AARs - How do you track progress?

[ccllnply]

This is one big issue that always comes up for me when I'm writing an AAR. I get so involved in trying to track everything that happens in game that I spend more effort and time preparing to write the AAR than I do actually playing the game or actually writing the AAR. I set up folders for each year or month in game and I'm constantly alt+tabbing out of the game to change the destination of screenshots and to fill notes into a Word document I've opened up.

As you can imagine this gets very tedious and it stops me from writing some AARs I'd like to or to give up on ones I've started after a while. I've tried tracking progress less but it often leads to not being able to remember what happened in game and then perhaps having to make up huge amounts of the story, which leads to constantly going in and out of the game to find details I can't remember.

Anyone have any tips on this before my harddrive bursts with all these screenshots I'm taking?

[Dude with the Food]

I think the easiest way to keep track would be write the AAR as you play the game. It suits my attention span to be swapping between writing and game every 10-20 minutes but if you prefer spending longer then it might not work for you.

With storing the screenshots, they should save automatically in the order you take them in but again, I'm not the tidiest person. Your best bet might be improvising the bits you forget and using a few less pictures in overall. Even if you use them out of place, cropping out parts that don't fit like years/turn times etc should work. Most readers won't be that bothered. Even battles can be recreated as custom battles.

[Alwyn]

Dude with the Food's idea of 'play a bit, write a bit, play a bit, repeat' works for me.

I recognise the problem of trying to record everything, producing overwhelming information and removing your enjoyment of the game.

Here are some things that help me, in case they're of any use. I'm sorry if I am saying things which are obvious.

- You can work out whose story you are telling, and what your story is about, before you play and take screenshots. If, for example, you are telling a 'coming of age' story of a young person who joins a unit as an ordinary foot-soldier, then you only need screenshots of battles and events when your main character's unit was present.

- You can keep plenty of saved games. If you are playing a game which allows you to save a video replay of battles after playing them, you can use that feature (ideally, recording the year and location of the battle in the name of the replay.) For me, this reduces the feeling that I need to take screenshots of everything, because I can return to the saved game or watch the battle replay.

- You can play a separate 'just for fun' campaign. This might even be a campaign in which your faction is an ally, rival or enemy of the faction you are playing in the campaign for your AAR. If you do that, then your 'just for fun' campaign might give you ideas for plot-lines in your AAR - provided that you don't end up taking notes while you're playing, removing the fun element.

- You don't have to tell all of your story at the same level of detail. You can (metaphorically) 'zoom in': you can have five chapters about a particularly exciting/important battle and its aftermath, all of which happened in two turns in the game. You can 'zoom out': you can tell the story of the next twenty turns in the first paragraph of the following chapter.

- Not everything in your campaign has to go into your story; not everything in your story has to come from your campaign. A lot of the events and characters in an AAR can come from your imagination. In my previous Ireland AAR and my current Haiti AAR, most (if not all) of the characters don't exist in the game (except, in some cases, as nameless soldiers). My characters sometimes do things which reflect my campaign (for example, they could go on a dangerous mission to set up a trade agreement and, as part of that, acquire some new technology, reflecting what my faction is doing in the campaign) and sometimes act in a way which has no equivalent in the campaign.

[ccllnply]

Thanks for the ideas, guys! I'm reading everything and hopefully people will post a few more.

About the writing as you play, that's a very interesting idea. I have always wanted to be several years/turns ahead of my writing when doing AARs just so I can know what's coming up and have material to make up my own plots. I'll look into it as I play from now on though as many of the ideas I come up with happen as I'm playing and then I just forget about them when looking at the screenshots.

[Dude with the Food]

I have always wanted to be several years/turns ahead of my writing when doing AARs just so I can know what's coming up and have material to make up my own plots

You don't have to write in much detail as you play. If you're still going to spend time going through it to sort out the screenshots, then that part comes after you've already moved on in campaign. There you also edit any mistakes you find and add/remove/change any sub-plots that were either anti-climatic or weren't expected.

