I do have one criticism, and that is the in-game map. Let's be honest, it's pretty [censored]e. I've been giving this map (http://srmap.uesp.net/) a good-look over, and wow, have I got some world to discover!!!

But back to the map. Could do with some zoom-action. I know there are zoom buttons, but they don't do a lot. And the local maps just look like a grey, er, thing. I do like the 3d effect which enables you to tilt the map. The more you use it, the more sense it starts to make. But even so, I really do think (considering the high quality of the rest of the game) they could have done a much better job.

D

A lot of us don't like the 3D map. Myself I use a mod that makes the map look more like a paper map.

Pseron...that's good to know that's it's not only me!

I have never heard anybody say "Wow! I really love what they did with the Skyrim map! Instead of giving us an olde tyme paper map, they gave us a modern 3D topo map with clouds and whatnot. Yay!" I think the Skyrim map is pretty much universally disliked, along with the rest of the UI.

Yeah, it's kinda ridiculous to have a google map in a fantasy medieval-like game. The only thing missing is the street view with inn reviews. I've been using a paper map too, but most of my characters didn't even look at the map since I more or less know what's where.

Only one criticism? The whole inventory UI is crap. It put me off playing the game for a couple of years (I bought it at release but apart from a 5 hour try out I didn't play it again until the end of last year). Thanks to SkyUI and the unofficial patches the game is now playable, but I still miss having a 'paper doll' in the inventory screen so I can see what my charcter has equipped without having to scroll up and down a list. The map is as good as useless. It needs to be something like the in-world map from Far Cry 2, especially as NPCs talk about marking places on it. What, mark my pocket sized topographical sand table?

Yes, I've been doing this too, when I can. Skyrim feels much larger to me when I'm not looking at a scale model every five minutes. Unfortunately, due to randomly-placed quest-givers and locations I still have to use the map occasionally.

I mostly play in the dark so a paper map would be of little use to me.

I believe he meant an in-game map styled after a paper map like the one in Oblivion, not a physical paper map.

Ahh, you are right. I have heard others though, particularly those on console, who actually use the game's paper map instead of the in game map.

Bethesda really missed a great opportunity to connect the interface with the game world in the way they handled the map. There are maps of Skyrim EVERYWHERE in the game. They could have used these map templates for the in-game map the character uses (I think this is what the map mods do...I'll have to pick one up). If they wanted to maintain the "cool factor" they could have made it with quality textures and added an, uh...unscrolling animation for when you access the map.

Yeah, naturally. When I do look at the map I go to an inn and just RP that I asked someone for directions.

op- one of the best gaming decisions i made was to only look at the game map when i was at a known location. this truly made questing feel real and finding all the locations very rewarding. even now, after 1000's of hours there are many times where i lose sense of where i am and deny myself the map cheat.

personally, i just printed out whatever map online that i liked. however, even better, i had my daughter do a trace map of skyrim, colorized and labeled as she helped me fill it in.

trace a blank slate of skyrim and fill it in as you would if you were truly adventuring there.

That's what I came here to say. Bethesda's interfaces are getting worse with every game, I don't know what's left to break, but they will find it and they will break it in TES VI. It's mystifying how they can understand and embrace the moddability potential, but at the same time completely ignore the fact that not all of us navigate the menus with a controller.

Never mind, already said.

Guilty! ... well in the beginning at least. After some practice, I could manage with the in-game map. At first, I was annoyed and I was jealous of PC mods that really make the map useful. However, now I feel like using personal knowledge built from experience and landmarks makes for a more deeply immersive experience. It's great that there are super-detailed maps and all, but just knowing your way around in the wilderness after repeated trips feels pretty cool. (I know, how come each new PC benefits from all the experiences of the previous play-throughs? He was a kid and tagged along or something.)

When I first played Oblivion I had a journal style book and a fountain style pen I would write notes in, including various maps I would draw for the game, but since I play in the dark, it became too much of a pain always turning a lamp on every time I wanted to look in or write in my journal, that I eventually stopped the practice.

Pshaw!

You want to talk a PITA, check out an old school series like Wizardry. No map, no journal...you had to create a map as you trekked, plotting it out on graph paper. You also needed a notebook to keep track of quests, NPC instructions, et al. And you had to walk uphill to school...both ways...in the snow.

taking that concept to 2015 gaming tech i've often yapped about wanting an interactive journal/map that allows plotting and notes.

For the most part these days, I can tell you exactly where I am in Skyrim at any given moment, simply based on surroundings. I know where each road leads and the best short cuts. Not using fast travel gives you a good lay of the land. So does increasing the draw distance/uGrids so you can see landmarks WAY off in the distance.

Y'know, I don't complain much about the UI or the map. I mean, I have SKYUI, but I could (and have) done without it. Maybe it's because I can remember my first experience with an electronic RPG game. It was on a dos-style text only screen, and went like this:

****

You see a room ahead of you with a table, a tasty dinner on it, and a small dwarf with a tiny knife sitting in a chair beside it.

You:

A) go back the way you came.

B ) attack the dwarf with your weapon.

C) try to sneak past the dwarf.

Enter your choice now.

C

You have been killed by a dwarf with a tiny knife.

GAME OVER thank you for playing.

Restart R) or Exit game E)

*****

When I remember that I actually had fun with that, I really appreciate what In have now, eh?

That's not exactly how I remember those early text based games. The ones I played did not give you multiple choice answers. You had to type in your own answer and if you typed the wrong thing, the computer told you "I don't recognize that command." I once got frustrated because I kept trying to type in the right command that the computer would recognize, but was having trouble figuring out just how to phrase it properly, and I typed in two words that I cannot repeat here. Well, the second word was "you" but I definitely cannot say the first word. So, I typed "_____ you." I was expecting the traditional "I don't recognize that command," when my computer shot back with "Your place or mine, darling?" I laughed myself right off my chair.

The one I played was some kind of prototype being developed at San Angelo University, in Texas. A friend of mine was one of the guys working on it trying to get a doctorate out of the deal...

Anyway, I once entered the wrong password, and it responded "F(censored) you, Neil!"....

....I personally love it. Especially the cool aspect that the map is actually the actual world you're in just from a birds eye view, for example if you kill a dragon and it is burning up, you can see it on the map

Pics or it didn't happen.