Compass or no Compass: that is the question!

Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 2:09 am

Compass is fine, that makes enough sense, but quest arrows should be out or just used for very rare occasions.

I think quest arrows completely destroy the experience. They remind me of MMO's which are meant to be sped through without any knowledge of what you're even doing, basically pure grinding or power gaming. But that's not Elder Scrolls. Elder Scrolls actually has interesting quests that are worthwhile, and I think it adds to the experience when you actually have to find stuff with given directions, and not just follow the little green arrow. I'll admit, Oblivion did sometimes have stuff like this, directions to a place so it made it easier when we could use mods to turn off quest markers, but not all the time did we get directions, actually it was just very few times.

The main problem that is brought up tends to be NPC AI. Since NPC's are out doing many things every day, and sometimes different things on different days it can make it very hard to find specific NPC's. I've often thought that a solution to this would be to have it so you could ask other NPC's about quest specific NPC's and have them tell you their schedule, or what they might know about their schedule. This might be something too complicated, but only because all lines will be voice acted so they can't just mock up something that reads the AI packages and converts it to a reply. So there you go another thing that full voice acting ruins (though I'm not necessarily saying I'd rather not have voice acting).

Hopefully what people saying about the game having no HUD at all is true, and what we write in our journal, and conversations we have with other people actually help us get to where we need to go rather than the magic green arrow that knows all.
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marie breen
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 6:31 pm

Optional so everyone is happy.


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willow
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 12:37 am

I am not sure in which game it was, but you were able to disable each single hud incon that helps you seperately.
I'd like to play it with the wooden signs on the paths only. :liplick:
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Ice Fire
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:06 pm

HUD was confirmed to be toogleable. So no compass! :D

I would like for them to add an equipable compass like they have for minecraft compass and watch.(only not in 8 bit)

Makes it feel a bit more immersive and you won't have to guess to much on where your at on the map.



I also want us to be able to mark the map with as many arrows as we wish in the menu map. Also be able to nick name some areas we found if they don't show up on the map.

Not just one measly addable map marker. I want at least 20 addable map markers that I can nick name and delete or move.-And of course they wouldn't tell you where to go.(hated that in FO3)
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Annick Charron
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:19 am

I'm not really a fan of those arrows, but I don't think that they ruined TES gameplay like the poll says. I can't stand when a poll only gives you options that put extra words in your mouth.
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Louise Lowe
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:12 pm

I have to say I hated morrowind because I never knew where to go. Sure I figured it out but becoming frustrated feeling like you are wandering and can't find what you are supposed to look for is not fun. I don't get all the hate over a dot on the map (which is in about everygame now days I might add).

If you don't like it make a mod to take it away and play things your way. After all there is a reason it is in the game and that is to keep things moving forward and not to frustrate the gamer.
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Juliet
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:28 am

No undiscovered location markers is the most important, basically, no magic compass please, it's really, really annoying
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phil walsh
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 10:25 pm

I have to say I hated morrowind because I never knew where to go. Sure I figured it out but becoming frustrated feeling like you are wandering and can't find what you are supposed to look for is not fun. I don't get all the hate over a dot on the map (which is in about everygame now days I might add).

If you don't like it make a mod to take it away and play things your way. After all there is a reason it is in the game and that is to keep things moving forward and not to frustrate the gamer.

1. Consoles don't have mods

2. Sometimes I don't want a game to hold my hand and tell me exactly where to go. Sometimes I have to pick a different quest to be selected in my journal so I can ignore the arrow at the bottom of my screen. Sometimes I forget to do that and accidently see the direction I'm supposed to go. I should at least have an option to turn certain things off.
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ImmaTakeYour
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:59 pm

Optional is a word I like to hear in TES, as it means we have options.
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Ysabelle
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 1:32 am

I have to say I hated morrowind because I never knew where to go. Sure I figured it out but becoming frustrated feeling like you are wandering and can't find what you are supposed to look for is not fun. I don't get all the hate over a dot on the map (which is in about everygame now days I might add).

If you don't like it make a mod to take it away and play things your way. After all there is a reason it is in the game and that is to keep things moving forward and not to frustrate the gamer.

In your defense Morrowind didn't always give good directions, but when it did it was great. Thats a flaw with Morrowind, poor directions at times.

A lot of people can't get mods, or have had bad experiences with them. Mods aren't the solution to everything, otherwise you should have made a mod in Morrowind to put your magic compass and arrows in.
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Alyesha Neufeld
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:01 pm

In your defense Morrowind didn't always give good directions, but when it did it was great. Thats a flaw with Morrowind, poor directions at times.

A lot of people can't get mods, or have had bad experiences with them. Mods aren't the solution to everything, otherwise you should have made a mod in Morrowind to put your magic compass and arrows in.


I did use a mod that had a compass that gave me better direction that was after I finished the game. My point is that the reason it is in the game is to keep people playing rather then getting frustrated. It is also easier to make for developers and does not ruin experience or immersion. You can explain it by having magic in the game by the very Deus Ex Machina nature of magic anything is possible therefore you have directions to where you are supposed to go.

1. Consoles don't have mods

2. Sometimes I don't want a game to hold my hand and tell me exactly where to go. Sometimes I have to pick a different quest to be selected in my journal so I can ignore the arrow at the bottom of my screen. Sometimes I forget to do that and accidently see the direction I'm supposed to go. I should at least have an option to turn certain things off.


