I... guess. Not exactly sure what you mean with those lines.
Basically, when I go from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2, all quests that are still open are moved from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2, so Chapter 1 no longer has any open quests.
Of course, that would mean that previous chapters would have empty left pages, so it could make sense that flipping to previous chapters would only switch completed quests, and all active quests are always shown on the left hand side.
Of course, it may look a little unintuitive at first. Perhaps it would help to have the two buttons in the top right corner of the left side, and the chapter in the top left section of the right side, to clearly indicate the chapter relates to the finished quests.
Would the Area be the Area in which the Quest was initially added or most recently updated? I think that's the only way to do it without going back and actually adding an area to every single possible quest (which obviously would screw up all quests from existing mods).
However, that can often be misleading. Say I hear about Bassilius in Beregost, so the quest is added to the Beregost area. Then checking my quest log, it looks like something I can do in Beregost, but I obviously cannot.
I personally already dislike having active quests spread out over multiple chapters, and would much rather see all active quests bumped up to the current chapter, so I can see them all at once, rather than having to tab forth and back between different chapters.
That's a good point with Bassilus, though I think as long as there's a note in there saying something to the effect of "Bassilus is rumored to be in the area around Beregost," it would be fine.
Basically, this idea comes down to how much work the team is willing to do for the journal revisions. I think it would be far superior to the current chapters format, but like everyone has pointed out, it will undoubtedly take more work. I still think chapters are fine for the actual journal section, but I see little point for it in the quests section.
- Hard to work out which quests are done because the font colouring is poor ......................... - The graphics used for the journal and parchment don't feel quite right.
And just for reference, here's what the vanilla BG2EE journal looks like with all the open and completed quests mixed together. It might not be quite as bad if the text had better differentiation but it's still a mess.
Just to add my 2 cents here: It would be nice if the journal text color was a higher contrast ratio to the background page color. In the current version there is dark text on a dark page for one of the tabs, and light text on a light page on the other tab. In both cases I find it difficult to read without leaning in close to my monitor.
I hope that any change done can improve the readability for those with dim sight. change the color of the parchment is fine, but only if the text is easily readable for everyone, a too dark parchment with a gray and not black text is not easy to read with dim sight.
And I find terrible the present journal, with a gray background and white and pale gray text. I have to put on my glasses and lean in close to the monitor just to read the quest names, and discriminating between completed ones and still open ones is very very difficult.
I believe that is possible to build something that is aesthetically pleasant, that is important for everybody, AND dim sight users friendly.
Is it possible to get the old (and working) journal put back until you come up with a finished version? At the moment I'm playing the latest vanilla version and the journal entries aren't updating. Not to sound shitty but I bought this game because its supposed to be an enhanced version, not to beta test broken elements and ideas.
Doesn't look like there's much activity on this thread anymore. Does anyone have an update on the journal? It looks like the latest version has stopped the old "~JOURNAL" code working...it shows up on the feedback box, but not in the journal itself. I believe the developers fixed this on their side (i.e. "I met an old man" for the first Elminster meeting. Any chance they could share how they fixed it, i.e. what code?
Comments
Basically, when I go from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2, all quests that are still open are moved from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2, so Chapter 1 no longer has any open quests.
Of course, that would mean that previous chapters would have empty left pages, so it could make sense that flipping to previous chapters would only switch completed quests, and all active quests are always shown on the left hand side.
Current Chapter is Chapter X - you can see active quests and completed quests
Previous Chapters (X-1, X-2) only show completed completed quests.
(Or as per the 2nd part) Active Quests is the same regardless of chapters... and only the completed quests changes.
I checked how that would look in DUI++ which I know you are familiar with:
My current chapter is Chapter 2....
Of course, it may look a little unintuitive at first. Perhaps it would help to have the two buttons in the top right corner of the left side, and the chapter in the top left section of the right side, to clearly indicate the chapter relates to the finished quests.
Basically, this idea comes down to how much work the team is willing to do for the journal revisions. I think it would be far superior to the current chapters format, but like everyone has pointed out, it will undoubtedly take more work. I still think chapters are fine for the actual journal section, but I see little point for it in the quests section.
change the color of the parchment is fine, but only if the text is easily readable for everyone, a too dark parchment with a gray and not black text is not easy to read with dim sight.
And I find terrible the present journal, with a gray background and white and pale gray text.
I have to put on my glasses and lean in close to the monitor just to read the quest names, and discriminating between completed ones and still open ones is very very difficult.
I believe that is possible to build something that is aesthetically pleasant, that is important for everybody, AND dim sight users friendly.
Not to sound shitty but I bought this game because its supposed to be an enhanced version, not to beta test broken elements and ideas.