StarWraith 3D Games Forum

Hi fellow cruisers,
Would you use a notepad if it were implemented in-game?
I use the map log but the text is limited and sometimes I want to record more notes besides locations.

I currently use the steam overlay where I have google drive open to keep my notes. But I was wondering if there were an in-game notepad, would people use it? If not, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and never bring it up again. If people would find it useful then maybe it's something that Vice would/could implement easily.

It could store your text in plaintext for editing outside the game if you wanted to add notes. I don't know what's involved but just an idea.

I usually play games like this with notepad handy (you know - the old fashioned kind with paper and pen ). I think I'd probably use one in game - but I have no complaints with my current method.

Yep, I usually don't have a nice pad of paper sitting here even though I have like 4 extra journals for work that I'm not using. Usually notes and locations get scribbled on whatever paper I can find. I find X,Y coordinates on the back of bills sometimes.

I remember an ingame notepad was really useful in "old" EM, so I'd certainly use it and talk about it in Legacy +1 to the idea

Have you tried viewing the Flight/Event Log in the Inventory console?

Yeah, I used it all the time to see what I bought things for. But I might want to write down prices for a few systems before I start plotting a course. I can go back and forth between the quadrant map and news/info. That's just one example. Or I might want to write down the name of a pilot I intend on getting revenge on.

Currently I write down a lot of pricing/systems and whatnot. The quadrant view only give a 500x500 sector average. So I like to record what individual systems have. It's not that big of a deal to just alt-tab or shift-tab like I'm doing (just had to make sure I unbind shift so I don't waste missiles and hit friendlies).

I wanted to see if it's something a lot of people had a use for, like a scratchpad. I remember it was really useful when Eve-Online added one. Not that there is any comparison between Eve and this game. EL is the GOAT and Eve is literally a moving spreadsheet, for me anyhow.

[Edited on 1-20-2016 by Bodega]

Id deffo use ingame notepad, only been playing game week and ive got stuff written everywhere on bills, newspapers, cig packet. Lol im using the various logs also, but it is limiting.

I use a combination of notebooks (A5 and A4), squared paper (A3 with 5mm squares) and scrap paper (save trees and save the world). I used to use the back of bills but got shouted at by the house accountant I also use screenshots to capture large amounts of info - locations of interesting finds, images of interest etc.

I use notebooks for data collection when exploring and researching; squared paper for data tables; scrap paper for odd jottings I won't need for long, reminders etc. I also have a jar full of sharpened HB pencils with rubber tips handy

As appropriate the various bits of info get transferred to Word docs and Excel files getting collated and sorted in the process.

I tried in-game note pads but find it quicker and less disruptive to scribble and sketch on paper in game and collate and store at leisure later. Ease is especially true in dangerous situations where I might need the keyboard at any moment to escape death

There's also the issue of how easy it is to get the info back out of the game Most of the data I collect ends up in the Techy Guide or The Hints&Tips Guide (though in Legacy I think the latter will become Marvin's Dummies Guide. Do in game notepads usually have an export to file facility? Even better could they have voice recognition so I can dictate notes as I fly?



However, I'm certainly willing to give it a try if Vice can be persuaded to install one

I would use an in game notepad quite a bit. It would help out when I go exploring a point of interest and discover planets along the way.

I still find the current Log the best means of recording information. Especially since I can click on an entry to set destination coordinates ... accurate destination coordinates.

I see destination events nowhere in my log. There's All, Contract, Event, Buy, Sell, and Data. Nowhere in there except for Data, is there destination coordinates and in mine there's only one entry. And that entry has nothing to do with my recent activity.

Myself, I use a little program I wrote that I call Game Note. It's an always on top notepad like app. No worry about saving or loading files. There's one file and when I start it, it loads it and when I exit, it saves it. If anyone would be interested, I can make it available. Of course I'd have to do a bit of extra coding for legal purposes. Simple license agreement so I don't get sued. Let me know if you guys would want to use it and if so I'll spend a few minutes putting in a first time run routine.

From post: 184036, Topic: tid=12228, author=Janus wrote:I see destination events nowhere in my log. There's All, Contract, Event, Buy, Sell, and Data. Nowhere in there except for Data, is there destination coordinates and in mine there's only one entry. And that entry has nothing to do with my recent activity.

Myself, I use a little program I wrote that I call Game Note. It's an always on top notepad like app. No worry about saving or loading files. There's one file and when I start it, it loads it and when I exit, it saves it. If anyone would be interested, I can make it available. Of course I'd have to do a bit of extra coding for legal purposes. Simple license agreement so I don't get sued. Let me know if you guys would want to use it and if so I'll spend a few minutes putting in a first time run routine.

Sounds like a cool little gadget. If you want I can host it on my site. Just email it to
me when your done!

From post: 184036, Topic: tid=12228, author=Janus wrote:I see destination events nowhere in my log. There's All, Contract, Event, Buy, Sell, and Data. Nowhere in there except for Data, is there destination coordinates and in mine there's only one entry.

