The Compass Options

[Pushtrak]

Newbiezilla asked me to post this here...

I personally go with Nautical points.

Take this thread as a "What should Oblivion have been" or "What can TES V be." The outcome is probably the exact same anyway

Anyway, we can assess numbers of people who are in favour of the compass with this thread. We can find out what people want done with it, or wish was done with it.

I'll deal with my attitudes to each of the poll options - I don't require anyone else to do this, so don't feel obligated.

I liked it. it should stay
I disagree with this one, as I felt it was added to fit into a larger audience, so people would have the incentive to play on if they weren't hardcore gamers.

People who had friends with this game would play it for maybe half an hour, and if they knew what they were doing, and not getting frustrated like they might have done if they were playing Morrowind in same friends house, and decided against buying it.

I personally played Morrowind over in a friends house before buying the game, and I bought it for exactly the opposite reason - I felt I could explore anywhere and have fun.

I hated it, it should go
I'd like the game without the compass for sure. Though I know they felt that it was obligatory because the fact that NPCs went on their schedules.

To me, it was unrealistic having the ability to have a compass detect people like that. I say no to compass detecting people, anyway, personally. Locations I can deal with, not people.

Nautical points
You have a map, in game and in real life, so I felt that Nautical points compass would be ok as a just when you get directions to have an on screen representation to confirm you are going the right way.

Limited range
This could work quite well, for instance at Cheydinhal you will not see something at Anvil being pointed out to you... I think a set paramater could work quite well here.

Sliders
My problem with sliders is I feel we shouldn't have to adjust sliders to accomodate us. I don't like messing with the difficulty slider, as I should feel i'm going into a world, not tweaking the world. Though i'm open to counter points on that.

A slider for on or off, thats fine, i'd end up switching it off assuming nautical wasn't an option.

Summary
I guess you could say i'm mixed in my opinions. I guess you could say at the moment i'd go with Nautical (or compass points)

This post has been edited by Pushtrak: Jul 31 2006, 11:18 AM

[PhonAntiPhon]

I have no problem with the compass in Oblivion actually, as is, but that said I also use Darnified so I can ef about with it anyway if I want.
On a comparative note, and in this instance I feel it's justified; I hated the compass in The Game of the Northern Province. I just did not get along with the whole enemy radar thing.
Fortunately the compass tuner mod really helped in that respect...

[Pseron Wyrd]

I just did not get along with the whole enemy radar thing.

That was a Fallout 3 feature. I'm guessing it must have been popular enough for Bethesda to import it into Skyrim.

Anyway, I not only don't play with a compass in Oblivion and Skyrim, I've also stopped looking at the in-game map. I have not opened a map in either game since sometime last year. It makes the game world feel 4 or 5 times larger to me. It's just an incredibly astounding difference.

This post has been edited by Pseron Wyrd: Mar 12 2013, 02:22 AM

[King Coin]

Anyway, I not only don't play with a compass in Oblivion and Skyrim, I've also stopped looking at the in-game map. I have not opened a map in either game since sometime last year. It makes the game world feel 4 or 5 times larger to me. It's just an incredibly astounding difference.

Playing without a map and quest objectives has its appeal, but I just don't have the time to play with out them.

[Pseron Wyrd]

Playing without a map and quest objectives has its appeal, but I just don't have the time to play with out them.

You're right, it's not for everybody. It definitely does take much longer to find many places without looking at the in-game map. Which is actually part of its charm for me. I love exploring and I love getting lost.

This started back in Morrowind, when I'd begin many of my games in a shipwreck off Azura's Coast. I had a rule: no looking at the map until we reached civilization. Azura's Coast is pretty featureless, so it was easy to get lost and stay lost in that area of the gameworld. I loved wandering with no idea where I was. I guess I'm just strange that way. Doing quests bores me to tears most of the time but wandering around lost keeps me on the edge of my seat with excitement. Go figure.

I'm self-employed so I have the time for all this. I can carve out blocks of time out of my schedule in which to play at my leisure. But I'm sure that someone with less time to play is going to find playing without a map (or playing without fast travel) not much fun, and I don't blame them.

This post has been edited by Pseron Wyrd: Mar 12 2013, 01:51 PM

[Lady Saga]

I love exploring and I love getting lost.

Yeah, me too. And in the vanilla game the compass (and the GPS-styled pointer on the map) really defeats the purpose of trying to figure things out ourselves, hence my famous compass delete pretend mod



I honestly do not remember whether I used the compass before creating this 'mod', I think in the earliest days I probably did use the green pointer to follow quests. And then I probably read some things about Morrowind, about how much more immersive this game is because it doesn't hold one's hand much, and this inspired me to try to delete the compass.

I'm pretty sure that's how it all happened.

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Mar 12 2013, 04:01 PM