So, I've run into several generic "Mercenaries" on the road who are on their way to investigate generic "trouble in the area" and if I convince them to let me handle it for them, I get a generic "map updated" message with no indication of where I need to go.

Good stuff.

Even better when you find or get a note saying go to [insert location name here].

Uh, check your Misc. Objectives? Or for any new undiscovered destinations near you after it says updated?


Not a big deal.

Nothing shows up under Misc. objectives, and when there are 6 million map markers on my map, how am I to know which one they're talking about? The way you dismiss my complaint, you'd think that I never thought to look at the surrounding areas of my map, but I assure you that it was the very first thing I did, because I'm not an idiot.

Is it really too much to ask for a quest giver to actually give me a quest instead of saying "go here" and then not saying anything else?

Well, undiscovered marked locations are in black, right? There can't be THAT many.

There are rarely any at all, because I'm an obsessive explorer. When people send me to locations on quests that ARE specifically marked, they're often already revealed on my map. I have maybe 10 spots on my entire world map that are in black.

And you're unable to keep track of only 10 spots?

There's no quest as such. No reward. None that I've ever seen anyway. They just update your map with a location. If the location is already discovered, you still get the message, but you've already found the place.

Then you kill them because they're usually wearing nice gear.

Yeah.. I know it's no big deal. I'm at the stage in the game where I'll often ignore the huge treasure chests because loot is useless. I think it's really lazy design, though. I think quite a lot of this game is extremely lazy design, and that's why I want to bring attention to it. I want more effort from the next game because I love the ideas so much.

I believe that if you highlight the quest, the map icon over the location changes, or is overlaid, with the "go here" icon.

But, you may have to disable other quests first. Like the main one.

Just look at your journal. Oh, we're talking about Skyirm, aren't we?

There is no quest related to these NPCs. They only hint at a quest-like adventure, and then they serve no other purpose. The information they give may be more useful to someone who is just arriving in the area, but if you've been there before, what they tell you amounts to "I heard there are trees somewhere. Go count them for me."

I think the mercenaries are just a way to get a "free location discovery" — like when guards occasionally say, "Stay away from that Snowrocks Burrowcave, I've heard some weird growlin' come from there..." and then you get a "Map Updated" message. In other words, there's no associated quest, at least not necessarily.

And no... there's no way to tell which location you've discovered. However, Mercenaries are an excellent source of expensive armor later on in the game. I usually talk to them, get the map update, then sneak behind them a ways and blast them with an arrow.

Well I am not a murderer, and I find this mechanic to be nothing but confusing.

I love that people always brush off these complaints like OP is an idiot. The journal in Skyrim is almost game breaking it lacks so much detail at times. It's why my first 30 levels I never did more than 2 quests. Hope we get a mod to have a quest log & journal like Morrowind.