Walking around in the tiny multiplayer online title of Book of Travels will inevitably find players cramming lots of stuff into their backpacks. As of last month, getting to all of that stuff has gotten ideally a bit easier – and evidently more strategic – thanks to an inventory redesign.
“The new inventory system is based around volume, with inventories having limited volume capacity,” Might and Delight explains. “This translates to an updated gameplay where backpacks and pockets serve a greater purpose, and the trading of items comes with a new layer of strategy.”
As a result of this volume-based refactor, items now have different volumes that players will have to account for, inventory upgrades increase that volume as opposed to add additional item slots, reagents are inventory items that can be placed anywhere, and certain inventory-specific traits have been modified. The system also has an excess inventory that temporarily stores items that can’t fit into a backpack, which players must manage before they can close the backpack view.
Judging from player reactions, we’d say this new volume system is not going over well, with many bemoaning that it discourages gathering and worrying what will happen to the stuff they’ve been pack-ratting. The decision has also garnered some negative response on Steam, and discussion about changing volumes is still occurring in Discord today.
The game has otherwise added a letter opener item, an expansion of the postmaster quest line, new events for the Secret Society of Herbalists quest, bug fixes, and an extended a grace period for excess inventory management by another 30 days.
What’s not been finalized yet is when BOT will exit early access, a development track that it’s been on for nearly three years going. Readers will recall that Might and Delight projected two years of early access in what it calls its Chapter Zero build, but the title laid off staff and temporarily paused feature development to fix things. The studio later re-hired its staff and most recently overhauled its combat.
