[GUIDE] Gear/Inventory

[hatesauce 99]

This guide is exactly what I was looking for, last night I found a sweet camo backpack my first time playing and ended up deleting it some how. didnt know the arrows needed to be pushed to move items.

THANKS!

[thedoubled 10]

Guys how do I know how many slots does a weapon/tent/gear take in my backpack? Im always scared to put something in my backpack because maybe there are not enough slots and it will be deleted.

[Tom212 52]

Guys how do I know how many slots does a weapon/tent/gear take in my backpack? Im always scared to put something in my backpack because maybe there are not enough slots and it will be deleted.

If its in your active gear and you want to put it in your backpack its easy, you have 12 slots, by this you can tell how much a certain object is taking up, generally it should be easy to tell just by looking at the icon.

However I am afraid there is no real solution to this if you want to take it straight into your backpack, while its on the floor you just cannot tell. If I am not sure I just make a generous amount of room, such as 5 slots and then pick it up. Sorry I can't be more helpful but there is really no other way around this.

[Nekosan 20]

Thanks for a neat guide - hope they fix some of the worst bugs soon.

Being such a central thing to this mod I'm guessing in the long run Flashpoint/ARMA's issues in this area since birth may finally be fixed. Will be interesting to see if ARMA3 still has these issues.

If the current trend continues then it will unfortunately, the devs have shown a remarkable disinterest in polishing the game over the course of the series, many of the bugs people are complaining about now existed in the first beta demo of Operation Flashpoint a good 11 years ago.

[Kaos75 0]

@Captain_English nice tut for the new players...unfortunately or fortunately I had to learn everything the hard way...sometimes that's the better way, I applaude you nonetheless for ur effort to bring the knowledge to the new players...*hat off to you sir*

[flufflogic 0]

As an utter beginner, I was totally lost by this before reading the guide. Thanks!

[Dafaq 1]

can you put guns into your backpack? ( how much space is needed if you can? )

[wise kaa 1]

How many inventory slots does the cars, helicopter and tents have? Can i see that number somewhere inside the game, or, if not, could you just tell it here, on the forum?

[SnowyMatt 0]

As an utter beginner' date=' I was totally lost by this before reading the guide. Thanks!

[/quote']

This highlights the inherent problem of the design of the inventory system. Not only is the interface confusing, but it allows the destruction of items. This just adds to the confusion and discourages clicking on anything for fear of losing equipment.

Gear is definitely the area that needs the most work in this game from a basic gameplay perspective.

[NoEqual 0]

great post very helpful thanks!

[Legacy (DayZ) 1091]

can you put guns into your backpack? ( how much space is needed if you can? )

Some guns vary' date=' but here is what works for me:

If you have a secondary and want to stuff it into your bag? Make sure you have [b']8 free slots in the bag.

If you have a primary and want to do the same? 10 Slots.

[Mentatius 0]

Gear

Note: This is a extract from my starter guide which I will post on the forum soon' date=' quite in depth but it seemed like something that needed covering as so many new players have issues with it. Please rate this thread![/i']

Now my pedigree chums orientating yourself and starting to move is all well and good, however I am sorry to tell you...You are not going to be leaving this place, this dirty and rather backward ex-soviet bloc country will be where you spend your final days. The sooner you come to terms to the fact you can no longer have bubble baths while listening to Abba the sooner we can all move along in this process.

Now as we will not be leaving this place you will need to gather and store supplies to keep alive yes? Well this is why we have our gear. Gear is the name for a menu that shows all the items carried on your player, everything from food to weapons (your inventory if you must). While I cannot argue the gear menu is a lovely little thing it is however quite complicated to a player who is new to ARMA and never played a game of the series, in addition it also has a few bugs and below you may find tips on using the gear to avoid falling victim to these.

Lets take a closer look...

The Layout:

Ok to view the Gear menu you need to press the "G" key by default, be aware when using the gear menu your character enters a animation which is him bending down and placing his hands on the floor as if picking something up.

