Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game

  • @MikeTheMutinous I’m glad we got a statement about this, like others have said this will go along way and it is appreciated.

    I do find myself agreeing with @KnightX13 that there is still a lot of un-answered concerns.

    Also out off curiosity is this transparency going to be a continual thing from now on regarding future updates or is this just a one off damage control? Because this is the kind of information and thought processes I believe we have needed for a long time and I hope it’s not just a one of.

    It’s why I have always been an advocate of the return of Joes monthly insider reports.

  • Thank you kindly Mike for the update!

  • @mikethemutinous THIS IS JUST GREAT. Thanks for the transparency and sincerity. And also thanks for listening to us

  • Thanks for this much needed update! I’m sure the community as a whole appreciates your continued transparency on this pivotal change and any further changes or improvements in the future!

    It’s great to see the communities voices are still being heard and will continue to help shape changes in the future. Can’t wait to see and test these new upcoming changes alongside other dedicated Pioneers so we can help smooth out these sore spots together for everyone!

  • @knifelife Agreed!

  • @ii-mikez-ii Woahh both Mike’s in one day?! It’s a sign! XD Hope the Clubs are treating you well bud!

  • While I understand the necessity to add a new UI for new types of food, cannonballs and what not, I still believe that the radial menu was the best way to represent clearly what ressources the player is carrying

    The new TAB menu system is perfect however for clothes equipments and shipwrights. Using tab to see those is a good idea and is a good improvement towards trades for example: having a jacket in multiple numbers etc...

    Now when it comes to barrels.. The new UI is definitely not the best option and you know it. A "take all" option will indeed reduce the time spent on the barrel only if the option is exeternal from the actual UI. For example : "Press F to loot all" while watching the barrel and be free of moving like the old system.

    Frankly I only want to deal with the new Barrel menu when I need to.
    You should give the players the option to loot quick and be mobile while doing so OR go in depth with the new UI and take risks (or not).

    We're all looting barrel to the max anyways right ? So just use 1 input to loot all and we should be fine.

    Ah... also... preview the barrel content when the player is looking at it please... At least the main ressources ...

  • @mikethemutinous The new UI is so much slower that even Take All won't fix it. We need to be able to grab things from barrels on the fly, perhaps whilst being chased by a horde of skellies and in desperate need of a banana.

    The simple solution here is to make pressing X do what it used to i.e. take the first of whatever items remain in the barrel.

    Then make holding X (like you currently use to load a cannon) open the new inventory UI in case you need to do something more complex.

    Storing items isn't as vital to optimise but taking them needs to be as quick as possible, just as it used to be.

  • I reiterate, unless you plan to add a TON of various food choices, cannonball types, plank/wood types, etc. you can EASILY use existing unused barrels surrounding those spots to fill the future items.

    • Food? Bananas, Coconuts, Pineapple(?) = 3 Barrels and most of the ships already have 1 for bananas and 2 unused ones right next to it (with sloop have only 1 unused barrel, but lots of space to add another barrel).
    • Planks? As it stands there is only planks and nothing mentioned about other types, but still all the boats have 2 unused barrels next to the existing planks barrel.
    • Cannonballs? As it stands there are barrels for storing the regular balls, and room next to them to add a barrel just for the cursed balls. Add a barrel with a limit for this barrel set to 110 so that each ball type could have 10 (10*11=110) or you could choose to have more of one ball type over another. This barrel would be the only one that needs a menu, which IMO is ok since the UI/menu would put a slow down on grabbing cursed balls and add a bit of strategy to using them since they have an advantage in combat.

    Overall this removes need for the barrel menu UI and puts it back to how we all enjoyed it. Adding my previous pictures to explain the idea

    alt text
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  • @mikethemutinous

    I support you in changing the barrel system.

    The fact that they are on the principle of inventory, it remains easier to search for resources in large quantities.

    On the other hand, it is true that having the possibility to throw quickly his boards, cannonballs and his bananas would be a real plus.

    Thank you for this update!

