Best in game journal/notes system in an RPG?

[Zaleukos]

A decent journal system can really make gameplay more fluid IMHO.

I found Morrowind's (post expansion) system to be the best. Overall Bethsoft have a solid track record when it comes to journals, Daggerfall was good and in Oblivion the journal is among the least objectionable parts of the game:p The worst is probably G3 due to bugginess and incompleteness.

Overall I like to be able to filter my notes, it helps once you have a ton of quests in the journal. Not having that makes Baldurs Gate 1's and Arcanum's systems rather tiresome to navigate once you get far into the game.

[txa1265]

Dungeon Lords ... oh wait, you asked for the best ... never mind ;)

I love NWN and KotOR systems (carried into their sequels as well).

[Danicek]

Patched Morrowind Journal was pretty much the best system I've ever seen. I don't say it was the easiest to use but it was the best for RPG game, serving it not only as quest tracker but making the game feel stronger (even though I don't really like Morrowind).

[narpet]

Dungeon Lords ... oh wait, you asked for the best ... never mind ;)

Oh man... that cracked me up... I almost cried I was laughing so hard. The only games to ever have a journal system worse than Dungeon lords were games that didn't have a journal system. :lol:

On to the topic at hand... Although it definitely doesn't have the best journal system I've ever seen, I do like one feature of Avernum 4's journal. The ability to copy any conversation directly into your journal is nice. Many great journals do a good job of detailing exactly what you are supposed to do, and even let you take notes, but the ability to copy a conversation verbatim into your journal is great. There are many times I will go back and check out something a particular person said in reference to a particular quest or subject. With many RPGs that have a lot of dialog, it would be nice if they would adopt that feature.

[Sorcha Ravenlock]

NWN1, because you also had the option to write your own notes...

[Alrik Fassbauer]

The one in the Realms of Arcania trilogy was a mixture between good & bad.

Good : Meetings & important incodents were logged next to answers of people you asked - if you klicked the appropriate button.

The so far best system I've encountered was that of Divinity. Sadly the traits page was not really working - I don't know whether it was fixed in a patch at all.

I didn't play many newer games, so I can't say much more about it.

[Zaleukos]

Patched Morrowind Journal was pretty much the best system I've ever seen. I don't say it was the easiest to use but it was the best for RPG game, serving it not only as quest tracker but making the game feel stronger (even though I don't really like Morrowind).

What I liked the most is that its well organized and has hyperlinks, so its easy to find things in it. I dont like it when I have to scroll through endless screens or flip through 20 pages to get to the relevant entry.

[dteowner]

I seem to remember Arcanum having an excellent journal, but I'd have to reinstall to make sure I'm not thinking of something else.

[Zaleukos]

I was actually thinking of the Arcanum journal as a bad example. It is fine, until you get far into the game. Then the quest and rumours tabs start to suffer from information overflow... There's no way to quickly access the last pages so you have to flip page time and time again. Finished quest entries are still there, rumours cant be sorted by location or any other way.

The journal would be great if there just was a filtering system of some kind... As things are they go halfway by changing the style of the text in entries related to finished quests, but they are still there to slow down the browsing...

[magerette]

Might & Magic 7 had a pretty good journal as I recall--it kept track of all the skill trainers and major and minor quests, and updated nicely when you reached a quest milestone. I can't remember how well the journal in Wizardy 8 did, but I loved the ability to make your own map notes--really helped with navigation.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I don't remember the Wizardry 8 journal of being something special.
I believe it even lacked more information than most games I had played.

[Arma]

I haven't played Morrowind with any expansion, but it's Journal was one of the most terrible journal's I've ever seen in a game.

I liked BG2's journal. NWN was not a bad one, either. Arcanum's is good, as well, though I agree that further into the game it became a mess due to all the quests (or rumours for that matter) were in one tab regardless of status.

[txa1265]

Oh man... that cracked me up... I almost cried I was laughing so hard. The only games to ever have a journal system worse than Dungeon lords were games that didn't have a journal system. :lol:

I dunno ... sometimes I think it is better in jRPG's with no journal / quest tracker than the insulting crap of the DL system ..

