ORK 3 Slot-based Inventory

gamingislove

With ORK 3's beta now having fixed most of the initial issues (hopefully), it's time to talk about a new feature.

The next thing I'll implement will be an (optional) slot-based inventory, i.e. instead of just having stuff in the inventory, they'll be assigned to a slot, and if no more free slots are available, stuff can't be added any longer. I guess everyone knows how this works :)

For now I've planned a basic implementation:

you can optionally use inventory slots
slot number is defined via the usual float value selection (e.g. allowing to use a formula for bonus slots based on stats)
items, equipment, currency, AI behaviours, AI rulesets and crafting recipes can all optionally use slots (e.g. you can have items and equipment be slot-based and the rest not)
new menu part for slot inventory, there's no item type or item/equipment/etc. filtering available (the regular inventory menu part still work and just list the stuff as usual)

Now it's time to let me know what kind of features you'd want implemented in a slot-based inventory :)

Meinos_Kaen

Oooooh :D Well, the first thing I thought of would be Encumbrance, but I guess that's the 'Bonus Slots based on Stats' way you mentioned :P

Oh! What about Cursed Equipment? Items you can't remove without going to a priest :3

gamingislove

Not sure what encumbrance for inventory slots is - maybe go into a bit more details here :D

Don't forget that the other inventory features still apply, e.g. inventory space, dropable, stealable, sellable, etc. E.g. if an item can't be dropped or sold, you can't get ridd of it anyway :) Or would you have it locked to the slot it's on, i.e. it can't be moved to a different slot?

hellwalker

I'll list all possible generic interactions that come to mind atm.

Split/Merge items

Drag and Drop:

To equipment slot, equip
To drop slot, drop on ground
To same id item, merge request
To different item, swamp place
To empty slot, move to that slot
To container or from container, move between inventories
To character portrait, move to that characters inventory
To slot bar, assign if the item is usable

Context Menu Options:

Examine
Drop
Equip
Use
Split
Dismantle
Repair Equipment

Click Options

Double Click --Use if own inventory --Move from inventory to another inventory. (Chest To player etc) -Shift + Click Move/Sell/Buy all items -CTRL + Click Move/Sell/Buy one item -Single Click Move/Sell/Buy but the quantity slider appears

Cosmetics -- Different slot backgrounds for different types of items. Either through item category, or Weapom/Armor/Item/Usable Item

Sorting

Ability to show items of only certain categories, including subcategories.
Ability to sort items in ascending or descending order based on one of these: -- Variable Value (To provide some way to sort by Damage/Armor) -- Durability -- Cost in certain currency

Acissathar

The only thing I can think of is support for items that don't necessarily take 1 square. Some items may take 2x2 or be a T shape, etc. This seemed to be used frequently in ARPGS (Diablo, Path of Exile, etc.) and some survival games to make inventory management a game play element as well.

Vlastan

Very nice. Will it be a feature exclusive to Ork3 or it will be available to Ork2 as well?

<blockquote>Acissathar said: The only thing I can think of is support for items that don't necessarily take 1 square.</blockquote> I had the same thought. Having items occupying more than 1 slot would be nice. (Armor, big weapons, etc)

GMKe

I have no idea whether this is already possible, but I would like to see a Carry Limit for separate items in your inventory. For example being able to carry and take 10/10 potions, 5/5 Hi-Potions, 3/3 Elixirs, and so on with you/into battle.

gamingislove

@hellwalker Thanks :) Merge/split will definitely come (also for the regular inventory menus), other context menu stuff is probably already doable via the sub-menu (which will also be available in the slot inventory).

@Acissathar That's probably not coming.

@Vlastan That'll be exclusive to ORK 3.

@GMKe That's already possible (also in ORK 2), there are optional item quantity limits (default for all, each item can override it).

mersec

Status value that effects maximum slot value, that can be added to items....this way we can have equipment that can increase slots.

Another thing...Containers? i.e an item in your inventory that opens up and has its own slot inventory.

