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I'm looking at the little notepad that helped me complete Cultist Simulator. Usually, I use throwaway administrative envelopes to jottle down some short-lived notes. But I also have whole folders of maps and notes from the Amiga era. The Bard's Tale re-releases include auto-mappers, and I have mixed feelings about it. And mixed feelings about taking notes in general. Is it immersive, is it immersion-breaking, is it cool, is it cumbersome, is it satisfactory, should I use paper or .txt files, should I keep them or throw them away ? I cannot make up my mind about any of that.

But I realise that I've had to use paper, lately, and that's unusual. So. Cultist Simulator of course. And, before that, the fun little game named Please Don't Touch Anything (on steam) (as in : it's on steam, not "don't touch anything on steam", that's a whole other... whatever). And before ? I already can't remember anymore. The Turing Test, maybe ? But, by experience, resorting to paper means that I'm overthinking the puzzle, while the game's solution usually doesn't require it. Often I cautiously write down passwords or formules that my RPG character remembers "automatically" when the time comes, just because I don't know in advance whether it'll be this or that sort or game. I may have taken some notes in Kerbal too, for instance to try to pinpoint at which altitude and speed my Eve lander would explode.

So, I'm curious about that simple pragmatic fact : For which game(s) did you write down some notes on paper, lately. Any at all ?
Post edited August 07, 2018 by Telika
COOL THREAD

Wanna come over and see my Escapists notebook? :P

I'm not kidding. I have pages and pages of notes for every prison in the game!

It just dawned on me that I could bundle them together, send them off to Prima, and get a Strategy Guide made for it.
Post edited August 07, 2018 by tinyE
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Telika: ...
More like sketches, but the last time I can recall was when I experimented with some new housing blocks in Caesar 3.
The reason I have the screenshot on hand is because I made it for a similar thread years ago :)
Attachments:
caesar3.jpg (496 Kb)
Post edited August 07, 2018 by Matewis
The prime example for me is the Modron maze in Planescape: Torment. I would have to map out that entire labrynth by hand every time. Kind of a proud accomplishment, but often I dreaded it.

There was one lately when I found I had to take some notes... What was it?... Maybe it will come to me.

I think ideally, a game that requires taking notes should provide an in-game way to do so. I'm often not entirely happy with the pre-written journal entries that get automatically added in rpgs. Too often they are not actually informative, just padding. Fallout 4's pipboy quest notes are just perfect for what they are - shorthand notes and checklists to remind you who to talk to or what the next step is. No need to dress that up with flowery language or dear diary style.

In Oblivion, I often used a journal mod by Kyoma (sp?). I liked it a lot.
I do,yes.
All rather recent:

Yooka-Laylee: Short notes to remind me of challenges I haven't beaten/solved yet, so I won't forget about them and where they were located while I continue exploring the other worlds.

Hero-U: Drew a map of the catacombs.

The Witness: Map of the island with notes on where there are puzzles I haven't solved yet and what kind.

I always use pen and paper when at hand, as I don't like alt-tabbing out of games. Making notes on paper is not as immersion-breaking as that, but I'd still prefer if I didn't have to do that either. My first choice would be automaps / the game noting down important things for me in a way that I could take a break for a long time and still find it easy to get back into the game, or at the very least the game giving me in-game options for taking my own notes. I shouldn't be required to keep any stuff outside of the game in order not to feel lost after a break.
Post edited August 07, 2018 by Leroux
The last time was for Darkest Dungeon, when Color of Darkness was released. I had to go through my previous notes and update my builds. Needless to say, when you utterly gimp out stun rates, everything that worked before has become useless. I ended up throwing my old notes and starting again from zero. I abandoned my old 30 hours long run, and I haven't played Darkest Dungeon since. I will eventually, but not too soon.

