This would be a nice thing to have

[Godzbane]

Picture this:

You venture into a dungeon you fight everything you complete that quest NBD just another day at work.

You come out of the dungeon you have taken notes about the creatures you ran into a game journal.

Ok, I thought about this hard and it might be a nightmare to implement but heres my idea about the ingame journal.

Lets talk about a kobold.

you click on creature journal then you click kobold . it has a real brief description about a kobold. then it says roughly there hitpoints per level if only you killed that level of kobold. then its strengths and known spells per level only if you fought and beaten this kobold. and also weaknesses, again only if you beaten this kobold before.

scenario: you fight a lvl 7 fire elemental . you win.
(i dont know the stats these are fake numbers)

Fire Elemental
(discription)
hit points at level 7 = 450
known spells: fireball- scorching ray
known weaknesses- cold effects - blunt weapons

then you fight a lvl 8 ele

Fire Elemental
(discription)
hit points at level 7- 450 / lvl 8 650
known spells: lvl 7 fireball- scorching ray/lvl 8 protection from cold
known weaknesses- lvl 7 cold effects - blunt weapons / lvl 8 cold only

you see my point only if you beat them and did "witness" the effect or the weakness will you write about it. but if you died and did witness some you will have it in your journal but wont know there hitpoints and others small things.
I thought it would be nice for bosses too that way you can refer back instead of trying to do everything in memory. I know this might cause a nightmare in programing or some of you might say thats what makes it roleplaying but i think it adds the the role play aspect of the game.
let the bashing begin

[AEschyl]

that's actually... not a horrible idea.

the problem you run into, is when new spells are released, they are retroactively given to creatures you've already fought... but your in-game journal has no record of this... meaning if you take this journal as fact... it actually makes you less prepared than you were before cuz you might not prepare for something you otherwise would've had you not known anything about the creature

imo, the downsides (more than what i just posted, ie programming/resources) and the upsides pretty much counterbalance... and arent worth it

[Blakinik_Norguild]

I like this idea for using 'examine'. Unless your character stands in a library all day reading books (excellent gold sink btw... purchase to consume the books), you learn from monsters when you observe them fighting or phsyically take them on. Each time some 'effect or attribute' was used you would make a DC check against your intelligence and wisdom. Wisdom to see if you caught the attribute and intelligence if you could comphrend the attribute.

I enough time you could know the hp range, AC damage, attack types, speed, etc. of the monsters you fight.

Thoughts?

Blak

[Godzbane]

I see your points but as I descibed its a evolving journal. If the first time you fight a creature and lose you would know:

1. which spells they used
2. which resistance if any
3. which weaknesses

and it changes as you keep fighting, so new spells would be added. I like the check for int but then that kind of limits other classes. So that forces a more balance for grouping. If one makes the check then obviously he "shares" his information and observinces. I dont think this would be to hard to implement it would be very similar to quest journal and slayer formats how they change with the quest.

It would be nice to refer back to something about a creature rather than having to memorize everything. Einstien said once why he didnt know his own phone number is because why waste grey matter on something I could look up.

It nots like this game has 200 creatures more like 20 creatures and they change the name so it shouldnt be hard. you think but of course here I am talking about putting something new in the game and not fixing current issues and creating more expansive quests.

I for one would like to see raise the level to 16 soon and start putting in some level 20 quests. Most of us like the challenge not the easy win. But i thought a journal would be a nice tweek to the game

[MysticTheurge]

Better yet, implement and involve the Knowledge skills, since this is what they do in D&D.

[A_Sheep]

Problem with knowledge in DDO is that the person behind the keyboard's knowledge skill is what matters :-P. If you're roleplaying, then you just choose not to metagame.

[axebender]

maybe we can be able to trade journals with freinds and make copies also....maybe your buddy will give ya the copy with no usefull information or some blank pages lol

[Snike]

Gotta catch them all!! ... oh wrong game..

[AEschyl]

Gotta catch them all!! ... oh wrong game..

hahahahaha

oh goodness i think my dr pepper just went down the wrong tube