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The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth >  Workshop > The_Evil_Pickle's Workshop > Hotbar Passive Item (Toy Chest) > Discussions
Hotbar Passive Item (Toy Chest)
Description Discussions1 Comments12 Change Notes
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
The_Evil_Pickle  [developer] 28 Apr, 2017 @ 12:22pm
Mod Balancing and Slot Count
On the subject of inventory slot count and balancing the mod:

A lot of people have said the 10 hotbar slots and 40 storage slots are way too many. I'd like to respond in the comments, but it turns out I have a lot to say, so here's a discussion instead. I know I'm not the best at balancing for this game, but I have my reasons for the enormous slot count, so I'll do my best to explain them.

Personally, I've found that having tons of slots isn't really overpowered, because only one active item charges per room. Having 40 items isn't much more powerful than having just 4, because you are still only using them at a rate of 1 charge bar per room.

There are two things that aren't affected by the 1 charge per room limitation. Batteries (the pickup, not the collectible) are much more useful when you can hold multiple active items, and 0-charge or cooldown-based actives are also much more useful. But it's unlikely to actually find more than 1 or 2 0-charge items in a single run, and it's also rare to get more than a few batteries on a floor. That means batteries and 0-charge items are more powerful the more slots you have, but the OP-ness suffers heavy diminishing returns, because you won't find enough of either to actually make full use of the dozens of slots you have.

The reason I chose such a huge number was actually because of what happens when you run out of inventory space. There's no way to ditch items from your inventory; if you pick up an active item when your inventory is full, it is simply deleted. With the total of 50 slots (10 hotbar + 40 storage), you never run out of space, so the problem doesn't appear.

If you are REALLY determined to change it, you can actually do so by opening up the main.lua file. line 34 reads "invHotbarSize = 10" and line 36 reads "invStorageSize = 40". If you want to change it to 4 total slots, for example, you can just set invHotbarSize to 4 and invStorageSize to 0.


TL;DR:
-Because you only charge one item per room, having multiple items that need charge stops being useful after you've gotten like 2-3 of them.
-The ability to carry up to 50 items that don't require charge isn't overpowered, because of how rare it is to find more than 2 0-charge items in a run.
-Battery pickups are rare enough that they won't help with the 34 uncharged active items you've hypothetically somehow acquired.
-Small inventories cause bugs when you run out of space.
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
sawbladex 28 Apr, 2017 @ 12:30pm 
Ah, if you, TEP, haven't figure out (and it might not be even possible) to get active item swapping to work with this item's code. (i.e. instead of dropping your current active item, the game deletes it with your current code), having 40+slots is a decent workaround.

Thanks for pointing out what variables control the total number of slots in the hotbar.
#1
Hiroko 28 Apr, 2017 @ 12:51pm 
I had legit runs where im dropping a battery almost every room, before i even get to moms heart. This is especially easy with isaac runs and the d6. I've had a couple runs with both battery items, the battery familiar, high luck, 1+1, bag drops, and you can get upwards of about 4 batteries per room in those crazy runs... and if you hold a certain rune you can double that room's drops. I used it to get error room almost every floor once.

Personally, I would alter the functionality to a stacking mechanic if you want to add more than 4. As in, grab the item again to add 4 more slots, up to whatever cap you like. I really think it only needs 2 items tbh, but 4 is a staple skill number across gaming in general. Its easy to use and versatile enough to make big plays, and it wont clutter up the screen or interferr with the relatively normal-run cap of like 2-3 items being plausable.
I'd probably want.... (in this order)
1. Mom's Box
2. D6
3. Teleport!
4+. (all just w/e seems fun to use after this point)
#2
The_Evil_Pickle  [developer] 28 Apr, 2017 @ 1:28pm 



Originally posted by sawbladex:
Thanks for pointing out what variables control the total number of slots in the hotbar.

No problem! :steamhappy: But fair warning: I haven't tested other values a lot. It should work fine, but if you reduce the hotbar size, make sure to set storage to 0 to avoid an annoying bug.

Originally posted by Hiroko:
I had legit runs where im dropping a battery almost every room, before i even get to moms heart. This is especially easy with isaac runs and the d6. I've had a couple runs with both battery items, the battery familiar, high luck, 1+1, bag drops, and you can get upwards of about 4 batteries per room in those crazy runs... and if you hold a certain rune you can double that room's drops. I used it to get error room almost every floor once.

Ok, that would make the item completely broken. To be honest, I'm really terrible at playing this game, so I don't get runs like that - and I forget to consider them when balancing. But in the mod's defense, there are a lot of ways to get a broken run that require less effort & luck than finding all those items + the toy chest. Getting broken runs is part of isaac, and I think a broken run based around this item is not common enough to make the item truly overpowered. Plus, if you have a run like that and a good active item, toy chest won't be breaking the run, only making it a bit more broken than it already was.

On a side note, the fact that the d6 is in the game bothers me in general. A lot of things in the game would be more balanced if it wasn't there, or at least if it wasn't a starting item. :rage:

Originally posted by Hiroko:
Personally, I would alter the functionality to a stacking mechanic if you want to add more than 4. As in, grab the item again to add 4 more slots, up to whatever cap you like. I really think it only needs 2 items tbh, but 4 is a staple skill number across gaming in general. Its easy to use and versatile enough to make big plays, and it wont clutter up the screen or interferr with the relatively normal-run cap of like 2-3 items being plausable.

If I do ever decide to reduce the hotbar/inventory size, I think that would be a great way to do it. The only thing to consider would be how the player actually gets the item twice without clogging up item pools and such.

#3
Teacyn 29 Apr, 2017 @ 8:05pm 
Originally posted by The_Evil_Pickle:

If I do ever decide to reduce the hotbar/inventory size, I think that would be a great way to do it. The only thing to consider would be how the player actually gets the item twice without clogging up item pools and such.

You might be able to make the item get re-added to the pools after you pick it up.
#4
Cryptic Bore 2 Jul, 2017 @ 10:35am 
So i hold down tab to veiw a solid non opaque big map can you make the toggle button somthing else. also can you make it align with the hud and not the room we are in it freaks out and i have my game resized so the hud is outside of most rooms.
#5
Regret MacGrath 1 May, 2019 @ 5:01pm 
I never thought it was OP,I just want less lag,if you do manage to find out how to make it not delete them can you make a version with just like,4 or 5 slots.
#6
Regret MacGrath 1 May, 2019 @ 5:04pm 
Originally posted by Omen267901:
Originally posted by The_Evil_Pickle:

If I do ever decide to reduce the hotbar/inventory size, I think that would be a great way to do it. The only thing to consider would be how the player actually gets the item twice without clogging up item pools and such.

You might be able to make the item get re-added to the pools after you pick it up.
Or since this is a mod anyways,people can just use their debug menu to give themselves more copies of it.
#7
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
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