The quest compass appears to be gone : V - Skyrim

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:14 am

Good news, people. Some information from the French official PS magazine:

-when most NPCs give you a quest, they'll give you precise directions or accompany you to the road showing you which direction to take to go on on you quest.

RIP quest compass :celebration:

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:19 am

Good news, people. Some information from the French official PS magazine:

RIP quest compass :celebration:

That's encouraging. You got a link for it?

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:53 am

Well, this is perhaps the best news so far. This will allow you to ask questions and get directions. The compass completely ruined the adventure. That coupled with level scaling were the two worst aspects of Oblivion. Good Ridance and thank you Beth for listening to your fans. Well Done.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:25 am

good riddance. absolutely hated the over the top hand holding. I don't mind a bit of help from where we were with Morrowind, but similiar to levelling, they went way over the top so every quest was made too easy with the markers.

In reality, yes, you might have directions or a map marker, but you wouldn't have GPS in a medieval game world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

» Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:05 pm

Good news, people. Some information from the French official PS magazine:

RIP quest compass :celebration:

:celebration:

This is the single best piece of news I've heard about Skyrim.

» Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:59 pm

If it is gone it will be fixed by a mod.Heres to hoping Nords are better at giving directions than the Dumner.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:58 am

Well so far it's not really gone, they just buried it in the compass menu it seems. So it's the same thing requiring slightly more effort to access. Combined with Mass Effect 2 style visual cues on screen, to allow for the important stuff to stand out, it could work out pretty well.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 3:09 am

I sure someone will have a blast walking around in circles for hours on end.

I'm sure you mean follow given directions, search around, find your goal (or not) and feel good about it.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 3:04 am

I'm sure you mean follow given directions, search around, find your goal (or not) and feel good about it.

If it turns out to be like Morrowind, I might actually find myself getting frustrated, needing to use the UESP, and then get angry at how the stupid directions the stupid NPC gave me wasted an hour of my stupid school night meaning that I wasted an hour just looking for the place I need to get to instead of actually playing and that now, I have to do my homework. That doesn't make me feel good... especially not if the quest isn't decent. Most side quests in Morrowind were far too repetitive, for my tastes, and the dungeon crawls were pathetically short.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:10 am

That's encouraging. You got a link for it?

It's from a magazine.

I hope the directions given from an NPC are recorded in a journal, or something like that. I hate remembering instructions. I also there is an actual compass that goes along with the map on the map screen (not like in Oblivion, an actual compass with nothing other than north, south, east and west.) I am not going to be upset is there is a quest compass though, I would just prefer if there wasn't one.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:37 am

If it turns out to be like Morrowind, I might actually find myself getting frustrated, needing to use the UESP, and then get angry at how the stupid directions the stupid NPC gave me wasted an hour of my stupid school night meaning that I wasted an hour just looking for the place I need to get to instead of actually playing and that now, I have to do my homework. That doesn't make me feel good... especially not if the quest isn't decent. Most side quests in Morrowind were far too repetitive, for my tastes, and the dungeon crawls were pathetically short.

I find it really interesting that every time Morrowind is hinted, you jump in with such a loving remarks.

Goes against the tide of people around here.

I think that the European magazines confirmed that we will have decent directions for Skyrim, and I did not found Morrowind'd directions lacking.

Maybe you are not made for adventuring and Ranger life, hmm?

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:52 am

I find it really interesting that every time Morrowind is hinted, you jump in with such a loving remarks.

Goes against the tide of people around here.

I think that the European magazines confirmed that we will have decent directions for Skyrim, and I did not found Morrowind'd directions lacking.

Maybe you are not made for adventuring and Ranger life, hmm?

