Hypothesis: Inconsistent stacking of limited lifetime wards in inventories, help test it?

bolt

1. Go to your Stronghold and purchase 4 demon slayer wards or any other ward that has a limited lifetime
2. Look in your inventory, they should be in a single stack of 4 each each with a remaining lifetime of 2 hours
3. Now equip one and use it in combat (say a random dungeon) so its remaining lifetime is less than 2 hours, then unequip the ward so it goes back into your inventory. Do you see a single stack of 3 now with the one that has been used not stacking with the others? or do you see a stack of 4?

When I test this the same Wards identical in terms of item name and type (e.g. Unbound, Bound Character or Bound Account) do not stack unless the lifetime remaining is also identical.

Be interested to know if other players can confirm this behaviour. I have also observed this stacking behaviour for the limited lifetime wards from Hellpit.

mentinmindmaker

bolt#9204 said:

1. Go to your Stronghold and purchase 4 demon slayer wards or any other ward that has a limited lifetime
2. Look in your inventory, they should be in a single stack of 4 each each with a remaining lifetime of 2 hours
3. Now equip one and use it in combat (say a random dungeon) so its remaining lifetime is less than 2 hours, then unequip the ward so it goes back into your inventory. Do you see a single stack of 3 now with the one that has been used not stacking with the others? or do you see a stack of 4?

When I test this the same Wards identical in terms of item name and type (e.g. Unbound, Bound Character or Bound Account) do not stack unless the lifetime remaining is also identical.

Be interested to know if other players can confirm this behaviour. I have also observed this stacking behaviour for the limited lifetime wards from Hellpit.

This is the way it should be IMO. You can only stack identical items, and with different remaining timers they are no longer identical. WAI.

bolt

I can see the argument but why do it? Once a ward is partially used it should become bound to character or bound to account so it can't be sold on AH as a product with full lifetime left where some poor sap buys it and finds its only got 30 seconds on the clock. I can see no advantage or concern this approach of linking uniqueness to lifetime left all it ensures is that used wards take up an unacceptable amount of space in bags or banks. I think personally it needs fixing

plasticbat

They stack is not because they have the same timer value.
They stack because the timer was not started.
If you have two with the same timer 1:23:33, they don't stack.

If the ward has different timer value can be stacked, how do you find the timer value of each ward? Tooltip of which wards within the stack should be displayed?
Saving your inventory space is not their real concern.
Not too long ago, the ward could not be stacked at all even when the timer was not started.

bolt

Yeah but I have still not heard any argument that says this approach to defining uniqueness is a good and necessary approach to avoid some sort of exploitive or unfair behaviour but I have clearly stated the downside of applying lifetime left as part of a definition of uniqueness on player inventory space, namely as an example a single stack of 6 new wards of same name and type taking up one space can rapidly explode to taking up 6-spaces. The impact on space gets multiplied if a player holds stacks of different wards like drow slayer\ward, spider slayer\ward, and demon slayer\ward in their inventory to support end game dungeon runs such as mToS and mDWP

plasticbat

bolt#9204 said:

Yeah but I have still not heard any argument that says this approach to defining uniqueness is a good and necessary approach to avoid some sort of exploitive or unfair behaviour but I have clearly stated the downside of applying lifetime left as part of a definition of uniqueness on player inventory space, namely as an example a single stack of 6 new wards of same name and type taking up one space can rapidly explode to taking up 6-spaces. The impact on space gets multiplied if a player holds stacks of different wards like drow slayer\ward, spider slayer\ward, and demon slayer\ward in their inventory to support end game dungeon runs such as mToS and mDWP

It has nothing to do with good or bad. There is always a better idea than what it is currently. To begin with, why buying new 'physical' overload enchantment? Why not just adding time to the existing overload? It will be no new item. It will be no need for stacking. Oh! They had that implemented in black ice in the old days.

It has nothing to do with exploit or unfair behaviour. No sure why you even mention that. It has a lot to do with programming and database schema. It is a technical issue for Cryptic to deal with and they don't want to deal with.

It has everything to do with what Cryptic wants. They don't want to spend time to develop something that does not generate new money. It is up to you to see what it is and manage the situation your way.

For example, why do you use more than two slots for the same overload enchantment? Why 6 slots for the same overload enchantment? You can have one stack (occupy one slot) and one loose one (occupy another slot). The max should be 2 slots per. If you have more than one used and same overload enchantment, it is you managed to do that.

mintmark

plasticbat said:

For example, why do you use more than two slots for the same overload enchantment? Why 6 slots for the same overload enchantment? You can have one stack (occupy one slot) and one loose one (occupy another slot). The max should be 2 slots per. If you have more than one used and same overload enchantment, it is you managed to do that.

That is true, but I would say that sometimes the loadout system doesn't help with this. With overloads and health stones I now carefully use "apply to all loadouts". Several times I have had it select a new overload and start a new timer, instead of using the existing, partially used one.

plasticbat

mintmark said:

plasticbat said:

For example, why do you use more than two slots for the same overload enchantment? Why 6 slots for the same overload enchantment? You can have one stack (occupy one slot) and one loose one (occupy another slot). The max should be 2 slots per. If you have more than one used and same overload enchantment, it is you managed to do that.

That is true, but I would say that sometimes the loadout system doesn't help with this. With overloads and health stones I now carefully use "apply to all loadouts". Several times I have had it select a new overload and start a new timer, instead of using the existing, partially used one.

If the stack is not character bound and if you have VIP banking portal, I suggest you park the stack to the shared bank.