I have played the game and gotten to dl 5 or 6 now and the most crippling enemy I've had to face has been too few inventory slots. How do you manage your inventory properly so that it doesn't get in the way? The personal pocket universe doesn't actually help in this regard. As I get deeper into the dungeon, the amount of time spent managing my inventory starts to seriously catch up to the amount of time actually dungeoneering. I'd really like any advice on how to fix this problem - I've actually abandoned two characters because I just couldn't take the micromanagement anymore. Also this is on Rogue Difficulty + No Time to Grind. No mods used.
Just because you leave stuff behind doesn't mean it ever vanishes. The only way to lose things is to sell them or destroy them with a strong aoe like he missle of destruction. Here is the tip. Just skip most things unless they are very relevant to your character, such as reagents for alchemy. You store these in the pocket dimension. The rest of the stuff, you just ignore, ad If you find out later that you actually really needed the item you can go back and get it. because it will be worth the trip. Many times you will find that you don't need it and you stay sane all the same.
Just get an idea of what's useful to your current skill build and what isn't. If it isn't useful leave it on the ground. If it is useful, but not immediately (I.E. crafting stuff) leave it in the pocket dimension. That's how I roll anyway. (ninja'ed by the Woot)
I completed a challenge run recently where I was only allowed to keep quest items, items on my item bar, and a lutefisk cube. I managed to get all the way to Dredmor doing that, without EVER entering my pocket dimension. Granted, I specifically picked skills where I wouldn't need food (Vampirism) nor crafting items. And I didn't actually kill Dredmor. But it was actually quite liberating to learn that I really didn't really need all that stuff. It did feel odd doing things like lutefisking Timelord's Scarves, Ulmish Armor, etc. That said, I don't recommend you go that far (remember that I said that I didn't actually manage to kill Dredmor). But you don't need as much as you might think you do. But if you insist on being a packrat, do it the smart way. I did write a guide that you can modify to suit your build and preferences: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=154134469 Briefly, when I enter my pocket dimension to unload stuff, I turn off autoloot, step on each pile and shift-click on the items in my inventory to drop them. I try to have no more than 3 lines of items in my inventory left, but 1 or 2 is optimal (with mods that add loads of crap, it's sometimes hard, but without mods, getting it down to 2 lines isn't that bad). That gives you lots of room to pick up stuff, minimizing the number of trips you have to make. Remember that there's actually very little that you need to carry with you at all times. I keep a grinder, sufficent number of items for healing (food/potions/shrooms), items for escape (inky hoglantern, etc.), and items for removing debuffs (including vision debuffs), and ranged items. But I don't try to carry EVERY piece of food, or EVERY ranged item, or EVERY crafting tool, or EVERY potion, because that's madness, and it leads to more frequent trips to unload stuff. And I also become more lenient, as my collection grows, as to what I will turn into lutefisk. If I'm never going to craft anything better than some cheap arrows, I don't bother saving all that tinkering and alchemy crap. If my collection of ranged items grows immense, I start lutefisking the baseballs and very low-quality arrows. In other words, make sensible decisions about what you REALLY need to keep. That will evolve the deeper you go, of course, and the more you collect. But it really is manageable.
This is how I do it. I've gotten pretty efficient about it in that it takes me around a minute to put everything where it goes and get back to playing.
I take everything. Why? Pocket Dimension. That,and I have a mod that lets me uncraft most gear,since I found myself at a constant crippling lack of crafting materials. I keep only what I need,which is a hotbar of food/booze/potions/ammo,and lockpicks,if I have any. In the Pocket Dimension,I have several piles of items,each with their own purpose. One pile is what I like to call "Baby Ingots". A pile of items that can be directly converted into ingots,more or less. The pile beside that is my ingots pile. And to the south of that is my gizmos pile,which is for tinkering. This cluster also contains an alchemy pile,should I ever make an alchemy character. Next up is my foods pile,which also contains booze. Beside all of that is a pile of items I've set aside for use in specific items. This pile is generally home to a leather girdle and thick work gloves. Next up is my Lutefisk pile,which ceases to exist whenever I find a Lutefisk Shrine,and a stack of all of my toolsets. And,finally,there's my merchandise stack. Anything that I can't use,or won't use for thematic reasons,goes here to get sold to Brax.
