Extra backpack slots...

[𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕠𝕟]

This request is not new, for me and other.
But here is another suggestion: a small 2 slot container that opens up when set at the ground, and closes when at the backpack.
Its doesn't auto accept items. Pressing F (or C/V) activate all items inside it.
Don't need to be craftable, but some end game mission. Pehaps even getting more than one.
Can be used for any character upgrades, like increase or generate air/energy. Jetpack won't work in it, but the skateboard will.

For people that will complain about "gamebreaking" as usual. It will be optional, and shouldn't be considered a problem.

[Dekrosna]

ya know... this comes across fully as a proper way to handle the backpack expansion and SUPER limited inventory that you end up having rather early on.

Inventory sets.
3 on terrain tool. Those get taken up rather fast with Wide mod, Boost mod, and Drill mod 1-3.
2 active slots (top slots). These usually get taken up with either a power producing item (mini solar, turbine, generator), a jumpjet/jetpack and a worklight (usually for me)
8 primary backpack slots these get occupied real quick and easy. Early on they get taken by Soil can, battery, oxygen tank, Small generator unless you use 2 batteries/soil cans/oxygen tanks.

>power cells, oxygen filters, tethers

> : I know these items have a count to them that goes down till they have been used up.

And when you hit just mid early game (small shuttle) you go to Desolo with your bag and a waffle (medium storage) loaded with the materials to complete the hoverboard mission and by this time you have 2 or 3 mini RTGs. So now you most likely have a jump jet and worklight on your active item slots, Drill mod 1, Wide mod, Boost mod on your Terrain tool, and on your main pack you probably have 2 mini RTGs, an oxygen tank, a soil can, and the skateboard leaving you with just 4 slots to do anything with.

Now I already know that there are going to be people screaming "JUST MAKE A VEHICLE AND USE THAT!!!"

Here's the problem with doing that. any vehicle you can make at this point in time are not worth while grand scheme. You have the tractor and you have the buggy... THAT'S IT and don't bring in the medium rover with a large storage or another medium rover attached. That is just asking for some extra problems later on due to the fact that the over all storage capability, while more extensive, is far from being within the realm of optimal for a mobile storage setup. besides we're talking about PERSONAL inventory space that gets taken up super fast with so many useful items that make the game a little more enjoyable.

[zed]

While I personally think the inventory situation is fine as is, I have an idea of something that could be added to expand storage capacity:

A small 4-slot storage that only works when placed on your backpack's active slots. Allowing you to expand your inventory by 6 slots, while trading away your ability to use those slots to activate widgets.

In the mean time though, if you need more storage without utilizing a tractor or rover you can shift-click one a tier-2 item to carry it while you're on a hoverboard, meaning you could possibly carry up to 32 of one singular resource or 24 of multiple types of resources while moving at maximum hoverboard speed.

[Bomoo]

New players are always in here asking for more inventory space. What you don't realize is that the vehicles are your extra inventory space.

Suit upgrades? Your suit inventory slots are your upgrade slots, via battery and air tank items. Likewise items like the work light, small wind turbine, and small solar panel.

They already added gamebreaking cheat items like the small RTG and small oxygenator if you want to completely ignore what few survival mechanics this game has.

[𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕠𝕟]

I'm not a new player.

[Dekrosna]

Originally posted by Bomoo:

New players are always in here asking for more inventory space. What you don't realize is that the vehicles are your extra inventory space.

Suit upgrades? Your suit inventory slots are your upgrade slots, via battery and air tank items. Likewise items like the work light, small wind turbine, and small solar panel.

They already added gamebreaking cheat items like the small RTG and small oxygenator if you want to completely ignore what few survival mechanics this game has.

yes we all know that the vehicles 'end up being your extended inventory' but when your personal inventory has all slots taken up by useful items that you then can't even play the game and have to sacrifice items to have reasonable inventory space...

