Major Inventory Overhaul Suggestions.

[lofty bluff]

(I might have made this post on Steam before, but I have since refined these ideas into something I think is much more coherent and implementable)

With the item bags, the current inventory system feels rather unnecessarily fiddly. 4th inventory slot isn't a real slot because you have to have free hands for ship items. But if you're looting an area, that slot gets filled with salvage and then you have to clear it by putting your item bag on the ground and adding the item from the 4th slot in. On top of that, I've felt like consumables don't see any meaningful use because of the fiddling aspect and because a weapon usually beats a consumable when it comes to usefulness-per-slot ratio, plus the natural tendency to hoard and conserve displayed by even the average player really puts a damper on the system's engagement. Same thing is gonna happen to grenades, too. Additionally, I have some ideas for improving the item bags. So allow me to share them.

(There are quite a few suggestions and I can't fit them within the character limit, so I must post them in the comments)

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1. Each item gets one or more item tags that decide which slot they are allowed to go into:

• [Primary Weapon]: Shotgun, AR, SMG, LMG, Marksman Rifle, Bullpup Rifle;
• [Special Weapon]: Railgun, Rocket Launcher, Melee;
• [Consumable]: Stimpacks, Shield Generator, Damage Amplifier, Med Drone, Ammo Box, Grenade;
• [Item Bag]: All Items that can be bagged;
• [Bulky]: All Heavy Items;

The reasons for this will make sense further down the line.

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2. Ship Maintenance Items and Artifacts become [Bulky] but retain the [Item Bag] functionality.

What that means is, taking such an item forces it into your hands, like it happens with any heavy item (batteries for example). But you can also hold the Q button to put that item into your item bag instead of holding it in your hands. This allows you to take artifacts and ship items from loot areas with you back on the ship.

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3. You get 5 inventory slots (numbered 1-5, naturally), which feature the following:

• Multitool Slot: Holds your multitool
• Flex Slot: Can house an item from these categories: [Primary Weapon] [Special Weapon] [Consumable]
• Heavy Slot: Can house an item from [Special Weapon] [Consumable]
• Supplementary Slot: Can house an item from [Consumable]
• Item Bag

(All these inventory slots can be assigned keybinds depending on your preference, so you can have your Multitool on 2 or your Item Bag on 4 or somesuch)

With this system, players would finally be able to use their 4th slot for actual items.

While it's more restrictive than the current system, it gives players a reason to engage every major part of the game's itemization. For example, since you have a slot that only accepts consumables, you don't have a reason not to have one in your loadout. Same with railguns and rocket launchers, as they can no longer be replaced with a straight up more reliable primary weapon instead.

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4. Consumable Improvements:

Consumables now recharge upon performing a jump.

The reason for this suggestion is to counteract the natural frugal hoarder tendency inherent to 99.99% of all human population that plays videogames. If we know for a fact that we're not potentially wasting a valuable consumable charge on this mission because it'll recharge afterwards, AND we're implicitly wasting the consumable by NOT using it as it'll come back later, we will be organically encouraged to actually properly engage with the consumable system.

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5. Bulk Salvage Handling Improvements:

• Items bags can now be combined with Q instead of having to dump one bag and then individually shove the items into another bag.
• Your ship now features a Cargo Hold Chute and a Quartermaster Terminal.
• The chute is the place for you to dump all your item bag salvage into using a held left click while holding the bag.
• The quartermaster terminal is where you can choose salvage to spit back out of the chute to do stuff with, be it ship maintenance items or materia fodder.

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[cursive nimbus]

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