Since I know I'll be playing this for years to come, I'd like there to be a greater sense of discovery the first time around (one of my biggest regrets with Oblivion). A no-compass playthrough sounds really fascinating to me, but I fear it might go too far into the other direction, where I might miss important points of interest because they're too well-hidden and/or designed to be discovered only with a compass. If anyone's playing this way, could you tell me what your experience has been thus far?

I haven't used my compass at all to help me find any objectives (I didn't see it for the first couple days until I looked for it), except via map and telling me which way is W/N/E/S. So you'll be fine.

I've tried to ignore it and the ridiculous map, but the journal entries give no directions. You need to use at least one in order to do quests.

You can play without it just fine. I turned it off day one and haven't even considered turning it back on. I do use markers on the map though... so I am doing a lot of map referencing in game.

I've played through the entire time without a compass, 90 hours, 24 level currently. Mainly I like having my screen completely clear of anything when I'm exploring, it makes it very easy to take nice screenshots. I miss the actual compass aspect of it the most, I wish I had a button to hide/enable it like pulling a real compass out of your pocket. But otherwise I find the experience much more rewarding. I find myself really searching for hidden locations. Frequently while walking through the wilderness I look for some high ground to look around from and scout out the area. And when you find a point of interest you feel like you earned it. If you enjoy exploring (rather than jumping from location to location following quest points) I think it's better to turn off the compass.

i turn my hud opacity down to nothing for most of the time and i try to use my overhead map. if nothing else i can use the claravoyance spell if i get stuck so its very viable to play like that. i think the claravoyance spell makes the difference because as someone mentioned you get almost no direction from your journal entries. i highly recommend playing that way as the hand holding is a bit over the top.

im curious as to how many people were in charge of doing this because i have encountered quests that have the arrow disappear as soon as you enter the room to look for the item but then ive had quests where the arrow points you directly to the item just like in oblivion. seems a bit inconsistent. i hope they path it so that the arrow dissappears when you get to the buidling or dungeon yoru supposed to search. that would be a good start.

Actually for certain quests you have to rely on the map, because the game literally just doesn't tell you anything about where to go for some of them. It's ridiculous. Even the NPC that you would think would have information (NPC's that are mentioned specifically to have knowledge on the matter, or the NPC that gave you the mission) tells you nothing of where to look. I think Beth just think everyone are now 13yro players that like their hands being hold and only ever use the compass/map.

I thought people wanted no compass to get rid of the all knowing quest marker. But everyone playing without the compass on still have to look at the map constantly to see where the quest target is. You simply can't play Skyrim properly without quest markers due to the way quests are handled. Sometimes NPCs don't even tell you the area to go to for quests.

Bethesda said before release NPCs would point you in the right direction but there is only one instance of what and it's right at the start of the game on a non-radiant quest.

One of the first things I did was turn the HUD off completely. It's definitely viable (and improves the game immensely)... though there a lot of times where it becomes very apparent that Bethesda have designed the game with markers in mind.

I have the compass turned off completely and I love it. Feels so much more real and "immersive" (starting to hate that word). I feel no "pressure" in following markers on the map, just go where I think looks interesting without any location spoilers. I love it.

Directions svck in this game though. In many cases there are absolutely zero directions. I have forgotten to try claravoiyance yet, but thanks to bigglesworth (above post) I will now try that instead
Okay... Claryvoiance doesn't help that much in outdoors. It only shows the direction like 10 meters ahead of you. Not the best solution...

Is it possible to turn off the compass without also turning off the entire HUD? I could easily do without the compass (I keep quests unselected in my journal to get rid of the markers) but I must be able to see my life, magicka and stamina bars.

In SkyrimPrefs.ini ...

under [Interface]
bShowCompass=0

That's how I have it.

If your on pc you can, just gotta change bShowCompass to 0, in SkyrimPrefs.ini

With the compass off you will be opening your map every 5 seconds... the game was just not designed to not have a compass or quest markers. It's a shame really.

I'm wondering how hard it would be to just mod out some of the markers. Like, could I replace the markers with a blank image file? That way I can have the compass to see directions, but not enemies or quests or whatever.

It's annoying.

I wish I could turn off the hud and still have my crosshairs. Being a archer makes it really difficult having nothing to aim with

I disabled the Compass as soon as I got the game. I would love to disable the cross-hair but It makes it impossible to aim with a bow and arrow.

I really like playing without the HUD, but it just isn't convenient to do so sometimes, especially in towns where you can accidentally steal things while trying to talk. I just wish the HUD weren't so freaking gigantic. That crosshair (especially while sneaking) is a god damned eyesore, and the text takes up way too much screen space. All I want is a tiny dot in the center of the screen and a button to toggle the compass. The HUD as it is has NO BUSINESS being in a PC game. It was made for people playing 8 feet away on their sofas.

Wait for Darnified UI I guess.

I play with my compass off and as little use of the overhead map as possible. I open up the map, look at where the location is in relation to other places, and then don't look at it again until I have to go somewhere else. Navigation using the sun and stars.


Just to be clear, it's the SkyrimPrefs.ini file under Documents\My Games\Skyrim\ (Windows 7, XP is slightly different), not the one under the install directory (Skyrim\Skyrim).