How many gear slots should an RPG have?

[rusty_shackleford]

Marginal upgrades are a pet peeve of mine. I would much rather have fewer upgrades that are significantly more of a jump in power.

Example: Zelda (NES) would not be a better game if there were a dozen more swords added to it that did 1.0x, 1.1x, 1.2x, 1.3x, 1.4x, etc damage. There are two upgrades to the sword in that game, and they feel great because the power curve is 1.0x, 2.0x, 4.0x damage.

I think it is beyond goofy to be equipping a different shoulder armor and arm armor and bracer armor and chest armor. The most effective armor would be integrated pieces designed to fit and work together.

I also prefer when the slot in question is related to the enhancement, such as boots affecting movement speed and gloves affecting attack accuracy. The other way around means those aren't really boots or gloves, just slot 1 and 2.

TLDR: We need less items than games currently have, they should all be unique, and they should be rewarded for completion of milestones, not drop from random enemies. I'm open to a larger number of equipment slots if the previous statement is true, but few designers have that level of discipline.

Average Knight looked like a fallout reject by the end of the hundred years war, look into it. They just wore whatever they could scavenge

[TKVNC]

A really immersive sim shouldn't need gear slots. Why shouldn't I be able to wear socks on my hands if I want? Or layer on 10 different shirts to get through a cold area without special equipment?

Right now I'm imagining something like a paper-doll-styled drag-and-drop interface, but there's a lot of room for innovation once you've opened up the box.

Arguably that's less about inventory slots, and more about what slots equipment can go in.

[DemoGraph]

@Kalarion,

[rusty_shackleford]

Marginal upgrades are a pet peeve of mine. I would much rather have fewer upgrades that are significantly more of a jump in power.

Example: Zelda (NES) would not be a better game if there were a dozen more swords added to it that did 1.0x, 1.1x, 1.2x, 1.3x, 1.4x, etc damage. There are two upgrades to the sword in that game, and they feel great because the power curve is 1.0x, 2.0x, 4.0x damage.

This is exactly what more gear slots prevents.
Rather than the game only being able to offer you Sword, Sword +1, … there are a bunch of slots it can use to distribute loot.

[Vergil]

How many ***** sluts should an RPG have?

[Stack of Turtles]

How many ***** sluts should an RPG have?

zero

hth

[J1M]

Marginal upgrades are a pet peeve of mine. I would much rather have fewer upgrades that are significantly more of a jump in power.

Example: Zelda (NES) would not be a better game if there were a dozen more swords added to it that did 1.0x, 1.1x, 1.2x, 1.3x, 1.4x, etc damage. There are two upgrades to the sword in that game, and they feel great because the power curve is 1.0x, 2.0x, 4.0x damage.

This is exactly what more gear slots prevents.
Rather than the game only being able to offer you Sword, Sword +1, … there are a bunch of slots it can use to distribute loot.

Only in theory. There are addictive elements to loot pinata design that see games being made with lots of item slots AND extremely marginal upgrades. Entire genres are based around this design antipattern.

[rusty_shackleford]

Thinking of slots, gear also can have its own slots for some enchantments of different forms. If these count then a game can easily have 30+ slots.

Fallout 4 & 76 actually has a neat, underrated system here where you pull mods off of gear you find and slap it on your gear. So even if a drop isn't good, it could still have a part that's good and you want to haul it back to your base to disassemble it.

[Brother Michael]

Thinking of slots, gear also can have its own slots for some enchantments of different forms. If these count then a game can easily have 30+ slots.

Fallout 4 & 76 actually has a neat, underrated system here where you pull mods off of gear you find and slap it on your gear. So even if a drop isn't good, it could still have a part that's good and you want to haul it back to your base to disassemble it.

Negative relationship between number of gear slots in Fallout and The Elder Scrolls?

[A Chinese opium den]

Its got to have lot of ring slots.

[Tadeusz]

Fallout 4 & 76 actually has a neat, underrated system here where you pull mods off of gear you find and slap it on your gear. So even if a drop isn't good, it could still have a part that's good and you want to haul it back to your base to disassemble it.

Interesting. ATOM RPG: Trudograd also has something like this with gun modifications. Equipment slots are underrated I think.

Its got to have lot of ring slots.

I remember a mod for Oblivion that removes the restriction on the amount of rings and amulets one can wear. Infinite slots for everyone!

[TKVNC]

I remember a mod for Oblivion that removes the restriction on the amount of rings and amulets one can wear. Infinite slots for everyone!

****, you can roleplay as a gypsy romanian

[DemoGraph]

0 slots - no customization, not an RPG. Even Civ 4 has "traits" for units (the only gimmick is that you can't put them off).
1 slot - Rape game. Jalapeno&swastika rubber, I choose you!
Seriously, the only game I remember having a single slot is Magicka and it's an arcade.
2 slots - That's for shoot 'em ups, weapon+shield. And Undertale - not a classical RPG.
3-4 - Weapon+armor+two accessories? Or VTMB like system - close combat, ranged, armor (though you can equip trinkets out of your inventory, but that's slot cheating). Counter Strike (gun, knife, grenades, maybe something else).
5-10 - That's for aRPGs, like Diablo.
10-20 - Most RPGs and/or games with complex combat system (like the real X-COM). Deus Ex.
20+ - I have 20 fingers and another appendage. How many rings could I wear? How many angels can dance on the head of that appendage?

[Norfleet]

A really immersive sim shouldn't need gear slots. Why shouldn't I be able to wear socks on my hands if I want? Or layer on 10 different shirts to get through a cold area without special equipment?

Right now I'm imagining something like a paper-doll-styled drag-and-drop interface, but there's a lot of room for innovation once you've opened up the box.

Finally, a game that lets you go pants-on-head!

