Couch Co-op: Create a streamlined or condensed inventory UI, make things less modal

Would be good to have Couch Co-op be asymmetric where possible, rather than singularly modal.

Would be improvements for Merchant, and self-managing inventory.

Could also possibly tie into:

I can envision a bigger "grid" of items (as a pool for the merchant or the "shared pool" for all players), and players would choose which items to take into their own inventory.

Thoughts on the purpose behind it all

When playing couch co-op, you want to keep the flow going, but waiting for one person to sort their inventory is not fun.

The biggest "wait" is for Merchant interactions, managing your own inventory, and choosing your loadout (if not automatic, and for marking items as junk).

If not all players want to manage their things, players want to keep on attacking, or at least not stand still.

Really, you want to be able to:

Quickly adjust your loadout
Quickly mark items as junk or not
Browse the merchant simultaneously with other players

Layout ideas

A grid of icons could work, with details of items on the side.

A part of me wonders if having a "grid" for each player, and players pick and choose to put items into or remove from their slots, would work well.

While having umpteen weapons as part of your arsenal for each player is good, there's only need for one shield, and down the line there will only be one slot for headgear, outfits, and smaller number of slots for trinkets, accessories, pets, etc.

Shared pool / big merchant grid UI

For ideas on a layout with a shared pool, or big grid for merchant:

Items in the middle would be on a grid, just icons.
Each player would have their own smaller section of grid/icons.
Players could use their cursor to TAKE or PUT items from the main grid to their own small grid.

Small side-screen self-managing inventory UI

(screenshot idea below, but) -- a single press of Select could bring up a small side-clamped UI for one player -- a double-press or long-press of Select could bring up the full-screen modal UI (whether that's just for that player, or using the shared grid/pool idea above)

Issues / suggestions to improve upon the current modal nature:

it's long to have each player browse the shop inventory at their own pace

[have] all items displayed in a grid? and only small panels displayed for each player?

if one player checks his inventory, the game stops for the other players

a smaller inventory menu for local-coop, that roughly takes 25% of the screen, and recenters the action for the other players in the remaining section of the window

ChrisNZL / Tallowmere2