Poll: Skyrim - Annoyed by encumbrance?

[Smeggs]

Personally I find it a chore to have to inventory manage. Since there is no time pressure placed on the player, I see no tactical advantage as to why these encumbrance systems are so unforgiving to begin with.

Are you annoyed by encumbrance in Bethesda games or embrace it's realism?
Do you feel they add to the gaming experience in a meaningful way?
Do you cheat so you have more time to play the actual game?

"Unforgiving," riiiiight. Because in real life I can totally carry a medium sized armory in my pockets. That has to be one of the most simple things to complain about in the game. If you're overencumbered, drop some shit, sell some shit, or even easier, go stuff some heavier stuff you don't use in a box or load it onto your ally pack mule.
I usually only keep a hold of the things I know I will use or the things that sell for the largest amount of gold.

When I began the game I was actually shocked at how much higher my overencumberance limit seemed to be. I had a proverbial shitload of swords, armor and anything else I could carry before finally picking up a dagger and having to go sell some stuff. 300 is an amazing limit to begin with. Sure, I suppose for those people who use Heavy Armor early on it could be a real issue, but I've been using a triple combo of One-Handed, Destruction and Conjuration, so I never found myself in much if any spots bad enough where I said, "Damn, sure wish I had a block of steel around my torso."

The only complaint I truly have I see is agreed on by quite a few other people, and that's the factb that Vendors run out of money too quickly. I can't get more cash quickly if I can't sell all of the crap I'm carrying.

 

[DracoSuave]

Just know your weight-cost ratios. Don't pick up anything that doesn't sell for at least 4 times as much as it weighs.

This.

Tho I set my w/c ratio at X10. Obviously it goes up as your wealth does.

Also, my housecarl carries most of my useless crap. She is sworn to carry my burdens.

 

[Spygon]

The problem i have with encumbrance in skyrim and had a similar problem in oblivion.Is that all the traders at the start give you next to nothing compare to the actually value.Also maybe it just me but i am an old school RPG player and after a few chests of equiment disappearing a few years ago i dont trust putting my stuff in chests.

So i am walking around with armour and weapons plus all the cool items while carrying half a shops worth of stuff.

 

[Handbag1992]

I have a house to store things I want to keep (I refuse to believe that dragon scales won't be used as an armour material eventually) and a packmule companion to carry stuff for me while I'm dungeon diving. She's also pretty good in a fight, can take a good few blasts from a dragons breath.

On that note, saw a dragon get its ass kicked by a giant, jumped in after the giant left to take the soul

 

[DRes82]

Just enchant your armor and a couple rings with strength, and you won't have this issue.

 

[Snotnarok]

I don't cheat in any game ever, not even GTA/Saints Row, and I don't see it happening in Skyrim. Just drop your junk somewhere and pick it back up when you want to sell it.

Edit: It's not a morel thing, cheating just sucks the fun out of a game. I think the only game I cheated in is Final Fantasy Tactics after I beat it for the 500th time and I changed Ramza to Cloud, which wound up bugging the game to an nu-finishable status so that was fun right?

 

[svenjl]

I'm the biggest merchant in my Skyrim. I sell all the weapons, apparel and bits and bobs that I don't need/like ASAP. Only got a few extra potions and miscellaneous weapons stored at The Companions headquarters. Don't need to carry 15 minor potions of healing. I do find it hard to save money though. I keep buying spell books and getting training.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Dragon bones are used to make Dragonbone armour (heavy armour, for warriors really)
Dragon scales are used to make Dragonscale armour (Light armour)
I'm still trying to find the guy who makes it for you, but they're the best armour in game I've heard, unless you're a mage then I think the arch-mage robe is the best.

And thanks, she's the best. xD

Dragon Armor is at the top of the smithing perk tree. By the time you get there, you'll probably have access to Daedric armor which has a higher armor rating. Dragon armor is lighter though, so there's that.

 

[Jinjiro]

Dragon bones are used to make Dragonbone armour (heavy armour, for warriors really)
Dragon scales are used to make Dragonscale armour (Light armour)
I'm still trying to find the guy who makes it for you, but they're the best armour in game I've heard, unless you're a mage then I think the arch-mage robe is the best.

And thanks, she's the best. xD

If you're willing to spend the perk-points, you can make them yourself, it's the perk you can unlock at 100 Smithing. Smithing is easy as hell to level, it's actually my highest stat right now at 71. If you get an assload of hides, make them into leather, then make some of that leather into leather strips, you can level up with Hide Bracers. Cheapest item to make afaik.

The only thing I had a problem with encumbrance-wise were the dragon bones and scales. Now I have a couple of barrels full of them in Windhelm, waiting till I hit 100 Smithing. Other than that, I only generally take expensive jewelry, potions and scrolls from dungeons. Anything that has anything up to 1 weight and sells for more than 50, basically. If I'm not using a piece of armour, I barrel it and come back for it later for disenchantment or sale.

Edit: Ninja'd

Dragon Armor is at the top of the smithing perk tree. By the time you get there, you'll probably have access to Daedric armor which has a higher armor rating. Dragon armor is lighter though, so there's that.

I wonder if the dragon armor can hold more powerful enchantments or something then? Seems a bit silly otherwise.

 

[PAGEToap44]

I just dump everything in one of my many, many, MANY bases scattered across Skyrim after every 3-5 dungeon dives.

