An Idea for a Redesign of Encumbrance

[Malinthebeast]

The Pip-Boy in Fallout is an interface in which the player can tell the player character what items to use and equipped. So instead of say opening a bag then finding the item you want, you instead select the item you want in your Pip-Boy then the player character goes in his imaginary bag and instantaneously grabs the item you selected. And since the character has to carry all of these items in their imaginary bag they get encumbered by the bags weight.

 

At least, this is what I have come to realise.

 

Back in the days I thought the Pip-Boy was much like the SNEAK from Omikron Nomad Soul. Items are stored in the Pip-Boys memory as bytes and instantaneously assembled in the plays hand when they choose the item. That’s what I use to think and now I’m thinking its better then what it currently is.

 

Instead of having Weight you have Memory. 200 Weight becomes 200 Bytes of information. (Mega, Giga, Tera, Peta whatever) So when your Pip-Boys memory capacity is full it no longer has the storage space to store the data for the atomic structure of an item, much like when your Hard Drive is full and you can’t install a game.

 

Data does not weigh anything so when you reach your maximum limit of storage capacity you won’t become encumbered instead you just can’t pick up any more items until you drop some. This would also mean to increase the storage capacity of your Pip-Boy you would need the Intelligence to upgrade its capacity rather than the Strength to carry items.