I found the graybeards was one of the easier places to find. Simply made route for that village on the east side of the mountain, then walked up the road from there.

Yes, I prefer 2D maps. Skyrim's map is difficult to navigate and just looks weird.

I spent most of my time trying to find it from the other side of the mountain, only ended up back in Helgan on an unrelated quest and found a way from there. ><

Oblivion's map would not work for Skyrim. Skyrim is extremely vertical. While in Cyrodil you can mostly just go in a straight line to where you want to end up, Skyrim has giant freaking mountains everywhere. You need to know where those are in relation to landmarks.

What I would have done is kept it 3D, but have a button that toggles the texture between the realistic physical map we have now, and a simplified navigational map that shows roads and bridges.

The map should have used a separate model of the game world, that way it could have it's own Textures and actually be Hi-res enough to see where we are and what's around us, the idea of the google earth style map in theory is nice but it didn't work that well.

Oblivion's is better.

there is a reason humans still use maps despite the technology to have a camera show us a birds eye view... i cant believe i even need to say this :shakehead: .

the in-game map is supposed to be for navigation, i dont know what the hell skyrims map is trying to do, but it sure as hell isnt helping me navigate anything. ive often found the undetailed terrain to throw me for a loop and actually hinder my progess.

this isnt freakin rocket science; make a paper texture, some roads, and where towns are in relation to the roads. instant map. the map, and now that i think about it alot of new features in skyrim, are less about functionality and more about "see our 3D models? they look so cool dont they! LOOK AT IT!"

True but a 3D map does not need roads as much as a 2D map. in 3D you can view over and around mountains and determine a route, where as a 2D map needs the roads as guides to tell players where roads are in relation to a 2D drawing of a mountain or lake

This^ now this is a great idea. Bethesda should have thought of this.

I like the map in Skyrim and find it to be very useful. I got a paper map with my copy of the cd & find it to be completely useless.
When I look at my state map I see the whole state at once not just the area that i'm in at the time.
I do like the idea of adding notes to the map, so you can come back to look at things later too.

yeah i like the oblivion map better..

oblivion's definitely, even though it was quite bare. any 2D map would be an improvement really. it's pretty clear that the 3d map is a gimmick only. morrowind was quite mountainous aswell (though not to the same extreme) and it's 2D map worked fine.

If anything, the Skyrim map seems to be a reflection of the entire game. All style, little substance.

Don't get me wrong, doesn't mean it's not a blast to play or that i'm not having fun, it just seems that in a lot of areas in the game they focused WAY too much on aesthetics instead of practicality and ease of use (see: UI, Game Map, Skill system, Perks, Combat). I guess that's where mods come in, but really, some of these things should be common sense and shouldn't have the community to rely on fixing it up.

I mean seriously though, not even showing the ROADS?! On a bloody MAP?!?!

EDIT:




Yeah but see, that would make sense if you could actually zoom in properly. Skyrim's zoom range seems to be from 30,000ft to 25,000ft. And most of the time there are clouds in the way :shakehead:

I dont see how a actual zoom helps with telling the player on what side of the mountain he/she is on. Roads arent that big of a help at all, the map shows you your current location and where you want to go, you then make a mental note of where that is, N/S/NE/SW etc then use your compass and or map marker to travel to that location.

No its not oblivion where you can just cut through terrain, but going around a mountain is just as easy as looking at the map and actually seeing where the base of the mountain is relative to yout char.

No the map is not perfect but i think its brings somthing new to the table and changes up the same ol plain paper map. Remember maps would not be created if people didnt learn how to navigate by terrain without the help of roads and compasses

I think the 3D map is helpful at times and it just looks cool but there are some situations where i would rather have a 2D map. :shrug:

Says you. I can kludge my way up and over even the Throat of the World. It's even easier if you're on a horse.

I have one major good thing and one major bad thing:


good: I can spot mountain passes, and plot paths through them. The topographic feature of a 3D map is useful is a mountainous province.

bad: I can't see roads.

I guess I'm one of the few who doesn't mind the Skyrim map (damning w/ faint praise, I know...)

The utility of the Skyrim map gets better as you discover more locations, provided you use fast travel. I can whip across the entire world and select my destination much faster than I could in Oblivion. However, if I wasn't a fast traveler, then yes, it would be hideous. BTW, I think the cloud cover slowly dissipates as you wander about, so that becomes less of an issue after a while.

The dungeon maps, on the other hand, are awful - particularly for forts.

I liked the 2D map better, but the 3D one is kind of neccesary because of Skyrim's geography.

There are ways to show mountains on a 2d map no matter how big they are.

yes there are, but to show you exactly where you are on a mountain is very hard on 2D than 3D and with skyrims geography the map fits very well



hehe and people comeplain horses are useless

Oblivion's map is better. Oblivion's journal is much better. Oblivion's UI is better (never thought I'd have to say that, ever, in regards to another Elder Scrolls game :shakehead: ). Oblivion's magic is better. Oblivion's quests are better. Oblivion's faction questlines might be better.

Skyrim's world is much better. Skyrim's dungeons are much better. Skyrim's AI might be better. Skyrim's main quest is better. Skyrim's political backdrop is better. Skyrim's enemies seem better, but there are much less of them.

Skyrim's a great game and all, and I love it, but I think people demonise Oblivion a bit too much. I have very fond memories of Oblivion, and I can say without nostalgia clouding my judgement that I prefer some aspects of Oblivion to those we find in Skyrim.

The two problems I have with Skyrim's map are that you can't see any of the roads, and that it's impossible to place your blue personal marker on top of your current location. It's also impossible to place your personal marker near a location while its name is selected; you can only place a marker right on top of whichever location is nearby and selected. This is on PC using the mouse, mind you. If anyone knows a fix, that'd be great.

as previously stated, i hated oblivions UI way to choppy on a console vs the PC. ill make my personal comparison.

oblivions compass was tiny and stuck in an odd plae on the screen, got used to it but after seeing how skyrim incorporates it into the enemy health system skyrim wins for me

inventory was alright in oblivion, i cant say it was bad, but i like this new system more, same sub-menus for items (weaps, armor, potions, etc) and it still gives the same info on items on the right. i havent had a problem with sorting in skyrim since the carrying capacity is more toned down to 300-400 on most rogue / mage classes and since everyting is alphabetical and not just randomly thrown in to where i have to sort it, i can find it easily with no hassel.

Im not getting into magic, for i have a very strong opinion about it.

eh faction quests are dull on both ends. skyrim at least gives us somthing to do once we become guild master, we can continue to do menial tasks etc

Quests is general though skyrim has oblivion beat by a mile. oblivion has a lot of fetch quests having you run from city to city, you get some variety but nothing too interesting to blow your mind. Skyrim divides the misc tasks and main objectives rather nicely.
fetch quests are delt seperatly while main quests appear in the journal. skyrims quests have alot more depth to them some lasting mere minutes while some having long chains.

oblivions journal felt cluttered instead of naming the quests they were logs in a journal that you had to skim to really remember what quest you wanted to do. Skyrim as said presents it more available to the player easily and less time in menus and more time in the field

you could argue story, UI, graphics, AI, Combat, anything all day, but in the end they are two completely different games made seperate from each other, its like comparing apples to oranges

I would have preferred the Oblivion map or the Fallout map.

I hate Skyrim's map, I can't find anything, anywhere.