Being in the process of moving storage has highlighted how hugely beneficial being able to assign specific item to an inventory slot would be.
Just as an example I mine for lots of metal ores just now. I store then smelt.
For effective storage I have to leave one of each type of ore in the storage slot so that when I return from mining I can just quick move them in and they go to where I want, mostly.
Problems with this, if my iron slots become full then the iron will go into the next available, copper for example, which I want to keep separate. When taking out for smelting I need to either leave 100 in the slot (quickest, but still requires 9x more clicks than moving the whole stack) or if I want as many of the mat as possible I need to manually select 99 to leave 1 in the slot.
If the storage slot was assignable, we could easily use the quick move and know the mats will go into the slot we want them to.
It seem like it should be easy enough to do, the basis is already there with the smart stacking.
On PS4, when looking at inventory screens the L3 button does nothing (as far as I know), this could be used when you have the item in the slot and want to lock it in, so to speak.
There may be reasons why this isn’t a thing already, but can’t really see why not!
You bring up an excellent point. One I’ve thought about countless times while out whacking away on trees or rock or baddies.
I believe this system is done the way it is, so that inventory space is automatically optimized.
When I’m out on hunts, I separate my oort stone from gems so I always know roughly how many I’m getting at each meteor since the “added to inventory” display on the right side will say +2 rough oortstone. When its really +18 rough oortstone that was added to my inventory. This eats up an extra inventory space, but to me, is worth it.
I was more thinking about for storage blocks or shelves, but could be used in personal inventory too.
And you would still have the choice not to use it, and inventory acts as it always has.
I had further thoughts for refinement.
Lets take refined metamorphic black rock as an example.
1st click: assign slot to refined rock
2nd click: assign slot to refined metamorphic rock
3rd click: assign slot to black refined metamorphic rock
4th click: clears assignment
And now machined iron
1st click: assign slot to machined metal
2nd click: assign slot to machined iron
3rd click: as there is no colour variation, skips to what would have been 4th click and removes assignment
Mega strength brew
1st: brew slot
2nd: strength brew slot
3rd: mega strength brew slot
4th: normal slot
My issue is when I’m storing stuff, I don’t mix for example colors of stones, or bloods, or gems at all. Rough Diamonds have their area, separate from Rough Topaz, etc.
I think an easier solution would be to dumb down the “Smart Stack”. Make it an option under Settings, that only allows same colors of the same rock type to smart stack, and the exact same gems to combine into smart stacks. For example, I would automatically have three separate “Smart Stacks” of the different bloods. When storing, it would only allow Fresh Vital Essence to be placed in a smart stack of the same.
I could then turn the option off when I go on a hunt so it will save space on my personal inventory, but when I go home to store it all, I switch it back and it will only combine with the exact same. Or even better, if they made the setting so it only applied to storage would be awesome!
It’s just a quality of life improvement.