Inventory Background Colors

Currently, items in your inventory/stash have one of two background colors: red (cannot use) and blue (can use). I would like to differentiate more between items without mousing over them.

I have not played Diablo but I do play Fate. In Fate, items in your inventory still have a red background if you cannot use them but usable items have a background color that matches their status (normal items have no background, magic items have a purple background, rare items have teal, artifacts have yellow).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/EldricIV/FateItems.png

Compare that to PoE. How many normal, magic, and rare items do you think my ranger is wearing?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/EldricIV/PoEItems.png

This is an issue for me because I am used to quickly scanning drops against my equipment to see if there are any upgrades and a simple color coding system speed that up by a magnitude compared to mouseover.

A texture background could work easily enough for colorblind. Just angle horizontal lines ever more vertically as the rarity increases.

I would also like to see some slight differentiation between items that are not usable so I can tell if I need to level up, raise an attribute, or identify the item without mousing over. I have no idea how to do that yet because I want to keep the association with red and prefer not to have red, purple, orange (for example) all equal "unusable".

And the answer is two normal, two rare, and the rest magic.

I support this idea.

I was trying to remember where I saw the background highlighting used before, then I remembered Torchlight...

While I have gotten used to the items available, I also think it would be a good idea for the equippable slot in the paperdoll inventory outline or highlight to indicate which item slot the currently hovered/selected piece of equipment is going to go. I cite the armguards and focii as items that are not something new players may be familiar with, and would be confused as to their utility.

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Garr0t wrote:

While I have gotten used to the items available, I also think it would be a good idea for the equippable slot in the paperdoll inventory outline or highlight to indicate which item slot the currently hovered/selected piece of equipment is going to go. I cite the armguards and focii as items that are not something new players may be familiar with, and would be confused as to their utility.

Yeah.. we already have this. Pick up an equippable focus item and mouseover the equipment slots. You'll notice that slots turn red when the item is either over the wrong slot or the requirements are not met. The slot will turn green when the proper item is held over it.

Refer to the images below where I have a Quiver on the cursor. Notice the weapon slot is Green while the Armor slot is Red. If you don't meet the item requirements then every slot is red.

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FaceLicker wrote:

Yeah.. we already have this.

Haha! Go figure. I guess I need to adjust my monitor's brightness/contrast...

However, that's only if you actually pick the item up and mouseover slots. I think it would make things much more clear if the slots highlighted on item mouseover in the inventory without having to physically pick the item up. For example, using my images, if you mouseover the bow in the inventory it would highlight the weapon slot automatically in either green or red.

Aside from that, I like the OP's suggestion. After looking at the images I posted and seeing blue or red I would like the ability to discern rarity at a glance while reserving mouseover for usability. This would make selling to vendors a lot easier, I don't care if it's equippable I just want to know the rarity.

Glad to see I am not alone in wanting a quicker way to spot rarity.

I am still wracking my brain trying to think of an equally easy system for determining why any given item is red. I want to know at a glance whether an item is magical but unidentified or unable to be used due to insufficient level or attribute.

If this has to be in the game, it better be optional and OFF by default.
Bright colors won't match the dark tone that makes up PoE and it's dark-ish HUD(I don't mean dark by the color btw), and this only worked for Fate is cause Fate is cartoony graphics due to it being a indie game.

And I personally like to stick to just mouse over your items to see what kinda item it is.

The background color does not need to be a saturated pastel hue. A set of muted colors can still be differentiated at a glance and it brings up no more colors than we already see in the gems, flasks, and highlights on item descriptions.

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EldricIV wrote:

The background color does not need to be a saturated pastel hue. A set of muted colors can still be differentiated at a glance and it brings up no more colors than we already see in the gems, flasks, and highlights on item descriptions.

I guess that would work too.

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nzrock wrote:

Bright colors won't match the dark tone that makes up PoE and it's dark-ish HUD(I don't mean dark by the color btw), and this only worked for Fate is cause Fate is cartoony graphics due to it being a indie game.

Something along these lines:
or

Clockwise from Top-left: Unique, Empty/Normal slot, Rare, Magic. Now, I'm colorblind so the colors would have to be fixed better but you get the idea. They don't have to be super saturated, just enough to discern rarity at a glance. Then on mouseover, the existing red and green colors would be utilized to discern equipability.

If the background color isn't satisfactory, then perhaps a small colored indicator in the top left corner similar to the small socket indicators on dropped loot. Like this:

See how this has a green icon indicating 1 green socket? We could do something similar with yellow, blue, and brown icons in the top left or right corner in the inventory.

Personally, I'd prefer the background color.