Carrying Capacity Reform

Item stacking is an ineffectual solution to carrying capacity.

5 potions of Healing takes up 1 equipment slot. 1 potion of Healing and 1 potion of Cure Mutation and 1 potion of Resistance and 1 potion of Cure Wounds and 1 potion of Speed take up 5 equipment slots. 10 scrolls of teleportation take up less real estate than 10 individual scrolls.

Running out of slots while having more than enough carrying capacity to suffice shouldn't happen.

Juggling equipment creates a management problem with “time” aka food consumption. Granted, stashes are a part of the game, but 10 scrolls should take up the same amount of player character real estate regardless of their type. Equipment slot juggling creates an unnecessary stressful mini-game.

• Stacking is used to conserve screen space and speed item selection and usage.
• Talented players shouldn't get to the point where they run out of slots.
• It is easier to select the individual items necessary when they are separated from similar items that are of a different brand.

Carrying capacity is restricted by a combination of number of slots (artificial limit) and weight allowance (realistic limit). Items are currently based on weight only, not actual encumbrance, which includes the bulk of the item. Conceptually, a staff may weigh less than a pole arm, but would consume an equal amount of slots. A dagger would take up less slots than a sword, etc.

I honestly don't have one. This is primarily a screen real-estate problem; I figured I might as well bring this topic up for discussion.

• Size System - character size obviously helps determine the number of slots available.
• Weights - item weights are important. Maybe items have Bulk?

Established gameplay is ok and changes mean changes to balance. Realism isn't a good justification to make this change. That's not to say the idea is bad, there's no major roguelike that would remove inventory slots and consider both weight and bulk (ADOM has no slots but considers weight only). Many other crpgs do this (grid-like inventory with variable item sizes and shapes). But doing this for Crawl would be a major overhaul and an unnecessary one in my opinion. — evktalo 2011-02-11 12:03

It isn't an argument of realism. It's an argument of “if I can carry all my equipment and 10 identical potions, I should also be able to carry all my equipment and 10 different potions.”. — XuaXua 2011-02-11 17:01

… which is an argument of realism. However, realism is just not a very good measure of playing fun. If we wanted to be completely realistic, it would be completely impossible to carry two types of heavy armour at the same time, and you'd have to drop most of your inventory to be able to change your clothes. Yes, the current inventory system is unrealistic but it's intuitive and interface-friendly precisely because there's a fixed upper inventory limit and because each item stack is assigned a single unique letter. Your proposal would make things much more complicated: If you allow more than 52 items, selecting an item from the inventory becomes a hassle, so you'd need to completely overhaul the interface, for very little gain to the gameplay. In this case (as in many others), gameplay > realism. — jpeg 2011-02-11 17:10

Additionally, it is an argument that there is an artificial limit on equipment carried, so when we're discussing how to handle the weight and carrying capacity of equipment, it needs to be understood that there is also the artificial and equal (by equal, I mean all characters have the exact same limitation regardless of size/capacity) screen real estate limitation. Possibly a “next / previous pack” view button to show the other equipment pack, as well as the ability to re-order the packs might be in order. — XuaXua 2011-02-11 17:02

From a realism standpoint three potions of healing is the same as three potions of different types. However from a gameplay standpoint they are not equivalent because the utility of potions drops severely after the first one. Having one healing potion and one levitation potion in your inventory can be more useful than having three healing potions, because you've got both healing and levitation on tap. Same goes for scrolls and wands. So it's sort of ok that as a fighter I might not carry around a potion of restore abilities to save inventory space but only leave any of my potions of healing stashed to reduce the risk of item destruction. — Brickman 2011-02-11 20:44

The general idea of this is good, as it makes strength affecting carrying capacity more beneficial. Right now that's only felt with low stats, as the arbitrary 52-item cap means that a high-str character has no advantage over an average-str character for most builds - stacking ammo is an exception, but typical characters can carry sufficient amounts of everything they're allowed to. Being limited by slots instead of weight devalues additional str, as the game simply doesn't let you make use of it. — OG17 2011-02-11 21:02