What type of quest journal would you like to have?

[Darkpriest]

I hope the poll says it all

 

Are you more into in character journal entries, or more into strictly objective based quest journal?

Edited October 25, 2012 by Darkpriest

[Sick]

I like the "real journal" style. I would also like to see a complete transcription of all dialogues and the possibility to put my own personal notes in it (even in the main map, if possible).

[Jarmo]

I can see how the poll is going to go.

With the question of "baldurs gate style vs modern style" it really doesn't matter if you're asking about user interface or resolution preferences,

mentioning BG is autowin.

 

Nevertheless, I'm replaying BG2 now and the journal is crappy.

It's possible to find stuff from there and live with it, but it's a pain to use.

 

Guess modernized means fixing it so it works like a modern system, which would work.

I'd say the poll needs a third option of going with the base BG style.

 

I think I'd prefer separate story journals and quest journals, where one would read like a journal mentioning a lot of stuff.

23.344. Wolf Year: Travelled to Fleet Hills, fought a group of ogres.

23.345. Wolf Year: Travelled to Littlehaven, rested at Littlehaven Inn.

 

The other journal would be purely quest notes.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Jarmo

[Sensuki]

Well I don't want markers and tracking on in expert mode. That's about all I can say really.

[Darkpriest]

I can see how the poll is going to go.

With the question of "baldurs gate style vs modern style" it really doesn't matter if you're asking about user interface or resolution preferences,

mentioning BG is autowin.

 

Nevertheless, I'm replaying BG2 now and the journal is crappy.

It's possible to find stuff from there and live with it, but it's a pain to use.

 

Guess modernized means fixing it so it works like a modern system, which would work.

I'd say the poll needs a third option of going with the base BG style.

 

I think I'd prefer separate story journals and quest journals, where one would read like a journal mentioning a lot of stuff.

23.344. Wolf Year: Travelled to Fleet Hills, fought a group of ogres.

23.345. Wolf Year: Travelled to Littlehaven, rested at Littlehaven Inn.

 

The other journal would be purely quest notes.

 

Yes, modernized means exactly that, so the journal entries are grouped into "quest hubs", but it still reads and is updated like the BG journal, so you get the inital info "i talked with this and that, and decided, bla bla bla", the resolutions of quests and rejections of quests would also be reflected as in character journal entries.

 

The second option is for those who prefer to have full control on what their PC is talking AND writing, so their character does not have personal notes and quests are shown only as objectives.

 

I prefer the "modernized" BG style even if it somewhat adds own personality to the character

 

Not sure what exactly the third option would be, which you hinted at.

 

Do you mean that you'd like to see some automatic notes in some separate "story journal" where the text appears based on some checkpoints/achievements, but quest journal looks like pure objective based?

Edited October 25, 2012 by Darkpriest

[Jarmo]

Not sure what exactly the third option would be, which you hinted at.

 

Just like it was in BG. I'm sure there's a bunch who'd like it exactly like that.

 

Do you mean that you'd like to see some automatic notes in some separate "story journal" where the text appears based on some checkpoints/achievements, but quest journal looks like pure objective based?

 

Yeah. One journal, let's call it Quest Notes, with only a list of ongoing quests and immediately shows you your "next task" for each of them.

The second journal, let's call it The Journal, which lists pretty much everything you've done, including zigzagging over the world map without achieving any goals.

[lordgizka]

"Real" journals have this thing where they are written with a specific style, where the best case scenario is having two versions of it: normal and "stupid" (for stupid characters, that is). I see this as something that detracts from roleplaying, because the player is basically presented with the thoughts of their character, which they have no control over. This is great for defined characters, but not for "blank slates".

[Hassat Hunter]

BG-style, upgraded to have quest specific entries (so you can easily find what quests to do without browsing 20 pages, without loosing the 20 pages). Someone also mentioned concept art, that would be nice to have too with it.

 

So yeah, not the BG1 style where you had trouble seeing what remained to do unless you read it all, but definitely long good entries...

