The last AMA session asked about backpacks and storage and the devs said that they will likely be in the game in some form or another. To what extent they did not elaborate, but they assured you wouldn't have 100's of slots for Tyranid claws and the like.

Personally, I'd like to see whatever inside your backpack somehow represented on your character, and the backpacks become more interactive than mere tabs in some overused corner on the screen. If you're opening your "backpack" you can automatically do it by opening up your character page with a very intrusive pannel that has all the extra goodies a typical MMO has, or otherwise you can utilize the most important items in your backpack much more quickly and efficiently by having shortcuts to your "tactical belt" of your backpack. Each class has a different size "tactical belt" which will be discussed below. This 'tactical belt' is all the gear you need at a moments notice; a sidearm, ammo, special ammo, grenades, ect and is physically represented in order of your key bindings on your beltline. The player can quickly bind these items for use to whatever he/she keys they want. As a reminder to the player what keys they are bound to, a series of transparent boxes appears near the belt-line of their actual character, showing them what key's they've bound for what item until they seal the key binding and the belt shifts to whatever items they bound it to, in the order they bound it in. From there they can quickly change the key bindings to a better situation, and their actual belt will change according to whats on that "'tactical belt". When sealed, the key's fade back to normal, but the physcial representation of what's on a player's beltline serves as a reminder of what's in the ''tactical belt.' If you wanted to go a step further, you could even add an animation of the character grabbing whatever is from the key they hit.

The second thing that AMA session had was that Assault Classes can not only jump, but also are able to wall jumps as well. That may be awesome, but it leaves the classes with feet planted on the ground at a major disadvantage. My suggestion then is to have backpack sizes scale with the class, and that as standard, the slots in the backpack appear near the location of the satchel itself. For example, an Assault Marine is already laden with a Jump Pack, and would be confined to extra pistol ammo and two grenades strapped to his leg via magnets. Bare bones, the Marine is dependent on speed and the ferocity of his chainsword rather than managing his severely limited equipment.

Tactical Marines have much larger "tactical belts", and devastators may even have a perk such as a "tactical harness" that allows them to equip themselves with a wide array of equipment, ammo, and weapons. All of which could be visualized in many different ways but would all allow players to not only take more control over their character, but also have the UI be even more immersive to them.

Well, I don't think we will have backpacks but you'll certainly have storage space to store un-used gear you have collected so far - you don't gather stuff on you, you leave them in specific locations (i.e. your ship's armory).

The things you have on you are gears you have slotted in your Loadout screen and that already correspond, more or less, to a physical place on your character. The way slotting works for now in our prototypes, is that each things you equip not only take a specific slot but it also cost a certain amount of points. So, in your example of an Assault-type class, the Jump Pack would not only take a precious slot but also cost an important amount of point. In addition, each Classes will have tailored loadout slots that make sense to them. So a Tactical class might have an additional slot for some tactical-related wargear.

Again, this is our early direction and it might change in the future. We try to stay away from standard MMORPG inventory bags and ability slots, instead going in the directions of games like Defiance or Planetside 2. Hope this clarify the issue : )

After reading this it reminded meof something else I read to the extent that bulding your load out would work allot like making a TT list, trying to squeeze every last point out of it. Speaking as an obsessive compulsive list builder this sounds awesome

Good to hear!

I especially like the idea of having items you're carrying represented on your character along with a grab animation to utilize such items. I also agree that there shouldn't be physical backpacks unless it makes sense for the class. For example, Scout Marines, Eldar Rangers, or Mek Boyz.

Will there be differences between factions for storage and such? In the lore SMs and Eldar usually keep to the same loadout while Chaos and Orks do more looting and changing. Is this going to be represented or is it going to be the same system in every faction?

I honestly don't know what the game designers will come up with concerning looting and using enemy's weapons. They are still designing the whole itemization system but fear not, they are aware of all the factions' specific behaviours concerning their equipment and we will do their best to represent them in game somehow : )

Will there be any sort of mannequins? It would be nice to have a room like in Iron Man 3 with all the suits of armor inside the ship.

In the army, we had all our gear placed directly onto our body amour. It's called MOLLE webbing, straps to attach things like magazine pouches, grenade pouches, knife sheath, all those goodies. Space Marines have scabbards, pouches and slings, but they also make use of magnetically locked items on their belts. Grenades are maglocked to their belts. Magazine pouches are maglocked to their belt. They do not carry *anything* in a backpack. The larger the item, the less space there is for everything else. Meltabombs for example - you only get 1.

I figure there should be a loadout option for the characters belt. Things like mag pouches take up a certain amount of space, as do grenades, meltabombs, drop pod beacons, pistol holter, etc. This limits the amount of gear someone can take while balancing out the more powerful items. If you rank up you can earn a larger belt or find one on the battlefield. This can accomodate more slots for you. No bags please.

I think that's spot on Armyghy.

What I really wanted to say in my post was having a sort of gear "wheel" that's displayed as a hologram around your belt line, depicting what you have there, and what key's they are bound to. It's a lot like how Freedom Fighters managed their equipment, but instead of trying desperately to hit the keypad and select an option, players instead can hotkey what they want and get a visual confirmation of where it is on the armor in a cool futuristic way.