A quest journal

Every MMO has a "quest journal". But it is not really a "journal". It is an interface element - a button you press to see all of your current quests. What if instead of that, we had... An actual journal? A book that you carry with you, where your character makes notes about things that happened to him during the day. To get notes like this your character would have to fill the journal. So you go through some adventures, and then you go to, say, a tavern, sit down, click "add records to the journal" and these notes appear. They appear on their own, you don't write them - your character "writes" them. But they reflect real events that happened to you and serve as a less convenient but more realistic and immersive replacement for a quest journal.

Instead of "We are overrun with boars. Go kill 10 boars. Boars killed 0/10" it would say something like:
"The villagers are surely hiding something. I might want to go and take a look at that "circle" they mentioned - some answers could be hidden there. Also, that boy in the corner kept giving me looks..."

In conventional quest "journals" there is also a list of quests you are currently on, and you can always get the "notes" (in reality just the dialog) correlating to the quest you click on. I don't know if it would be good to break that structure, and make all the notes straight up chronological. It would make the journal less convenient, but on the other hand will make you pay way more attention when you are reading the quests, as well as when you are reading the journal itself. You surely will need some list - or you'll be completely confused, but it can be a list of quest names with short descriptions, and to refresh the details you'll have to read the actual notes your character has made.

The Great Black Wolf
A beast hunting caravans

You can't click on it, nothing would happen. But somewhere in your journal there is a note.

05/03
Talked to the blacksmith this afternoon. He says last time the beast was seen crossing the road near Buklava village. If he is hunting the next caravan, as the mayor fears, the suspicion rightly falls on the deepest parts of the Creshin Woods - his lair must be in there somewhere. I should go talk to local Buklava foresters.

The journal can possibly include other players, and also some things that have nothing to do with any quests at all. Let's say you killed a dragon-boss.

07/09
This night people are celebrating all other the Planes of Bristol, as the dragon haunting their cattle is defeated at last. It took 53 men, 14 of whom are only still seeing the light of day by the good graces of Goddess of Creation herself, and otherwise would be dead. Volhovets of Aurora Borelias has lead us to this great victory, and many honorable warriors of "The Legacy" has thought today besides us.

What do you think?

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Comments

Noaani

I'm not at all against the idea of a journal for players to input notes, but a quest journal needs to perform a function first and foremost. It isn't a story telling device (the quest dialogue is the story telling device), it is a practical tool first and foremost.

Spurius

Noaani wrote: »

for players to input notes

Oh oh wait, I don't think I made that clear. It's not player inputs, the inputs are still from the game. So you go through some adventures, and then you go to, say, a tavern, sit down, click "add records to the journal" and then these notes appear. You don't write them yourself, your character "writes" them.

Just edited the original post to make that more clear.

Voxtrium

I think it creates a big problem regarding players forgetting important quest. I know for a fact i would take poor notes which means on important story related quest i might be unable to do them especially if i do 15 other things between when i took the notes and when i start the quest. Personally i wouldn't want this because of the amount of time i would have to spend on this aspect of the game and i personally wouldn't be very keen on this kind of gameplay

Noaani

Spurius wrote: »

Noaani wrote: »

for players to input notes

Oh oh wait, I don't think I made that clear. It's not player inputs, the inputs are still from the game. So you go through some adventures, and the you go to, say, a tavern, sit down, click "add records to the journal" and then these notes appear. You don't write them yourself, your character "writes" them.

To what end?

The only thing this does is add to the story. While I am not against adding to the story, this does seem like an awfully boring method to add to that story.

Many MMO's I've played (most, in fact) have a quest completion entry for the journal that details the end of said quest. What is your suggestion adding to the game other than this?

Skyri02

I like the idea of a quest journal. But i will explain what i would like to see in the game regarding the journal.
When i was playing the Alpha i noticed that the quest i took from different places got very difficult to track.
Sometimes i got 4 quest at the same time that lead to different places around the map. I started to do the first quest that lead me east and there i found another 3 quest with different location to go. Suddenly i had alot of qust in my quest log.

I noticed that when i decided to start one of the quest in my quest log i noticed it didnt show where i took it, the starting place from that quest.
And when i did read the quest again (i make something up now ) the wolf quest it just said kill wolfs west from here. Where is west from here again? the quest do not say what camp/place i took it from, what do i do now? it was some days ago i took this quest and i dont really remember the exact spot on the map i took it.
I can ask around ofc, but i had a fun idea of how to make this questing experience in a fun RPG style.

I just want to say i like the questing in Ashes. You have to explore and find ur way to the quest without telling u where it is on the map.

I would love to have a Note Pad available in the game where i can write hints i noticed in the quests and where i took it and where it has to be delivered. This will help people to quickly remember how to do the quest. Let me show you what i mean.

Here i wrote in my note pad coordinates , hint of location and where to deliver it.

When i take up a quest i read the whole thing. Sometimes its much text and sometimes little. To have this Note Pad with me to help me write small hints it saves me time to read the whole quest again and it feels more like an RPG, like i really need to take notes to be able to do this adventure quest effectively.

CROW3

Yep - it’s a nice creature comfort. The debate would be whether it’s worth trading off for other features v. just spending $1 for a small notebook.

Balrog21

I would much rather trade this for a way to make notes on the world map instead. Pin and a stick note.

Spurius

My idea was not to make it more convenient. Rather to make it less convenient but more immersive.

Noaani

Spurius wrote: »

My idea was not to make it more convenient. Rather to make it less convenient but more immersive.

While immersion is great - no arguments from me at all there - it can't come at the cost of ease of use of actual in game tools. Since a quest journal is indeed an in game tool, it needs to be designed in a way that best suits it's purpose first, and then can be embellished for various other purposes.

Your suggestion seems to me to basically be that players need to sit down somewhere and press a button in order to finish writing a journal entry for a quest. As far as immersion goes, that is on the same level as needing to eat, drink, and go to the toilet. It isn't adding anything to the game other than immersion for immersions sake.

While immersion is indeed great, it does still need to be fun.

Spurius

The button pressing isn't the main point. Make it automatic, whatever. No button pressing. I just think pressing that button makes you feel that you are really the one filling your own journal.

But the main point is that the notes are from you character's perspective rather then from a quest giver's perspective... Which makes sense since it is YOUR journal, so you must be the one who is writing in it. And the second thing is - yes, sacrificing part of that "tool" we are all used to and breaking the "list" structure and making notes appear in order in which the events actually happened. And also adding some notes that have nothing to do with any quests at all.

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