Yet another topic about Storage Management killing the Game

[Helke]

This topic has been raised many times over the years, and I think there is a very good reason why it keeps coming back: DDO desperately needs a major storage and inventory management revamp.

Right now, I have a capped character ready for another TR. I want to reincarnate. I want to try a different class. But I simply cannot bring myself to spend my Friday evening sorting through my Reincarnation Cache, Personal Bank, Shared Bank, and several mule characters.

I'm not new to the TR process. I have over 30 reincarnations, 10+ dedicated mule characters, and even a dedicated Google spreadsheet to track my inventory. This isn't a case of mindless hoarding.

I'm a returning player, and I'm already finding myself unable to tolerate this system again.


What makes this particularly frustrating is that DDO has repeatedly shown that removing obsolete barriers is good for both players and the game.

Over the years we've seen:

• Sigils of Leveling removed.
• Large amounts of older content given away for free.
• Adventure packs permanently unlocked through promotional codes.
• Older expansions sold for 99 DDO points.
• Most races and classes become F2P
• Free Epic Destinies

None of these changes hurt the game. On the contrary, they lowered barriers to entry, improved player retention, and likely increased revenue by encouraging players to spend money on new expansions, VIP, cosmetics, boosters and other convenience features.

I know this issue affects players differently. Veterans with fully upgraded accounts or established builds probably feel it less. But for casual, returning, and newer players who enjoy experimenting with different builds, inventory management is a nightmare.

If I discovered DDO for the first time in 2026, I honestly wouldn't start playing. The only reason I'm still here is because I fell in love with the game back in 2013. But it's 2026 now. Storage limitations are no longer a hardware problem; they're a design problem.

Please let us spend our time playing DDO instead of managing inventories, spreadsheets, mule characters, and overflowing banks.
I want to spend my free time reincarnating, trying new builds, and running quests — not doing inventory maintenance.


P.S. The solution doesn't have to be complex.

Larger Shared Bank upgrades (100+ slots instead of 10) would eliminate much of the need for mules. We will buy more Shared Bank upgrades, instead of character slots. Likewise, folding the TR Cache into larger Personal Bank upgrades would remove the need to constantly empty it after every reincarnation, becouse of BtC.
Anything that reduces inventory management between TRs would be a huge quality-of-life improvement.

​

Spoiler: Proposed solutions datailed

Problem #1: Mule characters are the most cost-effective storage option, while the maximum Shared Bank capacity is insufficient.​

A 600 Point character slot can provide ~220 storage slots, while 1000 Points only buys 10 Shared Bank slots. As a result, players are pushed toward managing mule characters instead of buying storage upgrades.

In addition, the maximum Shared Bank capacity is only around 500 slots and costs a small fortune to reach. Two mule characters can already compete with that capacity, while four mules provide significantly more storage at a much lower cost.

Proposed solution: Increase Shared Bank upgrades from +10 to at least +100 slots. Crafting Storage upgrades already grant 250 slots each, proving that larger storage upgrades are entirely feasible.

Revenue impact: Five mule characters cost roughly 3,000 Points and provide about 1,100 storage slots. With +100-slot Shared Bank upgrades, a player would need roughly eleven upgrades to reach the same capacity, costing around 11,000 Points instead. That's roughly 3–4x more revenue for SSG. Personally, I would gladly pay that premium just to stop managing an army of mules.

Veteran players: This also benefits existing players by reducing the need to manage large mule networks. Even with all available storage upgrades, many veteran players still rely on mules because the maximum Shared Bank capacity remains extremely limited. In addition, all storage obtained through VIP rewards and Ultimate Bundles becomes significantly more valuable, as every additional storage upgrade can potentially eliminate the need for another mule character.

Problem #2: The TR Cache is a poor user experience​

Regardless of how much storage a player owns, emptying the TR Cache is slow, laggy, and turns every reincarnation into inventory management instead of gameplay. Players still have to spend a significant amount of time clearing it before every TR.

Proposed solution: Remove the TR Cache and fold its capacity into Personal Bank upgrades. Increase Personal Bank upgrades from +20 to perhaps +50 slots so players can store BtC items directly in their bank instead of repeatedly moving them through the TR Cache.

Revenue impact: The TR Cache currently provides a large amount of storage for free. By moving that capacity into Personal Bank upgrades, SSG could monetize storage that is currently free while simultaneously improving the user experience.

Veteran players: All the Shared Bank storage they get from existing upgrades does not solve the TR Cache problem. They still have to spend time slowly pulling items out of the cache before every reincarnation.

UPD: The other day I spent 30 minutes cycling through my mules looking for an item that I had apparently placed on the wrong character.

I accidentally found it the next day on a completely different mule than the one I expected.

 

[Helke]

sophisticated is a bit of an overreach.
my mule toons have names like zJotmuleIOD, zJotmuleVorpal, zJotmulePots, zJotmuleCosmetic, etc.....
I play 2-4 characters depending on timing between releases of new races, classes, etc...
The rest are mules.. currently 64 mules on my main account, then some alt accounts with their own guildships for unbound shtuff.
Generally I add mule for each major expansion to hold items from those packs.