What he said. Though I only currently own one house in Skyrim it's a good place to store the shit I don't need.

 

[The Abhorrent]

Encumbrance in Skyrim isn't too big a deal, provided you don't try to carry around all those Dragon Bones and Dragon Scales. In other words, either sell them or get a storage spot for them ASAP. In my playtime, I've found dragons usually drop three scales & bones each (only one has dropped less), which comes to a weight of 75 per dragon. I didn't really notice how much a problem this was until I was carrying six of each (just after killing my second dragon) and I was restricted to walking painfully slow (you can't even fast-travel to a vendor to get rid of stuff, not that I was even near a vendor at that point).

What I ended up doing is buying the house in Whiterun. 5000 gold isn't too much trouble to acquire, even at low levels. Ever since getting the place, I've never had any issues with encumbrance... though I've been managing my inventory much better as well since then.

Anyhow, one tip for players using heavy armor -- get the "Conditioned" perk. A bit obvious, but having the heavy armor wearing not weighing anything is bound to free up a good amount of encumbrance for carrying stuff around.

---

On the whole, encumbrance is a minor annoyance at worst.
Clean out your inventory by selling or storing non-essential junk, and you'll almost never have an issue.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

eh i usually don't have to cheat, but in some games it is very annoying, especially when you haven't gotten a "home" or chest to put your stuff in yet that you might use but don't want to sell.

so i will probably end up using that cheat until i get the weightless heavy armor perk thing.

 

[spartan231490]

The tactical advantage is that it makes you consider using feather enchants instead of combat functional stuff. It also makes you consider what you will bring with you, and makes light armor a more viable choice. Yes it adds to the experience.

i dont know a good place to sell my fucking dragon bones and scales

best I've found is just general traders, they can buy them at least.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Yeah, inventory management is a pain, but only when it's done in such a manner that is to suck your time. If you have the time and patience, you can ferry back and forth to dungeons, selling stuff of, looking for merchants after you've taken all their gold, and milk the system. But if you want to, you know, GET ON with the game, then yeah you will just have to pick a weight/price ratio for goods you want to sell, and carry only what you will *realistically* use.

I'm a big offender of the latter, I always carry alternate load-outs for that special enemy which *might* use a certain kind of element, or vulnerable to a type of sword/spell, but when the battle starts it's all "TASTE MY STEEL, CURS!" and all that so I never get around to using the buffs and forget to swap anyways. Unless I'm dealing with very high difficulty levels, and I've died several times that is.

Had the same problem with The Witcher 2, and that game (before the patch anyways) didn't even have a place to store your surplus! And you needed to carry certain amounts of rarely found components for complicated crafting formulas.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

I had a problem when I was carrying 200+ pounds of smithing materials, but then I got a house.

 

[Peteron]

Its not exactly realistic...the amount the character carries, why are people complaining about it being too small? Put weight on companions or store your belongings. You really don't need much at all on you at a time.

 

[tendaji]

I was always at max weight despite only having my gear, so I was searching through my bags trying to find out what was weighing me down so badly. Well it turns out I had about 250 lbs of dragon pieces in my bags... >.>

 

[Senaro]

Most weight problems I have are typically solved by dropping 200 pounds of dragon scales/bones into a chest in my home in Whiterun. I broke myself of the habit of stripping every person I kill long ago.

 

[Spawny0908]

Encumbrance in any game annoys me. I can carry 6 swords, 3 warhammers, 2 sets of armor (both heavy), a shit ton of potions, a bunch of ingredients, gems, dragon bones, and a mammoth tusk fine. But when I try to pick up a piece of cheese too then that's too much?! GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!

 

[Athinira]

I found it annoying since Oblivion, but accepted that it was a legitimate game mechanic and dealt with it. It's part of the challenge, I recommend you learn to live with it. Buy a house, store your shit there, live genetically different, baby.

You could also argue that the inventory management of Mass Effect 1 was "part of the challenge", but at the end of the day it's just a lousy excuse for a bad design decision. While the original intention without a doubt was that the designers thought it would add something of value to the game, it just doesn't work, and only serves to waste your time/annoy you, and challenge is the absolutely LAST thing in the world it adds.

Personally i don't consider it 'cheating' in games if you make adjustments that are basically just quality of life improvements. To me, that's no different than installing a mod. The RPG genre has thrived a lot on mods in many of it's genres, and whenever i play Baldur's Gate, which i do quite often, i don't go anywhere without making Arrows and other projectiles stack to 400 so i don't have to be buggered with the damned inventory management. In fact, in many RPG and action adventure games, it seems like it's ALWAYS Inventory management that is a problem, even when the designers try to add clever ways to work around it. Torchlight, Skyrim, Titan Quest, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 1. All of them are examples of good to excellent games with bad inventory management. The only games i can remember that handled Inventory Management well is Baldur's Gate (besides a few nitpicks) and Mass Effect 2, the latter going as far as removing the whole ordeal and replacing it with an upgrade system (which is totally fine, although their decision to remove many of the RPG aspects wasn't that well placed).

I'm not saying infinite storage space is the solution, but making it less of a hazzle is definitely a welcome addition. I consider improving the inventory space in Skyrim an improvement of gameplay, whether it's done by 'cheating', a mod or hopefully by the developers getting some common sense when they plan to release a patch in the near future.