Ok, please avert your gaze to the picture above. This picture shows you what you will see upon opening your gear menu. As you can see it is split into a number of panels, I have labelled some aspects with coloured circles. Note the thing to remember with the gear is that every slot is restricted to hold a specific type of item. (With exception to the backpacks.)

Ok lets start on the right side, the green circle shows the two slots in the top left and right. These slots will hold binoculars and night vision googles, nothing else.

Below that in the red circle you have two rectangular slots on the left side. The one with the M4 inside stores your current primary weapon. The slot below that holds a backpack as shown. Now to the right of that you have 12 magazine slots, in Day Z these slots will hold all your general goods such as food, some forms of medication, tents, flares etc, etc in addition to primary weapon magazines and grenades.

Below that in the yellow circle you have a medium sized slot in the top left with a pistol inside. This slot holds sidearms, in Day Z this includes flashlights. To the right of that you have 8 secondary magazine slots, these store secondary weapon magazines. In Day Z these slots also hold bandages as you can see in the picture. Below these you have 12 accessory slots, these hold items such as maps, compasses, watches, hunting knives and matchboxes.

Now on the far left you have the black circle. This tab here gives a overview of your gear, it lists all the items you have on your person and the numbers on the right indicate their quantity. There are no numbers on the left in this picture however in the coming pictures you will see some, numbers on the left indicate the quantity of a item in a container you are examining. If there is a item in the list with only numbers on the left and none on the right you currently have no items of this type on your person but they are in the container.

This covers all the gear you hold on your person however you spawn with a backpack and will find better quality backpacks as you travel around and these allow you to store even more goodies, yay...

Backpacks:

Opening your backpack? No zips here in ARMA land, to open your backpack select your backpack in the gear by left clicking the backpack slot highlighted in red in the picture above. Then simply click the open bag button highlighted in yellow.

Now that you have opened your back pack you see a very similar setup as you would if you were picking items up. On the top of the left tab, highlighted in red above, you can see the space/capacity of your backpack. The number on the left in this case 7 tells you how many free slots you have in your bag, the number on the right tells you the total number of slots in your bag.

Now to see what is in your backpack you just look at the numbers on the left (in the main left panel), remember the numbers on the right are what you have on your person. Highlighted in blue are some of these numbers showing my backpack has 2 cans of baked beans among a few other items.

Now moving stuff from your backpack to your active gear and vice versa is simple, lets say I want to move a can of baked beans from my active gear into my backpack. First thing you need to do is to select it, as it is in my active gear I can do this two ways 1 by selecting it in its slot by left clicking (highlighted in yellow). The second option is to select the baked beans item in the list on the left. When selected, using either method, the item name will be highlighted in the list on the left. Now all I need to do is to press the arrow on the left to move a quantity of 1 baked beans from my inventory (the right side) to the bag (the left side).

No matter whether you are putting items in your backpack from your active gear or vice versa, make sure your destination has space otherwise the item will be lost :( . Also note that backpacks can hold any type of item, even weapons, however keep in mind items such as weapons take up more than 1 slot of space.

Dropping Items:

Dropping is simple, move to a clear space of ground with no items to avoid complications and press G to open gear. Then either double click the item in your active inventory you would like to drop or select it and hit the drop button at the bottom of the interface. Note you cannot drop items from your backpack directly to the ground, you must first take it from your bag to your active gear and then drop but make sure your bag is closed whenever you are dropping items.

Picking up items:

Now my friends the last thing to cover on this most interesting subject is the skillful art of picking items up. You must be both athletic and flexible if you are to succeed at this task but most are capable.

First step, you need to find something you want to pick up, such as these beans I have found (shown in the picture above). Now you have found what you want to examine/pickup you need to open the container's gear menu, this may not seem like much of a container since it's on the ground but a container is a term for a group of items and you must open their specific gear menu otherwise you will just be looking at the floor. To open the gear menu for these beans I must move towards the items and have the objects in the center of my screen, I will then receive a gear option in my action menu shown in the red circle and a icon will appear on my screen.

