Hi everyone, here's a look at the in-progress inventory screen. I'm pleased to say that even though it's far from being final (the aesthetics, number of slots, etc, will change through development), the image is not a mockup but a fully implemented screenshot taken from in-game.
Right now I'm not too sure about the background image. I would like to cycle through a series of nice artworks, perhaps even randomized, but that might impact readibility so I might default to a more neutral background. Additionally, the stats are organized as a functional, but not exactly eye-pleasing block on the left, which will change later on. I also forgot to add that the shotgun scales with Perception.
Hopefully this will give you some insight into how the game works, and itemization as well. At this point I'm leaning towards not directly tying armor with what the character is wearing visually. This is mainly a budget issue (paying for custom meshes at the quality I want would be prohibitively expensive), but is also due to gameplay design as I would like to divorce the visual customization of the character from stat bonuses. This allows for more flexibility in the player dressing up their character, as well as allowing me to implement more unorthodox slots in the future. Equipping different weapons will still result in a different visual weapon during combat.
Inventory is a shared pool for all party members, but each character will have their own equipment page. There will not be weight or durability in the game, but there will be a limited number of inventory slots for each item category that you can upgrade as you progress through the game.
The current item categories I have are Equipment (weapons, armor, etc), Mods (equipment add-ons that give new skills and other benefits), Cargo (trade goods and possibly used to furfill certain missions), and Critical Items (which are just quest items).
That's it for now, until next time!