Quote Originally Posted by Talraen View Post
The server doesn't know where your item is, so it has to search blindly. In a bag with 140 items, assuming you have one stack of the item, it's going to have to load an average of 70 items to find the one you need. (And note, sorting is on the client side, so you can't assume the data is orderly at all on the server side.) If you use one item, that's better on average. If you use a second item, you're breaking even on average. Use more than that and you're behind. Even loading all 140 slots the first time you use any item is a much more efficient method. Loading them all up front is far better than either method for a variety of reasons.
Indexes and fast search algorithms exist for just that. If they're simply doing a linear scan on your entire inventory when you search for one item specifically, then there's really no hope for the technical end of things. That said, getting your whole inventory makes the most sense because it can be done once, and searches after that can be done client side, where it's going to be blazing fast. (That's how the search feature in the game right now works.)

There's lots of reasons why loading the entire inventory client side is a good idea. It just doesn't need to be resynced constantly.

This is all true, but it's been true since 2.0 launched (to say nothing of 1.0's intensely less convenient inventory system). They aren't "adding complexity," and nothing is getting worse. In fact, between the extra 40 inventory slots and the stack size increase, you can hold many more items for crafting than you used to be able to.

So yes, it could be better, but the idea that it's going to do harm to the game when it's exactly the same as it's always been is a reach.
Leaving it the same when the rest of the market is advancing is effectively falling farther behind. The landscape today isn't what it was when 2.0 launched, and the less said about 1.0 the better. Improvements that reduce server load would open up a lot of options for them for advancements going forward beyond just better inventory systems, although those would be nice too.

Saying "it was good enough in 2014 so it's good enough in 2018" doesn't really hold water in the gaming industry.