Ok, like many old Elderscrolls fans, I hated the compass in Oblivion. I also hated the quest markers, most of the time.

Occasionally the quest markers made sense, a well known city being marked on your map, they did that with Morrowind too.

But I absolutely hated how the compass showed every town, city, shrine, garrison, and point of interest about 10 minutes before it was visible on my screen. It removed all exploration, and short of modding, you couldn't turn it off. What's more there was such an over abundance (yes, too many) of dungeons in Oblivion that I just had to take one step into the woods to be totally surrounded by "rare unexplored" ruins and caves. It cheapened the feel of all of them. Exploration was entirely ruined.

Now my main question, that the preamble is leading to...

Do we have any developer quotes or information saying that quest NPCs will give directions? I want to be able to turn off the compass and the quest markers. I couldn't in Oblivion because there was no alternate. You flat out couldn't finish quests sometimes because NPCs would be "In Bruma" or "in a cave in the north". Without quest markers, which I hated using, it was not possible to complete quests.

I know there's a quote from a french magazine that says SOME NPCs "SEEM" to give directions, but are there any more official words on this? Can we turn the compass off?

I'm afraid this is a big sticking point for me. It's the difference between pre ordering and buying the game on sale a year from now.

How?

Those examples sound just like the ones I've seen in Morrowind...

No, really, the quests where they tell you step-by-step in what corner you need to turn were in the minority and mostly in the main quest.

Do you honestly need me to explain to you how exploration is ruined by a giant piece of the UI (that you can't turn off) that tells you where things are miles before you come up to them?

And I'm actually doing my third playthrough of Morrowind, the only quests that have vague directions are ones where the quest NPCs themselves don't know where to find someone. They usually tell you to "go ask around in the corner club" in which case, you go up to an NPC and say a name, and it'll lead you to where you need to go. Which, is immersive and narratively makes sense. Morrowind you could play without waypoints, Oblivion you couldn't. I'm merely asking if NPCs will give directions in Skyrim. I don't need you to tell me that I'm wrong for enjoying immersion and exploration.

Someone reminded me just now that one of the devs said that quest givers would walk you to the nearest path and then point you in the right direction. I definitely remember this (just forgot until now), but I don't have a link for it. Sorry.

Fresh from twitter, Pete Hines: "I guess it should be fine. In some cases you may need help. I dunno. I don't play that way so it's hard for me to say."

Clearly playing without markers wasn't even a small priority at Bethesda if their main PR guy has no idea if it works.

I know what you mean they really need to make the quest givers be more specific and if they can't at least send you to another npc to ask halfway there or something like I hate to say in real life for a fantasy game but I don't think directions should differ between fantasy and reality. At the very least add more information to your quest journal if not telling you themselves.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Aeta_Wave-Breaker%27s_Jewels

Or when I was looking for a certain alchemist they just tell us he has a shop in the city. Actually running around, checking every sign sure added to the challenge and depth...

Or looking for somebody's house in the Foreign Quarter's lower level... except they forgot to tell which house. Running around checking every door was sure added to the experience...


On the whole evil compass marks, they hardly show you what you found. Yes, it shows you there's something ther, like a ruin or habitat, but you'll never know what exactly it is unless you get there.
And fallout even did this much better by making these signs anonymous, so you really don't know what you find.
This is just like seeing something from the distance, and I doubt watchtowers ruined the exploration...


And to be actually on topic, no we don't know, they're supposed to give you more information about the quest depending on your disposition with them, but that's it. Also quest markers are toggleable now, so no need for mods.

Yes, actually, checking signs of an alchemists shop did bring me into the experience. At most it added 2 minutes onto my walking time? But it didn't pull me out the way a giant arrow does. As for Morrowind, the number of quests with poor directions were few and far between. I'm not saying bad directions aren't a bad thing, they're still a flaw. If Skyrim gives GOOD directions, it won't be a problem. I never said Morrowind was perfect, just that many core fans preferred it to the all knowing compass.

And wait, seriously, "you don't know what it is until you get there" isn't going to fly. I know exactly what it is. It's an elven ruin. It says so right on the compass symbol. "You don't know whats inside!" Well, I kind of do actually, because they're almost all the same, but that's a different problem. I never got to "find" the ruin on my own, it was pointed out to me a good 10 minutes before my character could even see it.

We are sorry, We the profound forum members will surely re-release Oblivion without the Quest markers.

Anyway, Skyrim will have a "Way" To turn off certain markers.

I'm always amazed at people's ability not to be able to grasp the problem.

I don't care if I have the option to turn off the quest markers (I know I can)
I care about 2 things

If I turn off the quest markers, with NPCs give enough direction so that I can solve the quest without them?
Can I turn off the compass?

It's not about turning off markers, its being able to actually play the game without markers, which in Oblivion, you couldn't, at all.

Thats not the point of the thread the point is they don't give good enough directions if you turn them off, if they are going to implement that feature its needs to have its own "help" of a kind.

edit: sorry I'm slow apparently

I just better be able to turn land marks off on the compass.

Also a way to turn off that ugly bold font whenever you discover something.