Inventory Interface, Management, and Additional View Options

[ZhangoSqu]

Please consider improving the inventory management interface after release. Adding additional views for inventory management (e.g. a List View) and other management options would greatly improve the user interface and player interactions with their inventory. I will try to keep a list of suggestions compiled in this thread.

Inventory sorting, and auto-stacking has been mentioned as having a lot of synergy with one another, so I reference the two together below. There are a lot of great suggestions, in the thread below.

Also, as much as is possible any suggestions here would ideally apply to the armory, retainers, and free company chests if not explicitly specified).

We've had a couple of responses from community reps! Please find Camate's responses here: #15, #32, #61.

Inventory Management Features - Request for Comments/Consideration

1. A list view of a character's inventory, in addition to bag views. (see #2)
2. Sort and auto-stack items in your inventory that are stackable (but may not currently be stacked). (see #3, #8)
3. A unified (one-big-bag) view of a character's inventory. (NB: I believe this is also in development from previous posts in the beta forums) (see: no source)
4. Bulk inventory item transfers to-and-from retainers (see: Map, Inventory, and Bulk Item Transfers)
5. Add tabs to a retainer's inventory to allow for specific item types to be dumped en masse into the retainer. (see #4)
6. Inventory search (see: #8)
7. Make the retainer's inventory accessible during crafting (see: #17)
8. Create dedicated collections for items by type (or purpose) that makes it very easy to find what you're looking for on your retainer, similar to how the armory handles it's dedicated slots for equipment (see: #24)
9. Detachable bags to easily swap between retainer and character (see: #24)
10. Show the quantity of items in tooltip in your inventory and retainers (see: #47)
11. Infinite inventory (see: #49)

NB: While I don't necessarily endorse every suggestion, and as the list grows I think it will be more difficult to find any two players who agree on all things in the list, I feel it is important to list all of the ideas that are presented here.

[ZhangoSqu]

A case for the list view, during the beta phases of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn we saw a dramatic difference in how our inventory was presented to us from past Final Fantasy games (both online and offline). In A Realm Reborn, our inventory is modeled by bags. Like others, I have found that while OK, the bag system is not as convenient for quickly understanding what I have in my inventory, not as much as a list would be.

[Jinko]

A case for the list view, during the beta phases of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn we saw a dramatic difference in how our inventory was presented to us from past Final Fantasy games (both online and offline). In A Realm Reborn, our inventory is modeled by bags. Like others, I have found that while OK, the bag system is not as convenient for quickly understanding what I have in my inventory, not as much as a list would be.

1) Although not against the idea of a list view, I definately feel that when a sort feature is implemented there will be less confusion to what each item is, hopefully similar items (such as lumber or wood) will be stacked together so a quick fly over of the mosue cursor will tell you what is what.)

The big problem with the current inventory bag system and this is especially true for retainers is that similar items (such as Lumber or wood) are strewn about all over the place and they all have the same icon.

I can fully understand the want for a list view though if that is what you are used to. (I think they did say it was being worked on or looked into, but that was quite some time ago)

2) I believe auto stacking and sorting should be the same feature, when sorting the items should be auto stacked and arranged by type/level etc.

5) Agreed, I like the idea of being able to name tabs on a retainer, I would go even one step further and allow us to sub name our retainers (or show the tab names in the retainers list before selecting them) so we can assign what we use them for.

Example <retainer 1 name> (WVR/LTW/BTN/CRP), <retainer 2 name> (MIN/ALC/BSM/GSM/ARM), this way it would be easy to know which items are stored on which retainer.

[ZhangoSqu]

A case for auto-stacking items that are in different slots would help immensely. Even if I have, for some reason as a player, split a stack of potions into two slots e.g. 12 Potions and 5 Potions, it would be nice for a button or context menu that says "Stack Inventory" that will automatically go through and find stackable items in different slots and perform the stack operation for me.

[Felindras]

I think it would a great addition to be able to designate retainer tabs for specific item types. This way it would be a quick way to dump mining materials off when I have already designated a tab on retainer #1 for mining. Doesn't seem like a far fetched idea when nearly everything is already classified by a category anyway. It would also be beneficial to be able to drop items off on a retainer into the current tab selected rather than it defaulting to the first available slot.

[ZhangoSqu]

I think it would a great addition to be able to designate retainer tabs for specific item types.

I've been impressed with a number of the solutions that ArenaNET had with Guild Wars 2, and save for that game and Final Fantasy XIV I had been absent from the MMO world for a long time, so possibly other games do this as well. Their notion of "collectibles" which had one slot for every item type that you could deposit with the click of a button was a great feature. While it may not work in Final Fantasy XIV, I think your idea of designating tabs or collection slots on a retainer (similar to the way the armory works possibly) is a great compromise and would be invaluable for some players! Thanks for the suggestion, I'll add it to the master list.

[supreme]

i would prefer a list based inventory to with names , because hovering over 15 different kind of logs to see what log type it is isnt very efficient

[EmmaSwan]

Love the ideas so far, here's a few to add from me:

• Inventory Search - start typing and items that fit that search pattern show up. Not just by name, but things like "armor", "rare", etc.
• Related to search, maybe a dropdown to filter only specific types of items to show - weapons, armor, consumables, crafting materials, dyes, etc.
• Sorting should have several different criteria, by level, type, name, rarity, etc.
• It seems given, but in case it's not clear, sort should not only auto-sort and auto-stack, it should remove any 'gaps' in your inventory as well.
• All of the suggestions here should apply to the Armoury Chest as well.

As someone mentioned already, as I read and type these, it sounds like we want a lot of GW2's inventory features!

[Meebo]

Nice ideas but all I want is a button that just sorts by the default method. There is already a setting in the options to sort the inventory but that seems to only work on drops on mobs. A simple Sort button would help to keep the inventory clean.

[Tiraelina]

At this point I just want the big single bag for retainers and my own inventory. Shifting stuff around and needing to flip through tabs gets old, fast.