Summary:
- bigger or infinite stash required
- possibly located in a specific area, not with the smuggler NPC
- detail filters for collected loot/autosell option
- possible future gimmicks for the “hoard”
- more efficient inventor
Now the wall of text:
Limited player inventory is something annoying, but in GD more than any other game I learned to view it as a necessary precaution. Imagine carrying 200 items around, then having to sort through them getting “home”. I’d probably stop playing that very moment. Now right now loot is a bit of a nuisance for non-end-game-characters, as sifting through tons and tons of magic and rare items trying to find a piece that improves Your char is tiresome - especially as it makes sense to view about every piece, even those not usable, to see if it only misses a few stat points. To sort this out I’d like to introduce two approaches:
One: Change the little symbols on items in the inventory. Make a distinction between items that only miss a few levels or stat points and those completely out of range for that character - small red cross, big fat red cross or something. That way I know what to sell without looking at every piece of junk I found. Furthermore add a little icon to items that offer a significant improvement to chosen stats that could be marked in the detailled character screen. Add an auto-sell button that ships off all pieces that offer no advantage and/or are non-usable at all (only for yellow and green pieces though…) - maybe make it configurable.
And the second idea would be a detailled filter with its own UI, letting You set “exclude” stats that reserve items for auto-sale. One click, and what is left is worth actually taking a look at.
I like the idea of loads and loads of random loot, but right now it seems like a chore to look at the “spoils” of my exploits.
Also, what do I do with the stuff I want to keep? The stash is too limited, can’t stuff all those epics in there and some cool random items for all possible characters, plus crafting items, plus random quest junk plus mandates plus… we are back at pre-puty-diablo 2, with mule characters and tiresome sorting work including loading screens, also stuffed item rosters that leave no space for “free space” to do proper sorting…
Of course, maybe things would become a little overwhelming with an infinite stash, or it might slow down the game as the stash seems to be searched for specific items at shrines and during crafting, but maybe there is a solution.
Give us a hoard. Like the crucible, accessible to all characters of that account, but in a separate instance. All it absolutely needs would be a huge interactive pile of junk that pops up an infinite stash UI. Better however would be some kind of player “home”, like some small fortress that could offer additional gadgets, like Your own set of NPC characters that can be improved (a smithy getting different hammers per quest or maybe revered status, a kitchen (yes…), servants that autosort Your loot-pile into different categories represented by armor stands or weapon racks, guys selling faction rep stuff, an endless dungeon in the cellar, maybe some special rooms that give small account wide bonuses for a price in iron, crafting materials, excess rep and xp or “overflown” devotion points, etc. etc. - would that not be totally absolutely awesome? Maybe with a “send home” button for the smuggler…
Yeah. Okay. A man can dream, right? But still. More stash space please. Still more than in AoM. Much more. There is little to no reason for a restriction like this in a loot heavy game.
Finally, on what to do with the junk… I am kind of puzzled as to how the sholars and engineers of cairn managed to ever invent a cooking pot, much less a functioning rifle. “Disassembling” an item costs a unit of dynamite. So they pretty much strap the explosive onto the sword/belt/tunic/whatever, light it up and check what comes out. That is… uhm…
How about an inventor that consumes one unit of rare dynamite and allows You to disassemble stuff for the session, or maybe a few items at least. Right now this guy is totally unemployed in my games because dynamite is just so annoying (not hard… haha, cronley…) to come by. Not worth it unless I want to blow up a badly rolled legendary. Dynamite is fine as it is concerning its integration into the actual gameplay (blowing up bridges so You can walk through the river etc…) but the inventor soggs.
So. Me on loot. First real post. Please don’t go all sacrificial mania on me just yet…