Mapping, tracking, categorizing

I still have my binder! We mapped out every object and every location for every quest, as well as each home world, rainbow world and the approximate location the quasi space portals would spit you out! It was one of my best video game memories. 

As for how to translate that to a non-automated system within the game? Yikes. I got nothin'. 

^ Pics or didn't happen.

@pierced2x, I checked all the old backup files but I've got nothing that goes back 20-years  I'm sure it is on some ZIP Drive or SPARQ drive that got e-wasted 10-years ago  The database is gone but I still have the map!

I took extensive notes the first time. Lost them. Took more. Forgot where they are. Again a few months later.

Still more fun than writing MA thesis, would write again.

Quoting Hunam_, reply 2

^ Pics or didn't happen.

LOL - I swear. But if you think I'm going to go through about 80 boxes in my garage to find it, you got another thing comin' buddy!

One day I will, though. And I'll post it here in all its glory. And you'll weep.

^ LIAR!! 

One of my fondest memories of Star Control 2 was exploring the stars then marking on the included paper map where interesting locations were with my childhood friend. I realize that's just nostalgia talking, and I'd have probably preferred it back then if the game tracked these things for me. Most modern RPGs have waypoints to show you were you need to go for quests, but also give you the opportunity to explore nearby areas and make your own notes. Bethesda does this pretty well. I don' care if it tracks details about the planets for you, and actually I'd probably find it handy, as long as they leave exploration up to the player.

I wonder if there will be something like a quest compass in the new SC. If so, I hope we'll be able to turn it on or off, based on preference. It would spoil the feeling of blind exploration for me.

That said, I would LOVE a system enabling me to leave little custom notes and markers in the game itself. Also, in SC2 I sometimes lost track of which planets I had explored and harvested before, especially in large solar systems, with multiple gas giants and moons. So it'd be nice if the game could indicate which worlds remain uncharted by the player.

I'd love to see an annotation feature for the starmap, so that players can keep their own notes inside the game for stars and planets.

^ I'd prefer the game marked visited planets for me.

+1 on this.

I've been playing a lot of old DOS games, and one game that was awesome was ULTIMA UNDERWORLD.  The map auto-updated on where you've been, so You didn't have to draw out the levels, however, you could add in your own notes to the map.  It wasn't "auto" updated with notes of where things were, etc. Part of the challenge of the game was to keep track of everything with your own note-taking system.  Now, that's a throw-back to old-school gaming with having to keep your own notes.

It would be nice if it wasn't so automated, but having a system in place where you could keep your own notes.  Mass Effect's "quest" log was RPG hand-holding at its finest.  You never really needed to remember anything, because it was all at your finger tips automated.  Adventure immersion, IMO, requires your own ability to think through and remember things within the world you're exploring.  Less hand-holding the better, to a point.

Thinking to Starflight 1 and Star Control II, you really needed to keep your own notes of star coordinates, dates, times, etc.  having a system in place where you could keep track of all of that, but using perhaps your own notes might be nice.    

^ Are we playing a board game?

No, but I don't like hand-holding during a game.

Mass Effect's "QUEST" list made the game MUCH less challenging IMO.  Go to POINT A, talk to PERSON 405, SHOOT, RINSE and REPEAT. BLAH!!!  Automation can be good and bad. It depends upon to the extent on which its implemented.  Mass effect, you didn't have to THINK...you just pointed yourself, like your gun, to the next step. There really wasn't much actual exploration of the universe, it was just following the sign posts.  I want to get off the track and actually go EXPLORE a Star Control universe, not be guided through it via some quest log screen.

I'd like stars/planets visited semi-automated and a very limited quest-log that allowed you to put in your own notes of the game, but gave a general direction on what to do next to advance the story.  But it is up to you to figure out who to talk to, what to do, etc.  That gives more personality and importance of LISTENING to the dialog, rather than just hearing the characters speak or skipping through an artifact analysis screen.  

I want the game to make me think and interact with the characters, not just skip all the dialog and go to the quest screen.

I would like to flag systems and important points on the starmap with multiple styles of pins.

I don't think annotation and marking visited planets are mutually exclusive... the use case I'm thinking of is if you found a planet with great resources but didn't yet have the technology to harvest/survive on the surface, so you'd want to make a note for yourself.

Exactly. Or you would want to flag a planet as belonging to a hostile race that could one-shot-kill your current ship loadouts.

This is why I'd like to have different pin types. Notes are great, but when every note is attached to the same pin, it makes things difficult to filter out resource-heavy planets from hostile planets.

