Inventory, equipment and customization, part I (Patreon)
Content
Working on the inventory, equipment and character customization system. The UI for inventory/equipment is now minimally functional, its pretty standard drag and drop stuff, but you can take a look here if you wish: https://twitter.com/Enlit3D/status/1310768196832485378
Before I started, I researched a bunch of different games to see how they handled their inventory and equipment system. I like this kind of full screen approach the most. The tabs on top (only inventory/equip is working atm) is especially nice because it gives player a strong indication of what all their options are. Imo, that clarity is something that is lacking with HRT's system.
One thing to note is that the inventory when you explore dungeon and the total storage capacity in your base will be separate. The inventory you can bring with you to a dungeon will be limited, either at a per slot level (so for example, a maximum of 24 items) or with a weight system. This is to promote a balancing between preparedness, cost and risk.
An important distinction I want to make is between Equipment and Outfits. You can think of Equipment as the items that gives stat benefits, whereas Outfits are purely cosmetic. I decided that I want a separate UI for outfits, which will be used for character customization. My aim is something like this for the Outfits:
Another importance difference is that Equipments are actual items that you possesses in inventory and equip characters with. Whereas Outfits are skins that you unlock. Once unlocked, you'll have unlimited uses per outfit and you can apply to as many characters as you wish.
I was told that many people enjoyed the customization system in HRT, and I'm glad. But the UI could benefit from some streamlining. Since I don't plan on any microtransactions etc, I feel an unlimited use skin based approach is ideal. Having Outfits as actual items would lead to inventory clustering, and believe me, I have seen some stuff from various savefiles.