Quest design in Morrowind and previous TES games is the best type for atmosphere and RPG at all, but such an 'oldstyle' type is bad for sells or at least risky.
But its possible to do the both types without any risk. The game's quests should be an oldstyle type(directions, detail descriptions, etc), but everybody should be able to choose the marker's type at start of the game. Thats it.

Oh, i forgot, that its impossible because of voiced dialogs. Ok

I'm on PS3 so my only option is HUD transparency.

I play with the HUD about 80% transparent for most characters, but I gotta leave it at around 60% for archery.

I would really like to hide the compass and markers. At first I thought I would really need the health/stamina too but I find there are enough audible cues to live without those.

But I don't think there is any substitute for the magicka bar. With decreasing health or stamina there is bloody screen or heavy breathing to warn you, but I don't think there is an equivalent for magicka.

And it would be nice to still see some of the text like a object labels and the 'discovered' text so I know where I am.

I really wish the HUD had some indication of magical effects too. (I know its been said before) It really seems like they are given us so much useless information on the HUD and not the stuff we really need/can use.

The compass tuner is 100% win for Skyrim. I've disabled the compass and the player map marker, and have to navigate by knowing my way around the countryside.

Waaay more fun. I can't tell you how many wrong turns I used to make and wound up way off course when I first turned off the compass. Now, however, I can get around generally without even checking the map that much.

if you like having no hud, here's another nice thing you can do to add to your game: print out an online map of skyrim and fill it in as your map is updated. from that point on you never look at your magic gps player icon map ever again (or, at least only look at it when you're in a major town).

by doing this you truly get to experience the fun of finding places on your own by using an actual map that you'd have if you were in the world of skyrim.

very worthwhile and if you don't want to use it that way you can always go back to the cheesy default gps.

I love playing without the compass, it gives me a nice clear view of the sky and makes the game more fun. If I don't know where to go, I just use Clairvoyance to find my way.

Is there a way to turn off just the compass on Xbox? Also you should totally let your fellow Bethesdans know a hardcoe mode DLC would be AMAZING for us console guys.

No, but some people at Oblivion forums mentioned putting a black tape on the TV to hide it. May not be a good idea with an LCD screen, though

ROFL, that is so ghetto.

Tape?? Seriously? Hahahah.
I do not endorse that idea.

Sadly, though, Bethesda thought not to include most of the game options in the game Options menu. There are lots of simple little things you can turn on and off in the .ini's that are not in the interface anywhere, and thus unavailable to console users.

Dunno why.

Hm. I've never tried playing without the compass before, but after reading this I just might give it a go. There's no way I'll completely turn off HUD, though. Fable 3 gave me enough of not knowing where in blazes my health was at to last a lifetime, thank you very much.

Pretty much this, though I wouldn't mind trying it once just for the hell of it. I wish we could just customize each thing to get rid of or not.

I found that removing the HUD became a huge burden for 2 reasons. #1: No depth perception for vision. #2: Relative directions for sounds. The real conflict is when it came to pick up things.
I hated not having a reference of how long my reach is for pickpocketing or grabbing items or even moving bodies around.

That's the way that I play - just NSEW. Makes exploration and finding something much more fun. While I get the idea behind turning off the health and stamina bars - i.e. there are audible clues - I am not ready to get rid of those. I would like to reduce their size and, along with the compass, shove them into a corner so they are not front and center.

Some of those treasure maps are impossible to figure out without looking them up.

All I need is my cross-hair and I would be content, but seeing how I'm a console player I cannot lose the compass without losing everything else. This is how I like to play Halo, only having a cross-hair on my screen but there are more HUD options in halo to customize your HUD.

The game works just like in RL, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, there also seems to be a north star as well but I really haven't stopped and watched the skies to see if the star that I think is the north star stays in place or if it's replaced by a star that's close to the same location, but I've tried it and you are able to find your way by traditional ways but like I said above I need my cross-hair.

