Encumbrance Changes (R35)

I blame @Justyn04

"4000 lbs"

 

It could be worse...

 

Ideally, you'd want encumbrance mechanics inside and outside of towns to be the same, but there are some things that would be a little ridiculous, like if you want to build a town wall around an area and are weighed down by all the walls in your backpack (not that it isn't a little ridiculous to carry walls in your backpack).

I think a cool feature in the future would be able to go to the bank and be able to send a certain number of items from your town bank to your home's 'mailbox', and then send items from your mailbox to your town bank. Though that wouldn't necessarily take the punishment out of huge decorating projects.

 

You can always pack up your banker NPC and take her with you as you build walls, to avoid long, encumbered hauls.

 

You had 800 pounds at the start of the game? I'm highly impressed. I started with way less than you. I still have yet to hit 40 on str to unlock heavy lifter (or whatever that skill name is). I've been over-encumbered beyond 2x more than once and that's without grinding for resources. Also, being an account with no purchased upgrades, my rewards from the hats quests made it impossible for me to add anything to the banker. Starting players are obviously going to be affected by this far more than the people it is supposed to be stopping.

 

Yes, and they will play the game and get stronger. Hopefully before they post about how hard the game is on the forums.

 

Hey Mr. Moi... The only time I've been over-encumbered much beyond 2x more is doing decoration hauls. Even in the beginning of the game, I stopped fighting or harvesting around when I started losing Focus --- which is when you're carrying 2x weight. I could do a decent loot haul at E. Perennial Trail and earn I think it was 1,000 to 2,000 gold (I think, don't really remember). I'd hop over to the town bank and blacksmith then do some more looting.

I was lucky enough to have decent bank space when I started, although I didn't need it much at the time because I was mostly selling what I collected.

 

Another point, no one has that much stuff to carry when just starting anyway! You can stop hiding behind the noobs. It's as bad as the old immersion argument that ppl used to throw around here.

 

Old? Used to?

 

Funny, because you just used an immersion argument :

Let people use the arguments they want !

 

Um, not hiding behind the noobs. Expressing my current, as a LONG time member of playing this, experience now that I've down graded my pledge. With my current set of armor, 45 hides (because I couldn't bank them, its not enough to craft anything decent, prior to me dumping them on some random auction house to use as a bank), and the reagents needed to be a mage (starting reagents plus a 10 pack), I had a buffer of 3 lbs of carrying weight. My first equipment run went solely to buying bank space because I needed to unload things and my bank was already capped.

Just saying, I don't see this having an effect on those of you who have (as mentioned) 800+ carrying space. It is primarily only to going to affect those with lower carrying space (like my current character).

***Edit also didn't help that I started path of love and had a crap ton of arrows, but I ditched those pretty quickly so not sure how much it contributed

 

LOL!!! A clear sign that the immersion argument has worked on me! Maybe the noob defense will hang in there too! I'm not disparaging noobs, but I'm certain they won't experience the same issues that are being imagined here.

 

Coming to a halt when you reach zero Focus does sound like a pain, though. If they're doing this, I think there's more reason to make Focus loss rates to build up more gradually. Its not exactly fun to micromanage your inventory so you remove 1 mandrake root to get back your Focus gain; not any more to micromanage to make sure you aren't encumbered. So, instead of -1 Focus/sec, they might start with -0.1 Focus/sec, then have it build up. At some point starting out, the Focus gains would outweigh the Focus losses, then they'd be even, then the losses would start to be evident.

 

Besides, its not immersive to stop suddenly when carrying a heavy load... oh wait a second... I guess it kinda is *gasps while moving a friend's furniture upstairs*. 8^p

 

My primary concern, more than moving the crap load of resources you big boys can, is the combat aspect. As someone is fighting when over-encumbered, are they going to be unable to get away from the mob because they are actively fighting for their lives and everything uses up focus? I agree that they can tweak the reduction amounts which will only make it less tedious for those who are safely moving it in town or between scenes, but the person who is trying to level up the character and skinning animals and looting mobs, you can get screwed really quickly if you don't catch it in time. Again, once you unlock strength and heavy lifter it will never really be much of a concern (read that as minor inconvenience), but those early levels are likely to frustrate the hell out of people depending on which class they choose.

 

I actually felt this was the entire point. Even in the current system, this is the case. If you are over encumbered and going through a choke point, be prepared. That is a bigger disincentive than going slow. In fact, the focus penalty ensures this is the case. Lesson learned is don't walk over-encumbered.

 

Yea, that's the issue; catching it in time, and, then, not making it so you have to micromanage by dropping a single mandrake root or something to get your Focus back. But its not about being a heavy lifter; honestly, as I described, even in the beginning of the game encumbrance limits are generous, at least in my view. But if you go over 2x, the penalty kicks in unannounced. You have to be aware of what's happening.

Something I'd like to see btw, is the encumbrance showing visually on the avatar. What does that mean? -- well, we have this encumbered icon,



So, if you're unencumbered, you'd look as you do in the game right now; with nothing on your back. But when you'd start going over your encumbrance limit, you build up more and more bags on your back, just as shown in the icon above. When you start hitting 2x, it would start appearing heavy and you'd have a hunch.

Btw, wouldn't it also be great if the game showed quivers, scabbards, coin purses, etc?

 

Yes, yes it would. I'd love to see more visuals applying to the avatar. Currently, you get the indicator the second you are over your carry limit in the top right hand corner, and you get the constipated walking hunch. All of that applies LONG before you hit that 2x level, though.

 

Btw, in my view, indicating to the player not only what's happening, but what's going to happen, I think is important for the player experience all around. So, if your torch goes out, it starts to dim before it actually goes out. Same I'd say with a Light spell. This would give you a chance to keep your light before it goes out. If there's hunger, doing something to notify the player he's getting hungry before there's really harsh punishing effects, so he can do something. Etc.

 

Instead of requiring them to create new icon variations, I think Port is more likely to implement a feedback indicator using the usual icon, except that it uses the same "clock hand wipe" representation as currently used for timing buffs/effects to signify how close you are to the worst of the encumbrance effects.