I loved drawing maps for old styled dungeon crawlers that lacked automap, unfortunately it always ended up with me giving up, once I ran into teleporting traps, or falling to a lower floor and not realizing it. That always killed those games for me.
I always keep paper near my PC, in case I need to write something down in a game. Let it be a small code fragment, a map, a plan to solve a puzzle, which merchant sells what, what item I'm missing to continue and where, anything. Paper alwas comes handy. I'm not even going to start listing the games, since I use paper for the majority of them to take random notes :)
Does Thief count?

It lets you make notes IN the game.
The last time was to write down the spells in the Book of Patterns from Loom.

Before that, possibly mapping something in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, a lifetime ago. Nowadays if I need to take notes I usually can type it faster on a Word document.
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MadalinStroe: The last time was for Darkest Dungeon, when Color of Darkness was released. I had to go through my previous notes and update my builds. Needless to say, when you utterly gimp out stun rates, everything that worked before has become useless. I ended up throwing my old notes and starting again from zero. I abandoned my old 30 hours long run, and I haven't played Darkest Dungeon since. I will eventually, but not too soon.

I loved drawing maps for old styled dungeon crawlers that lacked automap, unfortunately it always ended up with me giving up, once I ran into teleporting traps, or falling to a lower floor and not realizing it. That always killed those games for me.
I am so happy with all the Color of Madness changes and rebalances! Don't you just love it! Makes so much more sense to me. I was just playing last night!
Quite recently actually.
While I was playing Grand Theft Auto III I was taking notes of things I need to finish to know what I am suppose to search for and complete.

I have always pen and paer next to me while play ing but I use it less than I used to. I used to draw maps, make notes of quests, plan my parties for future playthroughs or just random notes or little hints for various games. It is quite fun to nowadays go back to them and try to figure out what game they belong to.
I still have most of those old ones. What I fondly remember and still cherish in my drawer is cave maze from Legend of Kyrandia. That one I was proud of drawing when I was young.
Thimbleweed park for the underground tunnel.
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Telika: I'm looking at the little notepad that helped me complete Cultist Simulator. Usually, I use throwaway administrative envelopes to jottle down some short-lived notes. But I also have whole folders of maps and notes from the Amiga era. The Bard's Tale re-releases include auto-mappers, and I have mixed feelings about it. And mixed feelings about taking notes in general. Is it immersive, is it immersion-breaking, is it cool, is it cumbersome, is it satisfactory, should I use paper or .txt files, should I keep them or throw them away ? I cannot make up my mind about any of that.

But I realise that I've had to use paper, lately, and that's unusual. So. Cultist Simulator of course. And, before that, the fun little game named Please Don't Touch Anything (on steam) (as in : it's on steam, not "don't touch anything on steam", that's a whole other... whatever). And before ? I already can't remember anymore. The Turing Test, maybe ? But, by experience, resorting to paper means that I'm overthinking the puzzle, while the game's solution usually doesn't require it. Often I cautiously write down passwords or formules that my RPG character remembers "automatically" when the time comes, just because I don't know in advance whether it'll be this or that sort or game. I may have taken some notes in Kerbal too, for instance to try to pinpoint at which altitude and speed my Eve lander would explode.

So, I'm curious about that simple pragmatic fact : For which game(s) did you write down some notes on paper, lately. Any at all ?
Falcon 4 (from the goodies of the falcon collection): I wrote down how to use ever piece of equipment. I can't wait to get my hands on a PC that can handle the BMS mod, which takes everything to the next level and requires many, many more notes.
Earlier today I made a note of the time I planted flowers in a mobile game. I was just now using the same piece of paper to make a shopping list and other notes about random things. Often complex games get their own paper but a simple temporary note didn't need that.

I write notes whenever I play games. I'd love a really pretty and neat in character journal, with drawings, in Skyrim for example. I just don't make pretty and neat things, it will always be a mess. I also can't really draw anything.
Recently I have been thinking of playing Cultures and once I get to it there will be profiles of all my villagers, their jobs, family trees, whatever fun details I can pretend there are about them.
Post edited August 07, 2018 by rareerror