Well, by a sophisticated mule system I meant having a large number of mules with organized naming conventions and storage rules. I run around 10 mules at the moment, and I already struggle when I need to cycle through them to store or retrieve items. I honestly had no idea people were creating guild ships for storage or using mail as additional inventory space, so yes, that feels like overkill to me and a sign that the system should be simplified.

I completely understand that SSG needs to make money from storage, and I have no issue with that. But when players end up maintaining 64 mule characters, multiple accounts, guild ships, mailboxes, and spreadsheets just to manage inventory, that should probably be a red flag that the current storage strategy deserves another look.

 

[Valerianus]

https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/collection-a-storage-solution.432/

this is an old suggestion about having a (optional QoL) potentially unlimited storage in an ever-growing game. for a price.

btw they still have not found an alternative to tr cache, a certified fail from its conception: the original turbine devs made it conceptually as a temporary thing, to go thru tr, go figure how can you ever conceive that if you give anything storage-like to players it will not be used as a storage....but they did. in the past it had soooooo many bugs (ssg fixed a lot, yay!) as something coded as a quick-and-dirty "bridge" while tr-ing. pure incompetence and lack of vision from old turbine).

generally speaking about storage hassle, in my experience it is the number 1 reason that makes returning players quit for good, and amongst the main reasons that makes ppl play 1 char only, no main\alts, just main.

 

[Helke]

generally speaking about storage hassle, in my experience it is the number 1 reason that makes returning players quit for good, and amongst the main reasons that makes ppl play 1 char only, no main\alts, just main.

Totally agree. I understand people who love the game enough to maintain all these workarounds, but that doesn't represent the entire playerbase.

For less dedicated players, or simply people with less free time, all of this inventory management is time that could otherwise be spent actually playing the game.

I also think it affects revenue. The more time players spend managing storage, mules, and other workarounds, the less time and motivation they have to engage with the game's content. Some money may end up being spent on storage solutions instead, but those purchases don't actually solve the underlying problem. An extra 10 storage slots upgrades does very little when players are dealing with hundreds or even thousands of items.

It becomes a vicious circle: players spend more time solving game-related problems and less time enjoying the game itself.

 

[Helke]

btw they still have not found an alternative to tr cache, a certified fail from its conception: the original turbine devs made it conceptually as a temporary thing, to go thru tr, go figure how can you ever conceive that if you give anything storage-like to players it will not be used as a storage....but they did. in the past it had soooooo many bugs (ssg fixed a lot, yay!) as something coded as a quick-and-dirty "bridge" while tr-ing. pure incompetence and lack of vision from old turbine).

I think the alternative would simply be to remove it and expand the Personal Bank with larger storage upgrades.

 

[Igognito]

I didn't read every single post. But I also believe that the value for money on buying a slot vs shared bank is indeed greater. So I never had bought shared bank. But the 100 slots of shared bank changed that and I mined ddos on my 2 mule accounts in order to get the first shared bank.

So, yes you are on to something the increase to close to 100 slots must be the golden value.

About TR cache. I would only put inventory+equiped items to the tr cache. I would not transfer character bank stuff.
Let character bank go to an overflow for the lost slots.

I would also add a banker in Korthos so we won't have the need to leave snowy Korthos.

Cheers

 

[Chaotix]

It was said multiple times that since transfer to 64 servers there is no reason to keep current model of giving us bank and personal space on pipette and that most of us will gladly purchase +100 chunk of space in bith forms, but for some reason SSG think they will monetize more if they give us crumbs. Also separate cosmetics bag will be nice, but guess what they dont care. So as usual I dont have high hopes that will ever change.

 

[Helke]

I didn't read every single post. But I also believe that the value for money on buying a slot vs shared bank is indeed greater. So I never had bought shared bank. But the 100 slots of shared bank changed that and I mined ddos on my 2 mule accounts in order to get the first shared bank.

So, yes you are on to something the increase to close to 100 slots must be the golden value.

About TR cache. I would only put inventory+equiped items to the tr cache. I would not transfer character bank stuff.
Let character bank go to an overflow for the lost slots.

I would also add a banker in Korthos so we won't have the need to leave snowy Korthos.

Shared Bank, at its current price of 10 slots per upgrade, feels more like a transfer mechanism between your main character and mules than an actual storage solution. You need at least the basic tier to use mules at all, but those initial 30 slots quickly become a bottleneck that forces you to cycle through mules more often. And even with a fully upgraded Shared Bank, you still end up needing mules.

While mules work, managing them is a pain, especially as their number grows. You need to remember which mule stores what, log between characters to retrieve gear, and occasionally waste time searching for an item you accidentally placed on the wrong mule. They are not free either—you still need to buy character slots.

As for the TR Cache, I keep only BtC items there. Everything else gets moved to mules before reincarnation. If I stay on the same class, I keep my leveling gear in my Personal Bank or Shared Bank so I can reuse it after TR.

 

[Helke]

but for some reason SSG think they will monetize more if they give us crumbs.

