does that mean there's no compass?

Sorry if already mentioned.

HUD is optional, perhaps a toggle feature. If there is no HUD then it's implied that the compass would go away.

The HUD appears when you need it to appear. If you've taken damage, if you're in a fight, there will be a HUD. If you're at full health and are just strolling around town, there will not be a HUD.

There is a compass. Whether or not it relies on the HUD being active or not, I don't know.

Yes that is what I figured but I had forgotten about the compass until I popped Oblivion back in.

There isn't strictly speaking no HUD, it's been explained that the health, magicka and stamina bars exist, they're just not shown when they're not needed, which presumably means, for example, if you're not in combat and you're health is full, you won't see you're health bar. There will, however, be a small compass visible on screen at all times to help find directions. If you're wondering if we'll have compass arrows for quests like in Oblivion or not, though, we don't know, we haven't been told about that.

Edit: Ah, looks like someone answered the question already.

To add on to what Selbeth said, the compass has been moved to the top center of the screen.

I want to go back to how it was in Morrowind and using the journal's instructions. Sometimes it'd take 3 hours just to find a place but you discovered so many places along the way.

I've always wondered why the compass didn't just come up when you opened your map or something.

Because it’s nice to have in dungeons or areas where it’s hard to navigate, Quest marker is really no problem to get rid of just select a quest with no quest marker as active.

Just simple compass or compass with nasty green quest marker?

I want a simple realistic compass, and not the god-mode compass of Oblivion. Although, if Skyrim's is oblivion-esque, i'll just disable the entire HUD. I'm hardcoe like that. :flamethrower: :cryvaultboy:

It's already confirmed that it's not "stricly no HUD" but rather "elements of the HUD appear only when needed". F.e. if your health is at full, you won't see your health bar. That said, the compass is something that's "allways needed" and thus you'll allways see it (yes, that's confirmed as well).

I like it this way too. Why display something you don't need to see?

There is a HUD but it only appears when your in battle or your Health isn't full. Once your healths full it takes a couple seconds and then the HUD goes away.

Yes Quest Markers are in but to what extent their effects are is still unknown. It'll probably be similar to Fallout 3 but who knows.

I think the compass is always there. Just health, mana and weapons contextually appear.

As long as I can disable the compass on the HUD yet still have it in on the map screen I will be happy. I don't actually need to see the compass at all to know where to go, I do have a map. I will have a look at it and the compass then work out my bearing and head off in a direction and wander and memorise landmarks until I get a good sense of direction, learning where to go.

I don't walk about in real life with a map and compass infront of my face. Same for dungeons, I just remember where I have already been and I use my brain to figure out where the chest containing the stolen goblet is located by exploring. How does the man whom it was stolen from know the exact chest it was placed in in the Troll Cave anyway? It's like people who drive by the GPS in GTA ignoring the world that was created for them, why not appreciate that what was built to explore? Half the fun of adventuring is the unknown and getting lost, not following in arrow.

I think most people are like me, they don't mind the compass or quest markers they just want the choice. I once spent a good week looking for a cave in Morrowind, a week! Most people would get driven mad by that but I loved it, I explored every faucet of that island and dripped every bit of information from so many NPCs I would pour over the hard copy map looking for clues. It was bloody horrible, yet the joy I felt when I found that cave oh man alive. Now I understand some people wouldn't like that, so give them the choice of quest markers and on screen compasses but in doing so don't forget to give me the choice not to.

I think the real issue with the compass, especially in Oblivion, was that it emphasized the destination rather than the journey. In Morrowind, it was the journey that was so intriguing because once you finally arrived, so much had occurred. This was lost in Oblivion due to the randomization of dungeons and the lack of static hand-placed content. There was really no reason to consider the journey, thus the compass served its purpose. It got you to the destination so that you could avoid the journey as much as possible. Of course, this is probably a good thing in the case of Oblivion since exploration was an extreme weak point of that game. I think many consider the leveled-loot/monsters and exploration that games biggest weakness. It was a very lackluster experience in those departments.

Hopefully in Skyrim, the compass will help us find our way, but not be a direct indication of where to go exactly. I think a lot of the inspiration of a compass stemmed from MMOs, however, a compass is needed in online gaming where the majority of the content is repeated ad infinitum. You just want to get to the destination because you've already undergone the journey so many times. Whatever speeds up the process is what will be preferred.

In a single player experience, it's the exact opposite. We want to experience the journey every time we play. Oblivion was not able to do this for many of us because the journey was so cookie-cutter and uninspired. Hopefully Skyrim can find a balance between the many faults of this series and innovation.

although i do agree with that immensly .. it did annoy me when i did end up doing that for it all being next to worthless.. so the choice to bring it up when you're lost
or a compass without quests markers option

Didn't they say the compass is now on the top of the screen?

Compass always on, HUD not always on.

Hey All, I think that it would be great if they tailored the quests towards a non-quest marker playing style, but allowed the choice of toggling the quest marker on and off in the options menu for more casual/action oriented players.

What I mean is that simply disabling the quest marker is not a good enough solution because many of the quest givers never gave very good directions.
In Morrowind the directions were good, but not great. In Oblivion the directions were practically nonexistent.

I agree, I want it to be possible to play the game without a hud. Oblivion was over reliant on compass points and map markers, I want to be able to open my quest log and figure out where I need to go. I want directions such as ' Walk East of the ********** road until you meet the ****** shaped rock, Direct West from this is location'.

If it were like this it would add a new dynamic to quests for those not using the compass marker system.

Is there any word or guesses whether the crosshair will be always on or togglable? I'm kind of hoping so since I tend to have trouble aiming at anything without it (combat or not). Actually, I'm hoping the whole HUD is a toggle as to whether we want it all the time or just when the game decides we need it. Might want the thing always on in some characters.

But I suppose I'd learn to live with it if not.