Here's the dice. when I play Astroneer I usually end up having about 2 or 4 free slots remaining. that is GARBO for any large scale resource harvesting even WITH a resource can. 2 qt rtgs, 1 oxygen tank, 1 soil can, and hoverboard on back. on top I have work light and jumpjet/jet pack. on gun I have Boost mod, Wide mod, and Drill mod. Now from that I clearly have 5 slots taken up on the main inventory leaving me with 3 inventory slots to use. Now the thing is yes you can use vehicles for 'expanded inventory' THAT IS NOT INVENTORY!!! that is STORAGE. This is one of those games where the vehicle isn't inventory it's storage that looks better than a metal brick that is called a chest while your backpack is the actual inventory. (Equally not everyone likes relying on vehicles for all their 'inventory' needs because the only way to have a good way of holding so much stuff on hand is to build the mobile base out of the large rover, OR make several large rovers with single specializations that ultimately end up being too expensive to actually consider in a logical fashion.

Don't even mention using vehicles out right for resource harvesting and the like It's already an obvious thing in the game. Yeah you can get drill 3 on a crane and gather resources that way but for some people it's not as enjoyable.

The point is that the regular player inventory is so limited that having to rely on using a vehicle for 'extra inventory' is agonizing.

NOW... one thing that could help with inventory is by adding a mod for the terrain tool called a Compactor which would compress resources down. you harvest 2 resource chunks and it compresses it down into a package cube that goes on your bag. right there you have a means of increasing both inventory and storage over all by having 2 chunks of resources like resin, compound, organic, etc into a 1 slot cube... so that 3 inventory that i am left with at the end game suddenly I can instead be carrying a total of 6 resource items instead of just one per slot. (I already know you are about to scream "you have medium storage, you have large storage, you have medium resource canisters, you have the medium silo... etc etc... take a seat and actually listen.
Granted you want a game that is an ultra hardcore ironman mode why not suggest that as a gamemode where the mission board is disabled and all the 'cheaty AF' items like the RTG and such are disabled and uncraftable.

Some of the rest of us are wanting a more enjoyable experience with this game so that we can actually have fun doing stuff with our friends. The point of the Compactor mod for the terrain tool is to increase inventory AND storage for the early game (And still be useful in the late game) while leaving mid and late game with the other storage mediums as mentioned above. obviously you are going to sandbag this idea out right and that's fine that is your opinion and idea as I said before you are a hardcore ironman of this game we get it. (I also get the feeling that when you quote this for a rebuttal that you are just going to replace all the text with [snip] because it is a TL DR and afterwards you are going to take everything way out of center field.)

[JohnnyZerg]

The inventory definitely needs an update. It is paradoxical and strange, as at the beginning of every new game, even if I am without a gadjet I feel less penalized, because I can gathering more resources albeit slowly, and as I increase the comfort with gadjets I am more fasted but more penalized in the quantity. This is not an inventory upgrade, simply a change in functionality. I agree on the difference between inventory and storage, they are two different things. Furthermore, the difficulty of the game should not be confused with the improvement of life, for example I hate having to download the resources from my backpack one by one, it's not difficult it's just a hassle and waste of time. In the past I had proposed hooks sockets to be connected between astroneers and vehicles/storages, so that the extracted resources went directly to them, then in that case we could speak of a pseudo-expansion of the inventory.
Unfortunately, I don't understand what happened to the developers and what their intentions are regarding the future of the game. They truly have a diamond in the rough, in front of their eyes that deserves to be worked on. I would be willing to pay for paid dlc with real content, but they don't want to, with the excuse of giving everyone the chance to play without paying extra and bla bla bla .... I would like to help them and I was tempted to buy theirs lousy paid skins, which by the way do not interest me, but in my opinion it is not the appropriate way to help them. Better to leave them starving and maybe they will understand their mistakes. I'm sorry to talk like that, but as they say, is it better to give fish to a fisherman, or to make him understand that he must learn to fish?

[Dekrosna]

JohnnyZerg glad to see that not just one or two people think that the player inventory needs some kind of upgrade. The OP's idea is an alright one and I kinda like it but I'm not too keen on the 'end game mission' aspect of the idea. Mostly because a lot of people actually just quit playing after reaching Glacio because that is pretty much the last leg of the game and once you get there you just speed run the research and clear all the planets. I would probably say it could be a mission reward for late early game or early mid game (late early game imo is after you have the chem lab where as early mid game is after getting the atmospheric condenser)

My idea doesn't really free up space per say but it does allow for improved resource gathering especially in the late game when you have very limited player inventory. I would have to say that the compactor mod would have to cost 1 tungsten and 1 aluminum to be within a balanced realm.

