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One thing is clear... Diablo III will offer much more storage space on each character, as well as a larger, shared [[Stash]].
==Inventory Evolution==
[[Image:Inventory-gamescon09a.jpg|frame|Inventory from August 2009.]]
The inventory continues to change during development, and each time Diablo 3 is playable we see a lot of changes to the system. The most recent look was at Blizzcon 2009, in August, and there were many new features since the last information Blizzard released, in April 2009.
The screenshot to the right shows the most recent version, and it's very different than previous designs. Gone is the multiple tab system from April 2009, where one inventory held large items on single slot spaces, and another held small items. As of August 2009, there is just one large inventory grid, the size of which is largely determined by how big a pack players possess. (The pack goes in the lower left side slot on the paperdoll.)
The largest possible grid was what players enjoyed at Blizzcon, an 8x5 rectangle. 27 of these spaces were from the [[Adventurer's Pack]] equipped in the paperdoll, and it's assumed that this is a far larger pack than a level 12 character would normally expect to possess.
Items in this build came in 2 sizes. Large items were all types of armor and weapons, and they required 1x2 spaces. (Wands and helms as well as polearms and plate mail.) Small items were everything else; jewels, potions, scrolls, runes, etc. These all required a 1x1 space, and like items stacked up. These large and small items had to be fitted into the same grid, Tetris style.
There was a second inventory tab that held Quest items, which were essentially BoP (Bind on Pickup) since you couldn’t drop them; they were automatically added to or removed from the quest item inventory when your character completed quest events. This inventory seemed to be a default size, and not affected by the pack a character equipped.
===How Fast to Fill?===
It’s hard to say how adequate the inventory space was at Blizzcon, since there was no town to return to, no stash in which to save stuff, and no NPC merchants to buy/sell items with. Most players picked up almost everything they found (since new players were curious about the items and didn’t know what was good), which resulted in a full inventory fairly soon. More experienced players were a little more selective in their item gathering, but even only picking up rares resulted in an inventory that filled up every 15-20 minutes. When that happened players would stop, ID everything, and simply drop anything that wasn't an immediate equipment upgrade, since there was no way to stash items and no NPCs to sell the extras to.
New characters in the Blizzcon build started off at level 12, with a variety of fairly good items on, so not everything was an improvement.
The general impression of players was that the drops were turned up, in quality and quantity for the demo, since Blizzard wanted new players to have fun and find a lot of cool stuff. As a result there was no way to compare the demo item gain speed to what the real game will be like.
Even though there was no way to sell items, every item includes its sale price, in gold, in the hover description. Perhaps the process will be made totally convenient, and players will be able to sell things anywhere, at any time, with a simple click of the button? Realism be damned.
The [[paper doll]] is on top, with shoulders and pants added to the item slots we saw in Diablo II. The [[Talisman]] is seen below the paper doll on the right, while an empty space on the lower left must be reserved for some future feature.
Below the paper doll is the inventory grid, which has repeatedly changed in form and function. One feature returning from Diablo II is the [[gold]] counter, with the amount of coin a character is carrying shown numerically, and no inventory space required to hold the money.
One thing the designers have stressed is their desire to fit in a lot of inventory storage, while keeping the items large enough for players to appreciate the graphics. The inventory tab system added in April 2009 was inspired by this goal, and the tab for large items allows them to fill boxes big enough for their details to remain visible. Small items look okay in smaller boxes.
This changed again for the [[GamesCom 2009 demo]], and the system is now more similar to the old "tetris" grid, where some items take up two slots, and others take up one. More info below.
There are no [[charm]]s in Diablo III, and as far as is known, no other items that force a trade-off between storage space and bonus stats.
==Stash==
Since no specifics or screenshots of the stash have yet been revealed, we can only take them at their word.
During [[WWI 2008]] and [[BlizzCon 2008]], the inventory was similar to that of [[World of WarCraft]], with one slot for each item, and a possibility to expand the inventory space by adding up to four bags to your character. Smaller items also stacked up to five in a stack in order to save space. It started with 12 slots, but could progressively be upgraded to 30 slots.
[[image:D3-Inventory.jpg|thumb|250px|Old interface.]]
