Inventory Insanity

[Your Local Democracy Officer]

I have 4 main gripes with the game right now, and all have to do with managing inventory.

The game needs more inventory slots.
I can stack thousands of ore, yet I can not have more individual items. This is a problem when I can't actually control what I pick up.

Larger delivery payloads from inventory to hoppers.
Collecting thousands of ore or bars is likely to happen when clearing out hoppers. The problem with this is that at some point it is going to take me an eternity to get rid of these stacks.

I'm unable to pickup items that should be stacked.
Very frequently I do something like disassemble a hopper or conveyor when I already have a bunch stacked. For some reason, these are not being added to the stack. Instead I am forced to drop another hopper, turn on vacuum mode and wait until things are sucked up. At that point, I can remove the items. This should be happening at the moment of disassembly.

When Crafting an item will free an inventory slot, it should not require a free slot.
Inventory is a ♥♥♥♥♥ right now and every space matters. If I am crafting something where the ingredient count is low enough that after successful crafting, there is an inventory slot free, I should be able to do this without requiring an extra space.

[BrickOnKeyboard]

That's my observation as well. To be honest, the creator should just scrap the whole UI and replace it with the one from Minecraft. It's not about something being "better" or not, it would just be a lot easier to play the game if it worked exactly like minecraft's - including numbers next to every stack, leftclick destroy and rightclick build, and all the rest.

[Your Local Democracy Officer]

Originally posted by BrickOnKeyboard:

That's my observation as well. To be honest, the creator should just scrap the whole UI and replace it with the one from Minecraft. It's not about something being "better" or not, it would just be a lot easier to play the game if it worked exactly like minecraft's - including numbers next to every stack, leftclick destroy and rightclick build, and all the rest.

I don't think 'build it like X' is a solution. It should be built in a way for the game that works, but I'm not the dev. I'm just the one pointing out the issues.

[Mithious]

I assume you're aware of the storage crates, and the arther upgrade pack? I tend to find if I dump the non-bulk stuff I don't need with me in there I have plenty of space.

[Nedrith]

I find that the current inventory allows for a lot of extra stuff to be placed into it and still have plenty of room left over. Just a simple look at my inventory and things that I could get rid of and I still have 4 spots left over: 3 different experimental pods from building the OET, I have about 400 of each in my inventory, some rubble, 5 different ores I haven't gotten around to smelting or crating in forever, a plasma cutter head, 4 extra jet turbine housings that I created too many of, some low grade steel bars, copper pipes from when I was fixing a mistake in my conveyor system for missle production, some soft resin, a motorized conveyor, Recombined organic matter which I should probably just turn into heavy chitin for solars, and 32 leftover oet components because I just made a large number and didn't calculate how many I needed.

So if I counted right that's 17 inventory slots I could easily free up and I still have 4 slots left over. I honestly don't need the basic or plasma missles I have on me either and a few other misc. might be nice but won't get used in a while items.

Point is if I can waste a large number of slots, I mean I'm wasting about 25% of my current inventory capacity in junk, then the inventory system limits aren't that bad. They allow the player a nice amount of manual crafting ease with the large number of ingots you can carry on you while still preventing you from carrying your entire base with you.

[Feralhunter]

Plus dont forget macerators are your friend. I use them to keep my inventory clean of unwanted junk. It is a lot easier to dump a bunch of unwanted and uneeded stuff in the macerators then putting it in storage with its limited stack amounts. For me I only like to use a few of the minable blocks to build with so the rest gets destroyed I even destroy parts and blocks I no longer need or want in the macerators. I have found it to be the best way to keep inventory neat and tidy.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646014122

If you really want to go all out, then you can set up something like this. The macerators put ore in hoppers then it goes to the robot arms that seperate it so each ore type can be smelted and then all I do is pick up the ingots.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646049454

[Fartex]

Originally posted by Whiskeyplz:

I have 4 main gripes with the game right now, and all have to do with managing inventory.

The game needs more inventory slots.
I can stack thousands of ore, yet I can not have more individual items. This is a problem when I can't actually control what I pick up.

get rid of crap you dont need to carry, im sure there are a load of organic items you picked up from mob attacks in your inventory.... store them in crates, or just use a macerator...

Larger delivery payloads from inventory to hoppers.
Collecting thousands of ore or bars is likely to happen when clearing out hoppers. The problem with this is that at some point it is going to take me an eternity to get rid of these stacks.

bars are not an issue to keep in your inventroy, other stuff is. see reply above...

I'm unable to pickup items that should be stacked.
Very frequently I do something like disassemble a hopper or conveyor when I already have a bunch stacked. For some reason, these are not being added to the stack. Instead I am forced to drop another hopper, turn on vacuum mode and wait until things are sucked up. At that point, I can remove the items. This should be happening at the moment of disassembly.

most likely this happens when your inventory is full, see reply on your first gripe...

