Define the perfect journal

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lgromanowski
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Define the perfect journal

Post by lgromanowski »

pogzy wrote: Hi,

The journal is a key point in Morrowind, we probably all agree on the fact that it needs some enhancements.

Here is the way I imagine the perfect journal:

- first, an easy way to navigate through quests, see opened quests, closed quests, be able to access quests by the place they were opened, or by the NPC that gave them.
- be able to call back any conversations, by place and or by NPC,
- be able to see a more complete history of the player, where I met who and when. When and where I killed who.
- have a search engine in all the entries of the journal with quite power filters, i.e : entries in the bitter coast dealing with an argonian (that should be really fun), entries at Balmora, entries in Vivec, entries between day x and day y.

One step further:
- be able to call back the history of the player so that I can replay any combat or any wanted time slice and save the replay as a movie (first person or third person).
- be able to call back the history of the player and see it as a story line with major and minor all so that I can start a new branch of my current game and start a new story line and a new savegame line.

Feel free to give new and great ideas I never think about.
silentthief wrote: mebbe like OB (I know, blasphemy...):

When you look at a quest, you should be able to at one click or one button to follow quest stages. The unmodded MW journal was ok, but it made for some annoying manual search for example if 30 days and 74 pages of text later you decide to find out what someone said to you earlier on...

ST
sir_herrbatka wrote:
mebbe like OB
Purge the unclean!!! xD

I want also be able to put my one notes into the journal, and also screens, maps... maybe with some filtre to make it look like drawned with pencil.

And I would love to see option to copy finded books, books scrolls etc. into the journal ;)

Yeah, I know that those are only candys but... hmm... MW is not so sophisticated game overall ;)
silentthief wrote:
sir_herrbatka wrote:I want also be able to put my one notes into the journal...
YES!!! This would make the journal MUCH better if you can enter your own notes, tag it to an existing quest or your own collection by subject (like putting your collection of alchemy recipes together...)

ST
Star-Demon wrote: The perfect journal...
I would love one.

-The UI has to be readable but large enough to handle a lot of text.
-Has to have an index of words, which I found extremely helpful.
-Quests tab way to read, have many seen at once.
-Would be nice to have a tracker, so I can focus on a few items at a time.

In short, I'd be just fine with an easier-to-read, easier to sort version of Morrowind's. 260+ pages is not fun to scroll through.
nicolay wrote: - Location of people you've talked to. Irritating when you're supposed to bring something to someone and you don't remember where that damn person is, since it was so long since you played that part :)

- Going through quests in Morrowind is sort of like going through a backlog of work. You should be able sort quests by priority, mark which ones are the current ones, make notes on them etc.

- Map notes that are visible more than just when you're in that tile of the map. List of all caves you've visited on the map automatically, and your own notes ("monsters too tough, come back later").
sir_herrbatka wrote: It would be so cool if with bookmarks as... well bookmarks instead of silly drop down menu (journal is a book, right?). We can add them in diffrent colors to distinguish them, and maybe with diffrent symbols. :roll:

and it could be cool to put bookmarks in other books as well (i realy like morrowind books).
Star-Demon wrote:
sir_herrbatka wrote:It would be so cool if with bookmarks as... well bookmarks instead of silly drop down menu (journal is a book, right?). We can add them in diffrent colors to distinguish them, and maybe with diffrent symbols. :roll:

and it could be cool to put bookmarks in other books as well (i realy like morrowind books).
Assuming the Journal works like a book, it's possible they are related, or heck, we could MAKE the journal a subclass of book. and be able to do that very easily by giving it to the player. In fact, we could even make our book class more powerful, too. We could do whatever we wanted to it because all it is is strings. and we have LOTS of stuff for strings.
sir_herrbatka wrote: In MW twitter client as a scroll? ;-) Just kidding.
Star-Demon wrote: Someone mentioned collected books. That'd be neat. I like collections. My nereverine and redoran characters collect dagoth souls. :)
silentthief wrote: I wouldn't want any path finding or fast travel like OB.

About the only thing I would change from the original MW map would be to add a map marking system like OB.

ST
Greendogo wrote: We could add a calender, where past dates would highlight pretty much everything. Adding a calender would make it possible to make date management easier, allowing for mods that add in Tamrielic holidays or other stuff.
silentthief wrote: A calendar feature would be a cool addition. Then you could go back two (as an example, I mean any number of) days and see the topics given on that day. Another thing this would do is show that the date system works properly. MW had a problem with missing a month in the year. It made for the few quests that say "come back in 3 days" glitch up and not work.

ST
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