Quest Journal

Related topics: Severlin’s Guide to the Quest Journal

Introduced in the 10th anniversary event Gears of Change, the Quest journal is an in-game tool used to make notes and keep track of quest timers. The Quest journal one of the main panels on User Interface, with it's button located between the Attributes, Skills, & Titles Panel and Map Panel.

What it does

Creates a journal page for a quest with any or all of the following information:
- Title - A text field to enter the name of the page as it displays on both the Journal tab and Page List tab. Character limit: 32.
- Label - A text field to enter a small label for the page. Character limit: 16.
- Notes - A text field to enter notes about the quest. Character limit: 2,048.
- Location - A field used to record your current coordinates by clicking "Record"
- Timer - Three text fields used to enter the timer length in days, hours, and minutes (e.g. 2d 4h 6m) and begin counting down those timers by clicking "Start"
Navigates your journal pages on the Journal tab with buttons for First, Previous, Next, and Last pages.
Sorts, searches, and filters your journal pages on the Page List tab using the following features:
- Clicking "#" to sort the page by page number.
- Clicking "Title" to sort the pages by title as defined on the Journal' tab.
- Clicking "Timer" to sort pages by their timer status - None, Ready, or counting down.
- Clicking "Label" to sort pages by their label as defined on the Journal' tab.
- Entering a search parameter into the search text field, clicking "Search" to filter only pages that match, and clicking "Reset" to clear this search filter.

What it doesn't do

Pages are not created for you by the game, and timers are not automatically added in or counted down. You must create your own pages and remember to start your own timers.
Basic formatting (bold, italics, lists, hyperlinks) cannot be created in the journal. Regular and Special characters are allowed, as are line breaks.
You may only view the journal of the character you are currently logged on to.
Your journal is stored locally. If you use multiple computers, the same journal will not automatically be available on all machines. You will have to manually copy journal files if you wish to keep all machine up to date and using the same files.

Locally Stored Files

The quest journal pulls its information from text files that are created and stored locally. When you click on the Quest Journal button for the first time, a text file is created, and you will see text displayed at the top of the visual window giving you the location and name of the file. The default location is My Documents\Asheron's Call. They follow a standard naming pattern of Journal-<Server>-<Character>.txt, e.g. Journal-Leafcull-An Adventurer.txt.

A blank journal page in this text file looks like this:

<NEWP>
<LABE> 
<TITL> 
<NOTE> 
<DAYS> 0
<HOUR> 0
<MINU> 0
<LOC?> FALSE
<LOCX> 0.000000
<LOCY> 0.000000
<TIM?> FALSE
 0.000000

A filled out journal page may look something like this:

<NEWP>
<LABE> XP050
<TITL> Bonecrunch
<NOTE> See Guide:	http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/Aerbax's_Prodigal_Drudge		Main Quest:	132,000,000xp (20% up to level 180)		Items (2 per run):	66,000,000xp (10% up to level 180)
<DAYS> 6
<HOUR> 0
<MINU> 0
<LOC?> TRUE
<LOCX> 49.400000
<LOCY> 25.600000
<TIM?> FALSE
 0.000000

Because the files are locally stored, you can create, edit, and delete your journals without logging into the game. For example, if you just wrote a nice journal page for a quest on your main character and you want to have the page on your alt, you can open both journal text files and copy the code for the journal page from one to the other. Or if you have a really nice complete journal on your main, and you want to use that journal on all your characters, you can copy the entire contents of the file from one journal file to another, or simply make a copy of the file and rename it. Be aware of what you are doing - copying code from the journal file copies everything, including the timer. If you are not careful you can erase a timer you currently had going, or end up with timers from another character.

Player Created Journal Files

Because the journal text files are locally stored and editable, players can share them with each other.

Gallery

A blank journal page.
A filled out journal page.
A journal page with timer counting down.
A journal page with timer ready.
A blank page list.
A page list with a quest.
A page list with a timer counting down.
A page list with a timer ready.