Having the Compass gone makes the game more enjoyable imo. As you.... (A)can see more of Skyrim & (B)makes it enjoyable to have to find your own way.

It's interesting rading through this thread. The HUD layout, and all knowing compass was a subject of much debate prior to game launch. I was in the "PLEASE TOGGLE THE COMPASS" camp from the beginning, but obviously Bethesda stuck to it's game plan and said "you get this" period. I re-collect Pete Hines did tweet that we could fade out the whole HUD, if we didn't like or want the compass, but as has been noted, it also eliminates some other features that some would rather keep.

I'm currently playing sans HUD, and I like it. Yes its a pain not knowing what you can pick up, but I've found, when in doubt, just don't, to work OK, helps curb my hoarding instinct . As for the cross hair, even as an archer, I've found it's absence to be acceptable. It's only the very long shots that I tend to have a miss with, and thats probably more realistic. Certainly, I feel my targeting skills have sharpened over time, without this assist, and its actually more rewarding to hit that trick shot I think, with a better sense of accomplishment, and more connection to the game world.

As for health and stamina, there are audible assists which one needs to listen to for health. There are also visual cues if your stamina is low obviously. Again, I'm using my own sensory field, as opposed to the game assists, and I find it a more enjoyable game accordingly. Magic is a bit more problematic, but as I usually stick to destruction, you can get a "feel" for how much duration you have whether single or dual wielding. The trickier part is the re-charge time. End up using way more potions than I did before to recharge. I do think a cool thing would be a to somehow visually show, through intensity of the charge in your hand, your magic strength / reserve status.

All this being said, I'd ask BETHESDA to please consider facilitating a toggle for the compass in all its future RPG/action titles early on in the game development stages. I'd also ask them to keep the design compact, and along the bottom of the screen, than scattered about. I've never liked the compass taking up so much of the skyline, the 'rear view mirror" look does detract. I much prefer to see the world unobstructed, rather than as a dashboard and front window scenario, complete with blood splatter on the screen....

I tried playing without a compass for about 40 minutes today. What a mess!

I was outdoors in the woods and killed a guy, got attacked immediately by other guys on a bluff, ran around and around trying to get up to them and then tried to go back and find the first body to search it and couldn't because I had no idea where I was anymore. Tried to carry on but had to keep checking my map every 2 minutes or so....

What a pain in the ass.

On a side note, I've carried a compass in my purse for years - a nice one my hubby bought for me. So it's not just for ease in the game for me. I really need to know where I am in unfamiliar territory.

rexx-

lets just admit it: the hud and hud options and video/audio options are a bad mess. and, this is a rpg where choice and options are supposed to rule.

the gps is a bad joke. the non-journal and bad/non-existent directions are horrid.

not seeing health, combined with, a system not even developed for not being able to see your health is bad. we can make up for it with vague clues (breathing) and repetition (how long does it take to regen), but, the system was not developed for it.

if this is not included in the dlc, i will be shaking my head in unbelief.

How do you know where to go if a quest points you to a new place? There are almost no directions whatsoever on some quests....

like i said: print out a skyrim map that's empty.

add in the map updates and don't look at the gps or updated map (player auto-locator) while attempting to find that location.

check the map only when at a major city. never recon with gps while trying to find location.

This still does not help me find points that are only given as a quest marker. Where should I begin to look? Quests can send you across the world sometimes...

Totally agree with turning off the compass being more immersive, rather than more "elite." Unfortunately, those of us on PS3 and Xbox have no choice but to live with the GPS compass (and sneak crosshair) or turn the entire HUD off. I do not know why Bethesda went to all the trouble to make the health/stamina/magicka bars go invisible when you are not using them but did not give the millions of players on PS3 and Xbox an option to turn off the compass or sneak crosshair without loosing the invisible status bars. That does not make any sense to me.

Do you know why they made this decision? It makes no sense to me why they did not create an independant toggle for the compass or the sneak crosshair. It is a couple lines of code in the ini file, so how hard could it be to add it to the options menu for the millions of PS3 and Xbox users?