Except that it IS quest information. What don't you get about that?
... I don't get how "Bertia lost a sheep" is quest information. It isn't. It's a sentence saying "Bertia lost a sheep". It's not "Bertia needs help finding her sheep" it's not "Bertia lost a sheep and has asked for your help in finding out who stole it". It's not "Bertia lost a sheep and you found a sheep corpse".
"Bertia lost a sheep" is not a quest. It's not part of a quest. It's just "Bertia lost a sheep".
I'm pretty sure you're missing the point. This is a proper RPG where you get to choose what happens. You found out Bertia lost a sheep. You can do nothing about that. You can track down the sheep and sell its corpse. Or you can find the person who took it and get reparations for the sheep. You get to CHOOSE how the quest plays out. The game doesn't just go A>b>c>d>QUESTCOMPLETELEVELUP. How hard is that to understand?
Also, on your note about a "journal"; how is a journal full of quest entries not a journal? Have you noticed that when you get more information about something an orange note appears saying "Journal Updated!"
EDIT:
And on that point, why didn't the quest update when I found what was obviously her sheep's corpse, in the middle of a reasonably serioues murder investigation. I would have thought that questioning the person who's sheep ended up being a shoe-in for the corpse of a government official might be important. Nope. Nothing at all. But still the little "quest" line sitting there.
A simple "You've found Bertia's sheep, best hunt down who took it" instead of leaving me hanging, unable to talk to the person who it makes sense to talk to. That would turn it from a meaningless piece of trivia written in a quest log, into a quest.
This is what I mean by hand holding. Why didn't it occur to you to go find the person who took the sheep? Why did you NEED a big flashing arrow from larian to tell you that was the next logical step?
