this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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Yeah, it's like encumberance in video games. Usually just makes things tedious and if there's no work around it stops being fun.
I don't mind encumberance that much. I think it's necessary if you're making any attempt at balancing the economy. Without it the player returns back to town with every bit of loot from the dungeon to sell, and the economy doesn't matter anymore.
However, any game that has an encumberance mechanic absolutely has to have a weight/value sort and display. I don't know why this is so hard for them to implement. Bethesda games never do, and I'm playing Tainted Grail (I've heard lots of good things, and it's alright so far) and it doesn't. With any amount of playtesting they'd get overencumbered, try to figure out what to drop and instantly realize they want to drop the highest weight/value items, and there's no way to view this! How do you not add it?
In SP RPG games it's stupid. I'm just going to make however many trips back and forth it takes to empty the dungeon anyway. Might as well let me do it in one shot so I can get on to the next thing. I get it in survival crafting type games (within reason) but no reason games like skyrim or fallout need an encumbrance mechanic when you need a fuckload of stuff to level your crafting skills.
Will you really go back? I suspect that 99.99% of players won't. It's more effective to go somewhere new, where you get XP, a fresh shot at better loot, and maybe different quests.
Sure, you can ruin the economy in many ways, such as hoovering up every bit of loot. It isn't balanced around that though, and can't be. It's the correct assumption almost always that players won't return for loot that was left, because it's less valuable than doing a new dungeon.
Yes, I go back. Why would I say it's annoying and wastes a ton of time if I didn't have experience with it? I've had a lot of conversations with other people who are the same way so I think you are underestimating how annoying it is. As far as moving on to the next place, what do you get? One boss chest, with a single magic item that may or may not be good for you? You still have to pick up the incedental crap to sell for gold and crafting materials. If you just rely on the few decent items you get that would take even longer. Regardless, there's no economy to ruin in games like skyrim or fallout. You're the only one there with a bunch of mindless NPCs, they don't trade with each other and their inventory resets after a few days. Selling them a ton of crap is completely meaningless to the world as a whole.
I don't think you understand game design if you can't understand what's meant by "ruining the economy." It means that the player gets so much money that there's essentially no use for it anymore. They can buy anything that's available without concern. For example, in Morrowind you can craft potions with ridiculous value, then use that to pay for levels from trainers and buy the best items, then pay for enchanting to make them even better. It trivializes the game.
The only option at that point is to just limit what can be purchased. That's a much worse solution than balancing the game's economy so the player has options to spend money on, but critically they can't buy everything. Video games are about making decisions. If you don't have to decide anything than why not just watch a movie? The game needs to present you with options, and you need to choose what you will and won't do. The economy is a great place this can happen in a game that's balanced well.
Easy fix: Have more money as loot instead of otherwise nearly worthless items that sell for small amounts of money for flavor.
Well, for most games it isn't useless items. Most of it just isn't useful to you. Either your gear is better, or it's for a combat style you don't use, or it's consumables like potions.
I'm talking about the things you can't use, like bowls and trinkets and other stuff that games frequently include as 'white' items that literally cannot be used. Those things that exist to be sold to vendors.
They have been in many of the roga I have played. In the rpgs that don't have them, there isn't a vendor that buys stuff and no 'economy' that exists.
The first thing I disable in every RPG.
Going through a dungeon and having to stop every couple of rooms to throw away stuff really loses your immersion.
Bonus point is that it also accumulates wealth more easily.