I've done a captain's log for every mission on my main character, and on a few occasions I've even just made up random logs when I've been away for a few days or just not done any major missions for a few days.
On my alts I've not really bothered with it.
Feel free to see what I've written. My main's name is Nykod Tahl.
I ask this because I've just found out (on my 3rd character :P ) that the logs on your character info page allow for entries.
Yes, I know, I'm such a klutz. I honestly found out about this yesterday.
So, who actually puts in proper captain's logs?
That feature has been in since launch, but I haven't really bothered to use it, because I usually can't be bothered to write about the missions I just completed or my personal thoughts on things...
I think it would be nice if it had Champions Online's Lore feature where it automatically put a summary of your experiences in as a log entry. It's nice to look back at the stuff you've done. Right now, the log just shows the mission start text. I wish it showed the results e.g. "You saved the Deferi and met the Preservers!"
Or something similar. I hope the reason they didn't add that feature was because they just expect us to write it ourselves as our personal logs...
I try to keep personal logs for all my characters--and with all the alts I have (and will have), that's saying quite a bit. The logs provide one of the best RP venues. Some of my characters are flippant (I'm looking at you Inrale), others are opportunistic and selfish (hello Lucretzia), others filled with anger and the desire for vengeance (Liam in his upcoming entries).
I also like the idea of a Lore feature like Galaxtrix suggested. Yes, it's a "warm fuzzie", but warm fuzzies matter and you do like to look back every now and again and say to yourself, "Wow! [character name]'s done good!"
My main char has captain's logs and supplementals for every mission from the tutorial up through the weeklies. Some entries even reference some of my other chars. I had always planned on doing a story or something. Never got around to the story part, but I still like to keep the logs.
Our ships don't have bathrooms. I've never had to drop a captain's log.
I was just waiting for a comment like this It always makes me laugh every time I hear "Captains log, stardate xxxxx" in the series. Makes me wonder if he reaches down and puts a stardate on each one so he can identify it later. Eeeeeewwww!!
As for the game, unless you RP, I can only see a use as a levelling record. State what rank you were at the start and what time you played from and to and the rank at the finish. Put all these together and you can see how many hours it took to rank up to VA. Make sure you include times when you were in Memory Alpha doing research and see exactly how long it took to max out research, scanning anomolies for the mats you needed etc.
I think it would be interesting to see how many hours are spent by the average player grinding, farming, doing research or just generally socialising in the game. I think it would give a clear picture of what areas of the game need to be looked at as a priority. My guess is farming is the biggest consumer of hours in this game since the rare traces are not the easiest of things to get and it's infuriatingly difficult to get the ones you need but surprisingly easy to get loads of the ones you don't.
Beamed down to football pitch size planet and found 6 computers all pulgged into the ground that appeared to be flashing, we have encountered this phenomenon before, infact we encounter this on every planet we visit.
I thought I would be using the in-game captain's logs (drat--now I can't say that with a straight face) but have abandoned them.
I'm now writing material for a couple of blogs I've set up (see the links in my sig). I'm trying to take the basic missions and add a lot of background and detail, so it's really more like fiction than a straightforward report of what happened. It's going agonizingly slowly, but it's fun (for me at least).
I know some other people are doing similar things--I've got links to some of their pages on mine.
I use the captain's log to jot a quick reminder note if I really enjoyed a mission; and also to note any serious bugs that might have kept me from completing it (like the asteroid-related stuff in Cold Call, and Night of the Comet that I and others have bugged or sought GM help on), so I don't (in futility) keep trying to complete it.
You can do a search of the logs, thankfully, so even if it's filled up with a zillion things, you can usually find one you've written.
I'd start using the log if I'd had an option to disable the nondescript texts the game enters automatically every time you do something. x_x
Just discovered that you can now enter articles by using the Captain's Database. Neat. I could've sworn this wasn't always so. But still, way too much generic spam in there.
I do write captain's logs to flesh out the backstory of my character and his crew. I don't do them for every mission, but it adds a great aspect to the game in terms of roleplaying value.
Comments
On my alts I've not really bothered with it.
Feel free to see what I've written. My main's name is Nykod Tahl.
That feature has been in since launch, but I haven't really bothered to use it, because I usually can't be bothered to write about the missions I just completed or my personal thoughts on things...
I think it would be nice if it had Champions Online's Lore feature where it automatically put a summary of your experiences in as a log entry. It's nice to look back at the stuff you've done. Right now, the log just shows the mission start text. I wish it showed the results e.g. "You saved the Deferi and met the Preservers!"
Or something similar. I hope the reason they didn't add that feature was because they just expect us to write it ourselves as our personal logs...
I also like the idea of a Lore feature like Galaxtrix suggested. Yes, it's a "warm fuzzie", but warm fuzzies matter and you do like to look back every now and again and say to yourself, "Wow! [character name]'s done good!"
Oh wait... you mean the kind you type? My bad. I was very confused for a moment.
Yeah, I've written a few. I just wish that Foundry missions add a few too.
As for the game, unless you RP, I can only see a use as a levelling record. State what rank you were at the start and what time you played from and to and the rank at the finish. Put all these together and you can see how many hours it took to rank up to VA. Make sure you include times when you were in Memory Alpha doing research and see exactly how long it took to max out research, scanning anomolies for the mats you needed etc.
I think it would be interesting to see how many hours are spent by the average player grinding, farming, doing research or just generally socialising in the game. I think it would give a clear picture of what areas of the game need to be looked at as a priority. My guess is farming is the biggest consumer of hours in this game since the rare traces are not the easiest of things to get and it's infuriatingly difficult to get the ones you need but surprisingly easy to get loads of the ones you don't.
Beamed down to football pitch size planet and found 6 computers all pulgged into the ground that appeared to be flashing, we have encountered this phenomenon before, infact we encounter this on every planet we visit.
I'm now writing material for a couple of blogs I've set up (see the links in my sig). I'm trying to take the basic missions and add a lot of background and detail, so it's really more like fiction than a straightforward report of what happened. It's going agonizingly slowly, but it's fun (for me at least).
I know some other people are doing similar things--I've got links to some of their pages on mine.
They're being installed on tuesday.
You can do a search of the logs, thankfully, so even if it's filled up with a zillion things, you can usually find one you've written.
Just discovered that you can now enter articles by using the Captain's Database. Neat. I could've sworn this wasn't always so. But still, way too much generic spam in there.