  • Take All sounds pretty abusable in PvP situations, which is why I never really thought that idea made much sense. Granted it wasn't too quick with the previous method to mash the button to grab supplies, I suspect it'll be quicker to grab 10 cannonballs than it used to be even with the new menus. So that'll make jumping on an enemy ship and using "take all" on all the barrels you can a pretty solid strategy for draining enemy resources, even if it's a button within the menu.

    I also immediately question the value of more food items into the game. Currently bananas only heal your health bar, because there is no other function for them to serve. What would additional food items provide? Variable health gains? Additional buffs? Both of these seem like a step in the wrong direction to me, and I don't understand the idea. I admit there is some potential value that I'm unable to see due to future updates, but as it stands it seems like a senseless addition. Buffs wouldn't maintain that even playing field, as people on a server for hours could amass food items. On top of this, it takes away from the feedback of what is occurring on the battlefield. I also worry that concepts such as this will simply complicate battle and provide more "I win" buttons like cursed cannonballs, which seems like such a step away from the initial design that attracted so many players to begin with.

    Anyway, thanks for the response on the changes. I'm pretty concerned this game is going a direction that isn't for me, but the transparency is what we need, especially on this platform.

  • I will add that I would be ok with previous mentioned ideas of having quicker actions for the barrel interaction.

    • Hold F (on keyboard) or hold X (on controller) = enter UI
    • press F (on keyboard) or press X (on controller) = quick grab of 1 item at a time of the default item (regular cannonball, plank, banana)
    • R (on keyboard) or Y (on controller) = quick store, 1 at a time, of the item in your hand. So if you are holding a banana at the food barrel, pressing R/Y would store that item 1 at a time (meaning 1 item per press)
  • @drunkpunk138 Take all won’t be that bad, if you can have over a thousand cannon balls for example and can only store 10 in your inventory it won’t be that much of an issue. Remember they are also going to be adding the option to buy supplies soon. :)

  • “this change will allow players to open the interface and quickly take and store stacks ”

    Could this not be expanded upon to include button prompts first? Opening the interface is not needed on the ship all the time, it would also allow for the old style, quicker pick up of food on forts.

    Why not use the spare controller buttons, for example.

    Walk up to the plank barrel,
    X - Take
    Y - Store
    B - Inventory

  • @iisrgntwolfii said in Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game:

    I would like to make 1 comment regarding the "take all/store all" feature.

    If/When this is implemented, it should NOT apply to enemy ships.
    I should have to take or store 1 item at a time.
    If take all/store all is added, doing this to an enemy ship would allow an instant drain to cannonball supplies in the current state of things.

    Take all/Store all on MY ship and other barrels - YES
    Take all store all on ENEMY/ALLIANCE ship - NO

    Thanks.

    At the moment you can have almost 3600 cannonballs on a brig or galleon and 1200 bananas and planks. So unless they didn't have a lot to begin with, draining supplies is not a viable option if a crew wants to get prepared.

  • @knifelife Did I miss that, they are adding buy supplies soon? Will this mean they will add the ability to buy a stocked ship? With all of the new info flying I may have skimmed some of the posts. So if you have a reference for that can you share it please?

  • @m1sterpunch
    But still, being able to drain 100ish cannonballs in one button press is a bit much, and this small limitation would make stealing resources from a player ship riskier.

    Want those 10 anchor balls? Better take the few seconds to mash the button.

  • @vgtrooper said in Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game:

    I will add that I would be ok with previous mentioned ideas of having quicker actions for the barrel interaction.

    • Hold F (on keyboard) or hold X (on controller) = enter UI
    • press F (on keyboard) or press X (on controller) = quick grab of 1 item at a time of the default item (regular cannonball, plank, banana)
    • R (on keyboard) or Y (on controller) = quick store, 1 at a time, of the item in your hand. So if you are holding a banana at the food barrel, pressing R/Y would store that item 1 at a time (meaning 1 item per press)

    This.

    I wish the merchant crates worked like this too.