I really hope they revisit this at some point, just as they did with other obsolete barriers that ultimately proved to be revenue-safe to remove.

I just hope it doesn't take another 10 years, because by then the game may start losing players for reasons that have nothing to do with storage management.

 

[Seldarin]

Sure, but not everyone got 100 extra bank slots from a server transfer. And yes, veteran players who own every Ultimate Edition expansion and have purchased all the Shared Bank upgrades are naturally affected by this issue much less than everyone else.

Thats not entirely true. I am a veteran player from 2006. I have every ultimate expansion and have purchased shared bank upgrades. However, because so much stuff is BTC from raids, and because i have limited toons that i raid with and because i most times get useless stuff drop and already have maxed out Sentient gems, my bank is full, my character is almost full etc. So as one of those players you list, yeah i do have the same issue. That being said, i often use wish of inheritance to transfer useful gear to other characters and make augments. End of the day, do i have too much crap stored, of course i do, but i elect to and also accept the consequence that comes with it, that it will take time to clear my cache (I have TRed a lot as well). I also have 21 mules, so i can categorically state i store too much crap

 

[Chaotix]

Thats not entirely true. I am a veteran player from 2006. I have every ultimate expansion and have purchased shared bank upgrades. However, because so much stuff is BTC from raids, and because i have limited toons that i raid with and because i most times get useless stuff drop and already have maxed out Sentient gems, my bank is full, my character is almost full etc. So as one of those players you list, yeah i do have the same issue. That being said, i often use wish of inheritance to transfer useful gear to other characters and make augments. End of the day, do i have too much crap stored, of course i do, but i elect to and also accept the consequence that comes with it, that it will take time to clear my cache (I have TRed a lot as well). I also have 21 mules, so i can categorically state i store too much crap

Its not that u store much crap its fact that game is TR based and u never know what u will need next life and since most of raid stuff is BTC makes clutter in storage.

 

[NOOBMASTER]

It's never going to happen is it?
SSG could make a nice wedge if they just sold more storage at a reasonable cost.

 

[Helke]

Thats not entirely true. I am a veteran player from 2006. I have every ultimate expansion and have purchased shared bank upgrades. However, because so much stuff is BTC from raids, and because i have limited toons that i raid with and because i most times get useless stuff drop and already have maxed out Sentient gems, my bank is full, my character is almost full etc. So as one of those players you list, yeah i do have the same issue. That being said, i often use wish of inheritance to transfer useful gear to other characters and make augments. End of the day, do i have too much crap stored, of course i do, but i elect to and also accept the consequence that comes with it, that it will take time to clear my cache (I have TRed a lot as well). I also have 21 mules, so i can categorically state i store too much crap

Well, that was my assumption, since 500+ Shared Bank slots should make it much easier to transfer items between your main character and mules. That still doesn't solve the mule-management issue itself, though, nor does it address the TR Cache problem.

 

[Seldarin]

Well, that was my assumption, since 500+ Shared Bank slots should make it much easier to transfer items between your main character and mules. That still doesn't solve the mule-management issue itself, though, nor does it address the TR Cache problem.

Lol, i freely admit, i keep too much crap, so thats entirely on me, then again, im not complaining about transferring TR cache either

 

[Phern]

It's great that people are coming up with better solutions to storage. In the meantime, I have six mules that I keep organized by only putting a certain level range of gear on each one. Then I use Trove on DungeonHelper.com to search. It tells me the pack slot and row/column to find an item. This system has made my life a lot easier.

 

[Smokewolf]

Storage limitations are no longer a hardware problem; they're a design problem.

No, its whats called "engineered inconvenience".

Engineered inconvenience in DDO refers to design choices that intentionally create obstacles or delays for players, encouraging them to spend money to overcome these challenges. This monetization strategy aims to enhance revenue by leveraging player frustrations to prompt purchases from the DDO store.

Also known as "manufactured inconvenience".

 

[Kimbere]

And the answer is always, for me: because SSG keeps making more set augments from old items. I'm never going to get caught out on that again.

Same. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[Helke]

No, its whats called "engineered inconvenience".

Engineered inconvenience in DDO refers to design choices that intentionally create obstacles or delays for players, encouraging them to spend money to overcome these challenges. This monetization strategy aims to enhance revenue by leveraging player frustrations to prompt purchases from the DDO store.

That's exactly what I meant. The main reason Shared Bank exists in its current form is because it's designed as a monetization barrier that players are encouraged to pay to overcome.

As for the TR Cache, I honestly think it's simply bad design.

 

[Helke]

It's great that people are coming up with better solutions to storage. In the meantime, I have six mules that I keep organized by only putting a certain level range of gear on each one. Then I use Trove on DungeonHelper.com to search. It tells me the pack slot and row/column to find an item. This system has made my life a lot easier.

I'm pretty sure the game itself could implement something similar to what the Trove plugin already does. ;3

 

[Ooblagato]

It's so crazy that the game is in a state where people are giving their passwords to third party software to manage their inventory. You'd think it'd be something they want to fix even from a security standpoint.