Game Mechanics Round off and/or highlight maximum item stacks

[Sigma90]

This suggestion is twofold as they are somewhat related.
Firstly, most maximum item stacks are 99 or 999. Many crafting recipes make items in batches of 5, 10, 20 or 50. This inevitably leaves behind leftovers. Not only that, 99 or 999 isn't really divisible by other useful numbers. Could we round this off so that maximum item stacks occur as 100 or 1000 instead?

Secondly, I suggest that when the maximum item stack has been reached, this is displayed visually to the player. This could be done by way of changing the background item slot colour, the number colour or both. Or maybe a different way. This is only a suggestion.

Example: (Excuse my poor Photoshop skills)

I've made three possible ideas here: Change the number colour, emboss the item or to highlight the item slot. My personal favourite is to change the number colour, because then it can also be applied to the cursor:

I am not a UI / UX developer though, so I understand these changes may not be ideal. They are just suggestions / ideas to help a player immediately notice when a stack has reached its maximum. There may be better ways to convey this information.

 

[Varsia]

I don't really see the point in this. Why does it matter so much is a slot is full? If there's something more valuable on the floor, ditch the least valuable object for the better one.

 

[Sigma90]

I don't really see the point in this. Why does it matter so much is a slot is full? If there's something more valuable on the floor, ditch the least valuable object for the better one.

Fair enough - if I have 5 Truffle Worms and 999 rope, I'm not going to drop the worms!

Perhaps I should have been more clear - I am not referring to general exploration / mining-type scenarios. I am referring more to crafting, construction and storage scenarios. Scenarios where the number of items is more important than the relative value of those items. You want to ensure a full supply of ammo or you want to know if you have the maximum number of items or you need ingredients to make more.

But now that I think of it, to the best of my knowledge, there is no in-game way to determine what the maximum item stack is. To borrow a screenshot from my other thread: Which of these items have reached their stack limit? And without deferring to trial and error, a Wiki, memory, etc., how can you tell? The stack limits are not always obvious (or consistent).

Answer: All of them.

What if it looked something like this instead?

The latter example image (in my opinion) provides useful information to the player.

 

[Varsia]

-crushed into a compact form-

In a crafting situation, just craft as many as you can until that stack fills up, rinse and repeat.
The amount of items in a stack does not matter as much as you think it does. Just bump most items up to 999.
If you need to craft something with wood, just grab a stack and craft however much of that item you need.
The ammo count is quite obvious to read, and you must have a pretty damn terrible memory if you cannot read a number or remember.

 

[Sigma90]

I think you misunderstand my point. And in any case, regardless of what my memory is or isn't, there's no need to be rude.

 

[The Mythical Dagger]

I'm not quite sure if I agree with the part of making items stack to 1000 rather than 999 (I think it may be because it just looks much more "complete" to me, repeated digits rather than different ones). However, this is just me.

I don't mind the part of changing the font-colour slightly when the stack is maxed out though. Simple change, and not too distracting to the eye!

 

[Varsia]

I think you misunderstand my point. And in any case, regardless of what my memory is or isn't, there's no need to be rude.

Sorry if I came off as rude. It just sort of... happens... with me. I don't like being rude, and I try to avoid it where possible. Sorry.

I'm not quite sure if I agree with the part of making items stack to 1000 rather than 999 (I think it may be because it just looks much more "complete" to me, repeated digits rather than different ones). However, this is just me.

Not just you. I prefer a 999 to a 1000, purely because a 1000 makes it feel incomplete (it could go to 9999). I get a similar feeling in Minecraft, with those goddamn 64 stacks.

 

[kyd462]

The stack limits are not always obvious (or consistent).

Answer: All of them.

What if it looked something like this instead?

I like this idea quite a bit! I suppose over time you just get used to stack limits and remember what's what, but this game has so many items! It would be helpful at the very least for storage, or harvesting purposes for sure. I'm on the fence about rounding numbers though. I get the logic, and that makes sense, however, traditionally games have mostly always delineated a cap with repeating digits. This is why when you beat an old/classic arcade game your score is 999,999,999,999.... It just looks more complete and packed to the brim.

