There's a fine line between immersion and annoyance, and turning off the HUD tramples over that for me.

As much as I joke about it, maybe Bethesda should just add a giant toggle menu next game, so people can turn everything off. HUD elements, fast travel, kill cams, enemies, combat, graphics, etc.

I understand hating the markers on the compass that scream "DID YOU KNOW THERE'S SOMETHING HERE!?" before you've ever been there, but I don't understand what people have against the compass in general. Wouldn't you want to be able to make sure you knew which way was North, South, East, and West?

Actually if you ever read a real map. It isn't like it goes and tells you everything.

It just says, "Cave" "South"

That really isn't screaming at you. Real maps in the real world have those kind of legends. The compass behaves as a legend and a mini map. There is nothing wrong with that.

In my case it simply made the exploration aspect of the game more fun. It adds another layer of activity, as you pull up your map to identify landmarks and ways to guide yourself around the terrain. It was rather exciting the first time I tried it, and I realized that I was paying more attention to the landscape and noticing more details. I can tell which direction I'm going because I know a particular river is to the west, or the path I want to follow goes around a particular hill or passes in front of a certain dwemer ruin, etc.

With the compass on, I tend to chase those black icons to try to unlock every location nearby. With it off, I am continually surprised by finding new and interesting locations in unexpected places. And it makes quests a bit more fun because I have most likely not already unlocked the destination location when I get a new quest.

I think the Compass Markers should be disabled by default. Those who want them could enable them from an Aids section in Options. I don't understand why developers have decided to force hand-holding features to everyone and not give options to toggle them on/off. At least on PC you can keep the health bars, but you still need to tweak .ini files and install mods as the disabling option isn't inside the game.

I completely agree. I wouldn't even want to play this game if I couldn't disable the compass markers. The game becomes much more exciting without them. The more the game tells me things I shouldn't know/want to discover myself the more bored I become.
Here's a http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/ActionDragon/Skyrim/HUD.jpg. (No compass markers, no sneak eye indicator etc. hand-holding aids. Compass is visible only when sneaking)

This is a toggle function, that I longed for, since the release, playing on the Xbox. I mean can you can disable the "crosshair", but not the compass? Come on! The only solution was to turn the HUD completely off. I could live without the M/H/S bars. BUT not having the descriptions pop up was just unplayable.

The tags for doors, NPC, stolen goods, ANY goods...I want to pick up a single berry, NOT the whole damn platter!

Now, on PC and tyhe first mod I installed was Immersive HUD. Now I have no HUD at all, even the Sneak or crosshair. I thought I really needed the crosshair, but I found that still being able to display the name of objects was just as good. AND the M/H/S bars fade in and out so everybody wins.

Now I must use my map more, which has a mod that replaces the 3D GPS Satellite with the paper map you see in the game. It is still a raised 3D image, but don't feel like Zeus looking down on the humans. It has a function that turns off ALL the map markers. It is a light blue at night, which makes it feel like you are looking at it under the moonlight. Really great stuff.

I also run Realistic Lighting, which makes the evenings very dark and the dungeons pitch black. Pending the cloud cover evenings can be like that as well. It took me an hr, to get back to Riverwood, from BFB. I used my last torch, as I left the barrow. I could not see anything. Except a faint silhouette of the Throat of the World. That was my guide.

No compass, no light and no mapmarker. I felt like I was actually stumbling around in the forest at night. Trust me, a forest can get pitch black at night. Great stuff, indeed.

"Waiter! Oh, waiter? Could you bring us another bowl of nits? We seem to have picked this one clean!"

A no HUD game is much better.

Turn off the music aswell for an even better experience.

What's a nit?

That thing that everyone seems to pick at just for the sake of complaining.

Lice eggs, actually.

I'm not talking about the map. I'm talking about the markers on the compass that appear on your HUD. Those I don't think should just pop up out of nowhere before you've been to the spot, but I'm okay with NPCs marking areas on your map to help guide you.


I could get behind that, if more of the areas that weren't dungeons were named. If there were named passes or trees or something that served as named landmarks that the NPCs talked about I'd like that a lot more.

For me, I've always made an effort to determine the cardinal directions whenever I arrive somewhere new, usually by finding the sun in the sky and the time of day, but since Skyrim's time flows so differently, I want a way of telling directions without having to pause to look at the clock.

To be honest, I don't really use the compass anyway. This far into Skyrim I pretty much know how to get around by muscle memory. It's very rare I have to pull up a map or look at the compass to figure out where I'm going these days.

If it only didn't remove the health and stamina bars I'd have been using this feature on launch day.

Ah! I see. "Samsonite! I was way off!"
It seems that also describes post #32.

Good yoke.

And I too am talking about the compass.

The compass acts as a mini map to say south is a cave landmark. Because I cannot worth crap read their 3D map I use the compass as a mini map.

I do agree that it should be a toggle, but not off by default. People seem to forget it, but these forums are generally the tiny (but vocal) minority.

As far as quest directions, I'd be up for these being back..but sometimes it should be vague. The farther away from a populated area/road it is, the sketchier the person's directions are.

Yes, in fact if the compass was off by default, hardly anybody would make it to High Hrothgar

Personally I found the game to be more fun without the compass, but I wouldn't recommend trying it at least until you find High Hrothgar for the first time. Even with the compass and quest markers and constantly checking my map, it was quite a long, epic journey. Got lost several times along the way.

True. The default (unmodded) map svcks too. If the devs had made the map properly the compass markers wouldn't be needed.

Edit:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/ActionDragon/Skyrim/Map.jpg

I remember my first trip to High Hrothgar. It started out with me


and I was over encumbered, but I was much closer to Ivarstead than any other town, so I crawled over there, sneaking and bow drawn to try and speed things up. Finally, I got to Ivarstead and looked for an area to sell all the goods weighing me down. However, the only merchant to be found was the innkeeper who had about 115 gold on him. So instead, I crawled up the 7,000 Steps at a snail's pace, and slide down the mountain about 4 hours later when I finally made it to the top and finished meeting the Greybeards so I could hurry up and unload all my gear.

Ended up making about 500 gold off of it, partially because I refused to sell the pretty silver swords.

http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/gallery_files/cyrodiil_ingame.jpg

No land formations. Reads like a normal human map. Feels more to the era and less modernized.

I agree, if Skyrim were a person they would be the kind that has six with a condem.... safer but less fun.

As for the compass I just turned it off using the ini file by changing the value from 1 to 0, I have a number of ini settings that have improved the game imo, very simple tweaks that could easily have been toggle operated

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10044

This.^ You would think that as an adventurer you might actually carry a compass on you for navigation purposes. That, and a map, and terrain features can guide you exactly where you want to go.

I really hope Beth adds a toggle for the compass in the next patch. How hard could it be? People have been asking for this since before release..

Thanks for posting the ini settings.