Hey guys,

So as I've been working away on this game, there's one thing that's been constantly hanging over my shoulder: the inventory. Anyone who's played Episode One will know what I mean; it's an absolutely horrible mess to navigate through. For example, these were pictures Dec posted in his review:



Pretty disgusting, right? This is something I want to see fixed, but at the same time, I genuinely fear attempting. This isn't something that can be easily tidied up in just a few short days. It will likely take me months to do. I've already envisioned exactly what I would have to do to make this work.

Step 1: Type up the entire (cluttered) list of items in a text file.
Step 2: Type up what the new list would look like.
Step 3: Go through the database and change the old list of items to the new one.

This wouldn't be so bad. The next step is where it starts getting nasty.

Step 4: Go through every single event where the old version of an item was used and change it to its new location in the database.

2k3 isn't that smart. It isn't going to automatically change every event based on my new arrangement. So let's say a chest had an Extract in it, and the new layout changed it to something else. I would have to go in and manually change every instance to the new Extract inventory location. And this wouldn't be just for treasure chests. There's also the system database, monster drops, the million common events I have, every conditional event involving items, not to mention the countless random instances where I added/removed items to fulfill certain plot/gameplay requirements. This would easily take me months to sort through.

Step 5: Test to make sure every item works correctly.

Holy shit, this would be a nightmare. I would essentially have to keep a constant list of what my current items are at all times and note any and all changes made during my playthrough (and this isn't a short game, people). I wish I could believe that I'd get everything completely straight without testing, but with something this cluttered, it's way too easy to make a mistake.

Even after all of this is done, there's one last thing I'd have to do.

Step 6: Create a common event that manually changes every item to the new setup.

People with old save files will still have items based on the old arrangement of items, meaning their inventory will be completely screwed up upon loading. I would have to make an event that would automatically remove every item that doesn't belong with the original quantity of the new item. This means a whole lot of conditional events and just as many headaches. This isn't something I would skip either; I've promised myself that all save files from Episode One will work with later releases. I'm not having people replay the game anymore.

The really bad thing is that I can't really work on this in conjunction with other things (such as progressing forward in the game). If I get started, there's pretty much no turning back, and will take all of my focus. This will set game progress back for quite awhile.

I suppose this is one of the biggest problems with having a long production time for your first game. Once you begin to understand how certain mechanics work, it may already be too late. I didn't know that arranging the items in the database would affect it's arrangement in-game. Now I'm stuck with this clutterfuck of an inventory.

So I wanted to ask you all, how important is this to you? Can you live with a cluttered inventory or will it ultimately ruin the experience? What would you do in this situation? Do you have any recommendations?

God, I wish Cherry has a patch for this sort of thing.