I voted for the latter, but my memory from MW is that many places werew a bit hard to find. Perhaps better landmarks, or topo/relief on the map.

I don't think the problem with Oblivion was the quest markers, but rather quest design itself. A huge percentage of them pretty much needed quest markers to be progressed - npcs simply didn't give you any information about their locations otherwise. For TESV, quests needs to be changed so that npcs give you a starting point and one doesn't need to depend on quest markers. When toggled on, quest markers need to reflect the npcs' actual directions - specific directions will yield an accurate location and vague ones will be shown as a circle, or directional arrow, etc.

Me too! I had a small journal next to my computer where I would write down directions to locations and everything. Sometimes I also had sticky notes inside the pages with other stuff scribbled on like caves or crypts close to certain areas which I'd want to come back to

I personally wouldn't want Oblivion's way of handling quests (I personally want to feel more involved in quests), but it should be an option for players who would want it.

Option #2 please, "Scrap the Oblivion system and rely on proper quest design to guide players to objectives (i.e. locations obtained by NPCs, obtainable maps, books, and journal entries)."

I loved that in Morrowind, I felt like I was actually exploring and not being blatantly pointed in the right direction by an arrow for everything. Yes I did have a copy of the Morrowind Prophecies on the couch next to me, but I enjoyed looking up the location for stuff and not being lead to it by the game itself. Made it feel much more epic. Guess in my case I considered the strategy guide to be like a traveler's companion guide and less like a cheat book.

I wouldn't mind a compass (not to the extent of OB, ruined the fun of exploring). Putting found landmarks or showing a way-point you added on the map wouldn't bother me, but leave out of quest and un-found way-points.

The problem with the quest marker in Oblivion was simply that it went too far. A questgiver saying "I need you to recover a magic doohicky from dungeon X. Here, let me mark it on your map" and giving you a quest marker pointing to the dungeon is perfectly acceptable to me; it's pointing to the exact spot within the dungeon that the doohicky is located that goes too far.

I'm fine with the map/radar system from Oblivion, however if they made an option to turn off the arrows and icons it would appease everyone.

I had one of those too! I even did it again for Oblivion for all the unmarked locations of interest. And I kept notes on where all the vampire lairs are. You can never kill enough vampires!

On topic, I would like a system that uses the best of both worlds. Have the compass-esque marker on by default for more casual gamers, but give us the option to toggle it off. And have the quest giver actually give us directions! And considering Oblivion had map markers for (almost) every place they could just "mark it on our map" That's a faster way of giving us directions without having to record a lot of dialogue. All we have to do is check our map every so often to make sure we are going the correct way.

I liked Fallout 3's radar showing enemies on the compass, but I hate the reliance on the quest markers, and the friendly green blips (there's too many in cities!)

What I'd like, is a compass that shows nearby enemies and discovered locations (with range depending on a perception-like skill), but ignores friendlies and has no quest markers.

I mean, by all means give us quest markers on the maps, but tone it down a bit. Give us the general area, but not the exact coordinates. Saying "there's a lich in this dungeon who's causing trouble for the townsfolk" should not give us the lich's exact location in the dungeon. Make us use a bit of detective work to figure out where the lich is! If the lich (or whatever) is in the dining hall of an old fort, we should have to learn where the dining hall is- have dead adventurers with hand-drawn maps, or make us talk to an old Legionnaire who used to be stationed at the fort or something- and then, once we know where the dining hall and therefore the lich is, THEN give us a marker.

I'd like not to have location markers, it made exploration less rewarding.

Amen