This thread is dedicated for peoples experiences without the compass and quest markers.
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First, couple of question from me to all who are about to comment -

1) Did you encounter any "Dead ends" where you simply could not go on without the quest-marker?

2) If so, what did you do to overcome this dead ends? Did you apply quest markers or did you found some other way to fix your problem?

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Im playing 50 hours now into the game. For the first 20-30 hours I didn't even open the map. I navigated only by sun, stars and memory of the environment. I am taking things slow so I didn't do much - But from what I did the game is totally playable without quest markers! Sure, sometimes you wont get enough directions and there is no one to ask what to do next, but things work out if you look hard enough. My biggest nevigation problem was when (No real spoilers ahead) in some quest the NPC onlt told me to look for a place named ___. I had no idea where that ___ is and who or how can I ask. So I used some thinking and after 20 minutes of rubble I found a map (paper map in-game) and the name of that very place was written in - I scribed the map into a paper (real life) and followed the landmarks untill I reached my destination.

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Keep discussing, everything On-Topic please.

I'm kind of tempted to try this. Often when doing quests I just find myself mindlessly following the compass.
Quest givers don't really seem to give you the directions to the locations, but I guess thats just more of an incentive to explore more. I may try this tonight!

Awesome! That's how I used to role-play when playing Daggerfall and Morrowind (still do, I should I say). That's the way playing these CRPGs should be. Kudos to you for playing that way. It takes more time but the immersion is so much better, I think. In TESIII, you can open the console and type "tm" to toggle everything on the heads up display. I'm just waiting until one of the utility updates for TESIII offers a key function to turn off all maps and compass. In real life, you don't have a GPS telling you which way you're pointed or where you are in the world, and certainly these medieval fantasy games shouldn't either. But if there wasn't any compass or map (other than in-game parchment maps), a lot of players would be super frustrated, with the exception of a few like you and me.

This is impossible with a warrior type character. With the HUD turned off you can't watch your health when you are in mobs.

The main reason Im doing it other than to see from my character's eyes is to explore.
You see much more when you memorize the terrain (hope im spelling right), when you look things for yourself you actually get interested and immersed...
For me - quest markers are making the game boring. Its not the objective that matters, its the whole experience.

As soon as it was available I got a mod that removes all enemies and objects of interest from the compass. So, yeah, I use the compass (quite a bit, sometimes), but only for the E-W-S-N directions.

When I get a quest, it's often marked on my map, which I also (try to) use (it's as bad a map as I've seen in any game). I put a custom mark on the map and that shows up in my compass, but none of that quest info. I just can't imagine playing while somehow knowing the bad guy I need to kill is behind a door to my right.

I guess this really isn't on topic, so ignore me if you want.

You brought a smile upon me
Great to hear this! I sometimes feel like everyone are missing such a wonderful experience just because they are blinding themselves with comfortable tho un-immersive tools. It is people like you who put words well enough together that make those people who never experienced in their past at RP start doing so, and maybe even enjoy it



You can turn the questmarkers and compass without turning the stat bars off. Use the .ini files. If you need more help I will be happy to do what I can.

Good luck!

hardcoe mode, hehehe. No HUD, no markers, no map unless I get a parchment, an inkwell and quill and find an in-game map, and copy it onto the parchment in the game (then I'd use the map that came with the game.) Roleplaying, my dear friend. Roleplaying.

Roleplaying wise you can pretend you heard the general direction from the questgiver. Make up a story like "Last time he was seen fleeing to the southwest camping near the pine forest" Without anyone actually saying that. Mod it up - in your mind .

Same about N-S-E-W - you can pretend your character is knowledgeable enough to know the directions herself even without looking up to the start or sun. Just by the directions of shadows and sense of time and location.


I personally to do the nevigation task myself, and the roleplaying "NPC" O prefer not to do at all unless I really really find no other choice, usually I will just skip the quest if that happens.

First thing I did was to turn off the quest markers, arrows and compass. Still got the map, I justify that by the fact that I actually do have a map.

Following arrows and following the built-in walkthrough in Oblivion doesn't seem like much gameplay to me. Being told where to go, what to do etc, nah. I prefer to find my own way about. Amazing how many little clues you pick up on when you're not mindlessly following an arrow. Little paths that you might not have noticed become rather obvious, nearly always leading to somewhere interesting. Also, you need to pick up on clues to remember what map location represents what quest. Trying to remember doesn't always work, but clues in the quest description can help. When both of these fail, well, who here hasn't really forgotten a chore or a job?

Another thing about disabling the compass that's not often discussed, is how you need to find a new way to identify enemies from friendlies. No more Red Dot to give you an easy target, you actually have to read the situation. After a while, you can sort of get a feel for who is a baddie. When you're not sure, you make tentative approaches, which don't always go to plan

At first I played without either but I had to toggle quest markers back. Not using compass but there are just too many quests that are impossible to do without a quest marker. Directions are vague if they exist at all.

Actually it never bothered me that she could use a compass. They're not that hard to figure out. (I'm guessing she's over seven, but since she's a Khajiit, in cat years that might make her close to fifty!)

USING the map in real life to have markings of past towns and locations is AMAZING! That is very coll and give you a lot of respect for not using the ingame one.

Haha, khajiits are the best nevigators in all of tamriel. They like to walk, especially on warm sands

Not impossible at all. You still hear the sounds when your health is running low.

All the time. Let's, take, for example:

"Go to Shearpoint and kill the Dragon there"

What?

I have been wanting to try this out myself. It definitely seems like it will add more immersion to the game for me. I've already got the enemies turned off on the compass.

