Dro Siphodius

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Undiscovered Location Markers

  • Posted by Dro Siphodius November 5, 2011 - 711 views

    Inspired by a post created by Soleiya in the Character Building group (thanks!), I just wanted to touch on the issue of Undiscovered Location Markers as well as Quest Objective Markers.

    Undiscovered location markers were given in Oblivion, which showed the location of nearby points of interest (including dungeons, shrines and towns) on your compass, even if you had not yet discovered them. This was in complete contrast to the system used in Morrowind, wherein these points of interest were not shown on the map unless you walked directly past them, or were given a broad quest marker on the world map.

    This, I feel, was a better system - or, at least, it was for those who like the naturally immersive experience that finding a location on your own provides, either from a set of directions or your own exploration.

    Undiscovered location compass markers were rather a double-edged sword in Oblivion - while they were helpful in leading me towards objectives, they did detract from the naturally immersive experience. I do hope they give the option to turn off undiscovered location markers in Skyrim, though I get the feeling they won't, as this will mean that I have to find these locations myself (hopefully with a set of directions).

    Most of my fondest memories whilst playing Morrowind were formed via exploring and a heightened sense of achievement when I uncovered new locations or finally found a quest objective location after spending a fair amount of time searching. I remember the first time I joined the Mage's Guild, and my first quest was to gather ingredients for a Khajiit (Ajira?) in the Balmora Mages Guild. Rather than giving me a quest marker, I was given a set of directions (north at this point, then south here, as well as some notable landmarks which told me if I was going in the right direction) which, although initially frustrating as I wandered elsewhere, gave me such a feeling of achievement when I found the location of the desired ingredients.

    Here's hoping you can get a similar feeling in Skyrim, since I'm not aware of many quests in Oblivion that gave you directions instead of a simple quest marker. What do you guys think? Should there be an option to turn off undiscovered location markers/quest objective markers, to allow for an immersive experience? What are your own experiences with Morrowind and the lack of a quest marker?

Comments

12 Comments
  • Kedez
    Kedez   ·  November 6, 2011
    I would like some of both.  I would like the quest markers, just in case I want to do a quest and not have to worry about finding it.  Also, your character knowing the directions given for a quest and/or NPC's marking the location on your map directly wou...  more
  • Soleiya
    Soleiya   ·  November 6, 2011
    @McNuggle Your perspective is exactly why I want there to be an option to turn location/quest markers on or off.  I'm fully aware that some people aren't good with directions, or just prefer to play their game in a more straightforward way, and I'm totall...  more
  • Soleiya
    Soleiya   ·  November 6, 2011
    Lol, thanks for crediting me!  No wonder I was so interested when I saw the title of your blog.... ;)
    And I could NOT agree with you more, Dro.  Morrowind, as a game, was much more immersive in the area of exploration and really making you feel like...  more
  • mattlistener
    mattlistener   ·  November 6, 2011
    I would totally prefer to only have location markers created for things I had actually found.  If I was determining what to investigate based on undiscovered location markers, I would hardly be looking at the actual game world.
  • Titan
    Titan   ·  November 5, 2011
    Actually in bruma a woman gives you a diary with directions and strange clues to your location,this was annoying initially but had a big pay-off when you found your destination.i cant for the life of me think of the name of it though but any way this type...  more
  • RuneRed
    RuneRed   ·  November 5, 2011
    T. Howard has stated that you can adjust the brightness of the HUD... including making it disappear all together.
  • Krazee Mon
    Krazee Mon   ·  November 5, 2011
    I can see the desire for players to have it either way.  It would be great if displaying undiscovered locations in the compass were a game option so that players could have it either way.  It certainly does not sound like a difficult feature to implement,...  more
  • McNuggle
    McNuggle   ·  November 5, 2011
    Its working.
    I have to say I disagree with you. While the old "Go to McMorgans farm take a left and go till ya pass old lady Smiths house that burned down twenty-five years ago then turn right and go a stretch then you there." Kind of was was reward...  more
  • Dro Siphodius
    Dro Siphodius   ·  November 5, 2011
    I think I fixed it! I had to mess around with the HTML a bit, as I suspected it was doing something odd. Try and read now!
  • Allen Pendragon
    Allen Pendragon   ·  November 5, 2011
    yeah..99 percent of your post just..dissapears upon load.
     
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