In many games, we have to carry so much stuff in the inventory you feel like a pack mule and wonder just Where you are putting it. Are we to be laden with stuff we may use later or is the inventory more specific to the areas we are trying to solve??

Hey tigger,

this is a difficult issue. Restricting the number of inventory items too much can mean that players won't be able to pick up items before they can actually use them, which leads either to the "I don't want to take that now (but later)" problem, or to miraculously added hotspots. This would be bad design, IMO. It would make the game feel more linear and restrictive than neccessary.

Limiting the overall number of items would mean that you'd have to drop items to pick up others, which may be "realistic", but in reality it just means a lot of backtracking, which is unpopular, and justly so.

MOS tries to keep the number of inventory items reasonable, and you won't carry ladders or other ridiculously huge stuff around. Of course, Peter's pockets are still too small for all of them, but:

a) we thought he'd look silly with a rucksack
b) for obvious reasons, we can't have a chest follow him around like in Discworld 2
c) I've played XIII recently. I carried six or seven different handguns and rifles, and loads of ammo with me. Where did I put that?

well as long as I'm not expected to cart round a baby grand in my pockets, I'll be happy

I think you are right about the rucksack.

It's an interesting dilemma. I've played games where there were so many items in inventory that I had completely forgotten where I picked them up and (in cases where they weren't labeled) even what they actually were (i.e., is that a fancy pen or a staple gun?). I've also played with limited inventories, where you have to backtrack to pick things up again, and that is just about the essence of frustration.

I'm curious as to what you would do if you decided, late into the development process, that there really were too many inventory items -- would you eliminate a few puzzles?

No. Rather eliminate a few items.

And actually, we did so. Peter loses a lot of inventory items (that have become obsolete anyway) when he jumps into the Brooklyn Park sewer.

Clever, huh?

How fortuitous! Was he slated for the plunge anyway, or was it solely an exercise in inventory-removal?

(Aready I'm regretting the stuff he lost. Strange, isn't it?)

Ohh I can just imagine having to do that... bet I pinch my nose when I have to go in

Anyway I guess inventories must be in L-space...

Will we have to combine inventory items to make new ones?

Susan

Yep, you will. Not too often, but it happens.