When it comes to most games the player can carry almost of everything they can and normally do so. What are peoples thoughts and reactions to the notion that a character can can only use and carry the items they can fit on their person. The equipment and items you have with you would only be what you where wearing and what you could fit in your pockets or hold in your hands. You could carry more by wearing a backpack or belt but even then only what could fit in the backpack or belt pockets. The limited carrying capacity would force players to plan in advance what they want to bring with them and what they think they will need. For instance you have a team of 5 commondos going to infiltrate a base. Each can carry only so much stuff: 1) One set of armor, 2) a primary weapon, 3) Seconday weapon, or shield, 4) A backpack, or Sat Link unit, or Support Weapon. Unless wearing full armor(ie, blast or hazmat suit) 5) One Accessory per area (ie, waist=belt, leg=ankle holster, eyes=nightvision goggles. In addition to firer power the commondo team will nead various devices such as computer spike, demolotion charge, Laptop, ammo. Now this system could work in any game, but the example is from one I'm working on at the momment. By limiting equipment do people feel that their choice have to be more strategic adding depth and realisim to the game. Or would you rather be able to carry and use anything you want at any time?

Most FPS's normally don't try this form of realism, though there is a couple that do. Planetside though does use limited carrying capacity (for a variety of reasons, balance being one of them). The players have a backback, two small hip slots and two large shoulder slots, with armor determining the number and size of those slots.

Personally, i enjoy games that limit my carrying capacity so i have to choose which pieces of equipment i'm going to take with me, or if i'll have enough room for anything i might find on the way. It has the unusual side effect of giving a greater level of customization to a players character, such as outfitting yourself with a perferred load out and weapons to compliment your playstyle. After that all you need is your favorite character model and your off. :D

The X-Com series of games do this well; they're squad-based tactics games, so you have to choose how to outfit your team depending on their specializations. The guy with the good accuracy gets the sniper rifle, the strong guy gets the heavy weapon, the fast guy gets the motion sensor and medikit. In layout, it's pretty much as you describe: each person can hold one thing in each hand (with lower accuracy if they use a rifle or somesuch one-handed), have a belt, two shoulder and thigh slots, and a backpack. It's a good system in my opinion because it forces you to assign roles to your team... in a squad-based system. If you're playing a FPS or RPG, that's different. It might work well in some RPG's since it places priorities on how much loot you can carry off (Diablo is the classic example). And for FPS's... has ANY FPS game placed a realistic limit on what you can carry? None that I've seen, for sure...

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Original post by Icefox And for FPS's... has ANY FPS game placed a realistic limit on what you can carry? None that I've seen, for sure...

Halo series (2 weapons + some grenades. Don't remember about ammo), Farcry (total of 4 weapons I think, but ammo for all)

It really depends on the game. Playing a FPS, for example, I don't want to be deciding what to carry and what to drop, whether I have the right combination of accessories and stuff if it's a fast action game like Halo or UT. Yes, halo only lets you carry a small amount of stuff, but the choices are fairly simple. If you only have two slots and there aren't that many choices, the decision isn't so bad. Obviously, having this in a tactical shooter, where you outfit a team before each mission, is better, because it's a an important decision and I can take the time to think about it. So in the end, it depends a lot on the context of the game.

tj963

I think one thing that would be cool in games are realistic equipment of the enemies as well as realistic equip/unequip times. Taking off an armor could take from 30 seconds to several minutes. Perhaps as much as ten minutes for full plate armor in an rpg. As an added incentive not to do it, NPCs might get upset if you start looting the dead.

In FPSes, some enemies has a body-armor, but after you perforated it with bullets it won't do you any good. If you inflict a headshot then the armor would be ok, so you can strip it of the dead body. This will take a minute however (+20 seconds to put it on yourself), so you'll have to decide if it's worth the hassle. It's to bulky to carry, except perhaps in a largish backpack (adds some extra protection from the rear too [smile]). Putting things in and taking them out of backpacks takes some time as well. Basically make it a lot more practical to use the equipment you're using. Enemies weapons can also break when they die, so you won't always be able to pick up a new weapon after a kill.

If the player is armed with an SMG and has a pistol as a sidearm, he can drop the SMG (sling around the neck) and draw the pistol in a second, but if he has to dig into his backpack for the sawed off shotgun it's going to take him 10-20 seconds during which he is defenseless.

Definitely depends on the game.

In an RPG where there are a lot of "Find object X, take to NPC Y" type missions, a limited inventory is going to be really annoying. However, provided you keep this sort of gameplay to a bare minimum, it could work extremely well, perhaps with certain advantages and disadvantages in having items stored in certain places as frostburn suggests. Some of these could be quite subtle - for example, a knife tucked into your boot might not be quick to draw all the time, but could be drawn unexpectedly (potential surprise) and might also be missed if the character is ever captured and disarmed.

One approach that could be used is pack animals, or some other kind of not very available inventory. It could be a pack animal tethered outside the dungeon or a spell that teleports objects to the player's house/warehouse/bank. It could also be possible to teleport objects back to the player, but at a high mana-cost (you'd have to locate to object using clairvoyance or something).

I agreed that some games would best be served by a "hands, holsters, holders, and straps" sort of inventory system. Your handguns go on your belt (or in a shoulder holster, or thigh holster), a jacket or vest (armored or oilcloth, as prefered), something slung over your shoulder, something hanging around your neck, and items in whatever other pockets you have.

But definitely limited. Forcing players to make choices is one of the good elements to put into games.

But as a random question: in Half-Life 2, Freeman carries two pistols, two carbines, a crossbow, a shotgun, a crowbar, a gravity gun, and a laser-guided missile launcher -- two sidearms and half a dozen long arms. Where does he put all this stuff?

Ultima VII uses this kind of system.

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