quick management.

If a player take the time to stack items of the same kind into a particular pocket on the body of a clothed character, he/her may keep more of the items on his character as opposed to keeping them in the general inventory. So, anyone not taking the time to specifically stack items that are in multiple quantities will have to leave them in the pool where these items always end up first (fixed amount of slots in the general inventory).

Anyone else snooping into your own inventory (if such is still to be a feature in a stand alone game), will only have access to the general inventory and not the individual pockets on a conscious player.

If player A takes a look into the inventory of an unconscious player B, then every pocked in addition to the general inventory will be open for the inspection and a reposession of such items.

The total capacity of a characters inventory, will be the space used for the specific inventory management system in addition to the space allowed for the general inventory.

The space inside anyones backpack will be considered a part of the specific inventory management system. The abstracted general inventory is what other players can interact with while standing upright.

If the player wants to go into the inventory to use an item, he can right click an item in the already visible general inventory for quick access OR mouse over a picture/model of his character showing the current clothing and then mouse over or even click individual pockets to see what is in them. The image of the item(s) inside a pocket will be visible with mouse over movement and by clicking once with the left mouse button. Optionally, a context dependent field in the inventory screen could show a larger image of the item with a descriptive note or indication of exact amount or state. This way, the character image intuitively show how many pockets he/she has and gives an idea for which objects can be placed there depending on size and shape. A square pocket can be used for stacking multiple rectangular items of the same type (like glow sticks) or it can occupy a single item (like a can of food or drink).

It seem like a good idea to have the image of the individual pockets show as either being flat or full (or perhaps something inbetween for stacked items), to help visually identifying what pockets are in use. The mouse over effect is intended to remove a cluttering of icons on top of graphics when simply being viewed by the player, while also being a mini game of sorts, or at least challenges the player to remember where he put his stuff. It would take the player little time to quickly mouse over or click individual pockets, to find the item he/she is looking for, in order to right click it and use the object.

The inventory screen for ones own character will show an image of ones character seen from front and rear, in addition to slots accociated with the general inventory.

Not sure how it should look like when doing inventory management for looting off someone elses dead body.

Concept:

• Each item is categorized into a predetermined sizes classes and shape classes: small vs large and square vs rectangular.

• When adding items into the inventory management for a character, it is always required that the item(s) is to be put in a series of slots assigned as temporary storage also known as the general inventory mentioned in the summary part of this post. The existence of a general inventory is not meant to be realistic, but serves as a way to pace inventory management. The general inventory is here only called temporary for the purpose of having items in such locations to preferably be placed onto the specific pockets on a character if so desired, to gain stacking benefits and to put items away from thieves if theft is still a relevant problem with inventory management.

• The slots for the general inventory will be the same for all. Though one could perhaps take the opportunity to develop differentiated capacities, based on sex, body build and perhaps physical state. This will not be realistic, but might add some interesting gameplay I imagine.

• The amount and size of slots (represents pockets) for the specific inventory management system will depend on what the character is wearing (type of clothing and type of backpack)

• Just like with the different types of sizes and shapes (only two of each that I can think ok) of items, an individual pocket on a particular clothing will have a predetermined size capacity and a shape capacity.

• The inventory screen will show the depiction or the 3d model of the players character seen from front and rear. Rear pants pockets and all backpack pockets is to be accessible from looking at that other image or 3d model showing the character from behind.

• Special items could perhaps be designed to fit in some special way, like a sleeping bag or a disassembled tent.

• Unrealistically large items is to be placed either in the general inventory or inside the space of the backpack.

• Some larger items like a flashlight should fit inside a small or large quare pocket on the clothing

• Headgear should perhaps be given its own slot on the head for use or (alternatively stored in the general inventory)

• Binoculars and rangefinders should perhaps be given its own slot, as an abstraction for either item hanging around the characters neck

• The backpack could have a dedicated slot on screen, with room for a large weapon OR a sleeping bag OR a tent

• It seem fair to be able to carry both a sleeping bag and a tent at the same time, but perhaps not in addition to a large weapon.

• A gun holster might act as an additional pocket if added to the clothing (mouse over will reveal such a slot/pocket, but preferably such a holser should be represented visually in the graphics with the image of the character or with the 3d model)

• Ah, I seem to have forgot the space/slots for the backpack itself. Perhaps some clever graphcial representation can work here, in order to show how much room (slots) there is inside the open backpack.

Concerns:

• Looting all the items off the corpse of dead player will probably take more time

• Looting off all the items off ones former dead corpse will probably take more time

• Any 3d model of the character for the purpose of representing inventory slots, might perhaps be a complicated problem (or not, I dont know)

• If the theft of items off a conscious character is to be a feature, some kind of design should be worked out, else it will not be possible to have robbers steal things off players that are alive and conscious (except for the content found in their general inventory).

It was not my intention to prevent theft in the first place so such a concern was not important for the way the inventory was to work when i first thought about it.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Treehugger

[decoman 45]

Hm, I had the intention earlier for making what I called 'general inventory' a purely abstracted inventory that did not exist anywhere, but I realize there is a better way.

The few slots for 'general inventory' should simply thought to be the upper part of the backpack. This means players having no backpack on their character will have to do with the few pockets on their character, and will have to move loot items directly into the pockets of their character. The one or two large pockets on a characters pants should be good for saving at least one piece of canned food, else it would not be possible to store food without a backpack.

Not sure how to place larger weapons onto the body beside the sidearm already mentioned (holster), perhaps dedicated slots would be more fitting, instead of some kind of inventory tetris.

Inventory space for picking up larger weapons would be:

• left hand (either held with one hand, or ultimately held with both hands if the other is free)

• right hand (either held with one hand, or ultimately held with both hands if the other is free)

• a single large slot for a single large weapon ON the backpack (lying horizontally, not really being placed inside the backpack)

• a single large slot for a single large weapon slung around either side of the shoulders of a character (weapon fitted with a strap for this purpose)

Inventory space for picking up smaller weapons would be:

• a pistol holster, placed in a holster as a clothing option

• a large pocket somewhere on his body

• any large pocket on the backpack or inside it