These are some things that a friend and I are implementing in one of our games, so I figured I sudgest it for S.O. V3.
1. A movable inventory window, so that you can move it out of the way when you need to.
2. A a transparency button on the window so that it's even less in the way.
3. A scroll bar.
4. The inventory should be horizontally long instead of vertically, as this would also increase visibility and the ease of keeping the inventory window open while you play. Example B is what I am referring to.
(http://i38.tinypic.com/14t226c.jpg)
5. If the inventory won't be movable, make it appear in a convenient place on the screen such as: the top-right corner.
That's all I have, I couldnt find these ideas yet, so, tell me what you think.
I think hotkeys that function for both skills and items would be a better way to go.
Yeah, ofcourse those would be great too, but I wouldnt think those would be better as an alternative.
I agree with this idea and the response to Torch. While built in, mappable hotkeys would be great, they wouldn't be a replacement for the skill and inventory windows as a whole. As such, it would be nice to have inventory and skill windows that aren't annoying to have open, or are customizable to a certain extent such as alpha transparency and/or the ability to move/resize.