[LordCrash]

Inquisitor style (refering to the RPG Inquisitor) would be cool which is really some kind of hardcore, but realistic. The journal is like a "real written journal" containing what the character notices and remembers from dialogues, like a diary. Quests and tasks are characterized but not with goals or single tasks but in the same way as the journal - as written text like a diary. You have to read the journal carefully and even read the dialogues properly because you will possibly miss some hints which are not written in the journal or are often hard to understand without knowledge about the people in the world, the places or the different factions. This system is refreshingly realistic and gives many quests some real challenge because the journal/quest system doesn't really spell the next step in each quest out for the player and players have to think on their own. And of course there are no quest markers.

[kierun]

I like the way quests were presented in Witcher 2. You have the objectives clearly defined but the achieved ones are in term of a blade that a bard might tell. It makes for a good and impressive read when you try to remember what you did three weeks ago.

[calabi]

Neither, your quests should be so patently obvious you dont need to log it.

Edited October 25, 2012 by calabi

[Tagaziel]

Updated my journal

 

Updated my journal

 

Updated my journal

 

Updated my journal

 

Updated my journal

 

Updated my journal

 

Updated my journal

 

 

In other words, Planescape Torment style, which was easy to read, follow, yet differed from the terrible objective lists of Skyrim.

[Pshaw]

I like the journal feel, sometimes I really want to know the whole reason I'm on a quest and the back story and the like. I think the options should have an 'short hand' toggle that would allow the key objectives to be shown at the bottom of the journal entry with the ones you've already completed crossed out.

[harhar!]

Updated my journal.

[SophosTheWise]

 

In other words, Planescape Torment style, which was easy to read, follow, yet differed from the terrible objective lists of Skyrim.

 

For the love of god, no. As much as I've loved the concept of the constant updates (and PS:T itself), once you've gathered some quests it was impossibly chaotic. And if you sometimes didn't catch an important line of dialogue or you couldn't remember an exact thing you were screwed.

How about a stylized book - one page with important details, one page with the concrete updates/journal entries?

[lolaldanee]

baldurs gate has a very nice narrative style in the journal, i enjoy it very much

but please please MUCH more organized this time !

[Metabot]

Need more options. I like Morrowind's quest journal plus the ability to write notes.

 

Edit: The ability to write notes also implies the necessity of those notes, so maybe some, not all, quests you will need to at least keep track of some things yourself.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Metabot

[Hassat Hunter]

PE and BG, meet Morrowind expansion...

 

Of course much bigger chuncks of text than MW had...

 

EDIT: Above post wasn't here when I started writing. 0_0

Edited October 25, 2012 by Hassat Hunter

[Kai]

you should include an "other" option.

 

Anyway, I'd like to have the kind of journal like in the IE games, well written and it gives you a feel for the order you've done things in. In addition to that, I'd like to be able to sort the journal (or a filter) into categories like where I can find all active quests (and completed/failed) and select one to see the journal entries for that quest in particular. When you got 10+ active quests, it's not that fun to find the info you're looking for.

[nikolokolus]

A real journal with a search-able index and the ability to sort by priority.

 

NWN2 did a pretty good job with the last aspect.

[AGX-17]

I don't like the idea of forcing a "voice" on the player character in the journal. Something that automatically jots down the basic info like a logbook but lets you write out your own detailed notes in a journal entry attached to the basic log entry sounds viable to me. Friendly to newcomers/lazy players and roleplayers alike.

[LordCrash]

Please no

 

- active/inactive quests

- quest markers

- clearly defined steps of quests in journal

 

Where's your imagination, guys? Where's your sense of challenge? Where's your sense of realism/authenticity? Where's your sense of immersion?

This should be an "old-school" game imo without casualized quest journals for people who don't want to follow the dialogues or read the journal properly.....

[Elerond]

I am for BG style, but I would also like if journal and automap were magical items (like in lands of lore), which explain very nicely why you can so easily sort your journal or why your map gets new areas as game goes on and etc..

[Radwulf]

A modernised BG journal would be good and I like the additional flavour provided they don't go over the top with opinions and judgements of events and stick to being more descriptive. What could also be quite cool is including charcoal drawings of important characters and events that you see that breaks up the writing in the journal.

[Terror K]

So long as I get to make a daily stubble/beard update with my manly Ranger, I'll be happy.