GMKe

Oh, I see, that's good to know! Then I assume it'd also be possible to increase the max carry limit midway through, via custom code (such as using an item to bump the max from 10/10 to 20/20, kind of like Zelda Arrows/Bombs/etc with the different upgrades)

Thanks Gil. Eagerly awaiting for ORK3 final release!

gamingislove

Thanks for the input so far. bump

RifleFire

GiL, So we can have a background .png of say a person in the standard "T" position or any pose and drag and drop various armor, weapons, etc to that persons picture's body areas from the slotted grid inventory (e.g. for equipping, click and drag boots from the inventory grid to the feet in the picture and the feet would turn into boots in the picture and to un-equip reverse the sequence). Will this be possible? An if possible, any ideas on how this would be done in ORK 3? RF

gamingislove

@RifleFire Yeah, that's possible - and that'd also already be possible in ORK 2 (except for inventory slots). You just have to set up an Equipment menu part that only lists the equipment slots (equipment parts in ORK 2) and an inventory menu part. Drag/drop functionality has to be enabled in the menu screens.

gamingislove

The next ORK 3 BETA will feature the brand new inventory containers - the optional, slot-based inventory system. You can add as many containers (with as many slots) as you want, each container can define the content you can store in it, e.g. items, equipment, etc. - but also limit to certain item types. So, you can have separate slots for potions, weapons, recipes, etc.

Number of slots is defined via the usual float value selection, i.e. you can use formulas to expand upon it via the status system, even make a whole container only available (i.e. have more than 0 slots) under certain conditions.

gamingislove

ORK 3 BETA 6 adds a first version of the new inventory container feature. For now this is limited to only combatant inventories, but I'll also add the feature for item boxes in one of the next updates.

p4martin

Are there any specific tutorials on setting up a drag and drop grid / cell based inventory with top tabs for item types?

I have read through most information but seem to be lacking in understanding what each component actually does. I can't even make a slot that shows the icon of the item and the count in inventory. I would want a tooltip to show more info.

Admittedly a visual learner. Reading is fine but without some sort of visual I am lost.

I understand the menu screen being the base, but if I add the inventory part where is the information coming from in run mode I am not seeing anything in the hierarchy. It just shows the image in a list. What do I have to do?

Love the system but the learning curve is severe. Any help on this would be a great asset as I can use the info as a base for visually learning the system.

Do I need a hud for the slot? Do I have to set up the slots ahead of time in the UI or do I only need one slot prefab and the inventory UI will populate based on parameters such as the current size of the inventory? If set up ahead of time, how do you expand the inventory size should character grap a backpack or other item to increase inventory size.

Can inventory be based on equipment? For example backpack or other clothing that can increase the size.

Most of the system I am doing ok with but the UI has me perplexed. Any help would be greatly appreciated once again.

gamingislove

Sure - here's a tutorial for setting up inventory containers and a menu for them.

p4martin

How did I miss that? Ok awesome, Ill give it a go. Thank you. Cheers

p4martin

Ok, awesome, I did the tutorial and all seems to be working, thanks again. I have a couple more questions, however.

When I select the "use" button, another menu pops up with two blank buttons. These I believe are confirmation buttons "Yes" and "No". Where would I find these buttons and set the text for them?
The grenade functionality from the action tutorial works well but how do I change this so that the grenades can be equipped before being used? Left hand for example, if I use the grenade from the "Use" button, it just drops at the player's feet and is not thrown. Also when I do use the grenade as per the action tutorial, the numbers go down by 2. Throw one grenade, and it subtracts 2 from the inventory.
Lastly, is this the same setup for showing equipment or a different setup? I Would like to have the equipment shown in the inventory as another tabbed page. Eventually all panels as tabs whether quests, equipment slots and stats for example.

gamingislove

1) Usually that's not the case - did you by chance enable using a sub menu in your inventory container menu? Or it could be the combatant selection to select the target for using the item, which is set up in UI > Combatant Selections

2) Items can't be equipped, so you'd have to make a grenade equipment and use an ability instead of the item for using it. The grenade equipment can e.g. add the grenade ability as an equipment ability that's available while equipped.

An alternative setup would be to use shortcut slots, i.e. the grenade item is assigned to a shortcut slot and your control maps use shortcut slots, i.e. whatever item or ability (or other thing) is currently stored there.

3) Inventory menus (doesn't matter if regular or container) can only show inventory content, i.e. items, equipment, currencies, etc. You can't put stuff like quests in there.

You can build such tabbed menus by using either Button List or Menu List menu parts to change between different menu screens for showing inventory, equipment slots, quests, etc. The 3D RPG Playground tutorials have an extensive look at creating menus.