Garnering information, quests, and loading screens.

[jivex5k]

One of the coolest experiences I ever had was in Skyrim.

I was reading a book about Trolls, said they were susceptible to fire. That was freakin awesome, I didn't need some loading screen tip to tell me or some online wiki, it was just presented in-game from the narrative of a troll hunter.

 

I'd love to see loading screen tips eliminated all-together, and for knowledge about certain enemies found in books...or since there is no printing press in PE then through spoken word.

 

Taking that to another level, what if there are no quest markers and instead only the knowledge you find.

One thing that I liked and hated about skyrim were the quest markers. You have a much closer relationship with a quest if your not just steamrolling from marker to marker, but on the other side of it extreme frustration can set in by having no idea where to go.

 

Perhaps there could be an option to turn quest markers on and off.

 

What do you guys think/feel?

[Hassat Hunter]

Did you play Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment?

You can find plenty of information on everything there.

Of course, a lot also from books. But who doesn't say there are a large number of illegal books still around. All the more valuable...

 

I can savely guarantee there would be no stupid ! markers. Nope, not even the option...

Edited October 12, 2012 by Hassat Hunter

[TXTwilight]

Taking that to another level, what if there are no quest markers and instead only the knowledge you find.

May I ask how old you are?

This was normal a couple of yers ago

Questmarker are one of the things why i don´t like modern RPG. Some of us aren´t brainless and can solve Quests without magical arrows pointing the way to everything we need.

Yeah, you can disable them, but most modern journals won´t give you enough informations and you are forced to use these markers. God, I miss the old IE games and Morrorwind Questbooks, where you have to think for yourself.

I hope Obsidian won´t implement Questmarker and if so, we need atleast an option to disable them und have a usefull questbook.

 

BTW: There is a rather big sidequest in the Dawnguard DLC for Skyrim which you can actualy finish without questmarkers. A Book provides all the necessary informations about the various places, scriptic pictures, which will help you to solve puzzles, disarm traps and so on. In my opinion, that was the best Quest in the whole Game.

Edited October 12, 2012 by TXTwilight

[Loranc]

Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy Skyrim as much as everyone else. It really had a spoon fed feeling to it, sure it had great graphics and combat, but I just could never really immerse myself into the game fully. Now you got me wanting to install Morrorwind again, only issue I 'ever' had with that game was not being told until after I killed an NPC that it would now prevent me from finishing the game.

[TCJ]

I think that BG2 had some load screen tips, but not that many. Also, a lot of them involved game mechanics, and not lore. Oh, and reminders to eat something so you don't die from starvation.

[jivex5k]

Been too long...too long since I loaded up BG2.

 

I might have to try Planescape Torment, never played it.

[True_Spike]

I really hope there won't be quest markers. Locations markers (for universally known locations) are fine, especially in big cities, but quest markers of any sort are a no-no in my book.

[cdx]

Having location markers and no quest markers makes sense and hopefully they would only switched on when the character/s have been close enough to it on the map.

 

This way you don't run towards a marker but explore and just have it as a reminder once you've found it.

 

Also, being able to put your own markers like in BG2 is great.

[Oerwinde]

They had quest markers in BG. It was called Named NPCs.

 

As for loading screens. I'm not someone who reads all the in-game books unless they're related to a quest. I can count the number of books in Skyrim I read on one hand. So I think the loading screens are a perfect place to put lore blurbs. Especially if they're numerous. Loading screens get really old by the end, but if there is a decent number of lore blurbs related to the areas we're in that would be super.

[Amentep]

I always liked the loading screen tip that suggested the player take a break and get something to eat because they didn't want the player to die.

[jivex5k]

I always liked the loading screen tip that suggested the player take a break and get something to eat because they didn't want the player to die.

X-Com needs this lol.

Something like: You're still playing??? Go take a shower, you probably smell by now.

[TCJ]

I liked the option to add your own markers in BG2. That way you could add small stuff in that you want to remember aside from markers for main locations.

[mstark]

So I think the loading screens are a perfect place to put lore blurbs

Putting information on loading screens is not good for anyone who's got SSD drives.

 

I'm just playing through BG2 again, on 4x RAID0 SSDs (700MB R/W). The area loading times are approximately 0.1 seconds, and there's no way in hell I have time to read any of the text on a loading screen

 

(and installation took a whopping 10 seconds to extract all the files - last time I installed BG2, 10 years ago, it took 45min+ :D)

Edited October 12, 2012 by mstark

[Rosveen]

Taking that to another level, what if there are no quest markers and instead only the knowledge you find.

Oh man. We've come full circle...

[Hassat Hunter]

I'm just playing through BG2 again, on 4x RAID0 SSDs (700MB R/W). The area loading times are approximately 0.1 seconds, and there's no way in hell I have time to read any of the text on a loading screen

Yeah, that happens alot with older games, loads just too fast to even read the loading tips. Not that I'm really complaining that much

 

I remember the "keep your character around for Neverwinter Nights"... oh my...