Then Zed's idea (not sure if he's a doctor or not... maybe not. [obvious joke and reference to Borderlands here.]) of having a small item that expands out into a 4 slot panel is nice as you can still plug a worklight into it along with 3 other things thus freeing up some space on the bag itself.

A bit to note though to Bomoo. Not everyone that comes here asking for increased player inventory is new to the game some have actually fully cleared the achievement list and have 100+ hours into the game (which this game is only a few hours long if you go minimalist and rush each planet activation followed by satellite.) the inventory management of this game is abysmal. In all honesty out of all the games that I have played over the years this one has one of the worst inventory sizes and inventory management issues. Final Fantasy? no inventory issue there aside from deciding what items to get rid of. Minecraft? Some inventory management issues but honestly it's easily managed. Terraria? No inventory issues there either since by proxy you can have an extended inventory with the Void Bag.

the difference between inventory and storage...
inventory: Items that are on person and readily available to use. (In Astroneer the inventory is the backpack and terrain gun 2 active slots, 8 pack slots, 3 gun slots a total of 13 inventory slots.)
Storage: Items tossed into a container for future use. (in Astroneer the container are the medium storage, medium silo, medium resource cans, large storage, large silos, etc...)

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by Dekrosna:

yes we all know that the vehicles 'end up being your extended inventory' but when your personal inventory has all slots taken up by useful items that you then can't even play the game and have to sacrifice items to have reasonable inventory space...

You are very rarely able to carry everything you could possibly want, either in real life or in the overwhelming majority of games. Nor would it be good design to let you carry everything. If they want to add infinite suit inventory in creative mode, that's fine, but keep it out of game modes where inventory management is a part of gameplay.

Then again they've trivialized so many parts of gameplay to death that it wouldn't surprise me if they trivialized this one next.

For the record I don't see the problem. I carry everything I need in 4 main inventory slots and have 4 left over for crafting or gathering or whatever. And that's using an OG loadout that really isn't necessary any more in baby-mode playing-with-toys-in-space simulator for children that Astro has been turned into. My advice would be to be more selective in what you're bringing and you won't need a huge amount of space in your backpack - this is good advice for ANY game that involves inventory management as part of gameplay, and also for real life if you're doing any travelling.

The fundamental problem is that while the original concept for the inventory is great, the new hires at SE don't seem to understand how to design the game around it, which leads to confusion both among SE staff and players. So while I'm a big fan of the original concept of the inventory, I fully agree the current implementation of it is deeply dysfunctional and confused, at odds with itself.

[Fartikus]

A person is not a storage cabinet.

[Dekrosna]

while a person is not a storage cabinet this is a semi futuristic sci fi space game with a tool that can tear apart terrain, extract resources from said terrain, build it's own terrain. Further more it has machines that can scan things for research points, extract resources from simple soil in reasonable volume, and many other things.

so I don't think that it's an off thing to implement a new terrain tool mod that allows you to compress 2 harvested resources into a package cube. Besides it's not like we're asking for a DnD bag of holding that you can just lump everything into and then just stick on your back like it's nothing at all (If this game get steam workshop mod support then someone is going to make that as an item anyways.) point is a little extra inventory space would be quite nice especially since you tend to end up with so much stuff on your pack anyways.

I've already said that vehicles are not included in the equation of inventory because they are storage no matter which vehicle you build. (Though buggy could be made a bit more useful than just a scout vehicle that ends up being completely useless solo.)

I've also pointed out that your inventory slots get taken up real quick both early and and late game. By mid game you've got 2 or 3 mini RTG's, an oxygen tank, a soil can, and the hoverboard on you at all times. (Top slots and tool gun are not included as their inventory is assumed used by work light, jumpjet [you are using the hoverboard you would be stupid not to use one], drill mod, boost mod, and wide mod. thus leaving only 3 inventory slots to do anything with.

