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.

 

[Ooblagato]

Dungeon Helper doesn't have my password

I guess I was thinking of dungeon finder. In any case, it is a gateway into having third party software that could put users at risk if the creators have bad actors or security vulnerabilities. (Not to derail the conversation, but some of the plugins are also very questionable in terms of fairness between players, and the less reasons players have to start using that sort of thing the better.)

 

[Sylvado]

I want to unsubscribe from DDO's inventory management game. I put everything I can into the shared bank, and then on mules when the shared bank is filled. Because the TR user experience process is the worst gameplay I've ever experienced in a game. Dragging items from your TR cache to your inventory/bank for 15-20 minutes (because bank lag is real) is not how I want to be spending my time.

Allow players to buy 1500+ shared bank space. I hate having to search through mules. And I hate having to rely on Trove to do it.

1500 would not be near enough and the more you add the more indexing becomes an issue

 

[Ying]

1500 would not be near enough and the more you add the more indexing becomes an issue

Allow me to have 1500 and I'll worry about getting more. We're barely one-third the way there.

 

[dur]

thanks for burying the prestend soldier because new ******.

 

[dur]

I want to unsubscribe from DDO's inventory management game. I put everything I can into the shared bank, and then on mules when the shared bank is filled. Because the TR user experience process is the worst gameplay I've ever experienced in a game. Dragging items from your TR cache to your inventory/bank for 15-20 minutes (because bank lag is real) is not how I want to be spending my time.

Allow players to buy 1500+ shared bank space. I hate having to search through mules. And I hate having to rely on Trove to do it.

Aww.. you hate something now?

 

[Helke]

I wonder if the devs read topics like this at all.

 

[Dandonk]

People keep saying to just throw out old stuff, because who needs it...

.. and now, once again, they make a new system where you need old items that were no longer that great and could just have been thrown out.

While people on the forum say we can easily throw out useless old junk we haven't used in years, SSG keeps designing new systems that punish us if we do that. So players hoarding stuff is not a player problem, it's SSG's problem - they keep designing the game to reward hoarding.

 

[Helke]

People keep saying to just throw out old stuff, because who needs it...

.. and now, once again, they make a new system where you need old items that were no longer that great and could just have been thrown out.

While people on the forum say we can easily throw out useless old junk we haven't used in years, SSG keeps designing new systems that punish us if we do that. So players hoarding stuff is not a player problem, it's SSG's problem - they keep designing the game to reward hoarding.

Exactly. I have a bunch of BtC raid items that I don't want to throw away (even though I probably should), because half of them are useful now, and the other half might become useful in the future.

For example, my old Dragon's Eye trinket from VoN 6 became useful again after it got an Epic version. I'm really glad I didn't throw it away and was able to upgrade it.

This game has hoarding built into its core design. Sure, you can optimize your inventory management to some extent, but the underlying design still encourages hoarding.

 

[Ebondevil]

Personally I consider Single Character Bank purchases or Single Character Inventory purchases a negative when applied to expansions.

I do not want to buy Single Character Upgrades of that nature, expansions are an account wide purchase, I don't want single character purchases included. Make them account wide and I'll be much more likely to drop £'s on them.

Disclaimer: Not saying it will stop me buying it, but it is a factor in my decision making process how I will buy it: Full Price at Launch, Discounted Later, or for Points

 

[Helke]

Personally I consider Single Character Bank purchases or Single Character Inventory purchases a negative when applied to expansions.

I do not want to buy Single Character Upgrades of that nature, expansions are an account wide purchase, I don't want single character purchases included. Make them account wide and I'll be much more likely to drop £'s on them.

Disclaimer: Not saying it will stop me buying it, but it is a factor in my decision making process how I will buy it: Full Price at Launch, Discounted Later, or for Points

This would require reconsidering how all those in-game goodies are sold for points. Right now, you can buy all the additional tomes with points, but only on a per-character basis.

In my case, that's the only way I can buy them, since SSG doesn't serve my region through its web store and only allows me to use the in-game store, including purchasing points. As a result, I buy all the content by spending money on DDO Points rather than purchasing the bundles directly.

 

[Ebondevil]

This would require reconsidering how all those in-game goodies are sold for points. Right now, you can buy all the additional tomes with points, but only on a per-character basis.

In my case, that's the only way I can buy them, since SSG doesn't serve my region through its web store and only allows me to use the in-game store, including purchasing points. As a result, I buy all the content by spending money on DDO Points rather than purchasing the bundles directly.

The tomes when released with the expansion were given away to every character, I have a lesser tome of Experience (Heroic & Epic) on every character created as a result, and that was a significant factor in Pre-Ordering those expansions. The various AP & Destiny Tomes, while purchasable on a Per character basis in store, are also included account wide as far as I recall.