Notepad without paper and pencil

[_mikklu_]

How about inside game notepad?

For example

when you have cartography level of 1

It shows a very crude map in minimap. But when you inrease that skill it will grant ability to make your own notes into your notebook during game.

When you increase your cartography skill then more options will be available in the notepad and you map is more accurate too. And maybe you will be able to make your own marks to the minimap.

[Cal]

I wouldn't mind a notepad independent of the cartography skill. I tend to make a lot of notes during a game...having a place where I can keep my notes built into the game might save a few trees...

[Cyan]

Actually, I found the in-game notation method to be quite sufficient. Everything that you could possibly have to remember, including locked treasure combinations and the like, is recorded for you in the journal. This goes way above and beyond most other games, where you'd be expected to remember or write it down (in the real world) yourself. So in this respect, I think Eschalon does its job rather well. I wouldn't want having to write everything down manually (either on paper or with some in-game notepad) to slow the game down for me.

-RS.

[Evnissyen]

There's a Quest Journal, but that's not necessarily sufficient.

I believe Divine Divinity (I've played only a little of the game so far, haven't gone back to it yet) employs a system where, when you pull up a map, you're allowed to place flags on the map and add notations to them. That exact system can be employed in Eschalon.

I remember having this discussion on the Spiderweb boards and the same issue was being discussed, and the issue of map-notation was also brought up. In the SW games the situation is more critical, since there are a lot of things that you'll want to remember but won't necessarily remember. Those games have for quite a while also featured a "record" option in the dialogues so that you may record (separately from the quests) what certain people say. That, too, would be an improvement that Basilisk might want to consider. But at least in the SW games this doesn't prove enough because I often end up compiling Word documents of screen-grabs with notations, so I can remember locations and people, and areas I need to return to later on when I get a hold of such&such item or find out more information about the area.

[Unclever title]

Considering that Book II will be larger this might be a good idea. In Book I there were a bunch of minor things hidden that were of little importance such as the pitfall area where it would be handy to have a reminder on the map for, or perhaps you find some awesome treasure that you can't carry at the moment and have a long series of tasks to accomplish and you want to do it all in one trip, this way you could mark the spot on the map so you can have the exact location to reference later.

But rather than mark the minimap it might be better to mark it on a world map that you might have in your inventory.

[ChrisHallett]

User-definable waypoints and flags would be an excellent inclusion to the game.

[zarvok]

Actually, I found the in-game notation method to be quite sufficient. Everything that you could possibly have to remember, including locked treasure combinations and the like, is recorded for you in the journal.

User-definable waypoints and flags would be an excellent inclusion to the game.

As others have noted, sometimes the journal doesn't record everything you'd like to remember. One example is when you see a chest you can't yet unlock or an area you can't yet figure out how to get to and want to remember to come back. Another is that it can be hard to remember which training books you have read (to avoid rebuying them), it would be good to be able to keep a list.

Being able to place flags on the map would definitely be great. But, it would be nice if there were just a plain notepad to write things down, too. I wouldn't want to have to return to each square to see if I left flags when I'm trying to remember what things I wanted to come back to, and not everything I want to remember is associated with a particular location.

Being able to list them in an in-game notebook would be fantastic. Of course, right now I'm just keeping notes on a piece of paper, and really that works fine. So, while it's not very high priority, it's definitely on my wish list.

[Evnissyen]

I was actually referring to being able to place notated flags on the world map, not on the playing area or on the screen map for any of the areas (although duplicating them onto the area map would be nice, too). Being able to expand the world map (and provide greater detail) might also be nice. As it is: it would be difficult in many cases to pinpoint a precise location that a flag should be planted. Of course: Providing some sort of symbol to indicate where you are on that world map would be helpful (in the expanded, detailed version only, I suppose: I understand the rationale behind retaining the "parchment feel" of the world map).

(And I still maintain that that little near-invisible circle on the screen map is highly frustrating. It really needs to be made noticeable. I hate having to move my face close to the screen to find out where I am.)

Anyway... yes, I can see that adding an in-game notepad would also be helpful -- although, of course, this can be accomplished nearly as easily with the notepad program that comes with either your PC or your Mac. I guess ultimately the difference would be that it would not require you having to break out of the game in order to type out your notes. So long as it's not difficult to program, it would be useful. Preferably, I suppose, it should allow screenshots.

Having user-defined quick-travel points is a nice idea, too, I actually like that idea very much.