Please, no more inventory slots...

[polyphonica]

Inventory management in this game is a joke. The glamour dresser is the worst implementation I've ever seen of a transmog system and I don't get why they did it this way. [...] The popularity isn't going to last forever if they keep adding needless complexity to very easily solved problems.

Basically, they did it this way because they can build it on-top of what they already have without risking breaking things. It took WoW years and years before they could finally implement the current transmog system, precisely because it wasn't very easily-solved (as they explained; they brought in people from the D3 team to help them figure it out). I mean, the design of what's wanted is simple, but the implementation is complex if your game, its database, and its netcode wasn't built for that from the start.

It's the same with all the inventory systems they've added; they're basically band-aids to give people a more capacity while respecting the fundamental limitations of the game's current coding. Because of how fundamental something like inventory is to the basic functioning of the game, a full rewrite would be a massive undertaking. Maybe some day they'll have to do it anyway, but it's very high risk.

[Souljacker]

Basically, they did it this way because they can build it on-top of what they already have without risking breaking things. It took WoW years and years before they could finally implement the current transmog system, precisely because it wasn't very easily-solved (as they explained; they brought in people from the D3 team to help them figure it out). I mean, the design of what's wanted is simple, but the implementation is complex if your game, its database, and its netcode wasn't built for that from the start.

It's the same with all the inventory systems they've added; they're basically band-aids to give people a more capacity while respecting the fundamental limitations of the game's current coding. Because of how fundamental something like inventory is to the basic functioning of the game, a full rewrite would be a massive undertaking. Maybe some day they'll have to do it anyway, but it's very high risk.

I'd give them a pass on it if this was a brand new mmo, fresh out of the gates with growing pains, but it's not. It's the second iteration of the first failed attempt after over a decade of developing a different mmo that had the same exact problems. So, it's not like they didn't see this coming and didn't have literally decades of experience both their own and other developers' to draw from.

Why is everyone so quick to give them a free pass on bad systems? It's a bad system.

One thing SE has going for them is there is a small minority that will literally defend anything they do.

[basketofseals]

I'd give them a pass on it if this was a brand new mmo, fresh out of the gates with growing pains, but it's not. It's the second iteration of the first failed attempt after over a decade of developing a different mmo that had the same exact problems. So, it's not like they didn't see this coming and didn't have literally decades of experience both their own and other developers' to draw from.

I don't know why you're phrasing the absolute failure of 1.0 like it was some positive opportunity that they missed out on.

When 1.0 sank faster than a lead brick, SE did not look at it as a little mistake that they could learn a lot from. It was a huge mistake. Potentially as big as Spirits Within, and maybe it was even worse than that. It was a main, numbered part of their flagship series, and it was universally reviled. It was all hands on deck. Throw everything out and hold on preciously to whatever was worth saving. Break out the popsicle sticks and hot glue because there isn't even time to wait for the proper materials to come in. The repair job needs to start now. The entire company essentially went into hibernation trying to fix this broken mess.

There wasn't time to create a new engine while thinking about your future plans. This is supposed to be done before you start a massive project like this, but SE didn't have that luxury. We all know it's a bad engine, SE included. We also know there's no point saying "well they shouldn't have done this" to a mistake that happened over 8 years ago. The fact that they threw out their entire dev team speaks for itself. We're also realistic enough in realizing that any significant change to the game engine like this is going to take a significant amount of time.

[KisaiTenshi]

It's the second iteration of the first failed attempt after over a decade of developing a different mmo that had the same exact problems.

Inventory management is something that is not an easy thing to deal with in a MMO, because you have an entire chain-of-custody issue to deal with. "gold dupe" bugs happen by intentionally crashing the server to invoke rollback bugs caused by holding onto the inventory items.

So for each item you have, the game server has to verify that you in fact have that item. Just to switch two items positions is not a simple matter of "put item in A in B and item B in A's slot", the game has to actually make sure that item A and Item B exist, that you have them, that you have at least a stack of "1" of them, that you aren't currently moving it from the retainer, chocobo bag, or dragging it to/from any of the number of ways to sell or dispose of the item. This is also why when you dismiss the retainer after selling items, they are gone, and why you can't buy back items after you leave the zone. Every time you switch zones, the game client completely reloads all the data for the zone, and the server presumably saves your character to disk, unloads them from the zone you exited, and then loads your character back up in the new zone and the game client has to reload everything.

The only thing they could really do to fix inventory is by progressively removing things that are stored in the main inventory areas. Like the "glamour dresser" could be an easy way to dispose of all gear that you don't need since it can be retrieved later now. Just make it unlimited. There is no reason not to.

Realisticly the only stuff that should be in the players inventory are consumables. There should be no quest items, no raid "tokens", no relic gear progress markers, no untradeables/unsellables. When a player goes into a duty, none of this stuff but consumables and maybe a spare set of gear should be available. The rest of that space should be for picking up loot. If I can not use it in a dungeon instance, it should not be in the inventory.

[Felis]

I'd give them a pass on it if this was a brand new mmo, fresh out of the gates with growing pains, but it's not. It's the second iteration of the first failed attempt after over a decade of developing a different mmo that had the same exact problems. So, it's not like they didn't see this coming and didn't have literally decades of experience both their own and other developers' to draw from.

Do you remember the old inventory from 1.0?
Compared to that the ARR inventory is a breeze

[Skivvy]

Do you remember the old inventory from 1.0?
Compared to that the ARR inventory is a breeze

Being slightly better than a horrific system isn't something to brag about though.