Inventory UI

[Fuzi0n]

I think that quest items should be handled just like regular items. Let me figure out myself if they are important or not. If it seems to be special or something, then I can always stash it somewhere until I find the quest giver.

This might be interesting too: Maybe quest items need to be identified (unidentified items might be highlighted in the inventory in some way) and can only be identified by the quest giver. So you would probably hang on to the item until you find the quest giver.

A clue in the item description would also be helpful, something like: "I have never seen something like this before, but it looks pretty valuable". If you have a quest to find this item, then you can replace that text with: "This is Farmer Bob's lucky gold plated brahmin hoof. He asked me kill the super mutants who stole it and return it to him".

[Drool]

Nooo. The Skyrim approach is bad, since it screws up your 'All Items' menu but good.

Ah. I never use "all items", but I can see your point.

[Hasenklein]

As for the slots, I found it somewhat difficult in JA2 (1.13) to decide which item can be assigned to which kind of slot.

To solve the problem, I'd suggest to use different background colors for different kind of slots (and, of course, the items in the pool), or to highlight the corresponding slot once the mouse cursor is moved over the item in question.

[suz]

As for the slots, I found it somewhat difficult in JA2 (1.13) to decide which item can be assigned to which kind of slot.

Agreed, I found the whole backpack managing in JA1.13 way too tedious.

IMO if there are hardpoints then a standard set of hardpoints for armor/weapon/ammo/grenades + 2-3 generic hardpoints for everything that can't be defined in it's own slot - medkits, repair kits, electronic/lockpicks will be just fine.

I don't really want to manage which pocket type the ranger has and where they should put that long P90 magazine.

[Canageek]

Nooo. The Skyrim approach is bad, since it screws up your 'All Items' menu but good.

Ah. I never use "all items", but I can see your point.

I tried to build a spredhseet of weight/gold ratio for looting, was too much work so I went with just of loot items.

[Canageek]

As for the slots, I found it somewhat difficult in JA2 (1.13) to decide which item can be assigned to which kind of slot.

To solve the problem, I'd suggest to use different background colours for different kind of slots (and, of course, the items in the pool), or to highlight the corresponding slot once the mouse cursor is moved over the item in question.

As long as you can also suggest a way to make it work for colour blind people. Different shaped slots might work.

[Hasenklein]

As long as you can also suggest a way to make it work for colour blind people. Different shaped slots might work.

I do not know how color blindness actually translates into visual reality. If colors are perceived as different tones of grey, it'd be best to use movement as a cue, and in this context movement is realized best by making the slot (background) slightly blinking (or by making the item and the respective slots blinking).

Differently shaped slots might work, but I think color and/or movements work faster.

[BlackGauntlet]

As for the slots, I found it somewhat difficult in JA2 (1.13) to decide which item can be assigned to which kind of slot.

To solve the problem, I'd suggest to use different background colours for different kind of slots (and, of course, the items in the pool), or to highlight the corresponding slot once the mouse cursor is moved over the item in question.

As long as you can also suggest a way to make it work for colour blind people. Different shaped slots might work.

You're not asking this for the CRPG Addict, are you?

[Canageek]

As for the slots, I found it somewhat difficult in JA2 (1.13) to decide which item can be assigned to which kind of slot.

To solve the problem, I'd suggest to use different background colours for different kind of slots (and, of course, the items in the pool), or to highlight the corresponding slot once the mouse cursor is moved over the item in question.

As long as you can also suggest a way to make it work for colour blind people. Different shaped slots might work.

You're not asking this for the CRPG Addict, are you?

Hah. Not specifically. My first encounter with this was Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2008/04/color-blind-gamers-common-developer-awareness-minimal/
However, seeing Chet's problems with some of the games that use red-green only does keep it in mind. He isn't the only one I know with colour troubles though; I can think of at least one other person with colour blindness (Not sure if green-red or full).

Note the stats in the article: 8% of men have some form of colourblindness, mostly red-green. This indicates that it shouldn't be too hard to find someone with it to look at some screenshots or UI demo to test it.

For comparison: 8% is the same % of men as are left handed. Scale for the male:female ratio and you get over 4% of the population being colour blind. Wasteland 2 got 61,290 backers on Kickstarter. That means, best case scenario (Half backers female); 2451.6 backers will have some form of colour-blindness. If all the backers were male 4903.2 would have some form of colour blindness. That seems to be a large enough number for them to consider the impact of colour on the UI.

Note: The Ars Technica article has some advice on how to fix it (Allow user-customization of the exact colours or add textures, shapes or patterns. For example, adding stripes to a flag. Shapes seem an obvious way, or you could have big Xs across slots you can't put an item into when you pick it up. Or differently patterned boarders around each item type.)

[Woolfe]

You're not asking this for the CRPG Addict, are you?

