Bringing order to Item Chaos

[karma827]

I've been thoroughly enjoying my time with RoR2, but I've found that keeping track of items (in all senses) is more effort than it should be, pretty much all the way around. To combat some of the chaos that surrounds items (which are so integral to the game), I'd like to offer the following suggestions.

It would be really great if the current item list (the main place where we see what items we currently have) was sortable. I know some players may like the semi-random-seeming order that they currently list in, and I wouldn't want to take that away from them- but for myself, I'd really like my items to be sorted by rarity, then name.

In the same vein, it would be awesome if there was an info-display that indicated all your current base stats and item stats applied. I'd really love to be able to press a button and quickly see that I have 20% crit, 30% block chance, 15% chance to apply bleed affect, 24m fungus range with 250 healing per pulse, etc.

Also, instead of having items pop out of a chest (or shrine, or teleporter) and land (presumably on an accessible portion of the ground, but not always), can we not have only the simple message that says "You got [this item] from the chest" and have the item simply appear in the corresponding persons inventory? This would alleviate:
- the graphical burden of the animation of the item coming out and landing
- the danger of having to run back and pick up the item off the ground (because, at 400 minutes, you're not standing there, stretching casually, while the chest pops on item onto you)
- items not landing on accessible ground (e.g. falling off a cliff, or landing up the side of a mountain/column)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1869448511
- "loot ninjas", or whatever someone wants to call it when the loot you paid for goes into the inventory of another player without you offering it to them


I would also love to see two new interactable "devices", along the lines of 3D printer "devices".
1. An "item remover" - This device would show a random item on it (like how 3D printers do) - for example a cautious slug. When a player with a cautious slug activates the "remover", it would pull the cautious slug (or whatever is showing) from their inventory and give it to the next player to activate the device. Or perhaps pressing one key "stores" the shown item, while a second, different key "releases" the item, so player 1 could store 6 things for player 2 to pick up, without player 2 having to come over to collect those items in that moment.
- This would be less useful in a single player game, but in a multiplayer game this would allow players to give items to each other, to support very cooperative play within the framework of items not dropping on the ground.
2. An "item trader" - This device would also show a random item on it; however, when activated by a player, it would trade in only the shown item for any other item of the same color, chosen at random when the device is activated.
- This could be useful in both single player as well as in multiplayer games

I think both of these devices should be uncommon and random, similar to the existing 3D printers and shrines.

Anyway, thanks for the fun I've had so far, the fun I'll have in the future!

[NoTruePunk]

If you can't trust the people you're playing with you have bigger issues than some video game mechanics

[karma827]

Originally posted by NoTruePunk:

If you can't trust the people you're playing with you have bigger issues than some video game mechanics

It's super-interesting that this is what you took away from my post. Thanks for your amazing contribution to the topic.

[NoTruePunk]

You're looking for a technical solution to a social problem. It's never worked before and it won't work here. Learn to sort out your differences and work together with your teamates.

[Krueger]

I like the first half of the post focused on displaying stats. Sounds super useful to be able to see all my current effects.

I don't like items going straight to inventory. The way I play with my friends is to open a chest and then the person who that item is most useful on picks it up. It allows us to stack items on certain characters to try and make builds.

I don't really mind that sometimes an item will drop to a bit of terrain that my character can't get to. To me this just enhances the fact that some characters are more mobile and can deal with this situation (or the 'damn I should have bought that feather!' moment).

[karma827]

Originally posted by NoTruePunk:

You're looking for a technical solution to a social problem. It's never worked before and it won't work here. Learn to sort out your differences and work together with your teamates.

How is the lag that I experience, at 400 minutes in a single player game, from opening a chest, and the animation thereof, and the lack of detailed information a "social problem"? I only play single player, so I'm really confused by the volume of assumptions you're making. At any rate, you're completely derailing my post, and I would appreciate you keeping your thoughtless flames to yourself.

Originally posted by Krueger:

I don't like items going straight to inventory. The way I play with my friends is to open a chest and then the person who that item is most useful on picks it up. It allows us to stack items on certain characters to try and make builds.

