GON: When I was talking to the guests, they all just started shouting at me to go upstairs immediately and check the diaries. So I resolved that I wasn’t going to do it, just to spite the game.

Julien: (laughs)

GON: Is that something that you find people doing? I expected the clues to be a bit more vague. Did you find this doing playtesting? Did you put it in because people didn’t know what to do?

Julien: Yeah. We try not to lead the player by the nose, but at some point we found that if we don’t give a little information, people just get lost and don’t know what to do. It’s just overwhelming. So we tried to add this element that gave just a hint, to help a little. But we try to do it as little as possible.

GON: It’s cool because there’s a lot of ways up the stairs, but it still felt a bit railroad-ey. What did people do before you put these clues in?

Julien: People would just walk around. They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t even go upstairs because a guard told them they couldn’t. They’d say “Okay, I can’t go upstairs.” They wouldn’t do anything.

http://games.on.net/2012/09/dishonored-interview-arkane-on-stealth-ai-player-choice-and-much-more/

Seriously Arkane, you should just let them find the way, they will manage somehow. Do not make the game easier because of Play Testers please...

Well the game won't be easier because of it. I mean if there were no clues at all then what's the point of having three Boyles? It's really not a big problem because the levels are still very well designed and you still have your options and way to approach a certain level. So I really don't see the concern here. I mean that level is already badly designed in terms of the mystery aspect anyways. And testers don't make decisions, they just offer feedback. If all testers got stuck on that then they would have removed it entirely. Only some of them did so they offered clues, done deal.

I really hope clues are given by spying NPCs chatting rather than big floating glowing markers to pander to the casual audience. Or at least, being a toggle (like in Deus Ex Human Revolution).

No big glowing markers and everything in the game can be turned off. What's with this casual BS all of a sudden?

Pre-release nervousness probably.

That would go against everything that this game stands for. After customizing my controls, I'm going to turn all of that visual pollution off. On a side note, I noticed that the gun and crossbow lack any sort of floating crosshairs (like I'm used to in shooters) then I reminded myself that this game is supposed to be a simulation and such crutches don't exist in real life. Although I need my ADS, however unrealistic it may be.

They have crosshairs. You can turn those off or on as well and even customize them to a small extend.

The game is still not getting easy because of anything. And on the topic of "railroady" I still don't agree. Sneaking to find an object in an otherwise secure area just so you can keep the chaos low and actually get rewarded for it isn't a problem.

i havent seen this thread and opened one myself ... i was told to post here

quick copy paste what i have weitten there

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i read an article wich said arcane includes some extra hints in the game because the testers didnt get whats going on @ some missions
http://games.on.net/2012/09/dishonored-interview-arkane-on-stealth-ai-player-choice-and-much-more/

please arcane dont do that ... or at least let gamers disable the hints + give gamer score 4 that (i wanna show i bet the game without cod generation extra help )

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quote : People would just walk around. They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t even go upstairs because a guard told them they couldn’t. They’d say “Okay, I can’t go upstairs.” They wouldn’t do anything.

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wtf i mean WTF ... who gives a [censored] what a guard says in a thief/stealth game with multiple soltutions ? .. what kind of testers are @ your office ? .. primates ?
these kind of players should stay at home with their corridor / enemy spawn / corridor / .... / cod style game

if someone says you cant go there then ill try more than ever to do so

on the other hand "okay" .... noobs should also be able to play the game because arcane wants to sell some copies of the game

but i was really shocked when i read that fact

Arkane and they've already done it. You can disable hints, you can disable anything and play without a HUD/interface. You won't receive a score for playing right that other than the personal satisfaction (which is much more important than a number).

You might try to do so but a lot of people take things like that literally, so there is no point in criticizing them for that. And do you honestly think that a line of dialogue is made for "noobs" and in order to sell the game to more people? They just want to make sure that people can play it, not get stuck on that level and give up on it like massive numbers did with Deus Ex's first one.

Shocked about what exactly? The game hasn't changed, it's still the same design philosophy and principle. Quit making this into a problem when it clearly isn't.

The objective arrows are what I was referring to when I said you can toggle them on or off but yes the dialogue and the "hints" are part of the game. Sorry to break it to you but those hints were made aware of from the first day they revealed the new level. Why didn't you all just start whining back then? What you thought it was really gonna be a better detective story style level than the likes of L.A. Noire or Alan Wake? Yeah, sorry, no.

Interacting with the game's mechanics and systems is in no way a flaw or an easy way to overcome a major part of the level. And besides that level isn't the party only or have you already forgotten that the demos they've shown us are actually segments of levels and not the whole levels?

Thats the thing people need to understand. We know about the Lady Boyle journals because we were told about them, the testers I'm guessing were not. You can't just introduce a mechanic half way through a game and expect everyone to quickly go "hey i've gotta solve this mystery of who the real Lady Boyle is, I'm gonna go check upstairs to see if theres any clues" its certainly not something I would automatically think to do.