4 réponses à ce sujet

[dlux]

I prefer a slot based inventory system over a list based one on the PC platform (with a mouse, of course). To start, here are a few examples of CRPGs with a slot based inventory as examples:

 

Baldur's Gate series

Icewind Dale Series

Planescape: Torment

Neverwinter Nights 2

Gothic Series

Risen

Legend of Grimrock

Divinity 2

 

even new and upcoming titles like:

 

Might and Magic X: Legacy

Wasteland 2

Pillars of Eternity

 

and numerous other games. Also practically every MMORPG, like SWtoR (from BioWare of course), WoW, LotRO, etc. use superior slot based inventories.

 

That said, why is a slot based inventory superior to a list based one? Simple, you can not only sort, but also instantly see your entire inventory, which could be maybe 50 items or more, in a single glance. 

 

With a slot based inventory one can place specific items on a certain spot of the grid and can also group item types (e.g. health or mana potions, equipment, etc.) on a certain area of the grid. This sortation according to a player's personal preferance results in a clearly arranged inventory, which makes it extremely easy for him to instantly find the item he needs when it is required, because he knows the (general) location of items on the grid. This means that you do not have to go through the time consuming process of constantly scrolling past items that you don't need at the moment, but choose to keep in your inventory for later use.

Another benefit is that new items are always added to the first free slots at the top of your inventory, which in turn removes the need to scroll and search for that newly picked up item (which is usually highlighted depending on the game). A quick glance towards the top of your inventory is all you need to do when the game has a slot based inventory, because there are all the new items you just picked up, which can be sorted immediately or later.

 

While I can usually tolerate a list based inventory, it just can't give me, as a PC user, the functionality and efficiency that only a slot based inventory can provide. Scrolling through a list based inventory is extremely time consuming and can get rather annoying, especially when you have gathered numerous items.

I know it is unlikely that PC users will get a slot based inventory for DA:I, because it increases the (time and monetary) budgets for programming and quality assurance. A slot based inventory simply doesn't work well on a console, so the decision nowadays is to just implement games only with list based inventory, which works on both PCs and consoles in a satisfactory manner.

 

That said, I think a slot based inventory would be a great addition to the PC version of DA:I, even though its implementation is unlikely. Discuss if you like. 

[AlanC9]

That said, why is a slot based inventory superior to a list based one? Simple, you can not only sort, but also instantly see your entire inventory, which could be maybe 50 items or more, in a single glance.

We can see everything in a single glance? I've played plenty of slot inventories that needed multiple panels. The IE games let you see everything on one panel, but only because they had crippling limits on the number of items we can carry.

And telling items apart in slot inventories is often annoying. NWN2, in particular, was awful.

[dlux]

We can see everything in a single glance? I've played plenty of slot inventories that needed multiple panels. The IE games let you see everything on one panel, but only because they had crippling limits on the number of items we can carry.

It is possible to see your entire inventory at once on screen, it depends on how the developers designed the UI and how many items are in the game. The principal is basically the same though, even with additional tabs/panels. But then let's say 2 or 3 clicks + 2 or 3 glances, depending on the design of the UI.
 
Here, look at this Might and Magic X screenshot. 50 slots and it doesn't even use much screen space. You can even get a companion for an additional 50 slots in MMX, which is opened by clicking on a second tab that appears next to the inventory tab.
 

 

And telling items apart in slot inventories is often annoying. NWN2, in particular, was awful.

I personally thought the inventory in NWN2 was pretty good. I used different tabs for different item types, i.e. one tab for potions, one for equipment, one for ammunition, etc.

The game had so many different item types, it would have been extremely annoying to have to constantly scroll scroll through all of that IMO.

[AlanC9]

The DA inventories automatically sort by type, of course, so doing the sorting yourself is hardly an advantage for NWN 2

[abnocte]

The DA inventory offered different tabs that automatically grouped items by their type ( armor, weapons, miscellaneous, ... ) so the scrolling up/down became minimal.

Not only that, you could sort items by name or newest acquired, so those highligthed new items would appear at the top of the list if you wanted, once again making scrolling up/down innecessary.

 

The only advantatge I see with a slot based inventory is that it makes more obvious how many more items you can carry, besides that lists are a far superior option.