Item database with custom editor

I have to store information about the items in my game, such as name, weight and so on. To keep it easily editable, I opted to do this through a custom editor in the inspector. It uses a list of classes (Weapon, Armor, etc) derived from a basic Item class.

Originally I made the Item class inherit from ScriptableObject, but then I found out that ScriptableObjects only persist throughout the current scene, so the data is lost when I copy the DB object onto a new scene.

But if I don't use ScriptableObject, the item list can't keep the derived classes when serialized and stores everything as the base class, Item.

Storing these values in the item GO's themself is not ideal.

What other options do I have to do this?

• Globally accessible item list (from any scene)

• Easily editable

• Each item contains at least: some ints, some strings, a reference to a prefab GO and another reference to a (inventory) texture.

• Different variables based on the inherited classes (multiple levels).

I'm not asking to write it for me, just to point me in the right direction.

If all else fails, I'm considering just putting the values as constants in a script/txt/xml and adding to that for each new item. Is this a bad idea? (besides the obvious arduous editing)