[dteowner]

Wiz8's journal was a little lacking since all entries were put in in the order you "discovered" them. Since some quests are introduced while still in the monestary but not completed until Ascension Peak, it can turn into a real page turner.

I'll have to look at MM7 again, but I think it was decent.

[Corwin]

I remember the M&M's being decent too. I like NWN's, but then I use it a great deal in our online sessions!!

[Maylander]

I have to say the MM6-8 journal - great content: Quests, trainers, whatever you needed, all organized in a good way.

[Dr. A]

I like NWN's journal too. And actually I like Gothic 3's journal because in a sense it's realistic. You write down dialogue that initiates a quest and figure the whole thing out yourself.

[Zaleukos]

The thing is that G3s journal doesnt even seem to register the entire dialog, but only small parts of it, and usually not the relevant ones. I wouldnt mind a journal that simply dumbed all the dialogue into it and had the player figure out what matters on his own (as long as its easy to access individual entries, which it is in Gothic). But as it stands its broken.

[Danicek]

What I liked the most is that its well organized and has hyperlinks, so its easy to find things in it. I dont like it when I have to scroll through endless screens or flip through 20 pages to get to the relevant entry.
Same here, it was long and contained more than just the necessary quest info and still was pretty easy to navigate through hyperlinks and various topic sortings.

[Lucky Day]

NWN1, because you also had the option to write your own notes...

your the only one I've heard of that actually wrote your own notes.

The bad thing about NWN's journal system is it isn't persistent and the default settings make it party based.

By being party based the scripting system would alter your buddy's quests and possibly not flag them with the necessary variables if the one who scripted it wasn't careful.

The lack of persistence meant you had to readd them every time the player logged in because if you didn't they could easily be exploited in PW design.

---
I recall the Infinity Engine was really good.

Ultima 9's Journal caused a huge hold up in development because Garriot insisted it pop up on your screen and open on you. This looked really schnazzy when it worked but it sucked resources to it instead of the real game play. It also sucked resources from your machine too if I remember right.

One of the biggest problem in journal design I've seen is when they don't give you the vital information that you need to complete a quest. If a player starts depending on them as they've acquired multiple missions it can be a real problem.

KotOR was very good for this sort of thing because recorded each every bit of dialogue and you could review it all if there was a point you missed.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

KotOR was very good for this sort of thing because recorded each every bit of dialogue and you could review it all if there was a point you missed.

Divinity as well. *Very* handy when solving riddles ! :D

[Jaz]

The Jade Empire journal also recorded dialogues; you could read or re-listen to what had been said... quite handy.

[Dhruin]

Div Div. Very good system.

[chamr]

Definitely DivDiv.

Also like Sacred's, especially the map system. The only thing it's missing is user notes. Not that you need them in Sacred as it's such a straight-forward game, but as a system it would be the best ever, I think, if it just had user notes.

[curious]

yes divine divinity had a good journal among other things. sadly i found the ghastly amount of broken quests to be akin to watching a marvelous theather performance when suddenly the curtains close in act ii and when they open half of the cast lie crumpled on the floor like expired automatons.

[GhanBuriGhan]

The patched version of Morrowinds journal got the job done very well. In almost all games I miss the option to actually add my own journal entries - this would be good both for utility - to help my memory along in between game sessions, as well as for roleplaying purposes - a MW mod actually added that option. The same applies for automaps: since Ultima Underworld, I haven't seen a similiarly well annotatable map again.

[Zaleukos]

I find automaps to be much better than journals on average. Baldurs Gate II is for instance quite good with landmarks for sights in the cities that should be well known (its frustrating to search for shops and such), but I felt they sometimes relied too much on the map rather than giving hints to where a place is (for instance it doesnt make much sense for the player to automatically know where Valygar's home is, one should have to ask around for that info, in a way this is like Oblivions compass on a smaller scale).

Even though its not an automap I like the realism of Gothic's system where one is given a map rather than magically automapping... But that system could sure use manual annotations.

As for journals I realise that it's nice to have the option to just record any dialog into the journal by clicking a button during the actual event. Some games incorporate this, but I dont recall which ones...