Inventory space has been a hotly debated topic for several expansions, and it continues to this day. There have been many innovations (such as the collection tab) that have helped freeing up a lot of bag space over the years, but inventories remain cluttered for many players. Perhaps it’s time to make some new innovations?
Bag Slots
One suggestion that often pops up is simply adding more bag slots - which I think would go a long way! The largest bags are starting to grow large enough that adding a single bag slot would probably alleviate all of your inventory struggles for a good while. This could also be done for the banks, adding an eight, ninth or even tenth bag slot would massively increase your bank capacity.
The Base Bag
The four extra bag slots from having an authenticator is a good start, but the base bag is still quite small. Perhaps having the ability to upgrade it with gold or some other currencies would be a neat way to allow us to make it bigger?
Void Storage Still Exists
Hey, does anyone actually still use the void storage? Do people even remember it still exists? For the uninitiated, the void storage was added as a way for players to store transmogs in to transmog them without having to have the item in your bags while transmogging, before the transmog collection was added. It costs a bit of gold to put items into it and take them out of it, and you can only put soulbound non-unique items into it. It’s not particularly useful by modern standards, but perhaps it could be revamped or have some quality of life changes to it.
Reagent Bank
I love the reagent bank, but I also keep filling it up because I’m a hoarder that keeps deluding themself that “I will make use of it some day!” to justify not putting it on the auction house. As a result, my reagent banks on my different characters have distinct identities: one character for cooking, one for cloth, one for mining, et cetera. Perhaps making the reagents stack higher/or indefinitely while inside the reagent bank could make it a little easier to use, or making it account wide and add more slots to it to compensate would be feasible? Admittedly, I don’t know if others have these issues or if it’s just me, so I don’t know if it’s worth doing anything about it or not!
Account-wide Bank
Speaking of account-wide banks: a lot of players have a “bank alt” that has their own one-man guild that gives them access to their own private guild bank. A clever use of mechanics for sure, but it does speak to a need some players feel. Perhaps an account-wide bank in the style of guild banks could function much the same way? And when I say account-wide, I do mean realm-wide, perhaps even faction locked(?).
More Collections
Another way to make more bag space is simply to remove items from the bags in the first place, like the transmog collection did. I’m not entirely sure what other forms of collectibles you could add to this list, but here’s some random ideas. Profession tools, like fishing rods or mining picks. Books and letters. Cosmetic consumables, obviously not permanently unlocked, but rather with charges that you can refresh by acquiring new ones. I’m sure there’s other ideas as well.
Okay, so if inventory space is an issue, shouldn’t we just have infinite bag space?
… Probably not. Limited bag space serves a function in the game, and it also adds some flavour. I’m actually not sure about whether or not we should have all that much more bag space at all, and rather focus on removing other items from the bags in the first place - not just items that would fit into an existing section of your collection, or in a new section. A good example of items that clutter up the bags is anima sources, that will take up several slots in your inventory before you deposit them. Sure, this makes sense in terms of immersion and storytelling, but it does also feel a bit annoying to clutter your inventory up with this resource that can only be deposited in a conductor. Some players also stock up on a lot of consumables and end up filling their entire bags with these; perhaps there should be fewer consumables, or perhaps they should stack higher? I’m sure there’s tons of examples out there.
Anyway, I’ll wrap this post up by saying that this isn’t a particularly big problem for me personally, I’d still be happy if the only change we got is a new bag with 2 more slots next expansion, but I’d certainly appreciate something more. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on the topic.
