51/52 and 52/52 overload

[Pollen_Golem]

Apply a penalty when the player doesn't have at least 2 slots free in the inventory, so that it's clear that you should leave a little room in your inventory, for picking up consumables/books you want to use right away, and for identifying stuff. After all, 50 is a much nicer number than weird 52, and it barely makes any difference anyway. What it will do is discourage the current hassle of stuffing your bag completely full, which most players seem very tempted to do. For inspiration, borrow from the old encumbered status:
Climbing stairs takes 1 extra turn
+1 to movement delay
+2 hunger per action
Stealth is halved
Slows Unarmed Combat

[Berder]

This would result in exactly the same packed-inventory problems, except it would happen at 50 items instead of 52.

[savageorange]

This is punishing the player for the UI shortcomings of Crawl, IMO. We have 52 slots mainly because the alphabet is 26 characters (and the keys 0-9 are already used up by '@v1' style shortcut-key support)

[Pollen_Golem]

This would result in exactly the same packed-inventory problems, except it would happen at 50 items instead of 52.

Yes, people would still "pack" their inventory to a "max" of 50 items. But, when messing around with loot or stashed items, there would be less of that silly item-juggling thing we do, because there would be a free slot or two to pick things up. It's a minor thing, I admit - it doesn't solve all of the packed-inventory problems, just one of them.

[Berder]

This would result in exactly the same packed-inventory problems, except it would happen at 50 items instead of 52.

Yes, people would still "pack" their inventory to a "max" of 50 items. But, when messing around with loot or stashed items, there would be less of that silly item-juggling thing we do, because there would be a free slot or two to pick things up. It's a minor thing, I admit - it doesn't solve all of the packed-inventory problems, just one of them.

That's the least of the problems imo. The bigger problem is frequently paging through your inventory to choose what to drop.

[Kolbur]

This would result in exactly the same packed-inventory problems, except it would happen at 50 items instead of 52.

Yes, people would still "pack" their inventory to a "max" of 50 items. But, when messing around with loot or stashed items, there would be less of that silly item-juggling thing we do, because there would be a free slot or two to pick things up. It's a minor thing, I admit - it doesn't solve all of the packed-inventory problems, just one of them.

It doesn't solve anything, it only makes the current inventory problems worse.

[XuaXua]

the keys 0-9 are already used up by '@v1' style shortcut-key support

Used up by what?

[jejorda2]

In the part of the game where I carry 52 items, I only really need to pick up one item or so per branch to identify it.

In the part of the game where there is lots of stuff to pick up and evaluate, there is enough inventory space.

But I don't really use wands, evokables, or launchers often. Those do take up more space.

[jejorda2]

the keys 0-9 are already used up by '@v1' style shortcut-key support

Used up by what?[code][/code]

I always have my main melee weapon as item a, a staff or blowgun as item b, and w and W are secondary weapons. Maybe anti-magic or anti-hydra.

It is possible to type w1, w2, w3 instead of wa, wb, ww, wW if the weapons are inscribed with @1, @2, @3. It sounds like it would be most useful for rings, but I don't swap frequently enough to develop a system for that.

[starhawk]

As an alternative, I wish you could target items you're standing on top of with an identify scroll, or perhaps even read scrolls and quaff potions that are under your feet.

[jejorda2]

I agree- The food system already assumes you want to eat from the ground before letting you pick from inventory. Extending that idea to other consumables shouldn't be a balance or interface disaster.

[dowan]

This would result in exactly the same packed-inventory problems, except it would happen at 50 items instead of 52.

Yes, people would still "pack" their inventory to a "max" of 50 items. But, when messing around with loot or stashed items, there would be less of that silly item-juggling thing we do, because there would be a free slot or two to pick things up. It's a minor thing, I admit - it doesn't solve all of the packed-inventory problems, just one of them.

If that solved the problems with the inventory, players could simply pretend this change was already in. Obviously it doesn't, because if 52 items isn't enough, 50 is even more not enough (Less enough?)

[jejorda2]

Is "There aren't enough slots" the problem, or is "It's easy to pick up lots of things that I might need, and attention consuming to drop the ones I don't need right now" the problem?

When I drop things to make more room, it's almost always redundant food, wands I don't use, strategic consumables, and potions of magic/brilliance or berserk on characters that don't use those. I've never decided, for instance, to stop wearing a cloak because I'd rather carry another wand or a backup weapon.

[njvack]

Mod note: split the OT stuff about what's good to carry into an Advice thread