Page 1 of 1

Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 3:37 pm
by Grunt
Gumble Tinkertumble wrote:If possible, could we get a persistent journal? It's a real pain in the bum that it periodically gets cleared.
Your journal is a text file, stored on your local drive in the same folder (localvault) as any local saves of your character. :) If it gets cleared, it's on you.

Re: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 3:39 pm
by Gumble Tinkertumble
Grunt wrote:
Gumble Tinkertumble wrote:If possible, could we get a persistent journal? It's a real pain in the bum that it periodically gets cleared.
Your journal is a text file, stored on your local drive in the same folder (localvault) as any local saves of your character. :) If it gets cleared, it's on you.
Hence the request for a persistent journal. I don't touch the text file locally, but it still gets wiped.

Re: Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 3:49 pm
by korak
The other thing is that I have like 8 copies of NWN. It is installed on about 6 computers, so if it is local then it will only be on the computer that is being played at the time. A persistent journal would really be nice.

Scott

Re: Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:06 pm
by Pathos Street
I'm not sure everyone is talking about the same thing when they're talking about their journal.

The .txt file can be copied and moved to other directories and computers so you have the same journal on every install. I have a share drive set up that I just copy my directories to whenever I need to switch computers, and then pull it down to the new one. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could set up a cron job or scheduled task to "backup" your local files to other computers.

If you're talking about the part of the journal with quest notes and the like, there are persistent solutions out there, however the benefit would be minor since so few Avlis quests use journal notes.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:13 pm
by korak
I was not talking about the quest journal, but the regular one that you can type things onto (dont guess that is the quest one). Hard for me automate anything since computers are on different networks, unless I pull it from the net. :)

Scott

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:20 pm
by Grunt
korak wrote:I was not talking about the quest journal, but the regular one that you can type things onto (dont guess that is the quest one). Hard for me automate anything since computers are on different networks, unless I pull it from the net. :)

Scott
One idea would be to use a thumb drive, and bring it with you, plug it in when you want to play and change your NWN.ini to always point to that drive for localvault on whatever PC you're on. Of course if you forget it, you'll need to change NWN.ini back to the default, but hey, it works. :)

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:24 pm
by korak
Grunt wrote:
korak wrote:I was not talking about the quest journal, but the regular one that you can type things onto (dont guess that is the quest one). Hard for me automate anything since computers are on different networks, unless I pull it from the net. :)

Scott
One idea would be to use a thumb drive, and bring it with you, plug it in when you want to play and change your NWN.ini to always point to that drive for localvault on whatever PC you're on. Of course if you forget it, you'll need to change NWN.ini back to the default, but hey, it works. :)
Yeah, but I am lazy. I don't want to have to do anything. I want it automatic. :)

Scott

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:39 pm
by JollyOrc
korak wrote:Yeah, but I am lazy. I don't want to have to do anything. I want it automatic. :)

Scott
http://www.dropbox.com/

automatic file-synching over the net...

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:41 pm
by korak
JollyOrc wrote:
korak wrote:Yeah, but I am lazy. I don't want to have to do anything. I want it automatic. :)

Scott
http://www.dropbox.com/

automatic file-synching over the net...
Yeah, I was actually thinking about that after I posted. I have not used it yet, but had looked at it a bit ago for work. I may check it out for that.

Scott

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:59 pm
by Gumble Tinkertumble
So, any ideas why my journal gets wiped occasionally? Could it be something the server is doing every once in a while?

If that was fixed, there wouldn't be a problem if you only use one PC and one install. Otherwise, it would help if your text file stayed consistent if you did want to move it around a bit.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:28 am
by freestyler
Gumble Tinkertumble wrote:So, any ideas why my journal gets wiped occasionally? Could it be something the server is doing every once in a while?

If that was fixed, there wouldn't be a problem if you only use one PC and one install. Otherwise, it would help if your text file stayed consistent if you did want to move it around a bit.
As it is locally stored on your PC, it seems to be something you are doing on that PC....you reinstalling or tweaking the .ini ? The journal is just a txt file with your characters name stored in the local vault folder. I can't see how the server would / could wipe it.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 9:50 pm
by Gumble Tinkertumble
Nope. Not re-installing or tweaking in any way. Sometimes the contents stay, other times they just disappear.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:53 pm
by freestyler
Gumble Tinkertumble wrote:Nope. Not re-installing or tweaking in any way. Sometimes the contents stay, other times they just disappear.
Do you mean new entries have disappeared in that they were not saved or sometimes when you load a game the journal is entirely blank?

It is certainly odd that its not consistent and like wise more difficult to recommend a solution.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:58 pm
by Gumble Tinkertumble
The whole thing is blank, as if some great eraser in the sky has fallen on hard times and decided to pick on my journal. X:|

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 11:22 pm
by Marleh
Did you check all the tabs?

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:49 am
by Eklektikos
And have you checked whether or not the text file itself is present in your localvault directory?

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:10 am
by Gumble Tinkertumble
Yep. Checked all tabs. Haven't checked to see if the text file was there or not. Next time it happens I'll have a look. I'm assuming that it will be there, but blank.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:37 pm
by Gorgon
What you see for the journal contents is that .txt file. If it is going missing, it is your fault somehow because it is a file stored on your machine (as mentioned several times so far here). You can edit that file directly with notepad or whatever text editor, and see the changes in your journal. Many people use that method to store IG notes or recipes even, instead of the clunky IG way to edit it.

Do you empty your localvault folder often? That would be a simple explanation for why your journal goes missing, since you'd be deleting that file as well every time.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 3:18 pm
by Katroine
I've noticed a blank journal on a few characters but that may be since a reinstall awhile back. Would that wipe a journal?

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 3:22 pm
by Moredo
Unless you play in fullscreen and frequently edit and write in the journal ingame (instead of using it as a quick: "look things up tool") you can just make the file read only. Then it wouldn't get wiped, and whenever you want to add stuff to it, just unclick read only, and edit it with notepad.

Re: Journal - Split from: Player's idea box

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 4:31 pm
by Gumble Tinkertumble
Gorgon wrote:What you see for the journal contents is that .txt file. If it is going missing, it is your fault somehow because it it a file stored on your machine (as mentioned several times so far here). You can edit that file directly with notepad or whatever text editor, and see the changes in your journal. Many people use that method to store IG notes or recipes even, instead of the clunky IG way to edit it.
I know, but I like to play in full screen mode, so editing it in game is the way I interact with that file. There is no other interaction with that file going on, as I have already stated.
Gorgon wrote: Do you empty your localvault folder often? That would be a simple explanation for why your journal goes missing, since you'd be deleting that file as well every time.
Simple answer, nope.