Combined with the highlight though... well that's having your cake and eating too! As long as "1000" didn't look too crammed in, and as long as the font size didn't need to change to fit it, then I'd say it's reasonable enough, and my OCD would be happy as well.

 

[Varsia]

Combined with the highlight though... well that's having your cake and eating too! As long as "1000" didn't look too crammed in, and as long as the font size didn't need to change to fit it, then I'd say it's reasonable enough, and my OCD would be happy as well.

But then we could have 9999 and that is just too far. I want my complete stack to look complete. Not like it could be extended 8+ times.

I like this idea quite a bit! I suppose over time you just get used to stack limits and remember what's what

If we just upped basically all of them to 999, we would be fine.
(unintentional rhyme... I think it's just my time.)

 

[kyd462]

But then we could have 9999 and that is just too far. I want my complete stack to look complete. Not like it could be extended 8+ times.

That's what I meant. A solid 1000, not 9999.

Uping everything to 999 though, now that's just crazy talk! Poppycock! Jibber-jabber, foo!

lol... I dunno. Expresso's kicking in. Cheers!

 

[Varsia]

That's what I meant. A solid 1000, not 9999.

Uping everything to 999 though, now that's just crazy talk! Poppycock! Jibber-jabber, foo!

lol... I dunno. Expresso's kicking in. Cheers!

A 1000 doesn't feel... full though. A full stack should feel full, and the only numbers that truly achieve that are: 9,99,999,9999,etc.

It seems silly, though, that you can heave around over 99 gold bar's worth of ore, but you have to have 2 stacks devoted to the bars. Also, it solves the inconsistent item stacking problem revealed in this suggestion. If anything: 1000 would be worse than 999.

 

[Marcus101RR]

64 or 99 or 999, these numbers are complete because they are something you see very commonly. Like, oh goodie, candy is 0.99 cents, and not 1.00. Well, its a eye catcher, sure this comes into OCD moments here for people with special needs that make it feel like these numbers are annoying. I think the stacks are fine to be 99 or 999, not only that, we don't want those numbers to cluster are view from the items in our inventory either.

Besides, some items are rarely gathered up to 99 or 999 for specific reasons. I highly doubt anyone has 999 platinum legit. That on the other hand is up for debate.

Honestly, I think 999 is fine, particularly because of cluster with pixelation and viewing of items in your inventory.

 

[kyd462]

Yeah, I have to agree with both of you (Haloboy01134, Marcus101RR) 99, 999, do feel more full, and it's traditional so it's easily accpeted. The stack counts are still a bit wonky in my opinion though. You do end up with leftovers after crafting/converting a full stack (like the OP pointed out). Not sure what the best solution is really.

I still like the idea of highlighting full stacks though. Even if 999 makes it easier to spot a full stack, a subtle font color change would make it even easier.

 

[The Ohmega Blue]

I support, this would help so you could just glance at something and see a full stack. Would this apply to the boomerangs?

 

[Sigma90]

I see your points regarding 99 / 999 looking 'fuller'. When I made this thread, I was coming off a construction / item gathering binge and the crafting was annoying me a little. With everything stacking to 99 / 999 and recipes giving me 5 / 10 / 20 / 35 / 50 items at a time, I'd always have some left over. That +1 alone to 100 / 1000 would resolve nearly all of that.

So I still prefer 100 / 1000, but I can also understand 99 / 999. But it's OK either way.

I support, this would help so you could just glance at something and see a full stack. Would this apply to the boomerangs?

Yes, I would intend the highlighting to apply to all items that can be stacked. For items that can be stacked but there's only one of them, a "1" can be displayed. (Instead of displaying nothing.) The "1" (or another number) indicates the item can be stacked... the highlight indicates you've reached the maximum stack. Win-win?