    F: take cannonball from crate
    Hold F: pick up crate
    R: Store ball in crate
    Hold R: look inside crate

  • @iisrgntwolfii said in Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game:

    @m1sterpunch
    But still, being able to drain 100ish cannonballs in one button press is a bit much, and this small limitation would make stealing resources from a player ship riskier.

    Want those 10 anchor balls? Better take the few seconds to mash the button.

    Yeah I never thought about Cursed balls. I think we should have a limit of 3 per kind anyway. The fact we can hold 10 of each type of ball on our personal inventory seems broken to me. Worse than the ridiculous amount of supplies the ships can hold now.

  • @nofears-fun It used to be in the technical alpha but they removed it.

    I’m not 100% sure where I saw it but I’m pretty confident they will be adding it back soon, I can’t remember where I saw it though and how it will be implemented.

    I’m going to tag the person I always do when I have these questions and she has never let me down yet hahaha..

    Ohhhhh @KattTruewalker i require your expertise haha

  • @knifelife

    Oh hmm, sounds familiar..... if anyone else can lay their fingers on it sooner @Musicmee I could probably do with some help with this one :D

  • Goodness, I have caused my three favorite pirates to refer to each other for info. This is great... LOL

  • @katttruewalker Hahaha it’s pass the question, I feel sorry for @musicmee If he can’t answer who will he pass it to? XD

    @NoFears-Fun Yeah you have dropped us in the end on this one! Aha

  • I have been playing the game since launch, pirate legend and athena 10 reached, etc. Absolutely Love this game, love that the experience can be different every time I play and that the game play is 100% equal playing field. Anyway, I (as so obviously many others) have grown very concerned with the direction of the game with this latest update. I do not normally speak up on forums in general, I find that they can become convoluted with a lot of nonconstructive bickering and complaining.

    That being said, there have been some spectacularly constructive discussions on the forums and elsewhere (reddit/etc) with the release of this update, which is awesome that the community, for the most part is coming together to say more than "ugh this sucks! I'm done!". There have been some fantastic ideas discussed. While I appreciate the update post from Mike, it feels like Rare are reading some of this feedback and making yet further hasty responses and plans for updates without fully ingesting the community response. Basically Mike's post said, "hey community we hear you that you don't like this update. Tough, luck..we really want to put maps in the barrels, so here are some quick fix updates we are planning to smooth out the edges a little bit so you can swallow this update easier."

    Plain and simple, this barrel/inventory system has broken the game play that those of us that have stuck with the game have grown to love. I don't want to sound like the old guy that is afraid of progress and change, but this literally breaks a fundamental mechanic of the game. No longer can we have a fast paced game. As others have already pointed out, we will now be spending so much of our time in a menu... out exploring and island? in the menu for every barrel... fighting on an enemy ship and need a banana or want to rid them of their supplies? in a menu...and dead.

    OK great, you want to add more items to be available in barrels, i think that is a great idea. But what sense does it make that a single barrel would have 99 planks, 99 bananas, 99 cannon balls, etc? and before everyone screams, "it's a game! not real!" there still needs to be some resemblance of logic here. Nobody IRL would store those items together.

    In another discussion on Reddit, I read an idea that, in my opinion, would be as close to perfect as I think we are going to get with minimal impact (I do not take credit for this idea, just simply repeating it because I like it and want there to be more visibility to such an idea). Anyway, the suggestion was to make ALL of the barrels usable for any single item type you want. walk up to a barrel, using the current QUICK system, put a banana in it.. that barrel is now a banana barrel until you take out the last banana. Dito for planks, cannon balls, cursed cannon balls, etc. THIS accomplishes the goal of being able to add endless variety of new items/resources to the game.. without having to add a clunky menu just to retrieve items.

    I have additional thoughts/concerns on the cursed cannon balls in general, but that can be for another thread..

    Anyway, THANK YOU Rare for making such an awesome game. It has been a very long time since I felt passionate enough about a game that felt compelled to post on a forum re: updates. usually, if there's a game breaking update to a game I play, I just stop playing until it is fixed or dies. I don't want to stop playing SoT, I love this game and I want to see it succeed..

