Please no more "go here" quest markers!

[Cultist]

1. Search for pieces of the artefact, scattered across the city.

2. Go to big arrows on the minimap.

3. PROFIT!!!

 

We are all familiar with them from Skyrim, Oblivion, Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. Every quest turns into a joke with big arrows indicating where we must go, with whom we must speak and so on.

Please, no more! Let us search if quest says we must find something. Let us think if there's a riddle, let us search and ask people for information, instead of going stright for the right person.

The markers nullify the very concept of non-fetch quests. And even fetch quests could be interesting, but not when right from the start you have indicators pointing where, for example, igridients for some potion are located.

[aphotic]

I honestly don't believe there is any risk of this happening. In the "worst" case, this will be a simple setting in the options menu, probably off by default, if even that. Dishonored was a recent game that took this route and allowed the player to customize contextual and objective-related information by a few user interface settings.

[nikolokolus]

It's kind of interesting. Once I found and installed immersive hud for skyrim and turned all markers off, it made the game a helluva lot more fun.

 

One of worst "improvements" in modern games has to be the GPS like waypoint.

[Pshaw]

I really doubt they would do this. It just seems too at odds with their philosophy with this game.

 

If they feel they must add it just let it there be a toggle in the options to turn it on/off.

 

I do kind of enjoy the direction borderlands 2 has started to take with this though which is to have arrows that get you to the general area but once there you need to do the searching yourself. I don't think it's needed in PE however as the game will most likely have set areas so if somebody says go find me magical tree bark from the mystical grove you'll already be on the right track. I think markers make sense in games that have a more open and less defined world (Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3, Red Dead Redemption) however I think they should make the shift of pointing you in the general direction/area and not showing you exactly where the object of your desires is located within a cave.

[Ieo]

Fortunately, I don't remember this nonsense in the IE games at all, and Obsidian didn't make those games you mentioned (so I don't know how "no more" would apply unless they were in Fallout or something).

 

All the clues should be in the dialogic or random item texts. Read, people! READ!

[Hassat Hunter]

Preaching to the choir here, dude...

[Streamlock]

Well, assuming they don't use any kind of radiant NPC behaviour stuff-sure.

 

But if you have to turn in a quest to some guy who wonders off down the local river every 3rd weekend during the solstice and what-not, for whatever bizzare reason, and the only way you would know that is to either read a guide or by pure chance.....the heck with all that nonsense.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Streamlock

[SerRodrik]

My money's on it being a toggle, maybe it gets turned off as part of the expert mode. But Obsidian knows the type of audience they're targeting, it's almost guaranteed they'll include the ability to play without that stuff.

[Joukehainen]

1. Search for pieces of the artefact, scattered across the city.

2. Go to big arrows on the minimap.

3. PROFIT!!!

 

We are all familiar with them from Skyrim, Oblivion, Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. Every quest turns into a joke with big arrows indicating where we must go, with whom we must speak and so on.

Please, no more! Let us search if quest says we must find something. Let us think if there's a riddle, let us search and ask people for information, instead of going stright for the right person.

The markers nullify the very concept of non-fetch quests. And even fetch quests could be interesting, but not when right from the start you have indicators pointing where, for example, igridients for some potion are located.

 

YES YES YES YES. I HATE quest-trackers with a passion that burns like the strength of a thousand suns.

 

However, as others have said, I doubt we have to worry about that in PE, since it is being done oldschool style. :D

[Ignatius]

Nonsense. Quest markers and mud crabs are two mandatory features at the top of my list for this game.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Ignatius

[Metabot]

Well, assuming they don't use any kind of radiant NPC behaviour stuff-sure.

 

But if you have to turn in a quest to some guy who wonders off down the local river every 3rd weekend during the solstice and what-not, for whatever bizzare reason, and the only way you would know that is to either read a guide or by pure chance.....the heck with all that nonsense.

 

That kind of a thing isn't a problem as long as the information can be found within the game world. Maybe you ask a neighbor and they tell you that that particular NPC does that.

