Item Management/Looting is a NIGHTMARE

[Aster954]

I have trouble playing this game, there is so much ♥♥♥♥ to pick up it's insane, I have no idea what to pick up, what not to pick up, etc. I know that everything can be used, but even when i just pick up everything it takes so much time and it just gives me a headache. If I don't I feel like I'm missing out or not doing it right. And this is all before considering the fact of a weight limit imposed on your character, ♥♥♥♥ THAT, this game is completely unplayable without a mod to have infinite carry weight.

Am I just insane? Do you know what I'm talking about? How do you deal with this issue?

[Benzin]

I too find the whole looting/inventory management part of the game somehow cumbersome. Not enough to make me "hate" the game or anything, but its certainly my least favorite part.

My usual "proceedure" untill recently was:
- collect everything
- trash / component materials go to the workshop
- armor & weapons i dont use get sold to merchants.

However i am tired of this now! so what i now do is i only pick up expensive stuff or things that have materials that i use the most. Or of course things i really need at the time.

I think once you have "enough" stuff on your workshop for your needs, you can mostly ignore picking up stuff.

[Elrofrost]

There are mods that will ID certain "important" items to pickup. You don't need to pick up everything. You just need to know what you need. Adhesive (tape, glue, etc, etc) is probably the hardest to find (and keep stock of). Steel and wood you will use a lot. Lucky, there plently of both around. I usually pick up ciicuit boards, glass, etc.

Go to the Nexus (for mods) and look around. There are a few good ones.

Oh and I agree, the inventory management in the game is just trash. But there are mods to help with that too.

[H.Honor]

i just loot everything except burnt books/burnt magazine and overdue books

legendary weapon/armor i don't need i sell
unique weapons/armor i collect
weapon/armor with good modifications i salvage for components
weapons/armor that give only 1 steel/plastic i sell for caps
food i store because survival mode
junk i just plain store to workbench

thats how i do my loot management

[Benzin]

You know what i think would be a really cool way to eliminate this issue?
If you could order some settlers to scavange/loot areas you have secured!
e.g. i clear out a building of raiders/gouls/whatever, i use my "radio" to call in for a scavanging group. And settlers from the nearest settlement (like those assigned to scavanging stations) come in and take every piece of usable loot back to the workbench.

[Excal]

Invest in the strongback perk, it can be very useful for carrying a BUNCH of stuff! Also get some points into Strength to carry more. Use the "Pocketed" mod to increase carry capacity by a little. Wear Power armour, it will alow you to carry more stuff. Bring a follower too!

If you want to use mods then get the carry weight mod as you have said, will elimate this feeling of Looting headache. Other mods such as backpacks are cool too.

Of course you don't have to essentially LOOT everything, but the really important things. Value over weight ETC, Important junk Like Screws, Nuceliar material, adhesive, etc Things that don't weigh to much.

Sell Weapons, armor to merchants. In survival it's all about managing your loot. Don" bring too much weapons or ammo with you, Travel light, always return to sell or dump stuff after a long run in the commonwealth.

ALL JUNK that I loot, I will dump In my Workshop.

I am a looting maniac myself. In every game I will loot a everything LOL.

ps, I wouldn't say this game is unplayable because of the loot system.

Also , almost forgot with the lone wanderer perk allows you to carry more with dogmeat with you.

[Sledge]

My strategy for loot management is as follows: if I can manage to pick up some loot, I do. :D

It's nice to be able to set up settlements without running out of anything.

[Amonsun]

I only loot weapons if I need it and only loot armor if it has lead or I need it ( lead for ammo ).
I usually pick up all scrap.

[Casper]

yeah I didn't want to give my character too many damage based perks so I got carry weight stuff.

380 pounds out of powerarmor for survival mode; 490 in power armor. Only about str-6 I think.
Lone Wanderer is brilliant for this.

[Random Flops]

Originally posted by Computer:

I have trouble playing this game, there is so much ♥♥♥♥ to pick up it's insane, I have no idea what to pick up, what not to pick up, etc. I know that everything can be used, but even when i just pick up everything it takes so much time and it just gives me a headache. If I don't I feel like I'm missing out or not doing it right. And this is all before considering the fact of a weight limit imposed on your character, ♥♥♥♥ THAT, this game is completely unplayable without a mod to have infinite carry weight.

Am I just insane? Do you know what I'm talking about? How do you deal with this issue?

youll learn after a while, pick up ALL junk, NO armor (unless youd like to of course,) and if youre smart, youll drop your unused weapon mods and junk to your primary settlement. Its not that hard, and if it is still, you can get an automatron to carry up to 500 carryweight, and if you dont have the automatron DLC, id recommend it.

[Random Flops]

Originally posted by Excalibur:

...
Sell Weapons, armor to merchants.

ALL JUNK that I loot, I will dump In my Workshop.

I am a looting maniac myself. In every game I will loot a everything LOL.

ps, I wouldn't say this game is unplayable because of the loot system.

agreed, the game is surperior to its previous games when it comes to loot mechanics because ALL junk has purpose now instead of just to make specific weapons like in the other games, and now you dont even have to enter the inventory transfer screen to loot a body which is very very useful.

[Zaris]

Yes in the first playthrough / first 40-50hrs it could be to much loot but after a while you know which items you really need to pickup and which you don't need anymore.

Here for starters some advices:
- create your hero with 10 charisma, put 2-3 pts in selling perk and wear 2-4 charisma clothes (if you skilled the perk you only need 2 more charisma for max price)
- build many water pumps in sanctuary, you can fit about 40 x 40er water pumps in the river (~1200 bottles every ingame day which you can sell for 16 caps earch = 19000 caps)
- discover Diamond City and Goodneighbour early on (run through the areas) to get access to the traders
- get water from settlement workshop in sanctuary and sell it for ammo, weapons, armor and junk in the cities
- build lvl3 vendors in your settlement to get access to more items (weapon shop has about 4-5 times more weapons as Aturo in Diamond City)
- skill scapper perk, buy all weapons from weapon vendor and scrap them to get junk for every weapon upgrade

Now you only need to loot new weapons, armors and nothing else because y ou swim in caps thanks to the water production and you can buy junk in stacks from vendors.

[Applesmacked]

You can tag material types from items in your inventory to put a magnifying glass next to all junk items that have those materials.

[psychodegu]

How have you played for over 50 hours and not figured this stuff out. Get an ecconomy going with your setlments with food and water production for you to sell to your own merchants or dimond city/good neighbor. Get the setlment perks for shops, and build some in every setlment, and they start generating caps. Assign spare settlers to scavanging. Some stuff can be made in the cooking or chemistry crafting stations like adhesive (starch). Once the ecconomy gets going and you do a few trade runs with a companion like an automatron robot built for carry weight (really only need if you don't have strong back or are on survival difficulty), you can basically buy supply shipments off traders, and the need to collect everything is pretty much gone.

[Ruin]

If you're willing to use mods, try using Def_UI and Valdacil's Item Sorting...

If you're familiar with SkyUI, those two are about as close as you're going to get in FO4, in my experience...

[KoalafiedKiller]

After you play long enough and craft enough you eventually learn what components things have.

For example I keep running out of copper so I know I need fuses, phones, light bulbs, and vacuum tubes. I take those over anything else at the moment.

Now my issue is with looting legendary armor. It has so many prefixes that eventually you can't even tell if it's normal, sturdy, or heavy. Nothing worse than finding an awesome legendary piece of combat armor only to find out it's heavy and makes me look like I have elephantiasis with my full set of sturdy.