@mikethemutinous said in Inventory Changes - Expanding the Game:
Thank you for all the thoughts and feedback. Just wanted to let you know that I'm reading these responses, both on this forum and elsewhere.
I just wanted to post a reply I made to one of our players outside of this forum regarding some of the serious bugs introduced with the latest update, as well as some of the core reasoning behind the inventory change. Just some more detail:
"We've strived to make an immersive experience and I specifically wanted to assure you on your comments regarding consciously feeling like you're in the world. I love the way you've articulated this point, but its actually the very thing that's at the center of all of our design decisions. I imagine it would be difficult to be a designer on a game like this and not picture it as a real place that you get to visit. Sea Of Thieves is our second home and all of our decisions, right from the early days of prototyping, have been around how we make you feel like you're in this world, with this leading to all the physical, tangible interactions that players have in the game, decisions around what's vulnerable to loss in the world and also the kind of content we want to add in the future. Though its a big change to the flow of the game, the barrel interactions follow this logic in that if you were really there, you would look inside the barrel and take out what you want, with barrels themselves just being wooden holders for a multitude of items that players and other characters have stored inside. The only reason to not keep this entirely physical is to cut down on excessive friction of how it would inevitably feel if you physically placed items inside. In this way, the UI is just a short hand for what would really be happening. Running past a barrel and taking out a single item results in with less clutter on screen, but I'd argue against it feeling immersive, at least not immersive in the sense of the barrel being a real object.
Immersion is not just making a game more vibrant and realistic. I do not think people are asking for the ability to pry open barrels and actually reach inside to pull out the contents. Immersion also means the ability to stay engaged and involved in the game you are playing. It is also the feeling of absorbing the world around you when you are in that game.
A screen wide inventory menu they greys out the game is not necessary to accomplish the management of new inventory. The new menu system disengages the player. It removes the feel of staying in the game world you are in every time it is popped up. It completely stops everything and disengages the player from the world they have been playing in up to this time.
Why is there a need for a big full screen menu? Why is there a need to see what is going into your inventory in a split box container screen as you are collecting it. That truly cannot be Rare's version of adding and enhancing immersion.
Is something smaller that does not take over the entire screen and flow of gameplay not possible? What about radial menus like you mentioned that is going to be added to the cannons? Or keep one small inventory box like in the new menu that pops up just to the side of the barrel or container.
If the main item in a barrel is bananas, could we not have a quick take option to take that item like before. Then also have a second option to open up the barrel and grab the other things in it if you want to. That would be when the radial button or an small inventory box pops up. Then you could still grab things you need on the fly that you spot around you, keeping the feel and gameplay that everyone enjoys.
Use as few button presses as possible. Keep the buttons flowing smoothly like the same button completely opens and closes a container for example. Button options stay consistent according to the same type of thing you are interacting with. Taking damage should not stop you from quick collecting items or when swimming around floating barrels like the new menu closes continuously on now. You already said that the empty state is going to be added back which is great.
Just some thoughts on how to achieve preserving the SoT gameplay that came before which players really love, what drawn us all to SoT, and still allow the game to grow. Thank you for your continuing feedback. Thank you for all the time you must be taking to read through and endure everyone's opinions and thoughts.