Something I noticed when gear sets/loadouts are talked about in interviews etc is the term “Gear Set Storage” and that worries me. The #1 requirement I have for a system is the same item in multiple sets.
I can imagine you coming up with “Create Storage Box” and you put the items in that box and it treats is like a single item, you can name it, equip it, move it etc as though it were a single item. but each item could only be in one box.
When I’m spec’ing for tank I can easily find my [mob] ward armor. The problem is all the combinations of shields, swords, weapons, jewelery. Those items vary depending on the group, the mutation, etc. also some are shared between dps and tank loadouts.
Finding all my weavers, stonecutting, smelting, mining, etc isn’t my main problem. Sure putting them all in one set would be nice, but right now I can type (say) “sme” into the search and my smelter’s gear is there (and I have a system on where I store my crafting sets).
Now this might seem obvious (it is to us), but given the comment that you hadn’t thought of being able to move items around in your bag, instead of only showing them ordered by time/weight/etc. you can see why I’m worried.
Of couse this makes it more complicated, especially since I fully expect any system you are doing to only work on a single storage shed, but who knows, perhaps you are doing a full overhaul and all sheds will be merged and the UI will be so nice it will actually make it managable (merging all sheds into one with the current UI would create a huge mess).
The reason for this essay is the amount of blowback from a poor system that doesn’t meet player’s needs will be huge. Normally I’d say “something is better than nothing”, but given how long players have waited, something half-backed (like that storage box I mentioned) just won’t fly.