This is why I suggested the items that will allow people to swap items amongst themselves in a multiplayer game. I definitely value the teamwork and commaraderie that could be available, and wouldn't want to affect that in any way other than positively.

[Derpykat5]

I agree with everything apart from the items going instantly to inventory. There are some items you do not want to pick up, either because they suck on your character or you just don't like them.

I personally don't like picking up Hopoo Feathers as Artificer. It interferes with the way I glide too much. Many people don't like picking up red whips. Some people will choose to pass on even some red items like Happiest Mask and Wake of Vultures, since they have been known to bug out and ruin runs. Some people don't like Frost Relic because of what it does with the camera. Heck, someone might even pass up Tesla Coil because they have had one too many traumatic experiences with clay pots.

My point is that there should be an option to not take an item, and the item going instantly into your inventory does not allow that.

I would love the ability to sort my items though. I hate having to look through that giant list to see how much of a certain item I have.

[karma827]

Originally posted by derpykat5:

I agree with everything apart from the items going instantly to inventory.

Do you have any thoughts on how this could work instead, and still be really supportive of the playstyle where someone doesn't want to get items? I had suggested the "item trader" thing to attempt to address this, but the random nature of my original suggestion wouldn't let this truly work. I, myself, dread getting certain items, but playing single-player I just consider them as currency for the bazaar and usually just suffer until I get there.

What if there was a "Keep/ Pass" option when the item popped into your inventory- and if you choose Pass, you could pass it to a particular other player or even just drop on the ground? In theory, that could still alleviate most of the burden on the game itself...

[Krueger]

Originally posted by karma827:

Originally posted by derpykat5:

I agree with everything apart from the items going instantly to inventory.

Do you have any thoughts on how this could work instead, and still be really supportive of the playstyle where someone doesn't want to get items? I had suggested the "item trader" thing to attempt to address this, but the random nature of my original suggestion wouldn't let this truly work. I, myself, dread getting certain items, but playing single-player I just consider them as currency for the bazaar and usually just suffer until I get there.

The main issue with your solution is that we'd need to wait for potentially a couple waves for one of these trader or removal machines to appear. And I like to make a choice on almost every item that I open :P

Idk, if we ignore performance issues, because honestly thats a separate problem that can and will be fixed over time, I feel that most of your other concerns with item pickup are sort of part of the game and intended.

Sometimes yes you end up suiciding by trying to pick up that juicy looking legendary item that just popped out of a chest unexpectedly and made you forget about the 50 blazing elites surrounding it.. And thats kind of part of the fun to me. Loot ninjas are a social problem, and items being on terrain, personally is interesting to me but could be fixed with some better AI.

[Dr. Cheech]

Originally posted by karma827:

Originally posted by NoTruePunk:

You're looking for a technical solution to a social problem. It's never worked before and it won't work here. Learn to sort out your differences and work together with your teamates.

How is the lag that I experience, at 400 minutes in a single player game, from opening a chest, and the animation thereof, and the lack of detailed information a "social problem"? I only play single player, so I'm really confused by the volume of assumptions you're making. At any rate, you're completely derailing my post, and I would appreciate you keeping your thoughtless flames to yourself.

To be clear, are you talking about 400 minutes into a run or 400 minutes of having the game open in 1 session(idle or not)? Because if the lag is from just opening a chest and nothing else on screen that sounds like a bug/memory problem or a hardware issue(some hardware handles extended sessions very poorly).

As for the item system issues of loot ninjas, that is what they're saying is a social problem.

I'm with derpy on having items locked into your inventory; that just sounds painful to deal with.

Items landing out of bounds or in inaccessible areas is a genuine issue that needs to be fixed. An invisible wall to limit the movement of items coming out of printers/chests seems like an easy solution(as long as you can attach said walls to only interactable entities without affecting player/enemy movement).

Seeing your stats and modifiers with a button press(such as the pause menu) would be a nice touch. Items sorting in the hot bar would be nice even if it was just by rarity.

[RainySage]

Naw dawg this aint it. Imagine not wanting to pick up headset as artificer, but it just appears in your inventory because of your instant pick-up suggestion. Or, if you're huntress, and your teammate is engineer, and you found some fungus that you would like to give him. Wouldn't your suggestion ruin this as well?