Again you are correct, you don’t need Tetris to get good artwork. But from watching the D4 demo’s one armor piece went in one slot, the artwork was tiny. A rings takes up the same space as a cuirass - so it’s a matter of QOL (more space) vs more realism. D3 uses 2 spaces for most gear, is using 1 space for all gear an improvement? My opinion is no, Inventory Tetris was a little game within a bigger game (for me).
Some QOL I like, some I don’t.
But, I respect your opinion, we just diverge on this one.
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I mean its always going to be inherently unrealistic. Classic RPG’s always had penalties for being encumbered in regards to carrying too much. I definitely do NOT want anything like that back but I do think its on the opposite end of realistic when as someone else said your heaviest plate armor is the same size as the jewelry
Ew no. Over weight in an arpg is a death sentence. F that
I hear ya. Like I said, though, if we’re gonna insist on inventory management being some sort of hassle, though, that’d be my preferred poison.
Inventory Tetris only makes sense if it matters to how you are playing the game. Take the original Deus Ex for example. Everything in your inventory is what you are using. You may want to pick up that shiny new GEP Gun but if your inventory is almost full you have to weigh the utility of using it verses giving up something. Even then, I’d prefer to have the inventory as a list rather than a grid (i.e. you only have so many slots to fill so the balance is placed more on what you want to use rather than can you fit it in).
If your inventory is primarily temporary storage, having to constantly rearrange items is, well, stupid. There’s no reason to make it a jigsaw puzzle when all you’re doing is deciding what to use, put in permanent storage for later, or sell/convert. Heck, I’d still rather just have a listing of the inventory in this case instead of a grid. It would be much easier to sort, filter, and evaluate. You can even include a nice pretty picture by the item if that’s what tickles your fancy.
Its not about realism its about authenticity
When you look at d2 inventory you see, ok theres an armor, a bow, a belt
When you look at d3 inventory you see, theres generic stuff, ima just sell everything but green and orange
You dont get a feeling for the items
They are just colors to you
Weapons of the same type in many different time periods have different sizes. Not all spear weapons will be the same exact size. Swords, axes, maces, etc… all had various sizes and shapes. Shields also had a variety of sizes and shapes.
As far as I am concerned I don’t need to see a picture of the armor in the inventory. Seeing it on the character is more than enough for me. The same is true for weapons. Now any piece of gear that is not shown on the character then that piece of gear does need to be seen either in the inventory or better on the character.
While the inventory can take one slot to hold the piece. If on the character it takes as many as needed to be seen then it is okay by me.
Where I get the feel of the items is when I see them on the character either directly on the character or on the character screen where you move items form the inventory to the character.
Imagine if we had to play actual tetris… not just rectangles, but also the L, Z, and T shapes.
hahaahah lol
now that would be too much 
And the point is? A ring (1 slot) isn’t half size of a dagger (2 slots) but that is better than have both with the same size. Like i said before, there are degrees of realism, and maybe a game does all the weapons with the right size, but is better to be less realistic but keep some difference than not be realistic at all and put them like in a list or something like that.
Someone mention Borderlands before, that use 1 slot for each item. And that is nice, the items look great there, but the con is that you need to scroll down the list to see all the items. In an inventory like the one of previous diablo games, the adventage is that you can see all items you have at once (i am talking of the inventory/bag and not the stash).
That is a personal taste, and is great, but other people won’t like the same things. I like to see things in the character too but it could be that in the old games the characters didn’t change much (or at all) so the look of the item in the inventory was more important.
But there must be a consistency, if one item must look better on the inventory, then all should.
Supplies are indeed smaller than command centers.
It’s not about solely realism, but also about immersion.
Music in games is not realistic either, but it adds to immersion. Because things like an atmosphere can only be expressed through an other media, and through an other language.
So yes Tetris inventory absolutely makes sense for both an additional layer of management and for immersion.
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As long as I can see them on the character along with the character window I am fine having them take up whatever amount of slots they take up in the inventory (bag or stash)
The D3 inventory is bland, everything is the same, nothing stands out. I love the look of the D2 inventory and would like a return of tetris. But if nothing else at least give us large detailed art when you mouse over objects.
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If it’s tetris inventory like Grim Dawn then I don’t mind. You can earn one extra inventory bag per act, there is autosorting, and the space can almost never be used up. If there is one inventory bag like D2 then sorry I’ll pass. People shouldn’t feel too restricted on how much loot they can pick up per hunt.
I’m not sure I agree that it’s better. I know a lot of people say that tetris is for the sake of immersion, but when I place a ring and a dagger into a container, I’m not moving the ring around to get the dagger even with the rest of the inventory in real life.
Any sense of immersion with the inventory is shot directly out the window anyway when you realize you can carry multiple cuirass, greaves and polearms in the same ‘pack’ without detriment to combat. And this is not to say I think that it should be so immersive that it causes issues. I just think that inventory management should be one of the last things on their priority list, and my personal preference is to make UI elements as friendly to the user as possible.
People that no longer play Diablo 2 and used to likely don’t play anymore because of the archaic design. Tetris, stamina, the resolution, stiff controls.
Maybe its even more important for the devs than for the players
To control themselves in terms of loot rain^^
I too believe that the D3 inventory system is weird. If you are going to decouple the inventory space from the item’s size, you should go all the way through, and have all items take 1 space, not 2 for some 1 for others.
Inventory tetris feels a lot better than the Diablo 3 system, and may be a way to go, but you could also go removing item size altogether, having inventory either as a rectangle (or multiple if you want to allow inventory tabs) containing 1-square items (in which case, keep the image of items in inventory as simple and clear as possible), or as a list through which to scroll. From there, you can add a weight or encumbrance system if you feel it fits the game, but don’t have to.
Either way, Diablo 3’s 2-slot system feels the worst of all worlds.
I think Tetris is a misnomer actually, the idea is to show that a cuirass takes more inventory room than a ring.
I think the drop rate in D4 is going to be reduced, so I think going back to town many times will be less of an issue.
Maybe a good middle ground is to limit the inventory on your character but increase it on the saddlebags on your horse.
Increasing saddlebag space reduces trips to town and adds to immersion (if that’s your thing). Should reflect (more or less) both opinions on inventory management in the field.
One of the unknowns is when you actually get a horse in game.
Is it tied to a quest - Tied to saving up gold, or a level, don’t know this yet.
I would love that, and to make it easier they could put them together in the character’s inventory: once you get the mount the bag expand.
But like you said, we don’t know how we get it and don’t know how it works. I guess is something you can just summon or something like that.
It isn’t only about immersion, it is also about to have more realistic proportions (even if won’t be 100% real), and also to have a better visualization of the items: this is important to know (with just look at an item) if it is something important, if is something you don’t want to lose by accident, which is a lot easier if the items are small.
Yes, will never be 100% real, bcs the bags don’t work like real bags (are 2D instead of 3D) and if we carry a realistic amount of items the travels to town would be annoying. In reality people used wagons to carry all the stuff, and a bag is a way to simulate that. Like @Bovie suggedted, maybe they could use the mount, now we have one.
In The Witcher 3, it was just added to your total - that was a weight limit mind you, but can be converted to added space easily enough. So you didn’t have to go find Roach (the horse) every time you picked something up.
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