I don't use the magic quest markers on the compass in Oblivion because I don't select the quest that I'm working on.

However, I really like the fact that you get a rough indication that there is an unexplored cave or daedric shrine, etc., to the East of your current position, for example. This makes walking everywhere and discovering new locations on your journeys a bit more enjoyable if you don't use fast travel.

Maybe it could be a misc item that you take on your hand,and be able to move while looking at it.To draw a weapon you'd need to put it back into your pocket.

Actually I like the idea of quest markers being an expensive enchantment in mages guild, I although think that it has to be a "target orientated" enchantment, as in you have to do it for every quest you receive. This way it will be cheaper and easier to try and find the place by usual means, but if you get stuck you can goto the mages guild and get a "hint".

I chose a compass that shows N E W and S. However, I wouldn't mind quest markers as long as they are more vague and just point in a general area of a moving NPC. I really do not mind either way, as long as there is some kind of directions somewhere in the game.

I like the magic arrow that always points to the right place. That my personal preference but I think it is a feature that you should be able to disable if need be. I also would not mind having a quest where you can earn a magical compass that always points to the right location and the one you have from the begining is a more basic compass that can still guide you to locations but not follow NPC's whereever they may be in the world.

I want an Oblivion style compass. This is a damn game and I want to be able to make progress in the story when I want to. I do plenty of wandering around on my own in the game. Not using the compass isn't a badge of honor.

Honestly you could just tell north, south, east, and west by looking at the sun if it's day time (and not close to noon). They could make a compass to sell that worked during certain hours of the day (like a sundial) and would tell you which was was which but only during like sunrise to 10 am and 2 pm to sunset.

Just a basic compass, with NSEW, and for the record the Morrowind minimap WAS basically a compass. One thing though, I wouldn't mind the point of interest markers on it, NOT quest markers, just eh ones that tell you a dungeon or whatever is nearby. While some may feel that it 'breaks immersion' which I can understand, I feel it helps encourage exploration by saying 'hey, there's something cool here, you should totally go check it out, then go check out the next one.' Toggling all hud elements, ala DarNified, would be awesome.

Just updated the poll also adding another question...

Toggleable is fine by me, JUST SO LONG AS the game is designed around not having the markers. Designing the game around quest markers (like in Oblivion) makes many quests almost impossible without them. Designing the quests so that they can be completed without markers would make everybody happy.

"But why should I be forced to click through so many lines of directions when I have my magic GPS?"

Ok, almost everybody.

I think there should be a compass that is an obtainable item. When used with a map you should be able to set your own bearing like you can with compasses in real life.

This is basically the system that was in Oblivion but without the magic quest marker, but with the player set blue marker only.

It actually wouldn't be difficult at all to have some extra lines of dialogue with directions to the quest locations, and then have a check to see whether or not quest markers are turned off before displaying them.

So people who prefer following markers would never need to see the extra dialogue at all.

How about in most large cities there is a library, and inside the library are a set of books which describe the location of various discovered caves, tombs, ruins, etc. This way if dialog doesn't make it clear where a location is, but the player knows the name, they could go look it up and receive some basic directions and without cluttering the journal with a ton of information that will be useless later.

As for wandering NPCs. Just allow us to ask other NPCs and allow them somewhat generic responses that could be used again naturally. Such as "At this hour he's probably at the bar." or "She left town heading south earlier." Or simply have one family member or close relative that is easier to find, and they give you a time to come back. Such as "He'll be back around 7. Why don't you wait?"

I don't want the compass to be very expensive if it were an igame item.

A good sum of money for a low level though would be fine.

I'd like a compass that shows the cardinal directions, with none of Oblivion's map-markers. I prefer working from spoken or written directions, and they aren't to hard to follow as long as they're recorded in our journal.

I think you should start with only a small portion of the final map, exploring or buying new pieces to expand upon it. Lastly, you should be able to ink whatever you wish over it; perhaps outlining directions for yourself, assigning icons to certain territories, or whatever else you could want to jot down.

Well I'll add this to the poll...

For places like Sancre Tor in Oblivion whose location had been forgotten it would make sense for there to be no map marker,quest arrow etc..In the case of most locations I do not have a problem with the
quest arrow.If not an arrow perhaps a shaded area with the directions "It's around there."

75 people voted with north, east, south, and west scratched into it...
Perhaps (if we're lucky) the developers will make Skyrims compass work like this!

I would like to just have NSEW on the compass. I wouldn't mind having some kind map marker spell you can cast on objects/people that would put markers on the map/compass. Your skill level would determine the number of markers and the distance your compass can see them. I don't want them on quests.

As for locating people in quests, Oblivion made it very hard not to use the markers, but I think you should be able to ask people in town about that person and people who know him will give helpful responses. "I just passed him at the Old Wharf about 20 minutes ago" or "I haven't seen him lately, but he likes to spend his free time at the Prancing Pony."

My preference is no compus at all since they said no hud but improve the map to show general locations of quests targets

Thats actually a pretty good spell idea...

I got a few questions...
First whats hud?
Second what (specificly) did they write?

HUD is the desplay showing health bar excetra in 1st person view and it is stated in the 1st page of the GI mag on the page that is called A New Land

If its Toggable, I'd have on issue with how it functions, so long as there is sufficient verbal/writtin information to reach the general area

They should also remove the names that appear on NPCs when you talk up to them, so that way the only way you can know who they are is if you ask them and recognize their appearance if you want to talk to them again. They should change their clothes everyday to make it harder to remember. They should also remove the labels on the entrances to caves, so you don't know if you found the right one for a quest, thus forcing you to explore that cave for an hour, searching for an item that's not there.

/end sarcasm

The Skyrim compass will probably be different, but I would expect it to be more like Oblivion than Morrowind. If you want to explore, pick a random direction an go until you find a dungeon/cave that you want to go in, that's what I usually did.

I can't imagine why people would want to make it so you would have to buy this "magic" compass. If you have a hard time believe in the realism in it, then you also must have problems with being able to jump five feet in the air for hours on end while carrying multiple weapons and sets of armor on you, swimming without getting your journal ruined from water damage, sleeping and having all of your wounds magically healed, jumping off a cliff without breaking your leg, having a journal that magically writes everything down for you... etc. It is a video game after all, not a virtual reality simulator.