Do you have any tips for navigating using the stars?

I'm playing the same way as OP. Since I didn't want to turn the entire hud off, and I am on xbox, turning off the compass involves sticking a piece of paper over the top part of my tv...
Sometimes I have no clue where my quest goal is, and for certain things it has taken me two weeks to accidentally stumble across them (ah, so here is ---camp where someone asked me to go two weeks ago) Works for me.
One time I cheated when I got no instructions at all and i wanted to do the quest for roleplay reasons, by running up to an ingame place that has a map lying around, then looked at my ingame map for my goal at that moment, and memorizing where about it was. As soon as I left I didn't check the map at all anymore of course.
Oh, and I only started to use the paper map once I had found the book; holds of skyrim ingame. Though I still barely use it.

What indeed.

What is the problem? Look for it from RP angel. I got a same contract with a bandit here is what I did -
"So, inkeeper. Do you just deliver messages or you know farther truth behind them?" *I place a trinket on the table, infront of the inkeepers eyes but hidden enough from others to see* When he does not react, I take the trinket back and send the inkeeper an insulted face. Then I hit the road to town and look for a place where I can get farther instructions.
After a short time I found a building, barracks - they probably have maps with important locations inside. I look at their map and memorize by notes the names. Those names are probably name of forts and startegic locations. Bandits will probably not dare to camp in such. Atleast I have a starting clue where NOT to look. Those bandits are truely masters at knowing how to dissappear. "Shearpoint" I wisper to myself, It sounds like a name someone would give to a rugged place in the nature, somewhere wild that sticks out.

I prepare my lunch and eat it. Hear a song from a bard and listen to it carefully as if it were my last song to hear. I take the motivation from this song and carry it in my thoughts as I rise up from my seat and start walking slowly towards the door. With close attention to the last thing I may ever see again of civilazation. Who knows what rewards and danger are waiting.

I try to play with quest markers disabled as much as I can, because I don't want to play this game following an arrow. Possibly my next replay, with a different char, once I explored the world, felt the thrill of all Skyrim, etc... but not for now.

The problem is that I find myself lost several times. And anyway trying to play with realism, like being without a map, etc... it's not even conquered, even if you manage to do so, because the game tells you place names as you discover them.

Some quest givers mention details (person name, places, directions, etc.) some others just mention a place, and if you don't open the map, you just have one option: wait until you discover the place (and you know because the game tells you). So, while I think it's nice to play without much guidance, also I find it a bit complex, maybe not necessary, to go around completely lost. For instance, I was told to kill a bandit leader in a place, but nobody gave me details about that place... just another arrow (disabled for me). And don't get me wrong, is not that I want to do quest after quest, I love adventuring... but sometimes I just want to progress a little in the game, and I find myself reading the journal, without markers, and wondering where is that place or NPC... because it doesn't even mention the city.

If the game included a feature like a library where I could read about places, or an ingame map for adventurers (not UI map, I mean.. a map inside the gameworld), or something like that, I would surely go for it, instead of my UI map, for quests that mentions a tower, cave, etc...even if not all of them are catalogued.

Not being the case, my only choice (if I want to see if the quest is near, or far, to choose if leave it for now or not) is to open the journal and show the marker of the quest on map, and see where is the place. Once I get an idea where it is, I disable the quest marker and try to travel on my own... so lets say I play as if it was the character's map. You also get notices about "Map updated", so you can take it in some way as if your character updated the map.

Anyway, I understand that they can't create spoken dialogues for everything, but a solution for creating quests with more depth, and at same time avoiding long dialogues, could be something like ending the dialogue with this: "here, let me explain a little further...". Followed with a "journal updated" note, and then in your journal you could read something like: "There seems to be a cave to the SW of Whiterun, where this guy lost his sword. He could see the city from the entrance, so must not be far away".

Or as it works now, if the game included a couple more details, it would be helpful... right now seems to be designed to just follow the arrow to doors and NPCs, so a 3 minute dialogue is reduces to an entry in the journal saying: "Kill X on Y tower", and unless you remember, or activate a marker, you have no idea if the place is near city X or city Y, so you can only wish to find that place and NPC sometime while playing.. or activate the marker to see where it was.

Another example for this "find-myself-lost" stuff is that I crossed a guard saying something about a bandit camp somewhere, and I just noted it down on my real-life notepad under the "to visit" category, but just as I was doing that, I noticed a "map updated" notification on the screen, and a new quest on "Miscellaneous" with something so brief as: "Go check [place]"... First I don't know why a quest is needed there. And second, if you play with no arrows or map... how are you supposed to reach that place?

Sorry for the long post specially because it derived to a little criticism/complain, but I hope it's at least a bit worth as a reply to what you was asking.

My experience: Misc quests impossible to find = takes away a lot of possible fun. No thanks.

I would do this. But it's not like Morrowind were you get directions. They just tell you a place and you magically know about it. svcks, but I rather have that then have 500 quests build up while I'm only trying to find one.

So...

You're just looking at the map anyway? Sorry but I like to FIND my locations. That was one of my favourite parts of pre-Oblivion games.

I didnt look at the map. Did you bother reading? I looked at a map that was in-game. A paper map inside the barracks, not UI map. I DID find the place on my own!


Im about to comment katixa now, gonna take some time so if I wont respond to your next comment fast I apoligize ahead.

On PS3, the only way I know to get rid of the compass/markers is to turn down HUD visibility - but not only does that get rid of the compass and markers, but popup's too - if I look at an item or container, the description is gone. Comes back when I change the visibility. Any way to get rid of only the compass and markers?