I've deactivated my compass too, and never use fast travel.

I can't bring myself to turn off quest markers because, very sadly, Skyrim relies on them too much. You get next to not "quest text" anymore. In Morrowind, characters would tell you of their troubles and give you a general idea of where to go to complete their quests. In Skyrim, they've pretty much taken that out. Instead characters just tell you the name of the place, and then the game relies on these quest markers to show you the location. I do miss that sense of exploration. But I fear its a age long past, since roleplaying developpers don't catter to the same player base they used to.

No, the only option you have is to turn of the HUD but that will also make your health, magic and stamina bars disappear as well

Just... don't do it.

Thats the price you pay for having everyone actually speak to you instead of having to read everything.

You say that as if its a bad thing. I think it also offers some interesting possibilities.

Though I'd only recommend it once you're familiar with the game and its mechanics.

I completely disagree.

So many complaints about the in-game map. I find it both useful and nice to look at.

Yes, it could be improved by going slightly lower on zoom in, but if you move your viewing angle to perpendicular to the surface and directly over your location you can get lower and better detail.

I never fast travel; use carriages or horses. Exploration is a large part of my enjoyment in the game. Despite having locations clearly placed on my map and in my compass I still find myself wandering off the path. Hours later I work to recall what I had headed out to do in the first place.

To each their own. I find the complaints of the in-game map to be hollow.

Just... type enablefasttravel 0 in commannd console.

See, was that so hard for you?

I would love the idea that the marker are off, if the location is still marked on my map.

If someone gives me an item and tell me to go to some cave, bla, bla, they would surely tell me where the cave is right?

I had a similar situation with Birna. I bought the Coral Dragon Claw from her. She told me to use it in Yngol Barrow. However since this didn't show up as a real quest no map marker was added, even though she told me where to go and even mentioned that she isn't going there because it's full of undead. So she knows where it is, tells me where it is, doesn't mark my map.

So I have a claw and a locations name. No guards or anyone else would tell me where it is. I finally looked it up on the map. From where the Barrow as located I could tell that I would have NEVER found the place on my own. This kinda erked me as I was hoping I would be able to wander around the city and find it on my own.

So, what was I trying to say? Oh yeah, if I turn off the compass and other HUD stuff, will the location still be marked on the map? From my experience a location not marked on the map may never be found.

Yes locations still show on your map when you are shown them, or find them.

Awesome povuholo! Thanks dude. Looks like a great mod, with lots of customization options, can't wait to get off work and try it out.

I occasionally use fast travel in circumstances such as where I'm required to go across the map for a 5 second 'check-in' with someone I'm working for. Walking all the way there and back, even in beast form, is annoying as hell, and horses are so damn slow.

About 80-90% of the time I refrain from fast travelling, and gladly have a pretty full map because of it; however I'm not ready to turn it off completely, I still hold missions and gameplay over roleplaying.

Thanks, both for the help and that awesome mod. I didn't want to disable compass completely, as I feel a compass with just known locations is realistic for me.

Also to those who are having trouble finding where to go for a certain quest. Try reading some books in game, they are actually quite descriptive regarding somethings.

You missed the part where I said I had fun exploring...

Either way that exploration is fun for some of us doesn't relate to how relevant it is as a map. You can actually see the paths on your map?

Whereas I find it useless as a map... it's nice as a topographic representation of the general world, but the purpose of a map is to provide information. Not obfuscate it. The rotate & pan functions are very weak (I'd figured from the first announcements that you'd have 360° spin), and the total lack of any major detail features (like roads & territory borders) makes it incredibly info-light.

The paper map that came with the game is more like what a map should be. It's far, far more informative and useful than the "nice to look at" 3D map in-game. And information, again, is the purpose of a map - the new map provides less information, in a more awkward way, than the map did in Oblivion. Objectively, it's at least a step back.

disclaimer: opinion. :tongue:




I constantly fast travel; don't use carriages or horses. Exploration is a large part of my enjoyment in the game. Despite having locations clearly placed on my map and in my compass I still find myself wandering off the path. Hours later I work to recall what I had headed out to do in the first place.


------

re: the whole "not having any directions, compass, map markers, and the map" thing. Even if you think that all of those together is too much information, the total lack of them isn't particularly "realistic" either. Your in-game character has more senses than you (for instance - enemy markers on the compass, once they're attacking you. Your character has more "3D" hearing than you. As well as better peripheral vision. The fact that the dragon is flapping off to your left rear, represented by a warning on the left of your compass, seems like a completely reasonable thing to have. Perhaps a bit more "realistic" to make it just a "left/right/behind" warning, and/or make it even less accurate when you're surrounded by many sources of noise, but still...), and Skyrim isn't such a primitive place that they don't have maps and other navigation tools - to completely remove all of them feels like nothing more than "look, I'm so hardcoe" difficulty handicapping.

And saying that the lack of NPC dialogue info about quest locations is fine, and that hey - you'll eventually stumble across the quest location during your travels.... stumbling around in a room full of haystacks, periodically exclaiming "Ooh! A needle!" doesn't seem very...... fun? smart? rational?

Eh, whatever. Again, opinion. To each their own.

I noticed the refresh countdown timer for the shouts is actually an outline of the compass. It just looked silly when the compass was off. So I have compass on and just quest markers off. (I dont use fast travel unless I have to.)

Without the compass, I feel like I might miss caves, landmarks and other content if I have the compass off. I roleplay the "hints" as my character just having a "feeling" that something is close by.

"Hmm, I swear I saw a cave over there somewhere."

I too find the map to be inadequate as I study it to try to determine a way around some mountain or obstacle. It's an ugly, clunky, rotating mess IMO.

I didn't even know you could turn them off. Of course, I still can't play the game...but that is going to change starting tomorrow night, Imma go get my video card after work and finish putting my rig together. If it in the options menu?

Disabled the compass, arrows & quest markers before doing anything else. Never had 'em, don't miss 'em

IMO though, these things should disappear anyway on higher difficulty levels.

Considering Skyrim isn't compatible with SDTVs, I HAVE to play without a compass (or the text in the top left, or any readable text at all).

I don't think the map is that useful either. It looks nice and all, but rotating and zooming need some major work. It's not possible to zoom in enough to pick a path through the terrain; if I then disabled the compass markers I think it would just compound the issue.

I will be giving this idea a spin though. Looks like he'll need to be a ranger :read:

Can you put enablefasttravel into the ini file like with standard fov?

So.. here's hoping for a mod for an actual map in-game. Using the map to travel without fast-travelling is difficult because of the deliberate obfuscation. As has been mentioned by a previous poster already, the physical map we get with the game is actually more useful, and I can't help but think this shouldn't be the case. The last thing I want to do is keep pausing and looking over the map spread over a table next to me..

I've noticed that plenty of NPCs also have maps which are vastly superior to mine, and clearly illustrate the roads around Skyrim. I want to at least be able to steal it.

this, I don't use fast travel

I don't have the game yet, but plan on shutting down the compass - provided I can keep my crosshair. Is that an option? I think it would be too hard to pick up books, plants, etc. - not to mention aiming - without the crosshair, but at the same time I really don't want silly red markers showing me where the bad guys are a la Fallout 3.

I don't see how some quests are possible without quest markers. For example, one of the Daedric quests sends you to another location on the complete opposite side of the map in the middle of nowhere. The location doesn't actually get revealed on the map, though, and the only indication of where it's at is with a quest arrow. The quest gives no directions whatsoever (like in Morrowind) and it would take hours upon hours of exploring to find this one location in the entire map.