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[Glowcat]

Depends on other factors.

Does your game factor in various consumable items? Consider limited inventory to partially cap the number of those the player can carry at once.

Do you want your game to lean towards survival or action? Limited inventory for the former, unlimited for the latter.

Do you want your players to think more about what they carry? Limited inventory.

Do any crafting or similar item requirements demand vast quantities of resources? Probably better to go unlimited, unless you want to go through the hassle of implementing carts.

You can get something out of either option but think about what kind of game you're trying to make and use as appropriate. Faster-paced action games should probably stick with unlimited inventory while more classic adventuring style should go for the verisimilitude route with limited inventory.

[Euld]

Our game won't have a ton of random items, I'm planning on keeping us limited to:

Gold/silver/gems for cash, iron/copper/tin for upgrades, 4 elemental ores, 4 different elemental traps.

And very true, the user interface can really make or break an inventory system, regardless of its size.  With only 14 possible items in our game, finding them shouldn't be a problem.  Heck, we could fit them all on a 7x2 grid.

[Levi]

To be honest, there is hardly ever a good reason to have a limited inventory.  It almost always just adds tedium of tossing things or selling things as soon as you fill up.  Realism isn't worth hassle most of the time, unless you are specifically going for an ultra realistic game. 

The only good reasons I can think of is if:

1)  You need to bring exactly what you need when you leave your "Safe" area.
2)  You don't bring anything back.

A good example of this is EYE Divine Cybermancy.  There is no loot that you need to bring back.  Its all about planning what you want to take before you head out on a mission.

Since your game sounds like it has a lot of items that you find and bring with you, I'd go for unlimited inventory.

Although my opinion might be influenced by Skyrim at the moment where I get sick of running from town to town trying to sell all the junk I keep picking up.     Its annoying when I just want to go exploring!

[Glowcat]

Although my opinion might be influenced by Skyrim at the moment where I get sick of running from town to town trying to sell all the junk I keep picking up.     Its annoying when I just want to go exploring!

You know that you don't need to pick up and sell everything, right? Choice pieces of treasure are all you need to make a fortune in short order.

[Levi]

Although my opinion might be influenced by Skyrim at the moment where I get sick of running from town to town trying to sell all the junk I keep picking up.     Its annoying when I just want to go exploring!

You know that you don't need to pick up and sell everything, right? Choice pieces of treasure are all you need to make a fortune in short order.

Well, I don't actually pick up everything.  But even the valuable stuff fills up my inventory pretty quickly. 

[Sensei]

If in a game about mining you aren't sure whether or not you should limit your character's inventory, you probably need to flesh things out more. For example, why is visiting the town even necessary? Could you just have him ship things out?

Anyway, here's a thought though: Make the inventory for cash resources limited, just so you can force the player to use minecarts to send it all back to town. Because minecarts are wonderful.

[kaijyuu]

I like unlimited inventories for most games.

If consumables are a problem, you can cap those. Having a max also gives the player a good ballpark estimate of how many consumables they should buy, along with stopping you (the designer) from throwing stuff at the player that consumables are absolutely necessary for.
If you're going to have the player juggling inventory items, make sure there's an actual point in doing so. There really isn't in Skyrim, for example, but there is in certain puzzle and survival horror games.


Good games with limited inventories tend to have some sort of risk associated with deciding what stuff to take and what to leave behind. You want the player to feel like their maximizing their effectiveness but knowing they can't prepare for every single possible situation. You DON'T want players throwing away garbage because it doesn't vendor for as much as the garbage they just found.

[Leafsnail]

I'd say the main advantage of a limited inventory is tactical decisions.  It forces you to consider what you want to take with you in order to give you the best options in future.  It does definitely struggle when there's a "selling" mechanic though (players may end up carting stuff back and forth in order to get a bit more money).

Uh. Huh. Actually, I can't think on any unlimited inventory games off the top of my head. Most that come close just use "soft" (i.e. total weight, which is influenced by varying things) instead of hard (inventory slots) limited inventories.

The ones I can think of are Final Fantasy (at least, I remember picking up a hell of a lot of crap without throwing it away) and adventure games like LoZ (where you can pick up all the items in the game, so it might as well be infinite).

[Heron TSG]

I'd say the main advantage of a limited inventory is tactical decisions.  It forces you to consider what you want to take with you in order to give you the best options in future.  It does definitely struggle when there's a "selling" mechanic though (players may end up carting stuff back and forth in order to get a bit more money).

I will say that I heartily approve of carrying capacities in tabletop RPGs. No, the 6 strength wizard will not be carrying that solid gold column out of the temple. That kind of thing. It prevents the party from carting around nigh-unlimited resources, too. (Unless they actually get a cart and team to pull it, I guess, but that would slow them down significantly.)