I just used to drop something in front of the door, but I suppose if it shows you on the map...
Since NPCs can react to discarded items in Skyrim, that would be ineffective in this title. I suppose then, that marking a territory with a spell, blade, or an arrow, could do... Maybe. However, that is also irrelevant due to the map implementation Hines spoke about.
And as for the map signifying whether or not a cave is complete. What constitutes a complete cave? Will it mark a cave as complete if there still remains an item or secret or other not yet identified by the player? Should players themselves be able to mark a cave on the map at their own discretion, to determine for themselves if they feel as if the cave is complete?
Mind you, for the most latter of the above questions, having the cave marked as an automatic feature would surprise the player if they thought they had completed it, or looked everywhere there was to look, and would lure them back at another time instead of the cave being ditched and its hidden contents forever undiscovered. This would prolong and revitialize the sense of exploration for the dungeon, letting the player know there was still something there, whereas they otherwise wouldn't know and therefore couldn't bother to care.
As for immersion all you need to do is role play and pretend that you would have written on a paper map that you had been somewhere in order to not get confused. Some of the fans are a bit unreasonable with some of their complaints. That's what I will be doing.
I am pleased this is in the game as it was one of the annoying things in Oblivion going back to the same dungeon again for no reason
^This relates to my third question.
...I also just marked the cave myself.
in oblivion i had trouble to keep up on which dungeon i have entered whit the exception of the one whit easy names so i like this feature.
hopefully they still respawn.
I didn't like the respawning. I always asked myself, "What then, did I accomplish?" NPCs from elsewhere populating it again would be preferable.
Wasnt really needed. you could just go into the dungeon and look at the map. If it was explored then it would show you. lol. :rolleyes:
But this is a welcome addition to the game.
Basically, yes. Whether or not it was complete was another thing, yet again, dungeons had their own maps too so there was no way not to know. Plus you could just mark it yourself on the map, whatever you wanted to remember about the dungeon.
I just hope the devs definition of "complete"is the same as mine.
This is why I have the purpose of the feature in question.
Why wouldn't it. Just about every D&D based RPG game with any sort of dungeon gameplay has had respawning mobs. Now I can see them having respawns being a more realistic pace though
Morrowind didn't have respawns. And content wasn't randomly generated - therefore dungeons felt as if they had a purpose and I felt that I actually accomplished something. If they do have respawns, I then agree - a more suitable pace would suffice. I remember leaving and entering a dungeon right away in Oblivion, just to come across bandits that weren't there a half a second ago...
Honestly I'd rather they just let us PC players write notes on the map like in Morrowind, but I can see how this will be useful for console players.
I don't like the implementation though, if I read it correctly. When does the game assume I am finished with a dungeon? When I've killed all enemies? I don't go about killing everything I see. When I've looted everything? I don't grab everything I see. When I've done what is needed for a certain quest? I often go back and explore more.
I'd much rather be able to select the dungeon and clicking on it on the map, then assign a color code to it manually meaning whatever I want it to mean, and even be able to type in some text (useful for keeping track of stores).
Example of color codes for wilderness locations.
Red: Found, but not yet entered (leveled creatures not set yet).
Yellow: Partially explored, need to raise a few levels because I'm having my ass kicked in there.
Green: Fully explored all levels, killed what I needed, grabbed what I needed. No need to go back.
For house entrances:
Red: Stores.
Yellow: Guilds/Services.
Green: General public house.
If it turned out that a house had a master trainer, I would recolor it to Yellow to signify this. Placing text, I could write down notes in game, like this Arms store have a sword I want but can't afford in a while.
Auto everything, and people think it's just great? I spend a great deal of paper while playing a computer game (one A5 block per character, and I toss them away to restart from "scratch"). Why? It's a computer, let us be able to use it like one!
Yeah, I'd just do that. I never needed any auto-anything in that regard. That's why this feature feels sort of pointless to me, and maybe annoying, if it ends up telling me its complete when I myself don't feel as if it's the case. Of course, I think 'cleared' the actual term and used just in regard to hostile NPCs. So if the cleared is permanent, then no respawns, not anything major anyway.
» Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:19 am 
