Why the Devs’ Philosophy on Bag Space Does Not Fit Reality

The change to overflow bag penalties made me think about the whole bag space issue a little bit. It’s a topic that keeps lingering around in many discussions and something players feel could still need improvements. The situation itself is rather simple. Inventory space, bags and banks, are mostly available for ZEN. So the devs naturally have interest in:

1. Not making it widely available for free.
2. Raising the items that players need to carry around.

Now why you might challenge that 2) actually applies, I would say that the devs at least contribute to it by not doing enough to prevent it. We have gazillion types of RPs, at worst in different bind formats, and no extra inventory space for fashion or quest items.

Inventory needs gameplay relevance

The philosophy on the issue of bag space the devs keep throwing around is based on two things. First they will not offers inventory space for stuff that players can use instantly. In all other cases inventory has to have additional gameplay and monetization relevance. One example were Mounts: Those for the longest time blocked inventory slots with no apparent use. With the new Mount system they were freed, but only because the extension came with Insignias, which are monetized through lockboxes. So there’s a good chance that if you don’t buy the inventory itself, then you buy the items it stores. The only notable exception might be profession resources.

That’s why it’s unreasonable to hope for any inventory storing fashion. While the items mostly come from ZEN, the gameplay relevance is just not there. For most people the incentive of buying several outfits is just not there, hence no own inventory. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s way harder to free resources for something that doesn’t drive revenue.

It’s instant use and completion, except it isn’t

The fashion thing might be annoying, but it admittedly affects few people. But what about all the RPs and quest items, which are a major pain and can severely fill up inventories? When the game introduced the “Useful Items” tab the devs touched on the topic and said that they are hesitant to put quest items in there. In their mind players pick up a quest, complete it and hand it in, which makes the quest item fully temporary.

Except that is not what’s happening. In many campaigns it is much more efficient to compile quests over a certain time and batch complete them. A classic example is Sharandar. The dailies there offer great rewards, but running three quests in each area daily is a pain. So what I, and probably others, do is fetching quests each day and then complete the six or seven from one area at once. But this effectively means that at any time, you have all the quests of the two other areas in the log, and the corresponding items in your inventory. The same is true for Dread Ring, Icewind Dale, the Well of Dragons or Storm Kings Thunder areas.

Quest items are not temporary

Additionally there are those quests that you slowly compile over time. Nobody is picking up the daily quest from the Explorer’s Guild and then goes on the hunt for profession nodes. So Chipped Mugs will stay in the inventory for some time. And what about the Reclaimed Resources from the Cloaked Ascendancy or Sewer Maps? Are people really buying them on demand? I personally like them in my inventory so I have them when I need them. True, you’re effectively buying convenience with bag space, which is in line with other areas of the game. All in all however the concept that quest items are temporary does not represent the reality. That’s why those should go into the “Useful Items” tab.

A similar issue with RPs

With refining stones we have a similar issue. Theoretically you could stuff them into whatever needs the RP, but of course everyone is stashing them away for the next Double RP. So again: The way this game works, these are not temporary items in the inventory. Of course nobody forces you to play the double events, but the grind in the game pretty much warrants it. You safe so much AD that those not doing it probably just don’t know the benefits.

Why not let people buy specific inventory for ZEN?

I’m not saying the overflow bag penalties were uncalled for. Handling the inventory can be a pain, but most players should not actually be affected. Some however might have used the overflow bag to work around the conceptual flaws I’ve pointed out here. So it makes some sense that the devs review the whole bag space philosophy and think about adjustments. Adding inventories itself is probably not even much work. You need some UI adjustments and then it’s simply about properly flagging items.

I get that they don’t want us to exploit the overflow bag and carry around more items than they should. But inventory management should also not be a major part of your playing time, which, if you’re doing it right, is the case currently. We really need more account shared and item specific storage and the good thing is, you don’t even need to hand it out for free. If there was a separate refinement inventory, would you pay 500 ZEN for 16 slots? Same for profession assets and resources? Fashion? Quest items? I would if it helped managing the stuff you have. You can already buy more slots for you companions or bank. Why not simply extend that system? In the end it might not be as hard to make the system work for both the devs and the players.

What do you think about the inventory space situation. Got own ideas how to handle it? Share your thoughts in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board.

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