    /sorry for the wall of text

  • @mikethemutinous I liked the answer, and I'm excited to see how the game will work in the future, but, take a look on @VGTrooper post, he had an excellent idea

  • @bad-company-jbb said in Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game:

    Thank you for the clarification! It's definitely a rare (no pun intended...) attribute for developers to give inside thought on the process of these additions to the game. While sudden change might not be to everyone's liking, it will play off in the long run as the game continues to grow!

    Giving insight....after you have already p****d off the community and admitted to basically ignoring all feedback from pioneer program in order to push changes forward regardless whilst at the same time releasing yet another update that broke multiple systems within the game making it totally unplayable for many....and you praise them for this?

    I have been on the fence about this game since my original review but since Hungering Deep I have been proactive in singing the praises of all the updates and changes that made SoT a far superior and enjoyable game then at launch. But here we go again, update that breaks the game with zero apologies from RARE except "thanks for your patience" and "we will address these issues in coming weeks".

    As a direct result of the mess of this weeks update and the ludicrous new barrel system which was clearly designed with PC players in mind and hardly any regard for using it on Xbox with controller in any sensible way, I am putting Sea of Thieves down, right at the time when silly season has begun and big titles are now releasing on a weekly basis.

    RARE, you killed the momentum you worked two months to create in one single title update. I see zero positives in this new system, none, a third wheel could easily have been added to the LB wheel and X, but instead this has been made less console friendly and more PC friendly and going by the "we knew it had issues but did it anyway" forum post which shows nothing but arrogance in my humble opinion in just assuming the community would be happy with this new way of playing instead of actually using feedback given in the Pioneer Program.

    Shambolic....just totally shambolic logic at this stage.

  • @knifelife

    I'm going to say it's not something which is coming soon, we've been advised to stock up before heading out to Forsaken Shores and there's a recent (really good) discussion thread about it here -

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/70544/purchasing-supplies?page=1

    Both of which suggest it may have been mentioned in passing but not on the radar as yet...please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong lol

    EDIT:

    Found it! Mentioned in the tavern crawl livestream -

    They do plan to add sourcing supplies from merchants (like buying supplies) eventually, but it's essentially the third step in completing the merchant alliance.
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/71295/sea-of-thieves-livestream-answers-via-sea-of-thieves-hq-28th-august-2018/2?page=1

    Thanks to @Lady-Aijou!

  • @mikethemutinous said in Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game:

    We’ve also unfortunately ended up in a situation where the Cursed Crews event and the addition of the Cursed Cannonballs are so closely tied that we ran out of time to react to feedback from our Sea of Thieves Pioneers.

    So you rushed a feature and ignored feedback. You delayed this update by a day, but what's the harm in another week or two while you sort it out properly? Pack it in with Forsaken Shores. Could have always given us another event in the meantime.

    We'd all love to have cursed cannonballs, but we would love to know you take these changes and your Pioneer program seriously.

  • Always good to get an official perspective on changes...many thanks.

    The thing I took most heart from in this statement was saying that Cursed Cannonballs will be a 'rare' thing. I for one certainly hope they will be 'very' rare...indeed.

  • @cokney-charmer I have learned a new word today. Shambolic. I appreciate everything you said, and in many ways feel the same way. They took the one thing I really hated about this game (stocking a boat) and made it waaaaaay worse. And yes, Rare's response was slow. But to their defense, they do take the feedback and use it. Granted, in this case, they messed up and should have simply held back the barrel UI update with the feedback from the pioneer group. Honestly, it wasn't needed right now, we don't have fish or other food types that require storage, yet. No need to store cursed cannon balls. Just make it so that what you carry is the limit to what you can have. They did after all tell us that these cursed cannon balls would be a rare find. I honestly didn't think we would find them at outposts but would have to hunt for them.