Ok, I'd like the game to mark the planet I visited/scanned but never landed on as visited automatically. Or just assign a colored pin or highlight (yellow for visited, green for visited and explored). I don't want to be sitting there typing in the same thing over and over again for all the planets I visited/explored/exploited. Also, I'd like the game to pin/highlight the points of interest mentioned in conversation, 'cause I can't be arsed to do it manually. Again, I'm not playing a board game. Notes are fine, but I'd also like the game to note the places for me in case of found artifact, explored alien POI, first new alien contact, alien homeworld, possibly even spots where battles took place. Don't wanna take notes myself at all.

This is something we are discussing internally and deciding what tools to develop for everyone. There is a certain "hardcore" element that does involve grabbing a notepad and writing these types of notes down for yourself. Many RPG games from the time (Planet's Edge) for example included notepads in the boxes for you to take these types of notes. By the same token people no longer keep maps in their cars anymore and are more accustomed to GPS. So the question is how much assistance do we provide before everyone turns into: 

Yes, I have been replaying SC2 for the first time since it first came out to refresh my memory of the game.  One of the first things I noticed is that I have to take notes of coordinates of homeworlds and that there is no record of where I have been.  There should definitely be some kind of indication of if you have been to a planet before.  

Please God, No! Just reading this comment about the possibility of having a damn "quest compass" (most recently applied in Fallout 4) made my stomach tense up in hatred and rage. Having Fallout lay out a cool mystery before me, telling me to investigate an abandoned building, looking for the superhero costume of the Silver Shroud in an area infested with ghouls would be SO FUN..................................... except that I somehow know innately, that the quest marker in my head has already pinpointed the exact location of said costume without me having any way to know that information. Omniscience and all that. I hate it. I love Fallout, it's fun as hell to play. But I hate hate HATE the standard omniscient quest marker telling me exactly where to look for whatever I'm looking for.

I know, it's to reach a broader audience, I get it. Regular people don't like to think much. And if Star Control is to thrive (and get sequels), we have to make a game that reaches as broad an audience as possible. But that's too much!

Can you imagine in Star Control II, you catch word of the mystery of the Rainbow Worlds and set out to explore them....... only to have every system containing a rainbow world magically light up on the map telling you exactly where to find them?! GAHHHH! It's heresy, I can barely speak it!!!!

Middle ground, though. There IS some. The answer is: Auto-Annotation of the Star Map. And THAT'S where it ends.

For example, you HEAR from a fellow sentient being that there's a disturbance in the Gamma Sextantis system. Or you buy from the Melnorme-like trader a lead that Delta Chandrasekhar has a planet that's very rich in Tzo Crystals. In these cases, I can get behind a blip on the star map that annotates these overheard references.

 And for BROADER mysteries, maybe someone can tell you that they detected a distress beacon or a crashed ship or a large explosion "In the Orionis constellation" and a bubble would highlight ALL those star systems, with a note about whatever you overheard. I'd be down with that as well.

And to take it a step further:

and

These are both great ideas. Let the player have as much freedom to annotate as the game's auto-annotation does, AND make things a little easier to remember by greying out whatever systems you've already been to. After all, no one kept a list of EVERY SINGLE SYSTEM they visited... right? That would be tedious.

I think with a system like this in place, it would be satisfying EVERY gamer imaginable.

But telling me there's an artifact in Alpha Draconis, and then a quest marker pointing me to its exact location on the planet's surface would absolutely MURDER the Star Control spirit. Out of the question!

^ Or we can always magic marker the locations on the monitor/TV and take a picture of them with our smart phones. 

By your description, I was totally a "hardcore" player of SC2, Myst, Hero's Quest, and many others.  I even remember buying an anniversary edition of Myst that included a beautiful hardcover notebook with an attached cloth bookmark just for players to take notes, which I dutifully did in pencil, diagrams and all.  I wish I still my "grail diaries".

My opinion is that an in-game tool to help you take notes is a common sense feature that wouldn't detract from the gaming experience, much less automate it.  I'm only talking about a basic note-taking tool, no need for bells and whistles such as searching, sorting and filtering.  Players are going to take notes anyways, why not engage them more in the game by allowing them to do it there?

I feel that this type of thing could apply to any game that's played on a large open-universe map, not just SCR.  I'd make the same argument for this feature being a part of your Pip-Boy in Fallout (for things you can't access yet) or GalCiv (to note last known locations of pirates), for example.

This brings up an interesting point though - were you a hardcore player of SCII, Myst, etc., grabbing your notepad to religiously catalogue your adventures.... because you WANTED TO? Or because you had no other option?

Well both, I wanted to take notes but had no place to do it in-game...