Separate Personal and Ship Inventory

[Salvagebot 1.0]

It would make inventory management easier if your "personal inventory" like medals, ID's, and credit balances were separate from "ship inventory" like fuel and ammo. It would also let the player recognize which "illegal" items wouldn't be confiscated, like the Black Market ID.

There's already a "personal inventory" of sorts: the Commonwealth Carriers know if your Military ID was earned or not, so that "extra" information is stored somewhere, and you have 2 credit balances, neither of which are ship's inventory.

So formalize that ad-hoc system and give us a "personal inventory" or "wallet" or whatever game device works. I need some of the clutter out of my ship's inventory ... yes, I accidentally dropped my Military ID into a fabricator, okay?

It could've been an Ares campaign ribbon or even the Black Market ID, but no, it just had to be the Military ID, didn't it?

[Fossaman]

Hehe. I remember back when containers of solvent could dissolve ID chips. Now THAT was fun. Eventually George made them ineligible for that.

I like this idea. I for one would want to keep my ID chips in the glove box at the very least, if not on my person.

[OddBob]

You could accomplish this with cateories in the inventory view like 'weapons', 'armor', 'usable items' and 'medical' (obviously just a few examples, there could be many more). Selecting one or more categories will add those items to the list of viewable items. The current view is just an "all" category selected.

Although if there was an actual seperate hold for personal items, I can see that being more interesting.
For example, if you are sick from a Teraton experiment and you had placed your autodoc in the cargo bay instead of the personal stores- too bad.
Likewise if you put your IDs in the cargo bay then they are just cargo, not ID's (and they are eligible for dissolving and not for indentifying - this would allow you to carry a shipment of ID's for the black market, for example)

I think it would help if items can only be sed from the personal stores - No more running down to the cargo bay and trying to find the box with the repair nanos in it (it makes sense depending on what you're carrying not to pressurize the cargo hold anyway - it's a waste of air and power unless you're carrying livestock or something)

The smuggler's hold could also be changed to work this way - items in the smuggler's hold won't be detected but items in the regular hold will (not a huge issue unless you're running waste cannons and slaves, but still)

Come to think of it so could the regular hold expansion - if there are ever item stealing or item damaging attacks (space nymphs!) then items in the secondary hold might be more vulnerable.

[Salvagebot 1.0]

Don't make it too complicated. There's "stuff on the ship" and "stuff on your person", the "on your person" stuff including virtual "stuff" that has no physical form, like your rank.

Other categories would I think just make inventory management more complicated rather than less. Hmm, on second thought I think the key here is, "Are you ever going to want to manage this item as inventory again?" Once you install a ROM, you're not ever going to want to remove it again (booby traps notwithstanding), so it makes sense that "installed ROM inventory" is separate.

Personal stuff is the same way; awards and ID's aren't something you'll ever need to drop (assuming BMID-like auto-hide wherever needed). So if I get 3 Ares Campaign Ribbons, there they'd be in my personal inventory, but I never have to deal with them when I'm flying around trying to get things done. If there's some mission that only Ares Campaign Ribbons unlock, you're not hosed simply because you got tired of toting them around in your ship and sold them. They're always with you.

It would be kinda like the "medal case" and "uniform" inventories of X-Wing and TIE Fighter: something you look at, not something you interact with.

It would mean you couldn't sell your Medal of Honor, but so what? It keeps your mementos and trophies out of the way but makes them available should a mission or plotline call for it.

[OddBob]

I don't believe that complexity is bad - in the case of inventory, the more ways you can get information presented to you (in an easy to use format) the better.

A list that, by default is exactly like it is now, but has the option to remove or isolate a specific type of item from the list is more complex than the current system, yet if you never touch the categories tabs you never have to deal with them. Note that a categories system wuold work in shops and wrecks too. Picking up specific items from the debugship would be a lot easier if you could cut out everything you're not interested with a few clicks.

How does your system determine which items are personal? What if I would like to sell my medals of honor (not to mention that it's possible to find ones that you didn't "earn") but I'd like to keep a frag missile from the arena Tripoli as a trophy?

I'm just suggesting that there be two holds: one from which you may use items, and one from which you may sell items. You may decide for yourself which items you would like in which hold.

The purpose is not so much to separate items which you do not need to manage, although it does do that, but to make managing the ones you do need to manage easier, especially during buying/selling and using items. You don't need to see the items you keep for use when you are selling loot; likewise you don't need to see the barrels you'd like to sell when you're trying to decon your ship.

[FAD]

I like the idea of having more than one hold.
So what if we had a 1 T max storage compartment in the cockpit of every playership? It's feasible and would also make sense for storing ID's, ROM's, Medals and maybe even a few weapon enhancers we're saving for when that particular weapon becomes available. That would seperate those hard-to-get--harder-to-replace items from those items slated for selling, sitting in the cargo hold.
I don't think it should be any larger than 1 T as that would seem a bit unbalanced where certain game risks are concerned, but it should be player controled and managed as OddBob stated.

After all, wouldn't it be more logical that when you dock at a Commonwealth fortress, that you'd have your Mil ID on hand in the cockpit instead of having to go to your cargo hold and tell 'em "Wait a sec, I have my ID around here somewhere...just have to sort through my cargo to find it...ahh! there it is!"
Same thing with the BM.

[Salvagebot 1.0]

"I don't believe that complexity is bad ..."

More keystrokes = bad.

I would happily give up the ability to buy Medals of Honor if when I earn one it would just automagically go into my player inventory and I'd never have to see it sandwiched between fuel rods and trade goods ever again.

Inventory management is a big pain in the rear, particularly when you're trying to drop H3 assemblies or duralloy ore into a fabricator and you've got a bunch of crap cluttering up the interface. I'll happily sacrifice my freedom to sell my campaign ribbons if it means they never show up in general inventory.