    Rare wants a balanced game so no one has too much of an advantage over someone else. But allowing someone that has been on for hours to collect and store large quantities of the most powerful weapon in game creates an unbalance between those that just started and those on that server for hours. So get rid of the option to store cursed cannon balls to limit that unbalance, and return the barrel UI to previous UI until a better solution is found.

    As for hanging up the game because of this. While I agree, this feels like rubbing salt into a wound to me, as again, I HATE stocking the ship. If needed, take a break, but don't walk away completely. After getting over my disdain for the new mechanics last night, I went on to sail around and got a chance to take out another Skelly ship (making new friends from another ship yet again, even while having the reaper flag on) followed right away with a skull fort. So in the end, once again, the fun outweighed the negative.

  • Thanks for popping in, @MikeTheMutinous !

    Honestly, I've found the new inventory system to be fine (after taking a bit of time to get more used to it). The "empty" marker will be nice though. :)

    As a PC player, the one issue I still have with the new system, and not addressed here, is the STORING of items, as opposed to the taking of items.
    I really loved holding the item and simply pressing R to place the items into a barrel in the old system.
    Can the new system be adapted to allow a similar process?
    With the new system, I can still just press F to grab items. It only takes two more clicks (one to open the window, and an ESCAPE to close it) - not a big deal.
    Storing items seems more clunky than that, however. Unless I just haven't gotten used to that side of it yet and/or am missing something.

    Thanks again!
    Some of us know full well that you didn't make these changes lightly, and that sometimes changes will be met with drastic negative reactions... but, aren't all that bad.
    Regardless, goonies never say die.

  • @katttruewalker Thats going to bug me now aha I will do some research when I am not so merry on grog! And get back to you all! :)

    @Cokney-Charmer Can I have your slot in he pioneer program? xD I’m only joking bud take no notice aha

  • Thank You Mr. Mutanious for the explanation and clarity on upcoming UI improvements. I'm still a bit foggy on the take all feature but when supplying up the take all would be great! But for also hearing us in the Empty Barrell tag that would definitely be a life saver! Keep up the tough job of building the game so we can enjoy it more!

  • @mikethemutinous said in Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game:

    We’ll share a further update next week on our recent commendation rebalancing and how we plan to grow this in the short term to accommodate more goals for Pirate legends

    The commendation rebalancing is probably the most atrocious thing that Rare could do to their most dedicated playerbase. For 5 months people have been playing this game working towards Pirate Legend, Athena 10, and grade 5 for their commendations. Rare has been making it easier and easier to get to PL and Athena 10, making the commendations the only thing that separated newer players from those who had played from the beginning.

    Those who made it to grade 5 of their commendations were rewarded with extremely rare titles that, in some case, made them more legendary than PLs or Athena 10s (Hunter of Cursed Strongholds, Hunter of Foul Skulls, etc.). Hearing stories about or knowing people that have these titles made them seem possible to achieve and motivated me to work towards unlocking them. Having only recently unlocked a few of these rare titles I experienced a tremendous sense of achievement.

    The new update has completely robbed me and all others who worked for these titles of the fruits of our labours. Making us look like fools for having put so much time into getting something that has been completely devalued and lost all of its legendary qualities. Now those meeting only a quarter, fifth, or even a tenth of the previous commendation requirements are rewarded with these once rare titles. The gap between people who have played this game from the beginning has, overnight, been annihilated. The accumulated sense of progress that I had towards long-term goals in the game is a mere shadow of what it once was before the update.

    There was no hint or warning that we were working towards meaningless goals for the past weeks/months leading up to this update (other than that Rare was looking into the banana crate spawn rate). There was no explanation or apology of any kind issued to the thousands of people that wasted potentially hundreds of hours of their time on these now meaningless commendations.

    The commendations were the only goals that Pirate Legends had left after achieving Athena 10, but that has now been destroyed. Rare has truly made enemies of many of their biggest fans with this update. Saying that we should wait a week for more information about how we're all going to be starting from square one again with new goals/commendations is little more than an insult to those stabbed in the back by this commendation rebalancing.

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