I don't think it is hand holding at all you still have to make the journey. It saves a time waister that going to your map and looking for a non-marked non-de-script thing. It gives people more reason to keep playing rather then stop playing. I feel your argument is more a nostalgia desire to go back to something that was inefficient because back in the day everything was better. Like when you had to make a map that you drew by hand to finish a game. This is something that most people don't really honestly want and will be very much complained about because lets face it google maps changed the world and made things easier.
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StunnaLiike FiiFii
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 1:24 am

I think there should be a compass but, it dosn't tell you where to go. It should just have directions.
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adam holden
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 7:41 pm

SSSSOOOOUUURCEEEE!!!

Let me guess, you asked Pete on twitter? :P


Errrrrr... not really. Okay, it's not confirmed. But do you really think Bethesda will make it 100% HUD-less? I doubt it. There should be a way of showing the health and magicka.
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..xX Vin Xx..
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:30 am

If I can get straight forward directions like in Daggerfall, I wont mind much, I will literally murder anyone giving me vague or wrong directions, when they should know better. They shall suffer as I will suffer.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Almost forgot, there should definitely be a compass that points north, if nothing else.
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JeSsy ArEllano
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:32 pm

I want to be able to play without any markers on the HUD, but keep the HUD. I dont mind the compass.
Having to toggle the whole HUD off just to avoid seeing markers would be more than annoying.

Markers on my map do not bother me as I normally know where I'm headed anyway (so its not like its showing me anything new - provided the quests info wasn't @)*(?? like some in Oblivion because you had the markers anyway)

What would be REALLLLY cool, is to have a compass (pointing North) you can put your own markers on (as well as on the map - to set yourself a personnalized direction) or a smaller version of the map you could toggle onto your HUD if your scouring an area for the location you need to find. (Like walking with the map pulled out)
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Julie Ann
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 8:01 am

no quest marker is good... but then the quests should be designed so that npcs give us hints how to get to locations.... like,.... "go southest from here...then you will see a big tree then go east"

if quest giver wont give us hints how to get to locations then things will be tough if we turn of quests markers...

*english is not my native language so sorry bla bla bla
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kasia
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:22 am

No quest markers would be nice unless they're really extremely vague in their directions, but we still need a regular compass and to be able to mark things on the map ourselves.
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sw1ss
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:28 am

From what has been discussed in the GI article, it could be inferred that the compass won't be in the game anymore due to the HUD-less gameplay. The quest markers however need to stay in the game but instead just need to mark the general location of the quest as marked down by the quest giver in a RP aspect. Of course we also need some quests that are like the Pale Pass quest where it tell you a general location and landmarks to guide you to your destination, although the majority should be the quest marker quests to a general area and not pinpoint objective.
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Kelvin Diaz
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 12:01 pm

Aight, so I played oblivion as my first TES game, and then I just recently started playing morrowind. While some of the directions leading to caves/ruins/etc worked out well, some of them were awful. There are ones that are really vague that tell you go go southeast or whatever of this camp, and you'll find it. After running around in circles for a frustrating 15 minutes I find myself trying to pull up the wiki page to locate where I'm supposed to be going, but then it takes another 5 minutes or so just to find the place considering how awful morrowind's map is. There I've run into a few that may tell me to simply go east of this camp/place that I never even heard of, and I don't get the option to ask them where that place is, so again, I have to rely on wiki. I don't mind finding a place on my own for a few quests, but after a while it just gets really tedious and boring for me.

As far as the "green" arrow that tells you exactly where to go to find an item inside a cave or house, I do agree that should be removed from the game (or optional). It makes finding things a little too easy.

Also, these poll options svck.
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Nitol Ahmed
 
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Post » Sat Aug 28, 2010 1:38 am

I'm currently playing the OB main quest at maximum difficulty, without the green little helper arrows. The one thing I notice is how incredibly easy it is for the devs to mess up a quest without it. How do you judge what is exactly the correct amount of information given to players, who are all different? I agree the current implementation leaves a LOT to be desired, so I'll go with optional for once.

My set of suggestions which also involves world and detail map markers:
1) The arrow markers should be better used. Fade them away when you get close at least (say within 100m - 50m).
2) World map markers (locations) should be toggleable if you want POIs to show. And a POI should show as a question mark until you're at the location.
3) Detail map markers (cell entrances) shouldn't be shown until you actually is capable of activating it (looking at it within reach). Reason being that it is pointless to have well hidden entrances when they show up when walking by. There could be a cave entrance hidden within a circle of stones 2 meters from the path you take every day. And how do you know who's living in a house without reading the door sign?
4) When given a location it could be a location that is well known to the NPC, in which case arrows (on map) works ok. Unfortunately I think everything is accurate locations. Vaguer locations could be given as an area.
5) As for compass, maybe two types; OB style with POI sensometer and magic arrows (if enabled), or old style simple arrow showing north, but no markers can be possible. As an adventurer you're able to read the signs in the wild, signs that will typically be missing in a game.

If HUD is completely removed, they must have thought of some kind of replacement. I'm skeptical as to what that might be and how well it is implemented.
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Red Bevinz
 
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