My philosophy is simple: Inventory space has relation with pace of game, immersion and skill.
A game like D3 which has a very fast pace won’t benefit from smaller inventory or stash space, on the contrary - if you make it bigger you’ll observe more participation from players. In D4 that won’t be the case however. Did you watch the gameplay video with Rogue? Have you noticed how slower the pace of combat is compared to D3 and PoE? If you haven’t we can make a study and calculate how many enemies died during the Rogue gameplay and during any random regular D3/PoE session on average.
D3 and PoE are noobish games, especially PoE. Giving infinite stash space there isn’t a problem. It would be a problem for D4 however.
Since most people here share this opinion we can use it as a starting point of the discussion to further specify the margins of that balance.
What we should do is measure the inventory space in D1, D2, D3 and PoE regarding big arsenal (2-handed weapons and armor), agree on the pace of games as a conclusion from the gameplay videos study, draw the relation (Shadout will make the formula so that you’d be fine with it) and finally understand that optimal X value for D4 inventory space. When this happens you’ll see that what I am suggesting is most adequate.
It can contain an object the size of a desk and still allow its user to easily carry it along.
https://modao-zushi.fandom.com/wiki/Qiankun_Bag
A Qiankun bag (乾坤袋, Qiánkūn dài ) is a pouch able to hold more than it appears able to carry. It is used by cultivators to carry large items.
https://martial-world.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Ring
a magic ring with a pocket dimension inside it. With a mere thought, the owner can store items inside it and retrieve them at will. Depending on the novel, there may be some restrictions – for example, the size of the storage space might be limited or the ring might only be capable of storing certain types of items.
In other of the wuxia novels I am reading, in the end, the MC can store an entire mountain worth of items and gold into one unique high-tier magical bag. He even stored a corpse into the bag at one point of the story.
Yes I did. You are basing your assumptions on a pre alpha sneak peek merely made to showcase current progression in the making of D4. This gives no indication of the monster density of the final product or if monster density changes with difficulty or game progression. Drop rates have also not been fully discussed in terms of all drops across across all rarities.
I would be fine with a smaller inventory to begin with, which progressively gets larger throughout the campaign or as your lvl increases or by completing certain tasks/bounties.
I don’t mind stuff like the AD&D 3.5 carrying capacity. This definitly reinforces some roleplay and class archetypes. STR stat increases carrying capacity. Scrawny wizards/sorcs aren’t going to be carrying around as much as big brawny classes with STR mainstat. Unless they find a bag of holding or something. I like that kind of imbalance and roleplay - too many of todays ARPGs just blend the classes into a same-y feel.
There’s also an interesting looting mechanism in Borderlands 3’s Arms Race. Your char in this instanced area is hardcore permadeath - if you pick up a GG rare item, you have to make it to an extraction point without dying first to get the loot out. There’s a lot of tension when you finally get the item you’ve been wanting for a while because if you die before extraction you lose it and have to start over. It’s an interesting model because softcore people not used to this get to experience HC in a limited way and needing to extract builds a tension you don’t usually have in the bland kind of rinse-and-repeat grind of so many ARPGs. It breaks up that monotony a bit.
Doesnt seem far-fetched that a wizard who can bend time, throw fireballs and what not, can figure out how to make their backpack weight less.
Yeah, I would love to see that kind of gameplay in dungeons.
Doesnt need extremely limited inventory space to create such experiences.
In general, end-game dungeons should come with all kinds of different randomized modes.
One might require you to survive all the way through the dungeon, to keep any items you found.
Another might force you to choose between two paths, leading to two different bosses and two different rewards (like, the game shows you that boss A will drop some item with +fire resist, while boss B will drop some item with +cold resist).
Agreed. And looks like D4 team’s keyed dungeons are not changing “modes of play”. They’re only changing types of monsters in the instance, magic find %, the kinds of items that drop etc.
D3 definitely has an issue with rifts/GRifts being a bit monotonous so anything D4 can do to mix up modes of play would be great. For people that like PvP they could even do a keyed instance in which invasions occur similar to Dark Souls or Bloodborne etc. Those kinds of keys might only drop in the PvP dedicated areas. Dark Souls got so much mileage out of that invasion concept along with covenants where different groups of players were sworn enemies of other groups etc. The tension that’s there when you’re invaded knowing you have to make it to the boss door and you have no idea when the invader will attack or where they are…
They could also give the reasoning of “horses saddlebags” as The Witcher 3 does, now that there are mounts. Only issue with being “realistic” there is that it teleports things to your mount essentially. They could have the horse come to you, but that would be annoying pretty quickly I think. I know it still was not realistic, but at least with Diablo 2 style Tetris inventory, it mattered what the size of items were and you were not carrying this obscene amount that becomes a total chore to go through when you get back into town. It emphasizes every piece of loot you pickup, instead of being a pile of worthless items you salvage in bulk.
In Diablo 2? You would maybe do that for a few areas, but after a while, you would definitely start being more picky about what items you take with you.
It’s not like Diablo 3, in which you don’t care at all what junk is in your inventory.
To be honest the last time I played Diablo 3 I ignored a lot of the loot just because it was inefficient on time to pick up everything, and I very quickly reached a point where I didn’t need more crafting materials from what I was going to get picking up everything.
I do agree that Diablo 2 feels better, but no Diablo game do you just pick up everything without a care about what’s in your inventory.
Or at least, not if you’re being efficient about looting.