Hah. Not specifically. My first encounter with this was Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2008/04/color-blind-gamers-common-developer-awareness-minimal/
However, seeing Chet's problems with some of the games that use red-green only does keep it in mind. He isn't the only one I know with colour troubles though; I can think of at least one other person with colour blindness (Not sure if green-red or full).

Note the stats in the article: 8% of men have some form of colourblindness, mostly red-green. This indicates that it shouldn't be too hard to find someone with it to look at some screenshots or UI demo to test it.

For comparison: 8% is the same % of men as are left handed. Scale for the male:female ratio and you get over 4% of the population being colour blind. Wasteland 2 got 61,290 backers on Kickstarter. That means, best case scenario (Half backers female); 2451.6 backers will have some form of colour-blindness. If all the backers were male 4903.2 would have some form of colour blindness. That seems to be a large enough number for them to consider the impact of colour on the UI.

Note: The Ars Technica article has some advice on how to fix it (Allow user-customization of the exact colours or add textures, shapes or patterns. For example, adding stripes to a flag. Shapes seem an obvious way, or you could have big Xs across slots you can't put an item into when you pick it up. Or differently patterned boarders around each item type.)

I am Red-Green colourblind (which also affects brown of course, which is one reason why I want a non brown wasteland )

For me generally so long as the colours aren't too similar, and there is enough of a difference in tone, you can tell. But I know others who are worse than me, and for them having patterns is one of the simplest and effective ways to assist.

[Hasenklein]

For me generally so long as the colours aren't too similar, and there is enough of a difference in tone, you can tell. But I know others who are worse than me, and for them having patterns is one of the simplest and effective ways to assist.

I disagree that in the context of Inventory UI a pattern works faster than blinking. If there's a pattern, people need to compare which takes time and cognitive effort. Blinking fields or items, however, immediately catch the watcher's attention. It simply works faster and practically needs no cognitive effort.

[snakeoil]

i liked the resident evil 4 suitcase interface, where everything took some space and you sometime had to puzzle a bit to put everything inside, just check some tube vid if you dont know it.

[Altercation]

Is playing Tetris to manage your inventory fun? No.

[Woolfe]

For me generally so long as the colours aren't too similar, and there is enough of a difference in tone, you can tell. But I know others who are worse than me, and for them having patterns is one of the simplest and effective ways to assist.

I disagree that in the context of Inventory UI a pattern works faster than blinking. If there's a pattern, people need to compare which takes time and cognitive effort. Blinking fields or items, however, immediately catch the watcher's attention. It simply works faster and practically needs no cognitive effort.

Sure, whatever floats your boat. It wasn't an argument, simply an observation on what I observe (being red green colour blind) and what I have observed in a friend who is even worse than me.

Is playing Tetris to manage your inventory fun? No.

Doesn't bother me that much in all honesty.

[suz]

Doesn't bother me that much in all honesty.

It does bother some people apparently... Since I'm one of the some...

[snakeoil]

it wasnt like tetris, but once your suitcase filled up you had to organize the stuff which was quite fun and added a nice feel for your stuff. in a postapocalyptic world you wont run around with tons of stuff anyway.

[Canageek]

it wasnt like tetris, but once your suitcase filled up you had to organize the stuff which was quite fun and added a nice feel for your stuff. in a postapocalyptic world you wont run around with tons of stuff anyway.

This is the same system as a number of other games. Desus Ex, Dungeon Siege, Arcanum, probably a few dozen others. I don't hate it, but do find it annoying, as I constantly have to manage my loot, and it forces me to split what I'm holding among lots of people, instead of having one person be the scrolls guy, one person the junk to sell guy, one person the spare weapons girl, etc.

[Sub-Human]

I don't hate it, but do find it annoying, as I constantly have to manage my loot...

Well, Arcanum did have a button which let you organize your loot vertically or horizontally. In my opinion, with a few tweaks here and there, it could be just perfect.

[suz]

Well, Arcanum did have a button which let you organize your loot vertically or horizontally. In my opinion, with a few tweaks here and there, it could be just perfect.

DX:HR also had it, it not only made only the looting portion boring, it also messed up everything all over and you had to re-find stuff you want to use, the only redeeming quality of tetris in DX:HR - it had very few items.

Arcanum had shitloads of useful items, and the tetris "challenge" gone from "challenging" to "waste of time and boredom" at about the second time you've got inventory filled and you had to hunt and peck what to drop(because icons there hardly represent the item, even at endgame when you're familiar with some item graphics, in addition to the fact it randomly messed up item order as it pleased).

I hope WL2 will have lots of useful items, and inventory screen that's worth opening for something other than picking a different gun, but at the same time go with the less annoying weight-inventory rather than tetris play.

[Harpo]

I'm not against a weight restricted inventory system. But what bugs me a lot is when they enable you to carry somewhat 200 pounds with ease.That's not very restricting at all.

If they choose weight restriction I'd suggest they lower the limit to at least the 100 pounds region.