I've always used the map extensively (I used it in Terminator: Future Shock, as well, which may be why I had a headstart). It can get tricky if you've discovered a lot of the dungeon, 'cause you really have to play with rotation AND elevation to distinguish what you're looking at, but I find it VERY helpful very often..

I think the biggest problem people have with the map is that it isn't really a map at all: it is literally a scaled version of the dungeon itself. So it's very 3-dimensional, so you do have to move the camera up and down to follow stairs and ramps, etc. The view distance doesn't help either, as there's a pretty narrow range of height where the map will actually show something.

But really, other than reviewing the immediate area, the map is most useful for 2 things: (1) looking for hidden doors. They may fool you, but they'll never fool your map. Just pop it open before you leave a room and you'll see if you missed something. (2) the micromap, just so you can have an idea of where you are relative to the exit, or when you have left one dungeon block into another. Other than that, large scale retracing of your steps on the map or scouring for a missed passage isn't easy to do.

@Python: Yea, I totally agree about water areas. I hate them, even with all the luxuries of water walking/breathing, I'll often just turn around and say good riddance to your silly mummy wrappings.

Due to the fact that (until now) I'd never had a character that advanced far past level 2 or 3, meaning very low mana generally, I, too, rarely went swimming, but this play through, I'm finding "buoyancy" & "water breathing" work just fine for several of my characters, and I'm going diving. Haven't really found too much doing that, but it does help you finish exploring.

Your first instnicts are correct MRnot - Daggerfall is THE ES of dungeons - vast and scary beyond any other ES game.

And I loved the Daggerfall underwater areas - the slaughterfish were genuinely scary in them - unlike Morrowind. but Morrowind has other stuff that's fine.

I think Castle Wayrest took me more than 6 hours... I even had some printed walkthrough to the painting, of course it was hard to understand, so I found myself in the lobby again and started over a couple times. Back then I knew nothing of this "cheatmode" thingy. Man was it sweet to find the friggin thing eventually. More satisfying than playing through TES3 and 4....

Heh. I forgot to set an Anchor with Recall before heading in there. Some trip that was, getting back out...

If you click on a square, it starts blinking. I ALWAYS do that with the door before going anywhere. It makes it SO much easier to get out again. Takes me from a 2 hour exit trip to a 5 minute exit trip (its still just a teeny bit confusing).

/forehead-slap/

I think I knew that at some point (perhaps early in 1996), but this go-'round, that continued to elude me. Just yesterday, I had a flashing segment in my map and couldn't figure out for the life of me what was so damn special about it. I must have inadvertently clicked the moue button while sliding across the buttons. *D'OH!*

I never knew about this...

...MY LIFE IS A LIE!!!
:ahhh: :ahhh: :ahhh: :ahhh: :ahhh:

Meh... I usually pay attention to the green box... I've gotten much better at memorizing the path to the door from my location (Low strength + not enough banknotes helps here)... I click to see under areas that block my overhead view. 3-D view is a pain to navigate.

also, if you right-click doesn't it make the cell disappear completely?