[ccllnply]

That's an interesting thought actually, although I feel I should have realised it myself. So would you ever, for instance, start a chapter of your AAR while playing if something interesting happened and then if something else interesting happened that was separate from the first event, start a completely new chapter half way through the first?

Or to put it more simply, do you ever start multiple chapters in one playing session without finishing them the first few?

[Dude with the Food]

I'll be honest, I've never really gone into much detail with my AARs or at least the ones I've shared here. What I usually write covers most of the events ingame however I twist them to sound realistic rather than gamey but I've they are fairly brief.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-A-Man-of-Dale
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ad-de-Espa%F1a

Those are the two that I've posted here. Because I didn't finish either, I don't post anything now unless I'm happy that I can finish it which I never am. They were early attempts and weren't edited much so this is how most of my writing ends up when I'm sort of taking notes of the game. I'm not really sure how to quantify them as chapters but if those were what I did now I'd be going back and editing them more than I did then. Whether or not I covered multiple chapters just depends on how long the playing session is.

[waveman]

I play and take a lot of sceenshots, and take notes on a pad of paper as I go, so I don't have to exit the game to write about it. Then I either transfer the notes onto my computer or into a chapter, or sometimes just leave them on the paper if I'm lazy.

[ccllnply]

I play and take a lot of sceenshots, and take notes on a pad of paper as I go, so I don't have to exit the game to write about it. Then I either transfer the notes onto my computer or into a chapter, or sometimes just leave them on the paper if I'm lazy.

That's what I tried but I'm pretty over the top on organisation. At first I'd set up folders for each chapter but this got too messy because I didn't actually know what was going into the chapter until later when I wrote it. So then I tried to organize them by year but this required going out of the game at the end of each year/turn to change the Fraps directory.

I do think though, I'd benefit from just using a pen and paper than Word or Notepad.

[waveman]

What game? And as long as I don't lose the paper it works pretty solidly for me. My pics are grouped by 1/2-2 years, depending on how long I played and how much happened in M2. So they make some sense, but not much, but the notes clarify everything

[ccllnply]

Mainly Paradox Interactive games so everything is done in real-time, which probably makes it harder. Although, I'd do the same with Total War games.

[Scottish King]

I think taking notes as you go is probably the best choice. Personally, I just remember what was going on from looking at the screenshots I've taken. I usually play the game with a story in mind for me, take screenshots and just use the ones I fill will best fit my story. This method though is probably a lot harder with Paradox games because there is so much going on. Limiting the scale of your story might be one way. Focus on one character and events that affect that individual.

[Stavros_Kalmpou]

Well, I personally record events occuring every turn (total war games) or every year(Paradox games), write it in a paper (which I prefer over storing it in my computer on Word or Notepad) and go from there.
Usually I like being several turns ahead so I can include ''Prophecies'' which make the AAR better in my opinion.
Last but not the least, I choose a writing style for the AAR, be it narration or POV.
P.S. Don't forget the screenies

[ccllnply]

I think taking notes as you go is probably the best choice. Personally, I just remember what was going on from looking at the screenshots I've taken. I usually play the game with a story in mind for me, take screenshots and just use the ones I fill will best fit my story. This method though is probably a lot harder with Paradox games because there is so much going on. Limiting the scale of your story might be one way. Focus on one character and events that affect that individual.

Well, I personally record events occuring every turn (total war games) or every year(Paradox games), write it in a paper (which I prefer over storing it in my computer on Word or Notepad) and go from there.
Usually I like being several turns ahead so I can include ''Prophecies'' which make the AAR better in my opinion.
Last but not the least, I choose a writing style for the AAR, be it narration or POV.
P.S. Don't forget the screenies

Thanks for the ideas guys!

The limiting the scale is interesting. It makes perfect sense but I never really thought about it before. I'll definitely start focusing on it now, thanks Scottish.

And Stavros, I totally agree. Being ahead makes it better. It allows you to write about the lead up to important events and allows you to write around things when the game starts acting weird.