It's because I literally could not stand some of these things in Morrowind. Yes, these things annoy me. I'd rather have the majority of my questing take place inside the quest location, not have it be spent by looking for the quest location. I'm fine with the removal of a quest marker, but NPCs take the trouble to attempt to give me directions to a place and they can't just mark it or even the general location on my map for me? Why not? Give me something as simple as that and I will be perfectly content. I, however, have found some of Morrowind's directions to be lacking. There are times where, and I've even looked it up on the UESP, the directions were just wrong. The Azura's shrine quest, for example didn't exactly point me in the correct direction.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:43 am

It's because I literally could not stand some of these things in Morrowind. Yes, these things annoy me. I'd rather have the majority of my questing take place inside the quest location, not have it be spent by looking for the quest location. I'm fine with the removal of a quest marker, but NPCs take the trouble to attempt to give me directions to a place and they can't just mark it or even the general location on my map for me? Why not? Give me something as simple as that and I will be perfectly content. I, however, have found some of Morrowind's directions to be lacking. There are times where, and I've even looked it up on the UESP, the directions were just wrong. The Azura's shrine quest, for example didn't exactly point me in the correct direction.

The difference would be that you are forced to look around for signs and land marks that fit with the descriptions given by quest giver, and just not try to reach the marked place.

This results in getting more immersed into the actual game, instead of looking frequently at the map for the map marker.

I have experienced this immersion when I followed the intellectual directions of Morrowind's quests, compared to the visual directions on the Oblivion's Compass.

The Oblivion's method forced me to communicate with the world through the compass device and virtually killed any immersion I had with the game environment.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:42 am

The difference would be that you are forced to look around for signs and land marks that fit with the descriptions given by quest giver, and just not try to reach the marked place.

This results in getting more immersed into the actual game, instead of looking frequently at the map for the map marker.

I have experienced this immersion when I followed the intellectual directions of Morrowind's quests, compared to the visual directions on the Oblivion's Compass.

The Oblivion's method forced me to communicate with the world through the compass device and virtually killed any immersion I had with the game environment.

For one thing, please speak for yourself... only yourself. I consider it to be a waste of time and horrible way to try and fill a game. For another thing, how is following vague or unclear directions intellectual? If the island I need to go to is northwest of me but I'm told to go northeast, what mental stimulation have I experienced? If I need to shut down the game to go to the UESP because I either am just sick of wasting (what I think of as wasting) my time or have no clue where to go next, that breaks my immersion into the game. Repetitive experiences don't do much for me other than think very little of the effort put into the related content. It's related to luck and random guesses when initial directions fail or are unclear, not mental stimulation... and I'd much rather have my mind be stimulated by content to ponder at the quest location, not repetitive landscape. Give me a puzzle or a story, but I'll pass on the tracking.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:53 am

If the quest compass had been in Morrowind, I would never have come to these forums (Dwemer Puzzle Box, of course). That being said, I hope they don't include the compass in Skyrim. Or at the very least we should have the option to turn it off.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:43 am

For one thing, please speak for yourself... only yourself. I consider it to be a waste of time and horrible way to try and fill a game. For another thing, how is following vague or unclear directions intellectual? If the island I need to go to is northwest of me but I'm told to go northeast, what mental stimulation have I experienced? If I need to shut down the game to go to the UESP because I either am just sick of wasting (what I think of as wasting) my time or have no clue where to go next, that breaks my immersion into the game. Repetitive experiences don't do much for me other than think very little of the effort put into the related content. It's related to luck and random guesses when initial directions fail or are unclear, not mental stimulation... and I'd much rather have my mind be stimulated by content to ponder at the quest location, not repetitive landscape. Give me a puzzle or a story, but I'll pass on the tracking.

Well people's intellect level are different.

But seriously, by intellectual directions, I meant that you had to check the in-game visuals with your memory of the address given to you, so you kept looking at the scenery, and did not loose your immersion.

Just like in real life, as when you are walking around, you are looking at the scenery, not at your wrist watch for instance, all the time.

In Oblivion, I did not need to look at scenery a lot, and the compass game me all the information that I needed to reach the destination, and fast travel completed this phenomenon as well, complete lack of immersion in a game that gives you another world to explore. WTF?

The compass had another bad effect as well, as it showed you all the interesting places you had around you in a large radius. So no nice surprises when you found a new place, as in Morrowind.

That repetitive experience, kept my mind busy and forced me to use it. A lot better than repetitive experience of being nose leaded by a red or green carrot in front of my eyes.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:44 am

The quest compass appears to be gone

This is great news. :wink:

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:06 am

Good news, people. Some information from the French official PS magazine:

RIP quest compass :celebration:

Hooray!

