Inventory System Overhaul

[Pazz]

The inventory is a base feature of this server that everyone comes into contact with, whether they like it or not. Do you like clothing? Well, you’re going to have to do inventory management. You like building? Well, have I got some news for you: inventory management. Do you like mass storage of items and splitting these items? Well, tough luck, because the functionality isn’t all that great yet.

Paulius made great headway when he introduced the changes to the inventory that let you scrollwheel-click to drop items, control-click to move instantly, and so forth, but more quality-of-life adjustments can be made, which I believe would greatly improve the inventory as a core feature on the server and the general experience of using it. For what it's worth, it's the small things, details, and consistencies that contribute a lot to the overall overarching experience, which should be polished. 
 

IMPROVING THE SPLITTING FUNCTIONALITY
Adjust the split functionality in the inventory. When right-clicking on a stack of items and pressing “Split”, it should give you a pop-up similar to the vending machine UI that prompts you to enter a number between “1 to X”, where X is the maximum number of items.

If you have a stack of, say, 60 lockpicks, then entering 10 would take 10 from the stack and separate them; now you have two stacks, one stack of 50 and one stack of 10.

If the player simply presses ENTER without filling in a number, it should default to splitting the stack in half, or close enough.
 

DESIGN CONSISTENCY ACROSS ITEM ICONS
One thing we have lacked is consistency and distinction in the inventory items. All food items have a food bag icon, and all drink items have an identical bottle icon. These look “3D”. Other items, such as the GPS, have cartoonish 2D icons. The differences next to each other are relatively jarring.

I am aware that tools were used to create the inventory item icon designs for the mining update’s ores and drops. I propose that the same method be used to create different icons that actually represent the items, while also adding a larger degree of style consistency between the icons. 
 

INVENTORY SPACE INCREASE
Increase the inventory row count from 3 to 4. The square space count in the inventories is rather arbitrary, because most items relevant to gameplay can be either stacked (lockpicks, drugs) or attached to each other/loaded into another item (weapon attachments, ammo). The limited number is mostly punishing to people carrying sets of clothing on them, whereas the larger, more relevant, and impactful restriction to item carrying is the volume system.

I would even venture to say that there should be infinitely more item slots, akin to inventories on FiveM servers, and that inventory volume should be the leading restrictor, but I know that’s a far shot.

It will also make the inventory look a lot better, because right now, the changing between row counts looks really, really janky. This was also suggested here two years ago. And here, one year ago.

INVENTORY STATE SAVING & SWAPPING BEFORE/AFTER PRISON
This is more out of left field, since it also requires more in-depth development that addresses the prison ecosystem. Please consider an inventory swap between the character states of ‘in prison’ and ‘out of prison’. Let players choose to transfer items out of prison when they’re done, like stamps, or keep them until they’re back.

Similarly, the inventory state of a player before they’re imprisoned should be saved, swapped out for their prison inventory when they’re imprisoned, and then restored when they leave prison. This addresses multiple pain points, most prominent of which are how painstaking it is for law enforcement to clear a player’s inventory of possessions and move into a locker for safekeeping, and then the time-consuming act of the player having to check multiple locker locations and waiting on people to help them to get their items back.

To still allow for smuggling to occur, or for ‘forgotten items’ to be carried over from pre-prison to in-prison, add Ash’s (Cobb’s) suggestion to add a special inventory slot to put the item(s) in and have a percentage-based chance for the item to be found/revealed upon a frisk.

INVENTORY UI DESIGN
In general, the design of the inventory is dated. The squares system is foundational; I don’t see it changing. However, the general design is very dated and very simple. If you look at the average FiveM inventory, while a lot of them are very extra, the general design philosophy is rather clean. Other Rage servers, like World, have a less ‘flashy’ design than the generic FiveM inventory design, but still a nicer feeling.

Spoiler

Generally, I’m not saying that it needs a massive overhaul, or as flashy or large as the examples shown, but I think that any sort of adjustments made to the general design of the UI would be refreshing at this point. If quick use of items is a concern, add hotkeys. 
 

[Daxu]

major +1

[arminass]

+1