NEO Scavenger is a good example, I think. It has separate glove/shoe slots, walking barefoot is dangerous, sometimes you have two left shoes and wearing the wrong shone on the wrong foot decreases your stats etc.

Also having two shoes that don't have the same move speed would cause asymmetric thrust and result in your character going in circles unless you enter counteracting input.

Interesting. ATOM RPG: Trudograd also has something like this with gun modifications. Equipment slots are underrated I think.

[Tadeusz]

Interesting. ATOM RPG: Trudograd also has something like this with gun modifications. Equipment slots are underrated I think.

Not enough slots.

[DemoGraph]

Games like Fallout should allow me to wander around with two different gloves on, a shoe on only one foot and a sock on the other while wearing only underwear

Fallout of bed: The afterparty

[Kalarion]

Helmet, helmet crest, cap, necklace, gorget, breastplate, pauldrons, vambraces, bracers, gauntlets, gloves, shirt, belt, pants, cuissards, greaves, socks, at least four rings, two bracelets, primary and secondary weapon, shield, 5 focusing gem slots.

31 slots, minimum.

[Tadeusz]

5 focusing gem slots

Sounds specific. Is it from some game?

[Kalarion]

Nah, I just want a lot. I liked having beam focusing slots in KOTOR basically

[OGchan]

NEO Scavenger has already been mentioned, that is cool. IVAN a.k.a. Iter Vehemens ad Necem also has slots for single body parts. If I'm not mistaken you can also change your limbs to a different material, for example can have an adamantine arm and so on.

[NotAI]

Infinity.

You can keep adding slots by adding an expander into a slot that turns it into multiple slots. Likewise later for those slots.

This will help make games with lots of loot more fun.

Why wear one chestplate when you can wear two or three. Screw realism.

Even funnier if Cloud dresses up in 20 coats and 3 suits of armor and it changes the model so he looks overbundled and it lowers your ability to do acrobatic. Eventually he turns into a ball and can roll down hills in the physics engine naturally.

[Norfleet]

Even funnier if Cloud dresses up in 20 coats and 3 suits of armor and it changes the model so he looks overbundled and it lowers your ability to do acrobatic. Eventually he turns into a ball and can roll down hills in the physics engine naturally.

Wait, I know this game. Wasn't there a game where you do exactly this, equip infinite items by rolling over them, becoming an ever-growing ball of equipped items?

[NotAI]

Katamari is a good indie game, with good music, but not this.

Because you are not the ball in Katamari, you make the ball.

I'm saying let the player fat roll to infinity. Tifa can eventually roll Cloud as a ball, due to how much **** he is wearing. He can no longer walk. But his armor is now super duper high and so are all his stats. He can survive 100 hits from the turtle boss and the turtle just injures itself. Tifa just has to roll Cloud up to each boss for the strategy to work.

Btw, characters should be gaining weight when they eat too much food too heal. Until they turn into balls.

#FatCloud

Edit. You can unlock a super secret bowling minigame, with different levels depending on whom in your party has too many slots full.

[TheCumGuzzler]

Maybe unrelated, I have a nit-pick with RPGs that provide ring slots but only provide 2 slots or 1, and they never put a lore reason on why you can't just wear 10, hell even 20 (2 in each finger)

Anyway I think Path of Exile has the perfect amount of Gear slots (10) but the more the better unless the game is poorly designed

[rusty_shackleford]

I like lots of equipment slots and I like slots on my equipment for little trinkets I can put it in and I like my gear having traits and…

Equipment is cool


I hate when an RPG has only a few slots so you keep finding items you either can't use or are marginal upgrades

[maidenhaver]

A lot.

[sheet]

The paper doll should be a full 3D mesh, with all items requiring you to manually place it on unoccupied space on the body, but with realistic joint movement inhibition and arm swing drag if you overload. Simulate every ring (10 rings? Nah, we can stack 3-4 on a finger if they're thin), shirts under armor, helmets that slow your vision turn speed, etc.
Also, better hope the ring size matches your fingers. Yes, each ring and bracelet and shirt will have a specific size modifier. Bracelets can become anklets if you're thin enough.

[anvi]

I like Everquest's character page. One of the things I hate the most about Skyrim is that you can only equip a few items and you don't get a the paper doll thing like every other proper RPG manages to have yet big budget Bethesda can't figure out. Probably because everything has to be designed for controllers -.-

[J1M]

I like when each equipment slot has distinct bonuses associated with it. Especially when they are related to a specific part of the body in a "logical" way. Examples:

• Belt upgrades allowing for more potion slots
• Choosing between boots that allow silent movement or faster running
• Helms that grant night vision or immunity to sleep
• Gloves with accuracy or casting speed bonuses

I don't really enjoy applying separate armor to shoulder/leg/calf/ankle/foot or when there are lots of small stat upgrades. I'd prefer a body armor slot that handles the basic survival progression (AC, damage reduction, baseline resistances) and all of the interesting magical effects to be supplied by accessories. I don't find "use this armor that is almost always more useful" vs "this highly specific armor will make you feel smart in two encounters but isn't required" to be an interesting choice.

[rusty_shackleford]

I like when each equipment slot has distinct bonuses associated with it. Especially when they are related to a specific part of the body in a "logical" way. Examples:

• Belt upgrades allowing for more potion slots
• Choosing between boots that allow silent movement or faster running
• Helms that grant night vision or immunity to sleep
• Gloves with accuracy or casting speed bonuses

Strong agree.

I don't really enjoy applying separate armor to shoulder/leg/calf/ankle/foot or when there are lots of small stat upgrades.

Less slots means there will either be a lot less loot(doesn't happen because people like loot) or a lot of small upgrades. With a bunch of slots it's easier to stagger the loot such that you get meaningful upgrades.