I am having a real hard time with managing inventory. I love the dialouge options, exploring, etc. but there are soooo many little items to inspect and you can literally put almost anything in your inventory.

I have no idea what I should keep, drop, etc. Also, the time it takes to pull up your "paperdoll", see what's in your bag, decide who to give it to..I just feel like I can't enjoy all the great things everyone says about this game because there are sometimes like 10-15 items in 1 room I can do something with and I am a packrat. Boots, clothes. little pieces of metals, horseshoes. At this rate, I will never make it out of the 1st town.

Any advice (without spoilers if possible) would be greatly appreciated. If this topic is already posted somewhere, please feel free to reply with a link.

FYI- I am playing using Exult and keyring mod.

Inventory management and combat are hopelessly broken in Ultima VII beyond repair. You'll either have to put up with it or stop playing.

Here is how it works: it's like real life, i.e. every item has an (invisible) weight and size and each container has a fixed capacity. In Ultima VI or Underworld you could fill your backpack with a bunch of bags and have a keys-bag, a reagents-bag, a food-bag, a rune-bag and so on. In Ultima VII you can't fit more than two bags in your backpack, but you can fit a bag, a two-handed sword, five loafs or bread and six scrolls inside for some reason. There is no indication.

This wouldn't be that much of a problem if the game at least gave you some sort of indication or had a grid to align objects. I remember when I had to call the wisps the whistle was dumped somewhere in my inventory and I had to dig through all my containers and put everything on the floor to find this tiny 3x5 pixel thing. And even if I manage to tidy up my inventory a few minutes later I will come across something that doesn't fit in its designated place and the mess starts all over again.

So yeah, there isn't anything that can be done about the problem. There is also no indication as to what might be important later, so i recommend finding a place somewhere where you can leave items that look unique or important.

Many items have no purpose (mugs, horseshoes, books, etc.); as a general rule you'd want to ignore anything that can't be worn or consumed unless it has some other function (as with sextants) or seems obviously unique or important (quest items are generally of the obvious sort).

If you don't know whether something is still needed you can store it in a container somewhere you will remember; containers can be loaded onto a wagon or ship to haul them around with you.

Thanks guys. I appreciate it. How do I say "question answered"? I'm not good on these forums. lol

When you create a new thread, you have to mark it as a question. There's a little check box. It's easy to miss or forget, just try to remember for next time.

All posts in a "question" thread you start (not including your own) have a button that lets you mark them as the solution. You can only mark one reply as the solution though, so be sure to try it out first.

Since it's a change from how most modern games handle it, there is no 'vendor trash' in these games. You can trade gold nuggets/bars and gems for cash, but otherwise the stuff you find is only useful if you'll actually be using it - most decorative stuff won't be useful (unless you want to redecorate a building); functional items are worth hanging onto as long as someone will actually use them. (Carrying ten swords around is pointless; if no one'e using the things, toss them away.)

Inventory management is made much easier if you designate each party member to carry a bag (or two) in their backpack that will hold items of a particular type (potions, food items, scrolls, plot items). The Avatar is usually best served having a bag for reagents and the spellbook; in Serpent Isle the increased backpack space means that he can usually haul around the plot item bag as well.

Okay. I appreciate everyone's help. This will help me enjoy the game, hopefully and not just be stuck with managing paper dolls.

Dedicating party members to particular types of items is the best way to go, for instance I have Spark carry all of my food and Iolo carries all of my gold.

Sorry if I am too late on this, but in U7 Part 1, you can carry crates and chests in the backpack slot. This can help quite a bit with not only being able to spread out your goods so you can see them, but obviously you can carry a lot more stuff, too.

(MINOR SPOILER ALERT)

By the way, a little thing I did on my current playthrough of U7 is I got my flying carpet decorated with chests that I "borrowed" from around Britannia :) I have five large chests on the carpet so that I can carry all the necessary and unnecessary stuff that I want with me and not worry about the inventory limits that much. I'm actually thinking about grabbing the sixth chest somewhere, too.

P.S. Not sure if it's just me but I actually find this U7 way of inventory management (with no grid and kinda "messy", also used in the classic client of UO and also in U8 if I recall correctly) appealing. No idea why, but it's actually pretty cool (though I understand that most younger players who are used to max automation of inventory management and grids and whatnot will find it ridiculous and obstructive). Yes, it tends to get in the way sometimes, but I actually love spreading the items in my bags exactly the way I want them and then rearranging stuff when it gets messed up. :)

- Agetian

U8 and UO keep the items exactly where you put them - a much needed improvement. Even so, I never found inventory management that difficult in U7. I guess some just can't resist picking up every object they see.

Isn't it surprising how many people does exactly the same?

Myself included. Ever since I played it for the first time, I started doing exactly the same.

I think that's because Iolo starts with an abacus, and spark has some food on himself, and since food and gold are important stuff you'll be needed all through the game, and those two NPCs are the ones you get from the start,, most people ends up with the kid carrying the food and Iolo the gold.