A bit like Pyrotanis, except I use more space and I'm a serious kleptomaniac w.r.t. consumables and crafting parts. As for my actual 'inventory', I use the bottom right corner for lockpicks and things I want to save go from the bottom rows upwards, not necessarily in any order.
! since we're sharing, here's how i do it: (the yellow tint is from f.lux. also, this save has a bunch of mods running) oh, the "etc" above gems is usually cheeses, bread and diggle eggs. the flask is water, part of a mod recipe for bread. also that spring should not be there in the powders pile. woops. if i need something, i just walk over the pile, then shift + click to drop what i don't need. it's kind of silly but it's better than separating out each thing. i would go nuts.
I have piles as follows (with modifications based on what crafting skills I have/don't have) 0. Items to be lutefisked (goes away, once I hopefuly find a cube) 1. Stuff to sell 2. Food recipe stuff ==> any items that can be used to make food 3. Gems (can go into the stuff to sell pile) 4. ore, ingots, chalk, coal (even if I'm not a smith or tinkerer, because of 0-skill bolts) 5. Tinkering crap (gears, etc.) 6. miscellaneous powders 7. Alchemy crap -- stuff used primarily in alchemy 8. Extra Alcohol (some builds I carry 2 to 3 piles of acohol, some I don't). 9. Fruit/items to make alcohol 10. Extra ranged items (I try not to carry more than a few stacks with me) 11. Extra consumables (non-essential potions and mushrooms) 12. Spare gear -- really good stuff that I might need should something bad happens to what I'm using 13. Stuff to upgrade/craft with -- things that I know I could use for crafting, but I don't have the skill or mats to make them into something good yet. Any of these crafting piles can be shifted to lutefisk or to sell piles depending on the circumstances. The difference between a 'to sell' pile and 'lutefisk' pile is the item's value. Generally speaking, this will change based on how much money I already have/how far into the game I am. Anything that I estimate to be worth more than 100 Zorkmids tends to go into the 'to sell' pile, but even that's not a hard and fast rule. I make minor changes as I go along. I'll sometimes not even bother picking up stuff nowadays (I used to pick up everything, but if I have no lutefisk cube, I eventually get tired of picking up crap). I used to always try to pick up everything.
My most crippling inventory management enemy is Alchemy and Wandcrafting.(especially if paired with other crafting skills, all 4 at once being absolute worst) Those 2 crafting skills have the most viable reagents, and will both fill up my inventory quickly if I use either skill. But for the most part(even with tinker + smith combo), I have 10 piles of loot centred around the central table(not touching it, and not within the box that is formed from the 4 pillars). 1: Bolts/Thrown I'm saving(usually for Lord Dredmor or Late Monster Zoos) 2: Tinkering mats Pile(Brass mech, springs, wire, Amethyst, Unfinished C'bows) 3: Backup Gear(In case my current gear gets corrupted) 4: Resist Gear for later floors/Lord Dredmor(Like Toxic for Floor 6, Cold for floor 7, Fire for floor 9, putrefying for floor 14) 5: Steelgen Ingots: Iron, Pearls, Chalk and Coal(Or Powders if I use alchemy) 6: Cupric Ingots: Copper, Plastic, Zinc, Brass, Bronze, Tin(Or liquids like aqua fortis, booze and vitriol for alchemy) 7: Valuable Ingots: Aluminium, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Electrum(Or Gems for alchemy) 8: Potions that I'm saving for the Lord Dredmor Fight(Healing, Purity, Refreshment, Resistances) 9: Junk Armour/Weapons/Gems that I might use for a Crafting Recipe 10: All of the Ingots(If I'm using alchemy) I don't usually keep wands often(I like to use them up to free space and sell to brax with one charge left) I tend to Fisk Traps, Bolts, Thrown and Booze often(whichever ones I dont use) I absolutely never save any mats for Encrusting.(I feel that I shouldn't need encrusting to beat Lord Dredmor) Edit: Skymuffin's F.lux mod's yellow tinting is kinda creepy to me. Makes it look like it's being played on an extremely old computer with either a bad graphics card(blue value not working) or one of those amber coloured PCs from the late 70s.
