Keeping track of quest progress using a journal

Authoring Inform 7
1

Hi all,

I want to create a journal to keep track of quest progress. Are there any guidelines on things like how best to organize such a thing? I imagine for example something like the following (quests changed to avoid spilling the beans for my competition game):

>j
Active Quest:
  Chapter 3 - Noisy Neighbors (Farm Area)
    Silenced three out of twelve pigs
    Pause by leaving the Farm area
Paused Quests:
  Chapter 2 - Stinking Swamp (Entire Game)
    Collected three out of five buckets of poo
    Resume by pausing or completing the active quest
  Chapter 4 - Special Sales (Auction Area)
    Sold two out of eight cows
    Resume by selling a cow in Auction Area
Completed Quests:
  Chapter 1 - Ridiculous Riches (Entire Game)
    Collected $100,000 out of $100,000

This format does appear verbose, and I do not know how many lines I can actually use without using too much screen real estate in one go. The total number of quests will be at least twice this number. I could make it a two-step thing by e.g.

>j
[ Add the chapter number to see more detail on the given chapter ]
Chapter 1 - [Completed] Ridiculous Riches (Entire Game)
Chapter 2 - [Paused] Stinking Swamp (Entire Game)
Chapter 3 - [Active] Noisy Neighbors (Farm Area)
Chapter 4 - [Paused] Special Sales (Auction Area)
>j 3
Active Quest:
  Chapter 3 - Noisy Neighbors (Farm Area)
    Silenced three out of twelve pigs
    Pause by leaving the Farm area

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

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2

If they’re really a lot of text, you may want to use a menuing system like extensions/Menus-v1.i7x at 10.1 · i7/extensions · GitHub

Just a thought. I haven’t actually used that extension directly, although I’ve used menuing hint systems before.

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3

I think your solution of dividing it is good.

I want to suggest another way, not nessecarily the best way: Show only the active quests.

Telling the chapters AND quests seems a bit confusing to me.

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4

Hm, I wouldn’t use a menu system for creating a quest log. People who are checking their quest progress usually want to be able to do that immediately, with one command (maybe even one letter). As soon as it’s in a separate menu system, there’s screen-clearing, extra commands, navigation, etc. It’s all slowing and inconvenient.

Also, none of the menu extensions around are really intended for game-content-related stuff. That is, looking at the game state and changing dispensed information in response. They’re happiest with static out-of-world content. It doesn’t mean you can’t use them for the former, but nobody’s found them to be good at it which is why you don’t see games doing it.

Third, if you ARE going to use a menu system for something (else)… I’d recommend mine for multiple tech reasons: Link

Dannii’s is a WIP.

Fourth – I think your idea to have a command that could list all quest progress, and a way to add a number to that command that would list only the requested chapter’s progress, is excellent! The player can get what they want in one command.

-Wade

PS Sorry for all my vague ‘half-addressing Phil, half-addressing the original poster’ without saying when I was doing what.

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