Inventory System Discussed - hellforge

Bashiok has posted a response to the suggestion that a weight system be implemented in Diablo III:

A weight system is simply a different approach to inventory restrictions, and it's actually fairly similar to a grid based system except that weight systems are generally augmented by a character stat instead of being item based upgrades.

The main issue with these systems as they relate to Diablo III is they add an additional value to items. That secondary value works to complicate and thus slow down the inventory management of a player, drawing their attention away from the action, which is of course the main focus for us with Diablo III.

I've played a few RPGs with weight systems, and they're among my favorite games of all time, but it's a case of choosing which systems works best for each game.

Reading his response, it seems unlikely that they will be implementing weight, as these would add an additional value to items, which bogs down inventory management almost as much as the 'tetris inventory'.

As those of you who have played Diablo and its sequel know, players could carry as much equipment as they wanted so long as it fit into the inventory slots. In previous games, each item took up a certain amount of slots: armors took 6 slots, swords took 3 slots, and scrolls took a single slot.

In contrast, in World of Warcraft, players are simply limited by the number of equipment slots they have, which can be increased by buying larger bags. Each item would take up a single slot, some of which are stackable. Certainly, World of Warcraft's inventory management is much more streamlined and much less of a hassle to deal with.

In addition, Bashiok also revealed some other aspects of the game with regards to character development:

Well there’s still the depth and complexity of item/stat utilization, building out your character, exploration, increased emphasis on story and lore, etc. but aside from those sort of obvious points, no I’m not worried. There are some big things we haven’t revealed yet.

That said, Blizzard still hasn't announced how the new system will be, but I wouldn't be surprised if they used World of Warcraft's system, perhaps with a few interface tweaks that allow for simpler management of equipment, as some player-created mods for World of Warcraft offer.

How would you like for the inventory to be handled?