[Fartikus]

It's already pretty ridiculous how much stuff can be fit into the backpack. You don't need to be trucking all that personal junk around.

[Killer]

Vehicles are the supposed moving storage of the game but when your storage stops you from seeing where you're going then I don't mind an alternative like upgradable backpack slots. If the rovers are fun to drive and not floaty + almost impossible to see what's in front while driving, then I'd say extra backpack slots do not interest me much.

[Dekrosna]

with the recent update and addition of the snails we get the following

organic power critter that produces at least if not more power than 4 qt rtgs
organic oxygen critter that acts like a portable oxygenator
damage nullification critter (almost god mode)
jump boost, speed boost, and reduced movement penalty carrying heavy objects. (speed hacks almost)
organic terrain tool upgrade that uses 1 slot on the terrain tool... (it functions as a drill mod 1, boost mod, and partial wide mod.)
a treasure seeker
and lastly a better light than a floodlight or work light

now here's the load out at end game with all these snails (because why wouldn't you be using these all at once.)

top slots
Light snail
Hydrazine jetpack

Terrain tool
Tool Snail
Wide mod (cause it's better than the wide buff from snail)
drill mod 3 (cause snail acts like drill mod 1)

Backpack
Power snail
Oxygen snail
Damage negation snail
Mobility snail
Hoverboard
Soil can
(empty slot)
(empty slot)

So who thinks we still don't need some kind of player inventory update? Come on now raise your hands.


looks like we are reduced to having TWO back pack slots to do anything with... looks like our only way of doing anything significant is to build one of the more annoying things to babysit... the auto extractor... OR build a crane with a drill mod three and set up drill sites for resources... but wait your at the end game why would you keep playing after this?

achievements... building a fully functional and effective base on every planet... have fun with all this stuff and more...

The point is that now our play inventory is much more reduced in what it can carry. We're not putting vehicles into the equation at all here we all get that vehicles are to allow you to have access to your stuff as you move around... the problem with vehicles is that when using a chain of them things get chaotic and messy (also glitchy) so you are then reduced to using just 1 vehicle which in turn has it's own set of limiting factors in the form of significantly reduced storage capability even with a large silo B equipped with resource cans. Equally enough power generation for the large rover (oh yeah you can just slap the power snail and oxygen snail onto the storage things for the large rover and call that problem solved... granted you could do that but honestly who really wants to actually do that when you probably would have like 5 or 6 qt rtgs laying around that you could slap onto the back of the large rover.

The point is that I, amongst others, think that this game needs some form of player inventory expansion with a module item that can be crafted be it a tool mod that compresses resources down, or an active item that goes on the top slots to give a few extra slots. cause as the actual inventory goes... it is highly ridiculous that at the end game you are practically left with just the singular option of building a mobile base or just one large rover to function as your all purpose machine for resource gathering. (Not everyone wants to be chain locked to using a vehicle for gathering resources... equally not everyone wants to even bother trying to mess with the automation stuff due to it being either too confusing for them or too chaotic for them to use. So having an added in module for increasing the inventory in some fashion would be HIGHLY useful. and if you don't like those things being added into your game then here's a trick for you... don't use them (SHOCKER!!!!) that simple... no really it is just that simple. if you see something as being cheaty, annoying, cheap, etc then don't use it. Heck some people would call the use of vehicles to be cheap/cheaty or some such (also vehicles actually are quite annoying to run around with.)

[JohnnyZerg]

An alternative very simple to expanding the inventory could be to add small resource canisters (which could deposit up to 8 resources inside) so that extraction is viable but not superior to rovers.

ps: fixes auto extractor babysitting

[AoEnwyr]

Originally posted by JohnnyZerg:

An alternative very simple to expanding the inventory could be to add small resource canisters (which could deposit up to 8 resources inside) so that extraction is viable but not superior to rovers.

ps: fixes auto extractor babysitting

This is probably the best way to go around it, although I'd say each canister holding 4 resources is probably enough. That way, even if you have only 2 slots left with all your augments/baterries/oxygen equipped, you can carry 8 resources (the number of standard backpack slots -excluding active and tool slots)