This may seem simple however be prepared for the occasional struggle as it can be quite suprisingly difficult to get the action for a specific group of items due to other game objects being nearby. If you are completely stuck always try going prone (lying down) to avoid objects blocking the target and move closer to get the action. But believe me there are times where even myself, wow I know right, has to move on and give up.

Now I have opened the gear menu for these beans and may now take the tasty beans! (Picture above) The numbers on the left of the left list tab show you what is on the floor, now I want to take the tin of baked beans. I simply select the baked beans item in the list and then click the right arrow to move it into my active inventory.

Now you do not necessarily have to take items from the ground into your active gear, if you wish you may put a item straight into your backpack if you have room. Its is the same method as opening your backpack normally, select it and click open. (Picture above) However there is a difference, when viewing containers if you open your backpack you get a overview of it on the right as you can see here. This gives a visual representation of the contents rather than the list. Simply move the items from the floor into you backpack as if it was your active gear.

Notes and tips on avoiding bugs!

Now you are experts in the fine arts of pocket management! Congratulations, you deserve a victory pint! Now just a few other things to note:

Beware of swimming, you may lose your gear. Yes, there is a chance gear will drop if you are swimming. This obviously brings the dihlema of filling your water bottle at inland sources where you must swim to get the action, personally I just check the area is clear or have a friend cover me and leave my gear near the water while I swim to be on the safe side.

Dropping gear, if you are dropping gear with the intent of picking it up again its defiently worth spending a few seconds finding a nice clear or flat spot to drop it. This avoids losing equipment in grass, some bugs which lose items in terrain and having other game objects such as some types of bush and grass blocking the action therefore stopping recovery. It is also worth dropping different types of gear in different spots, e.g. when I drop my gear to swim I find a flat spot and then drop my bag in one place and my weapons and ammo in another as I have had bugs due to grouping items with bags. Also be careful of dropping items in places like towers and some ground floors of buildings as items can appear under the floor sometimes.

Biggest mistake new players make! Make sure you have space in your backpack before moving items into it, same goes for taking items from your bag to your active inventory! This will usually delete the item as it just seems to disappear! Keep in mind some bigger items like parts and tents take up multiple slots so may not fit in your bag if you only have 1 slot. For similar reasons in addition to a few other bugs avoid using the "Take" action on items, e.g. do not select "Take M1911" but instead just use "gear" and pick it up that way, much safer. However some items cannot be taken through gear such as tents.

SWAPPING backpacks, the best method to swap a backpack is to drop your current pack. You can do this by selecting it in your active inventory and using the drop button like it was any other item. Be sure to make sure this is in a flat open space as covered above to avoid it bugging. Pick up the backpack you wish to swap for, then move over to your old backpack you dropped on the floor. You will get a option to open the backpack on the floor, this allows you to now empty the contents of your old bag directly into your new one without fiddling around.

Hmm I have more notes I meant to insert here but can't think of them now, keep an eye on this and I will update it!

Hope this was useful and remember to check out my entire guide when I release it!

[guidez 180]

Dead topic reborn! But why? Is already visualized, ;)

http://YouTube.com/user/dayzguideZ

[Mentatius 0]

Thanks for your effort and time in helping us newbs grapple with the most difficult part of the game "the inventory", it is by far the most convoluted piece of programming I've encountered in any game -so your work is much appreciated.

[Mentatius 0]

Thanks Kreaol, Also very useful info. Like I said "Newb" it takes a while to filter out the Neanderthal vids from those with actual instructive content. Cheers.

[HMS 115]

Dude, thank you for this. I have been using backpacks all wrong until I read this. That is to say, I was carrying around empty backpacks the whole damn time.

Now I can fill my bag with dozens of empty tin cans and still have room on my "person" for a bunch more empty soda cans!

[xale 1]

Nice, thanks!