Simple convesation journal

[duerer]

Hello Exult Team,


First of all, let me say a HUGE CONGRATS for you - you did an amazing job!


Now hear my plea: I am wondering if a *very simple* journal could be implemented to Exult...
Obviously, I am not thinking on an all-singin', all-dancin', Baldur's Gate style quest log - instead, I imagine a new feature of Exult, which echoes all conversation text occuring during gameplay into a single, ever-appending text file...

This way, me, Avatar extraordinare, would not forget all the time who said what, and would not cast the evil spell of Downloadus Guideus if in doubt on what to next ...


Thanks in advance.

[SteveLord]

I wish more games implemented something like this. Those that don;t have quest logs make it hard to remember where you left off. Especially with open games like this one.

I havent played SI in months but I am clueless as to what to do because I totally forgot what I did last.

[artaxerxes]

you mean, what you get when you press the 'J' key?

Artaxerxes

[SB-X]

I don't get anything when pressing the 'J' key.

[artaxerxes]

hmm.... maybe it was the 'N' key then...

Artaxerxes

[SB-X]

That works. Sorry about that. Carry on then.
(it's an editable notebook though, not an automatic conversation log)

[duerer]

Well, not exactly.... That journal is a very simple player-editable notepad, while I'm looking for a conversation log instead.

Since Exult is a nice, windowed application, I use a dedicated jotter to take notes (with all bells&whistles: rich text edit, hotkeys, etc.)
I am typing in all the conversations into this jotter too (sentence by sentence, in case not to forget something, which might turn out to be useful).

As you can expect, this routine is *extremely tedious*, but also, very informative.
(Months later, you might ask: Who was this Ensorcio fellow? Read a few paragraphs of his sayings, and suddenly you remember... Ahhaaa, he was that loudmouth mage at Sleeping Bull! - and you are on track again with him.)

So, that's why I'm looking for the aforementioned conversation log - to spare my fingers...

[drcode]

That would be a fun, but challenging project:-) I guess we'll have to see. But a conversation logger would certainly generate a lot of data.

[Dominus]

Hmm, maybe, just maybe, it would be possible to generate such a journal from usecode, so it doesn't need to generate such a lot data (and that would prbably need to be done for each savegame - ouch), but only some kind of usecode pointers that only stores which conversations were called and shows those conversations in game or through an external kind of usecode reader...
I have no clue if that is feasible, though.

[marzo]

Hmm, maybe, just maybe, it would be possible to generate such a journal from usecode, so it doesn't need to generate such a lot data (and that would prbably need to be done for each savegame - ouch), but only some kind of usecode pointers that only stores which conversations were called and shows those conversations in game or through an external kind of usecode reader...

Hm, it would be possible, yes; one would only need to store the functions called (including whether or not they were the *original* functions, for mods) and the offsets of strings used in a conversation (evidently, in the same order they were used), maybe even printing the dialog option used. Duplicate entries could either be skipped or added. The only other problem I foresee would be other usecode functions (which display dialogs) being called from within a conversation. It doesn't *sound* like it would be too difficult to implement...

[Luke]

I find that a pencil and paper work well....

[Dominus]

I find that a pencil and paper work well....

Especially since you tend to condense everything a "bit" when you write it yourself

That said, who knows when or if anyone ever implements such a conversation tracker...

[duerer]

Quote 1:
I find that a pencil and paper work well....

Quote 2:
Especially since you tend to condense everything a "bit" when you write it yourself



Although I consider myself living in the past, I disagree here.

Yes, the pen-and-paper method was pretty much the standard in the 80's and the early 90's, but I think, if there is an opportunity to catch up with the times, then let's go for it!
So, please, Geometrodynamic Dragon and Co., do not listen to these infidels!

Besides, even Magic Candle II (does anyone remembers this one?) had a simple conversation log... I think Origin missed the mark for not adding this one till Ultima XI.

And one final ranting: while I love Ultima VII/SI, there is *no way* I would play these games in DosBox, in their original, purest form (the original vision of the designer, blah-blah...).

Enter Exult, which gives us, jaded gamers, multiple save slots, cheats, resolutions, options galore - and presto!
Suddenly, I am not daydreaming about the good old days of my youth (games were way better in our times, blah-blah...),
... instead I'm playing a damn fine RPG today (check this out, BG/NWN-fanatics!)!

Now, enough about this, I have some problems to take care of near Moonglow...

[Charlie Ashley]

Another game from the same time era in the RPG genre that had a awesome conversation log was Daemonsgate... donno if it had the same code type as ultima did, but worth a look since we all love our old dos games. I believe that game was actually heralded for their conversation library.. But I digress, a conversation logger tool would be completely amazing for exult IMHO, hope to see it happen . The more functionality the better.. plus I also hate having to switch to notepad in windows .

Take care everyone,
Charlie.

[TdI]

> I think Origin missed the mark for not adding this one till Ultima XI.

OMG I missed out on two Ultimas!!! Where? How? When???

[drcode]

I've never played a game with a conversation logger, and one thing I've been wondering is about how smart they are. In other words, do they just store the important points, or do they store everything. I'm thinking of all the times in U7 where you get lectured about the Fellowship, and think it would be tedious to have to wade through all that to find something that's necessary to the plot.

[TdI]

Are you sure you've never played DeusEx? As far as I remember, DeusEx logged everything except repeated conversations. Of course, the conversation trees in DeusEx are alot simpler than in U7.

And it was an important feature too, because of all the passcodes and computer logins.

[artaxerxes]

in reality though, you don't need to remember anything when playing U7. Maybe at most where to go next and stuff like this...

But passwords and codes, there is no need in U7. As soon as the player founds out a password (like "Blackbird" and such), a flag is raised and it becomes automatically available in the conversation tree.

So if you want to track that Ernesto is some dude with an attitude, you would have better luck by writing that in your notebook.

Just my opinion...

Artaxerxes