As it stands when I start a fabricating session I usually create a temporary crate where I drop anything not fab-related, but doing that is also a pain. I shouldn't have to be constantly managing stuff that the computer could, with very little impact on game play, manage for me. (In this case "manage" means stick it somewhere out of the way.)

[dvlenk6]

Per interfaces:
I have come, over the years, to the unalterable conclusion that what is a good interface for one person is bad for another person. The merits and shortcomings of any particular arrangement can be argued forever.

More keystrokes = bad
Well that only means it is bad for some people. Other people will undoubtedly like more keystrokes/flexibility.

And so on.

[Czert]

After reading whole discusion I come with this :
we have separate normal cargo/personal/quick acces (u)/trophy/chest
you can set which items are automaticaly placed to chosen inventory (bacisaly all go to normal cargo) .
Personal will be you are normaly bearing with(ID chips)/on (medals) you (then only small and light items only).
Quick acces are for items accesible with U and using them - no more having useless (one time used) Rovena Volumes, Visual displey enhaancers...etc. Only items which you planing to use (during combat).
Trophy speak for itself.
Chest - you store here items which you dont want to acidently sell, but dont fit to any previous category.

[Salvagebot 1.0]

"Well that only means it is bad for some people. Other people will undoubtedly like more keystrokes/flexibility."

There's always a way to cut the knot, to let people do what they want without making it inconvenient to do what they need.

@Czert:

Having a permeable division between "Personal Inventory" and "Ship Inventory" would allow you the flexibility of selling your personal effects without cluttering the station dialogs with transaction type selections (i.e. "Do you want to sell from Personal or Ship Inventory?" The first person who suggests that as a "solution" walks the plank!)

The "Ship's Locker'" idea is the same: items on the ship that don't show up in transaction dialogs, with the additional property that items in the locker have no effect on player interactions at all. I don't know that we really need a locker, but the same dialog that moves items about your person could also do locker transfers, so having a locker couldn't hurt.

If I had a locker I'd keep fuel and ammo there so they wouldn't clutter up transaction dialogs. It helps that I use "junk fuel" in the fabricator and save the good stuff for my reactor, so I wouldn't be constantly moving fuel back & forth whenever I wanted to use the fabricator.

I could also put medical supplies in the locker, as there are only a couple of places where you use them and the rest of the time you just want them out of the way.

Yeah, okay, the locker's a good idea.

I posted some ideas about how to make the fabricator interface work better in the "ammo" thread, incidentally.

[dvlenk6]

I guess I should have said:
The merits and shortcomings of any particular arrangement WILL[/] be argued forever.

So...
How realistic is it to keep intensely radioactive fuel rods in a personal locker?
Wouldn't you rather have that multi-tonnage of ammo somewhere near the gun that is using it?

See what I mean?
I think either of those examples is just plain silly; Salvagebot 1.0 thinks they are ideal...

[OddBob]

So...
How realistic is it to keep intensely radioactive fuel rods in a personal locker?
Wouldn't you rather have that multi-tonnage of ammo somewhere near the gun that is using it?

Don't think of it as a physical locker in your cabin or whatever, think of it as a partition on your hard drive. It's all part of the same space (your cargo hold), it's just that you've designated the part called "personal stores" or "ship's supplies" or whatever as immune to transactions. You are a merchant selling your loot, and you're just differentiating your inventory and your personal property.

DISCLAIMER: the rest of this post doesn't take into account any of the last four posts, as it was written before that.

More keystrokes = bad

All other things being equal, perhaps. However, flexibility plays a role as well:

Currently, to get to any specific item, there are many keypresses (or a sustained keypress as you wait for the list to scroll, which counts as many keypresses). You have to scroll all the way to the bottom if you want IDs or misc items, while armors and weapons are near the top.

Completely removing both identification items and all medals from the game and replacing them with some kind of virtual item like rank is NO keypresses ever. However, you can never interact with them as items, including selling them or finding them (finding a black market ID is very possible, and medals are worth quite a bit).

Adding a category system with a category for IDs, medals and similar plot items is ONE KEYPRESS to single out any itme type you want (which will by nature exclude IDs and medals unless IDs and medals is the category you picked.

I think the added flexibility is worth one click - the system also lets you sort any type of item you'd like - when you're dropping ores into the fabricator you can just solo out the ore category, one click and the only thing that shows up in your view is ores. If you'd like to drop fuel in as well, then you can click on the fuel tab - now you can see ores AND fuel. Done with that , okay, disable both ore and fuel tabs and it defaults back to all (as no categories are selected).

[Czert]

to salvageboot
I think you dont understand me each of my proposed inventoryies are seperate and acting as current ship inventory, then buyingg/selling will be done automaticaly to chosen inventory.
And to prevent annoyance, you have in some place on screen four small icons - for each inventory, clicing on it chnages you to selected inventory.
And having possibility to have selectet two or more inventoies will be interesing too. And transfering between them can be hapent as I write earlier automaticaly or simple with drag and drop and if you pick up miltiple items pop-up info how many items to drop (one/selcetd(with increases 1/10/100) /all).

[Salvagebot 1.0]

Would I have to choose which of my inventories was the working inventory every time I docked?

If the answer is "yes" I think it would be easier just to always have a "working" inventory and a "supply" or "keeper" inventory -- most inventory types most of the time don't change between those 2 categories.

If it's easy to move inventory between the 2 categories it would avoid me having to pick an inventory every time I docked.

OddBob: "... you're just differentiating your inventory and ... whatever."
Exactly.

[Yugi]

Well if there's some tab system for the inventories like in browsers and such, you could just click and drag what you want into the tab you want.