Played Daggerfall / Morrowind / Oblivion and now Skyrim. This 82 year old is bumfozzeled wtth map pointers.

My world map compass is jumbled with pointers that have small doors. Some pointers ae just that and rather large.

Now I am fully aware that the some 27 or so "Miscellanious" quests that I shall get to as soon as one kind person; or some you very kind young people, assist me is understanding theses plentifull points
and explaining how to rid them until 'wanted' by me.

I have attempted to follow some of these pointers, with small doors. And with my level 26, Female Breton, Sneaking level 128 Archer who now wears the "Sacrament Armor Pack" Mod. (If interested her name is, " Eris of Warhawk Clan".)

All I did was/is to continue to uncover more "Dens of Iniquity" and clear them, but never seem to get rid of these Misc. pointers.

They are the worst "Distraction" any Elder Scroll Game has ever had with a map. Perhaps the need was to assist Console players?

Any rate your input upon MY problem will be much appreciate by this "Old Guy".

drybones

You can turn quest markers for quest in your quest logbook.

Just click on them to toggle markers for that quest on and off.

Yep pointers are the bane of the player that actually reads quest dialogue to find out where to go. They tend to get a bit cluttered but fortunately you can deactivate them for the quest you are not interested in. I still think they make quest writers lazy because they don't have to explain the quest in dialogue.

Navigate to C:\Users\\Documents\My Games\Skyrim and open SkyrimPrefs.ini

Find [GamePlay] and below that change the following ...

bShowQuestMarkers=0

You will never see another quest marker again, including the floating ones. The only downside is the lack of information given in journal entries. The entries do not tell you where to go. Only quest markers do that.

Two ways around this. The first is to grab pen and paper and take notes as you play. Old school, but very good. The second is to select the quest in your journal (see post above) and use the Clairvoyance spell.

You can toggle quests on and off in your journal. Just click on them and if the icon changes into an arrow, it will show a marker on the map; click again, the icon will turn to normal and no marker will be shown.

However, since you're on PC there's a way to completely turn off the compass and/or quest markers (Rocket has it in the post above mine, the line for compass would be bShowCompass=0 in the Interface section).

Which I wouldn't recommend doing because the description of where you need to go is quite often so lacking that you need a marker just to figure it out.

The others already have this covered, but just to clarify: The pointer means there is a quest objective at that location. As stated, you can toggle this on and off by clicking on quests in your journal to 'activate'\'deactivate' them. The 'small doors' means the object is not in the same map-area as you, and you'll have to pass through the door being pointed at by the marker in order to get to it.

This can be confusing if you've got a lot of quests active: One pointer will tell you to go inside to find a quest target, but as soon as you go inside all of your other pointers will be telling you to go back out the door you just entered through. If you mouse over the marker on your mini-map, it will tell you what quest(s) the marker is for, and what you're supposed to do there, so you can check which marker (or group of markers) you should be following.

If you're referring to another icon and not a quest marker, see: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Places (with corresponding icons by type), or http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Skyrim-Icons-Map (the file-names give clues to what they're for).

TES is turning into COD..

Just my opinion

Many thanks to all who have replied.

I am remiss in forgetting to note that "all" misc quests in the Journal are OFF and that only two (2) main / primay are presently ON.

I suppose That I shall just have to live with it as you all have noted the journal svcks rather badly and now am too far into Skrim with tis character to dump her and return to the "old" days of ledger and personal map making.

Note: Is the Graybeard quest to create a 'truce' between the Stormcloaks & Imperial forces "broken? I have not joined either force as I am playing neutral but have done both quests to be "able" to join, No problem with Stormcloaks but that bloody General of the Imperials will only talk to me of JOINING. No other conversation tree available.

Thanks again to all.

Player [FartLizard] successfully snipes NPC [BellyFullOfMead].

KNEESHOT!

[BellyFullOfMead] signed off. [IUsedToBeAnAdventurer] signed in.

[FartLizard] has been awarded the following rank:

"Master NPC Killer Very Important Person Sniper TO THE MAX"

[TrollFace] signed in.
[DrZoidbergHomeowner] signed in.
[YourFriendlyNeighbourhoodGiant] signed in.

NPC [DrZoidbergHomeowner] enters stealth mode.
NPC [YourFriendlyNeighbourhoodGiant] picked up AK-Wooden-Club-47.
NPC [YourFriendlyNeighbourhoodGiant] summons tactical vehicle: Mammoth
NPC [YourFriendlyNeighbourhoodGiant] kills player [FartLizard].
NPC [TrollFace] uses special move: "Tea-Bag"

Player [FartLizard]: Giant used auto-aim! KICK! KICK! BAN! OMG! Stop with the cheatrzorz you n00bs!

NPC [TrollFace] changed name to [UMadBro].

No need to edit any files.

The pointers on your compass are just Quest markers, for ACTIVE quests. Just, disable the quest.

On the main quest screen you see the list (left) and items (right). Clicking on a quest will toggle it (enable / disable).

The Miscelaneous group is different. You can click individualy EACH item on the right, to enable or disable them, but you will only see markers if you enable the main "Miscellaneous" quest on the left. So, if you want to see only 2 markers for miscellaneous quests you are doing, just enable those 2 quests and enable the Miscellaneous quest.

Hope that helps.

If you turn off all quests, do all the markers disapear? You put that their were 2 main quests still on. I'm on x-box, but I know i've had 2 or 3 quest markers pop up at once for one quest. I haven't done the civil war quests at all, not even started them, so I don't know how they pop up as far as markers go.

Try looking through http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Season_Unending it pretty much has all known bugs with the quests and at times solutions. So you might find something there, be careful though as it also has spoilers!

If I'm reading you correctly what you're really trying to figure out is what all the symbols and icons in your compass mean and how to tell which are the locations you're seeking and which are just helpful pointers and hints provided by the game.

If I'm right then this link should help you distinguish which things you're really headed for as part of a quest and which things are just dens or barrows and exist to be explored when you want to.

The following is a link to a guide of the different symbols used and what they mean:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Maps

I really hope it helps. The upside down notched triangle is the icon you're looking for when you're headed to your marked quest.

To add: it's perfectly possible to play the game without markers - I've been doing it since the start and it's been great fun. You have to pay attention when getting quests, and sometimes it's helpful to (ready for this).. write things down. Shock concept, I know. Failing that, you can still press M while in the journal and it'll open the map to the vague location of the quest marker, without showing the marker, if you want to treat it as a kind of 'my character was told they were in this kind of area'

I do understwhat the quest markers represent.

It is the fact that I have, this early morning, attempted to remove "all" pointers and I still have a rather large
number of the type that point downward to a "small black door" which are not shown on the Wiki page :


http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Maps

Dang troubling.

Thanks to all responders.