You might be looking at the wrong log. There is one called Map Log and, below that button, is one for making entries. When you make an entry, the Log program automatically includes destination coordinates. You just add a short description of the location (name of planet, for example).

Btw, what part of Game Note requires re-coding?

From post: 184041, Topic: tid=12228, author=Marvin wrote:

From post: 184036, Topic: tid=12228, author=Janus wrote:I see destination events nowhere in my log. There's All, Contract, Event, Buy, Sell, and Data. Nowhere in there except for Data, is there destination coordinates and in mine there's only one entry.

You might be looking at the wrong log. There is one called Map Log and, below that button, is one for making entries. When you make an entry, the Log program automatically includes destination coordinates. You just add a short description of the location (name of planet, for example).

Btw, what part of Game Note requires re-coding?

Oh. Ok. You're right. And I would definitely recommend that. But for commodity prices and such (and you want the price each, not the total, which is what the general log records) a notepad would be useful.

As for what part requires recoding, just a routine in the startup that would check to see if there were any registry entries or a config file (I use registry entries in the current_user hive). And if not display a license agreement dialog with a yes or no. Click yes and it runs normally. Click no and it's done. But that's the work of just a few minutes.

[Edited on 2-1-2016 by Janus]

From post: 184037, Topic: tid=12228, author=SeeJay wrote:
Myself, I use a little program I wrote that I call Game Note. It's an always on top notepad like app. No worry about saving or loading files. There's one file and when I start it, it loads it and when I exit, it saves it. If anyone would be interested, I can make it available. Of course I'd have to do a bit of extra coding for legal purposes. Simple license agreement so I don't get sued. Let me know if you guys would want to use it and if so I'll spend a few minutes putting in a first time run routine.

I would totally use that. As it stands, I keep a paper notepad on my desk for this stuff. Sometimes, you get so much info from traders and Science Ops that you have to parse through what's interesting to you and what's not.

Well, it's done and ready. I tried emailing it to you SeeJay, but Gmail, which is the email service I use says it's blocked for security reasons. I have no idea why as I ran it through the Jotti Malware scanner and Jotti found nothing. I included an internet shortcut to the results in the zip archive. It's at the following link which anyone is welcome to download it from. Only restriction is I don't allow my programs to be placed on sites that charge for downloading, but banner ads are ok. So if you fit that restriction (which I'm pretty sure you do), you are more than welcome to download it and put it on your site. Link is below.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/sca9v ... Note12.zip

This is the latest version of the program.

[Edited on 2-4-2016 by Janus]

Thanks Janus. I'll check it out. Here is the virustotal results if anyone is interested and doesn't trust Janus (I clearly didn't https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/3a0d ... 454367178/
There is one hit, but it's a heuristics hit so it's a false positive.

That's weird Janus!??

I've downloade it and it's available on my site now. Legacy/tools.

Haven't tried it yet but I will.

I don't use adds nor do I charge anything for downloading, so no worries.

From post: 184105, Topic: tid=12228, author=Bodega wrote:Thanks Janus. I'll check it out. Here is the virustotal results if anyone is interested and doesn't trust Janus (I clearly didn't https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/3a0d ... 454367178/
There is one hit, but it's a heuristics hit so it's a false positive.

So that's why it failed the Gmail security. Well, I regularly scan my PC for malware/viruses. I actually read something about Qihoo AV. Something about they were in trouble for providing different versions for different platforms or something like that. Not sure. It's been a few months since I read it.

And thanks for putting it up on your site, SeeJay. I appreciate it.

I haven't looked at your program yet but, if it's an .exe file, Gmail won't accept it. Simple as that. There is a work-around but, as is, it's a no-go with .exe files.

From post: 184130, Topic: tid=12228, author=Marvin wrote:I haven't looked at your program yet but, if it's an .exe file, Gmail won't accept it. Simple as that. There is a work-around but, as is, it's a no-go with .exe files.

Nope. It was a zip file. I figure they're getting a false positive. Don't know what else it could be. Maybe if it was digitally signed, but I'm not going to spend $100.00 a year to buy a digital signature for freeware.

Thanks Janus, so far so good. Works nicely. Any way you think you can change the opacity or maybe give it a darker theme? Just to look better in the cockpit?

[Edited on 2-2-2016 by Bodega]

From post: 184135, Topic: tid=12228, author=Janus wrote:Nope. It was a zip file.

Zipping an .exe file won't fool Gmail.

Thanks Janus! Great little program. Very handy.

From post: 184163, Topic: tid=12228, author=Marvin wrote:

From post: 184135, Topic: tid=12228, author=Janus wrote:Nope. It was a zip file.

Zipping an .exe file won't fool Gmail.

Oh, so that's it. It's the fact that the .zip file contained a .exe file. Ok. Well, next time I'll rename it .dat and include instructions on renaming. I did a test send between accounts with the gamenote.exe file renamed to gamenote.dat and it sent just fine.

As for the theme, I'll see what I can do. No promises, but I should be able to do something to make it look better.