Any news on journal enhancements?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Vallin Tregres, May 29, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Vallin Tregres

    Vallin Tregres Avatar

    Messages:
    943
    Likes Received:
    1,357
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Haven't played in a while, so I'm outta the loop. There been anything mentioned about changes to the journal yet? I knew the DEVs were aware of how much an ugly mess the journal was last time I played, but unsure if anything official has been stated yet.
     
    Amelli, smack, Astirian and 1 other person like this.
  2. Violet Ronso

    Violet Ronso Avatar

    Messages:
    2,632
    Likes Received:
    5,108
    Trophy Points:
    153
    The last info I had was there is a dev working on it, but it is a long process, so it might take a few more releases
     
    Astirian likes this.
  3. Vallin Tregres

    Vallin Tregres Avatar

    Messages:
    943
    Likes Received:
    1,357
    Trophy Points:
    93
    The journals always been a big turn off for me as far as questing goes in this game. The DEVs made some improvements later, but the journal was still an ugly mess. I know there is an NPC you can talk to in order to hide quests, but I have no idea how to unhide them nor understood why I needed to see an NPC about it. As far as the story goes the Journal is literally the first and last thing players see, so I'm pretty dissappointed it isn't organized better. Honestly, I could take better notes back in highschool.
     
    Amelli, smack and Cordelayne like this.
  4. redfish

    redfish Avatar

    Messages:
    11,366
    Likes Received:
    27,673
    Trophy Points:
    165
    The journal should be a lot better and is a mess; but honestly, if the quests are done right, a player shouldn't even need to look at the journal unless he's returning to the game after an absence and needs to refresh his memory.

    This isn't always done well in games, but nonetheless the quests should be engaging and memorable and you want players putting together clues on their own. So I think the bigger problem is in how the quests are presented.
     
    Bedawyn, smack, arcdevil and 3 others like this.
  5. Vladamir Begemot

    Vladamir Begemot Avatar

    Messages:
    6,194
    Likes Received:
    12,076
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    It's easy to get burnout reading in Shroud's terrible NPC Dialog UI, zone out, and lose the thin thread of where to go next. It's easy to miss it due to the wall of text nature of the dialog as well.

    The fallback then is to just throw up our hands and go to the journal. When that is also a mess, then the frustration doubles.

    So yeah, I agree. The journal shouldn't be needed. Unfortunately it is until they figure out how to present the story in a readable fashion.
     
  6. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    3,333
    Likes Received:
    11,010
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Vallin Tregres

    Vallin Tregres Avatar

    Messages:
    943
    Likes Received:
    1,357
    Trophy Points:
    93
    If there were only a handful of quests and the quests weren't long chains I'd agree. However, unless I want to focus only on the main story without any side quests (assuming I even know which quests are part of the main story) then I'm gonna have to fall back on using the journal frequently. By the end of a world section I could have 3-5 quest chains leading to different sections of the map. I have to choose 1 of these directions to go, which could end up with another 3-5 additional quest chains leading to other sections of the map. The current journal is a completionists nightmare. If you need to take a break from all the questing it's easy to forget where you left off and where you need to go next.
     
    Astirian, Amelli and smack like this.
  8. Fenrus MacRath

    Fenrus MacRath Avatar

    Messages:
    313
    Likes Received:
    749
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Out of the Blue and into the Black.
    Its usually pretty apparent what to do next, even with our deeply flawed quest system. The journal does add a nice safety net, incase you are one of those people who just flies through the dialogue to move on. Someone should start another thread about how to fix the quest system.
     
    Jaesun likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.