Thought this might be a worthy topic for discussion. My personal take is that, while the current radar system does save a lot of time and frustration on the part of the player trying to find the quest objective, it sort of detracts from my sense that I am really exploring new places. I mean, how is it reasonable that I can hone in on a long forgotten ruin so long as I'm somewhere within a quarter mile radius. Also, having that directional arrow mostly had me watching the compass, zooming form quest point to quest point and not really taking in the moment/observing what was around me.

I think a better way of doing this would be to leave it up to the player to find hidden ruins, and to prevent aimless wandering, just implement proper quest design/ guidance that doesn't include a radar ala call of duty or halo.

you could have simplified it to "morrowind or oblivion"
I'm going vote for the second one, but I really want them to do something entirely different.
so... NEITHER!

i agree i want something new

I'm fine with being able to see caves and the like on the compass before actually being able to see them. I liked to think my character had really good hearing and could hear the howling wind coming out of the cave, or the enemies making noise in front of it. It wasn't a huge distance that you could detect them by anyways, only 30 or so feet as I recall (but I could be wrong here, been a long time since I've played)

However, questmarkers are a different story. In-game instructions would be greatly preferred as well as pronounced landmarks. Part of the problem was that Oblivion had randomized landscape, hurting the ability to place unique landmarks. The best solution would be to make quest markers toggleable and give out good directions therefore keeping both those who like them and those who don't happy.


I am curious as to what your idea for a third option would be, where you are neither told and given in-game instruction (like Morrowind) nor pointed to the spot with a quest Marker (like Oblivion). The only third option I see is you are given no directions at all, which doesn't sound very fun to me

Easier to ask for a third option than to actually come up with one that works.

There was a thread about this not too long ago. Overall people though the map markers made Oblivion to easy. They were only implemented because Morrowind's quest directions would consist of "Go northwest and turn a right at this rock." I believe that maybe there should at least be a marker for a general area, but Bethesda shouldn't just give us obvious GPS either at the same time.

I like the one from Oblivion.

I don't want undiscovered landmarks to show up on my compass, I'd rather be surprised to find one.

Oh please, how the hell can people ask for the Oblivion type compass...

:goodjob:

They should put a sort of colored area on the map indicating where a quest objectively is generally located, because I assume the npc would point it out for you if you asked. Blindly stumbling around for quests when you do have a map is absurd. The Arrow "homing beacons" on the other hand are quite unnecessary. People will find the side stuff while exploring the "shaded" map areas for quests.

well, unfortunately, I'm not making the game
but perhaps when you initiate the quest, you will be told what roads (if they are named) to follow, along with a sort of general directional compass
OR, maybe the npc will actually lead you to it and fight with you
actually, that would solve a lot of problems, so if the npc leads you to a cave, you don't have to walk all the way back to end the quest.
but they'd have to bring guards with them!
I'm sure, with enough time, they could make a better system than I can if a few minutes

How about this? We still have quest markers, but they only show up on the map in our inventory and not on the magical compass. That way, it still gives us the feeling of having to check our map and other notes to see where we're going (Morrowind) but at the same time it won't be as confusing as just written notes and we get to see the EXACT location of where we have to go (Oblivion).

The best of both worlds.

Oh. And I'd definitely like the landmark indicators on the compass to go away. Or at least appear much closer to said landmark instead of half a mile away and out of our peripheral vision.

Morrowind style, I want to have to get lost to find where I need to be.
@ Gurkog keep your WoW quest system out of my TES. /rawr No seriously though...

If you don't like map markers then just have an active quest and go on a different one, and really not all of Oblivion's quests had map markers

One of my fondest memories of Morrowind was the physical journal that I kept at my desk, filled with names, locations, directions, and more. No need to do that with Oblivion's compass. What would be nice is if one could find a magical compass that is incredibly rare, yet gives the player the Oblivion style compass. Otherwise, a slightly easier to follow version of the morrowind system would be nice.

But we rarely get any other directions.

Bingo! When something like the radar system is implemented, facets of the game are modeled around it. I dare say Oblivion would be broken without it.

Good idea for a hardcoe mode that kinda resembles FO:NV.

Yeah, but if the main quest isn't designed with the hardcoe in mind, then it could be impossible to locate quest objectives.

Morrowind style please! Oblivion's compass and map markers ruined the quests for me.

I wouldn't mind an entirely new way of doing it, though.

All the polls in this forum are so rigged rofl.

Almost all of them are Morrowind versus Oblivion charged, and equally they are all so negatively embelished towards one or more of the poll options (usually the one the poster doesn't agree with).

i shouldnt have to work around the game to play it the way i want to... so the suggestion of turning it to another quest is just dumb. morrowind at least made you think

You've worded that poll in a very bias way by saying, "rely on proper quest design." You're essentially making anyone who reads it think, "Well I guess the Oblivion system was broken." Really it should be about preference.

Agreed thought I don't think its going to happen. Fallout's system was a little less vague as you didn't know what kind of location you were stumbling into, but I still think this isn't good enough.

In Daggerfall you had to ask for directions. This could easily be done. Simply record every direction for each race (N,NW,NE,S,SW,SE,W,E) thats 8 directions, theres 10 races and 2 genders. According to some simple math thats roughly around 160 different pieces of (short) recorded dialog.

We could revert to Morrowind/Daggerfall dialog menus and there could be a where is section with all your active quest locations. You then click the location and the NPC tells you what direction its in.

Some NPCs might not even know, depending on where they live or their disposition.

I'd prefer written directions and a map marker and compass arrow you can toggle on/off.

So, a combination of both.