When Crafting an item will free an inventory slot, it should not require a free slot.
Inventory is a ♥♥♥♥♥ right now and every space matters. If I am crafting something where the ingredient count is low enough that after successful crafting, there is an inventory slot free, I should be able to do this without requiring an extra space.

again see firt reply...

also, there is not need to, for instance carry around research pod of evey kind in your inventory.
you dont need blocks from cold or toxic cavern in ther either: macerator.
tin, coppe, lithium, whatever plates, no need to carry them, store them in storage crates, this goes for servor motors, copper wires ore smelter, any kinf of machiens.. just craft storage crates, and designate them for certain types of items...

one set of crate for the pods, another for plates, another for pcb's, another for like smelters, etc etc etc...

when i find myself running out of inventory spoace, its most likely because im carrying a crap ton of mobdrops, wich at a certain stage in the game you just dont need: macerator is your friend.

the inventory is big enough, it seems more like you are struggeling to "clean it up" to me.
macerators are your best friends when it come to this.

[Mazetar]

Could you show me a screenshot of your inventory?
What stuff do you carry around?

I recommend making a automated garbage disposal system by making a few macerators and a bunch of hoppers.
Whenever I'm in the base I just dump all the garbage there and it turns it into usefull stuf :)

Also you can drop things out of your inventory by using the Q key to drop what you are hovering

[FireDragon]

As said, you can drop items. An inventory isn't supposed to be infinate storage, there are storage containers and hoppers for that. The inventory already holds well more than most games, and well more than any realistic scenarios. If you are having problems with "I can't empty out hoppers fast enough", then don't take something out of the hopper until you need it, then the rest will be storage for later when you need it again, I don't see a problem here...?

[Mazetar]

If you are struggling with emptying hoppers of bars, are these hoppers filled with mixed types of bars? Because if they are sorted to contain only a single type each then it's pretty fast to empty 20 hoppers of each bar type.

[DjArcas]

Another inventory thread without a picture of your inventory. Hint hint.

[Your Local Democracy Officer]

Originally posted by DjArcas:

Another inventory thread without a picture of your inventory. Hint hint.

Another response without taking into consideration the entire post :) . No comment on #3 or #4?

It's true that #1 and #2 can resolved by different inventory management such as removing trash items,and using storage containers, but the bigger issue is the inability for things to stack directly to my inventory without sending it to a hopper first. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn't.

This is what happens to me:
1. Have a stack of belts, and a full inventory
2. Disassemble some belts that have already been created
3. Disassembled belts do not get stacked to inventory.
4. Drop hopper, turn on vacuum mode
5. Vacuum sucks up belts
6. Pickup belts from vacuum.

Why doesn't the hopper stack items? For the case of a hopper in vacuum mode that is not currently getting any input/output of items. I pull out items from the hopper like this where each line is an attempt:

2xRough Hewn Rock
4xRough Hewn Rock
1xRough Hewn Rock
3xConveyer Belt
1xConveyer Belt
1xRough Hewn Rock

Why not do this in bulk as a stack for each item?

Originally posted by Mazetar:

If you are struggling with emptying hoppers of bars, are these hoppers filled with mixed types of bars? Because if they are sorted to contain only a single type each then it's pretty fast to empty 20 hoppers of each bar type.

No. That is not a problem. Getting thousands of bars/ore into a line 100 at a time generally is. In the instance of ore, it would be due to me manually retrieving ore such as nickel or titanium before the transportation is completed.

[tawraven]

Items cannot be picked up if inventory is full. Clear out things that aren't being used and you shouldn't have any problems.

Some things I keep in my inventory because they are impossible to get rid of. Mob drops are always there so emptying those out of your inventory is pointless. Same with dirt and rocks (I'm OCD about my world anyways and have to repair holes with the proper block type so I want those in my inventory). Same with ores (they always show up in my inventory so I leave a space for them). Of course bars are in there as well.

I try to keep one row of my inventory open to use for whatever I am working on at the moment. Otherwise, it's in a crate.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646190384

[Ryac]

Inventory management with multiple players is the real pain in the behind. Hoppers should hold more.

[Your Local Democracy Officer]

Originally posted by tawraven:

Items cannot be picked up if inventory is full. Clear out things that aren't being used and you shouldn't have any problems.

Some things I keep in my inventory because they are impossible to get rid of. Mob drops are always there so emptying those out of your inventory is pointless. Same with dirt and rocks (I'm OCD about my world anyways and have to repair holes with the proper block type so I want those in my inventory). Same with ores (they always show up in my inventory so I leave a space for them). Of course bars are in there as well.

I try to keep one row of my inventory open to use for whatever I am working on at the moment. Otherwise, it's in a crate.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646190384

https://imgur.com/aKRafjT

This is the closest I can come to a screenshot, because I play on a 4k/steam controller setup without a bound screenshot key. What you see there is a full inventory and I have titanium in #6 with a stack going. On the ground are a few bars, one of which is titanium.

The purpose in any inventory system for stacking is to allow the user to save space by consolidating items that would otherwise flood the inventory system and make the game a pain. There is no realistic purpose behind stacking. Stacking of inventory items should take only one slot, but I'm guessing that the game looks for an empty slot before stacking the object. This is where you get instances where you need to juggle inventory items by dropping singular items to free up space - fumbling around until you get around this mechanism.

[Cellfire]

so if you do what you said about issue 1 and 2 you will have free slots

then issue 3 and 4 are gone with it.

Correct?

Also I find there almost no need to carry more then 300-500 ores for the 7 bars and later in game there is no reason.

My invent and crate
http://imgur.com/pMpExmn
just ignore the plasma cutters as about to go to my miners.