Maps, Markers and Landmarks.

Post » Tue May 15, 2012 5:42 am

One of the great things about TES since Morrowind is the range the Construction Kit offers to steer the game in a way that suits different styles of plays.

On that regard, I'm trying to rally the troops that subscribe to an exploration experience more close to Morrowind, in the sense that trying to find out places was actually a challenge sometimes, and a lot of fun most of the times. Nothing against people that fast travel, to each its own. But the thing is that, for a lot of players (like myself), when we receive a quest that it's already pinpointed by the UI, telling us exactly where we're supposed to go (even if it is an obscure and forebodding place) takes the fun out of actually exploring the map and bumping into the unkown.

Granted, vanilla UI already allows me to turn off objetive highlights and I can just couple that with unmarking every primary and secondary quests to show on the map.

The thing is that two problems still remain, even after doing that:

- We can't turn off Holds and even shop markers. As we get close to a Hold, even an unexplored cave or a blacksmith in a village, it already pops up on the compass. This one is not such a biggie, it can (if not done already) be easily modded.

- My main beef (and challenge) with it is that the game seems to lack an IC way of discovering a way to get somewhere. I'll use an example: the first bounty we get, back in Riverwood, that sends us to a random bandit hideout (Redoran Retreat etc.). Radiant quest system aside, the problem is the lack of options of dialogue or other RPing tools to learn how to get there (notes, in-game maps etc.). In a lot of situations, we just receive the name of a place, with not a single mention of even "north, south, east, west". Since the engine already pinpoints the exact location, in terms of vanilla game mechanics logic, I can understand why Beth didn't bother with this.

That being said, I'm coming up with a mod that, in a creative RP way, implements dialogue lines (even without VA), NPCs, maybe even factions (travelling merchants organization) that could attend to it.

I could use the help of the community not only in the sense of suggestions and advice, but especially plain old texts with different styles of writing that tackles with the challenge of covering the huge amount of content in this game.

When I said "already coming up with a mod", I meant it in the way of trying to write some notes that would represent a particular NPC offering me directions to certain places. When the Construction Kit comes out, it'd cut out our work for us if we already have good writing material in hand.

Since the community is a large and diverse place, if anybody is already doing this (or know that it's being done), I could use some pointing in the right direction, I'd love to help out. I'm not a native english speaker, and my english is Apprentice level at best, but I'm willing to help out the effort if it's already being made.

If anybody wants to jump on board and help out, if it suits your play style, itd be awesome.

Best regards from Brasil.
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Quick draw II
 
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Post » Tue May 15, 2012 6:37 am

Which is an interesting idea, because this is finally a game with the unique world detail that would allow you to take directions and actually follow them successfully and enjoyably.

"Travel north along this road for 15 minutes, and you'll come across a large dead tree and a crossroads. Step off the path and follow the line of snowberry bushes to the east. When you reach the stone pillars, turn west, and after a couple minutes travel through the dense wood, you'll find the entrance to the cave."
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sally coker
 
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Post » Tue May 15, 2012 9:51 am

Indeed. I'd much prefer to have no map markers. And even more so, to have no quest indicator.
But, with no description of where you might find what you need that's pretty much impossible. It would require all quests to be rewritten.
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Darrell Fawcett
 
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Post » Tue May 15, 2012 11:59 am

I think Radiant story and the random quest locations make directions hard to implement at best. Pity since I really don't want to psychically know the locations.
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Jason White
 
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