Dismiss Notice
This Section is READ ONLY - All Posts Are Archived

Journal Feature Ideas

Discussion in 'Release 32 Feedback Forum' started by LoneStranger, Aug 15, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. LoneStranger

    LoneStranger Avatar

    Messages:
    3,023
    Likes Received:
    4,761
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Petaluma, CA
    When I started playing SotA after the wipe, I worked on the first quests to get you out of the newbie hubs and into the rest of the world. I often would check my Journal Notes/Quests to see what I needed to do.

    While I am not against how it is organized (by your discovery time, not grouped by subject) I feel like the journal is still a bit tedious. The notes it takes are sometimes not detailed, but that's probably ok, as it's primary purpose is to remind you what you need to do or where to go to continue a quest or move the story forward. I have a Google doc opened to take better notes for all things, not just story, because it is easier for me to organize and find what I am looking for.

    I had a couple ideas on how to make the in-game journal easier to read for those who have done a lot of story/quest progression:
    • The ability to minimize entry paragraphs and have it persist between sessions.
    • The ability to tag entries, so that we could either cross things out (show a red X over the entry) or circle entries as more important, or even circle them with different colors for our own system of tagging what is important to us.
    • Have the Journal remember the last page viewed for either section, and open to that for quicker reference to our current goal being progressed.
    • Being able to change the font between a few choices so we can pick one that is easier on our individual pairs of eyes. This might be good in general for all books.
    If anyone has any other ideas to make journals better, feel free to post.
     
  2. PrimeRib

    PrimeRib Avatar

    Messages:
    3,017
    Likes Received:
    3,576
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    The concept exists in some form in most games so I won't repeat too much about what the devs should already know.
    Better quest tracking, auto-mapping, interaction between journal and chat, achievements, etc.
     
  3. LoneStranger

    LoneStranger Avatar

    Messages:
    3,023
    Likes Received:
    4,761
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Petaluma, CA
    I know there is an attempt to balance some old-schoolness with features we'd expect in a game released in 201x. That's why I was thinking that the ability for us to manually mark things as done or important would be more desirable to Richard than having the journal move/minimize entries on it's own. I don't know how much of the original old-school thought has dropped by the wayside. I'm all for retro or throwback, but I'm also more of a casual player who doesn't want to deal with tedious management tasks all the time. Somewhere in the middle is OK with me.
     
    Moiseyev Trueden, Kilhwch and Gravidy like this.
  4. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

    Messages:
    15,679
    Likes Received:
    24,293
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    I would really love to be able to write notes in my journal.
     
  5. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

    Messages:
    3,054
    Likes Received:
    11,752
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Female
    I would be satisfied with things I'm supposed to go do being in tasks.
    Half the stuff I have to go do gets lost in the 'journal' section buried beneath all the mail deliveries and historical/finished stuff.
    The text descriptions aren't always indicative of what you have to do, especially if you don't go to do it immediately, the journal can be woefully inadequate.
    I've been sent to the forums about a dozen times to try and look up what I'm supposed to do because from the journal its simply not evident.

    Don't get me wrong, I like the dialogue feature and the immersion of it, but having to tab out and look something up because its not well documented or the NPCs aren't recognizing anything I say because I didn't say the magic keyword, is immersion breaking.

    I know its early days yet, but I'd like if my journal would tell me more or less exactly where I am in the quest, ie which npc I need to speak to next and what I need to ask them about to progress. Currently it just kinda says something vague about going someplace. If you don't do the quest immediately that's not really sufficient to pick up where you left off. All the quests get jumbled together; I'd like to see entries relevant to the same questline grouped together rather than everything just shoved in there chronologically. Either that or let me sort it out myself and edit it.

    The actual rewards for the quests are a pittance compared to what could be earned in the amount of hours you spend messing around trying to figure out the quest and get it to work. I have trekked half of the known world about this bonesteel dagger and I've had 0 reward as yet.
     
  6. LoneStranger

    LoneStranger Avatar

    Messages:
    3,023
    Likes Received:
    4,761
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Petaluma, CA
    This was one of the things that stood out to me. The journal can get bogged down and since everything is in the order you encountered it, posts for a quest line are scattered throughout. If it's not descriptive enough, it gets confusing what was the intended meaning. If you go do a lot of things at once, it can become hard to find information for one between the others.
     
  7. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    2,649
    Likes Received:
    4,202
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Perennial Coast
    Moiseyev Trueden likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.