Inventory Sorting "Alternative"

[Pyremes]

I think one reason why people feel that the inventory is so small is because they can't pick up very much stuff before the inventory is full. One MAJOR reason that contributes to this is the way that Titan Quest puts items in your inventory when you pick it up. As far as I can tell, Titan Quest scans from the top row down, putting items as left as it can on the first row it encounters with available space. So, something like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 0 1 2

The problem is, putting in just six "2 by x" items will fill up the top half. This leaves a long, thing strip of space, which I think feels like less area than a more square bit of area. Also, once you've filled up the top, it's unlikely that you'll be able to pick up any item that is 4 squares high.

So, my proposed suggestion is to instead scan from left column to right column, finding the first column with sufficient space, and placing items as far up as possible. This would result in a placement like this:

1 3 5 7 9 1
2 4 6 8 0 2

Which would not only "feel" more compact as it fills up, but would also allow you to pick up x by 4 items. I think a simple switch like this would cause the inventory to last 50-100% longer before manual rearranging needs to be done.


That said, sorting the inventory shouldn't be too hard from a programming standpoint, unless you've got your inventory set up in some weird way. From left to right, place largest to smallest items. For instance, (2x2 and 2x3 to fill up 2x5 squares), followed by 2x4 and 1x4 items, followed by 2x2 ,1x2, and 1x3 items. After that, it's just a matter of plugging up the holes with the 1x1 items, from left to right. Also, if a sorting WERE ever to be included, only sort the inventory, not the backpacks!

Which brings me to one final question. Are potions stored in the backpacks accessible via hotkey? I would eventually like to be able to store potions in a background backpack tab, such that they don't take up valuable inventory space that I need to pick up temporary items. It would also be nice in case we have a sorting algorithm, as I like to keep my potions all bunched up, and the sort would end up sticking the potions everywhere it thinks will fit...

[Gorkk]

For the sorting suggestion: I second that. That's something I had mentionned in another thread after demo release (but much less clear though, example with number is nice).
Of course that would not remove completely the need of an autosort button and/or an "intelligent" inventory (eg. moves automaticaly the items to fit the new ones if there's enough space available), but would greatly reduce the hassle of sorting the inventory to pick new things.


Regarding the potions: potions in your backpack are automaticaly assigned to the "health potions" and "energy potions" hotkeys ("R" and "E" with default settings). You can as well put them on the 1 - 0 hotkeys as well (and by default you have health on "9" and energy on "0" as well). There's no differenciation between lesser, normal or bigger potions though, not sure how it decide to use this or that potion (usualy it seems to use lesser potions, but it happened that he used a bigger potion while having plenty of lesser left, so don't know).

[Pyremes]

By backpack, I was referring to the extra 3 backpack tabs that you get, not the main inventory itself. I just wanted to make sure that potions in your backpack tabs are still accessible via the hotkeys.

[Alkaidia]

Originally Posted by Gorkk

There's no differenciation between lesser, normal or bigger potions though, not sure how it decide to use this or that potion (usualy it seems to use lesser potions, but it happened that he used a bigger potion while having plenty of lesser left, so don't know).

I believe in the Questions to developers thread it is said that the game uses the smallest potion that it can well still filling up your health all the way. That would be why it normally uses lesser healing potions yet will sometimes use a larger one, (though I'm not sure if I have ever had it use a larger one with my hunter).

By the way. I also second the idea for sorting the backpack in columns. That is exactly what I had been thinking needed to be done, too.

Thanks
Alkaidia

[Switchblade]

It really doesn't take that long to sort your inventory, hell, if you only pick up stuff _worth_ selling, you don't have to do it that often anyway. There was no autosorting in D2 and it was not missed at all. I like having to open up inventory and think of clever ways to fit things in, it also makes it interesting in multiplyer when there are a few players racing to pick up an item. You can get pretty skilled at sorting ur inv to make the right amount of space.

Maybe I am the only one who thinks this though

Peace

[Arangar]

I agree with switchblade. I think this is only disturbing in the beginning of the game, because that is when you still pick up all the crap you can find. Picking up common items (white) after something like lvl 10 just isnt worth it anymore. From that point on you will only carry items better then common, and since they will drop alot less, you can go alot longer with the same inventoy before heading back to town.
And since all those items have special stats, you will be in your inventory alot, just snooping around :P, and like switchblade said, its just fun to organize your items at that point.

[~V~]

Inventory sorting is definately something we are looking to improve in the future - possibly in a patch. As Arangar pointed out it is more essential in the beginning when players tend to pick up everything to get their cash flow started. However, three hours into the game most players will find that the return on investment for carting white items back to the merchant is really low and players will start to focus only on the more valuable items. At that point the inventory management becomes much more managable.

[Gorkk]

Originally Posted by Pyremes

By backpack, I was referring to the extra 3 backpack tabs that you get, not the main inventory itself. I just wanted to make sure that potions in your backpack tabs are still accessible via the hotkeys.

Don't worry, the potions hotkeys link to all the potions in your inventory + backpack (and when puting potions in 1 - 0 hotbar, you'll get the number of potions of that type you have).

Arangar >> it's a pain to have to move all your pots/charms/rings/amulets that ended up using all the width of your inventory to put a single new item when you still have most your inventory free, thing that we would much less have with vertical sorting and only then horizontal, instead of horizontal and then vertical

~V~ >> good to know you're looking into it. Wouldn't it be possible to simply change the way it's ordered (from horizontal to vertical) for release version, while looking for more inventory management (auto-sort button and so on) for a patch? 'cause having items fitting verticaly first instead of horizontaly first would change alot for players

[Blackjack]

FWIW, some of the medicore to bad Diablo clones I've played or tried (Space Hack and Restricted area come to mind) had a simple "rearrange inventory" button that would let you quickly rearrange the items in inventory (I never figured out if there was any rhyme or reason or if it just randomly rearranged stuff). Usually a couple button presses would get stuff more neatly arranged leaving more room.

[Pyremes]

I definitely don't mind sorting things myself, but I'd prefer to only have to start rearranging when the inventory's actually pretty full already, instead of maybe less than half full (which then feels like a waste of time, rather than clever inventory rearranging). The swapped "sort-on-pickup" order would take care of most of these problems.

I honestly don't really care about an autosort that much, but it seems like a lot of people want it, which is why I brought it up in my post. I'd be content with just the swapped "sort-on-pickup" order.