Well so far it's not really gone, they just buried it in the compass menu it seems. So it's the same thing requiring slightly more effort to access. Combined with Mass Effect 2 style visual cues on screen, to allow for the important stuff to stand out, it could work out pretty well.

As stated multiple times already in this thread, the compass menu is not an actual compass, that's just what Game Informer called the layout for some odd reason.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:17 am

Oh my, if this is true that would make me SO happy.

For all of Oblivion's problems I think the worst was the "follow the magic arrow" gameplay. You could turn it off on PC but that did nothing for you, since quests were all designed with you following that stupid marker in mind. I felt like a robot following that stupid thing.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:07 am

-the hud appears only when you fight. you will see the three status bar and the compass (sigh)

Damn. Well at least the compass is gone most of the time.

» Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:27 pm

Good news, people. Some information from the French official PS magazine:

Interesting...

I predict there will be one of two complaints against the latter in the future: those arguing against the NPCS' unkillable status if they're made essential...and those complaining about the sheer number of annoying babysitting missions if they're not.

wow, what got your colon in a twist?

I was weighing in on the discussion and giving my interpretation of what i think the map/compass/hud system will be based on the information put out so far, and then describing some ideas and hopes i had for features in the game.

I was pointing out some inconsistencies with your opinions and arguments. How 'bout instead of taking umbrage with my comments, you actually try defending your points.

If you've got a problem with people stating their opinion then i will happily report you to the mods for a +1 on your warn status. How about instead if urinating all over other people's posts you form some of your own ideas and share them.

Didn't you just tell everyone who didn't agree with you to "stop whining?"

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:21 am

Very glad, I totally disliked quest markers. Tho I see they still have fast travel, which I still don't like, I preffer Morrowind styled transportation.

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:22 am

Am I the only one that thinks that no HUD doesn′t mean No quest markers?

You can simply open the map and see them, if they are in...

Apart from that, for example:

"From the map view players can manage quest icons"

So, I think quest markers are in. But I′m waiting for confirmation. I really hope that I am wrong...

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 2:33 pm

That's encouraging. You got a link for it?

No direct quote, I got the information from http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1163088-skyrim-french-coverage-summary/ thread.

Regarding the compass which appears in a fight, let's just hope it is just that - a compass. No magical arrow. I can't see why, if there was an arrow, it would appear only during a fight, that makes no sense. But then I suppose it makes no less sense than an ordinary compass popping up in times of combat...

» Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:30 am

They probably function really well since they can discus the directions, and have them mark the place on your map if the quest giver is not a [censored] monkey who apparently knows the way, but not the location. Now imagine if you could only get one set of directions which can't be discussed and vague at that.

It is not challenging to follow directions, however it would be if you need to get to a store, and your directions were "go left at the building and follow the road, when you see a boat you're there" You couldn't ask directions from someone else, you can't discus the directions with the quest giver, and when you follow the road it quickly turns into a T-section, with no boat in sight.

This is the whole point why Morrowind quest finding is fake challenge, it's a trivial task turned hard because of inadequate directions, and inabilities to communicate.

It's like if I asked you to run a 100 feet, and then when you begin I cut both of your feet off. It's still a trivial task, and the solutions is still obvious.

The dwemer cube isn't that bad because at least you know you're in the right dungeon, but it illustrates how the challenge of such quests is left completely to luck. Interweb looking is so immersive for the gaming experience. :facepalm:

Get it into your head that following directions isn't the problem.

on one hand you say that morrowind quest finding is hard because of inadequate directions and inability to for other npcs to communicate and then you say its not challenging to follow directions. which one is it? morrowind directions were plenty good enough for most gamers.

just because some people cant follow very simple, easy to follow directions doesnt mean that the everyone else who could figure them out has to suffer for it by being coddled with quest arrows. seriously, anyone that had problems following most of the morrowind quests shouldnt even be given a drivers license.

as for the interwebz looking, i will take the very rare occasions where i might have to alt-tab out and do a search on something that is stumping me versus the constant "LOOK HERE, HERE IT IS, OVER HERE......HEY DIDNT YOU SEE MY BIG GREEN POINTY THING....ITS RIGHT OVER HERE." you get with quest markers.

im encourage by some of the previous posts. its nice to see that bethesda is listening to its fans and NOT designing the game around inept gamers.