[Badmojo]

A simple toggle (with it being off by default) is the best options. There are times every so often you forget where you want to go, or you get lost, or maybe its a boring quest and you just want to hurry up and get it over with and not spend too much time on it (oh, can you go to the well and search under every rock to find my ring I dropped when I was young and foolish *GROAN*...but, since we can't grind for XP anymore, we HAVE to do this quest for the xp *sigh*) or half a dozen reasons. If its optional and off by default, seems the best solution.

[Gorth]

For me it depends on the quality of your journal. I seriously hated flipping back and forth through the pages in BG1, trying to find a paragraph somewhere which would remind of a particular task. BG2 did a better job of it because you could "filter" out things that were information for flavour and get a summary of tasks you had accepted (voluntarily or not) and access the information in a non tedious manner. Good riddance to the GPS markers though.

[Gyor]

There's a mode to shut stuff like that off, personally I want things like Quest Markers I hate running around in circles looking for stuff, not fun like they have in Fallout New Vegas and stuff.

 

 

 

 

[Badmojo]

Oh, here is a thought, what about getting locations from priests? or using a cipher? Or perhaps a necromancer could contact the dead and ask them? If you don't have one in your party you could find a temple and pay for the information

 

Maybe its a skill a character could learn (so you could have one of your party members focus on this), it could be used beyond the quest marker, if you have a journal you could click on a NPC character/location in your list and the character with the ability could point to their location on a map. Of course the skill has to be upgraded, at low level it will show you a general idea of the location, higher it points a bit closer, at highest it is pin pointed accuracy. If you need info NOW and your character is not high enough, you could go to a temple, cipher, necromancer who is a high level and pay them to show you the location on the map.

 

A priest contacts its deity to get the info, a cipher uses her powers, and a necromancer contacts the legion of dead.

[rjshae]

Quest markers may be a feature that belongs on the easy (Casual Gaming?) mode; something for people who want to speed through the exploration aspects and get directly to the meat of the game.

[Metabot]

There's a mode to shut stuff like that off, personally I want things like Quest Markers I hate running around in circles looking for stuff, not fun like they have in Fallout New Vegas and stuff.

 

Well, part of the problem comes in when they design quests around the quest marker instead of treating it as a once in a while hint system.

 

Another problem is that GPS markers destroy an entire aspect of gameplay involved in questing. That is, it totally removes actually searching and questing.

[Durinax]

There's a mode to shut stuff like that off, personally I want things like Quest Markers I hate running around in circles looking for stuff, not fun like they have in Fallout New Vegas and stuff.

 

Well, part of the problem comes in when they design quests around the quest marker instead of treating it as a once in a while hint system.

 

Another problem is that GPS markers destroy an entire aspect of gameplay involved in questing. That is, it totally removes actually searching and questing.

I think it depends on the quest, if it is something that could shown on a map like lets say "we need to destroy these seige weapons" then you can show them on the GPS, if it is something like "go gather x number of this" then definately not

[Metabot]

I think it depends on the quest, if it is something that could shown on a map like lets say "we need to destroy these seige weapons" then you can show them on the GPS, if it is something like "go gather x number of this" then definately not

 

[Gyor]

Quest markers may be a feature that belongs on the easy (Casual Gaming?) mode; something for people who want to speed through the exploration aspects and get directly to the meat of the game .

 

That'd be me :D honestly I don't mind some exploration, as long as I'm not lost or frustrate trying to find something or running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

 

[LadyCrimson]

I don't mind a marker that indicates what general direction to go in, so I know whether to go south or north or whatever (and then may disappear when I get sorta closeish). What I mind is when games use markers on everything ... that is, your quest is to find an item, say, and the quest marker is on the item itself (and shows up on the map). Then you pick it up, the quest is now to find another item, and the marker moves to that item. Like in Borderlands. I personally like Borderlands, but the marker system (especially in 2) is completely silly, even for the type of game it is.

 

In a RPG game of the type I expect P.E. will be, I can easily do without markers of any kind, as long as the quests are clearly written with a good directional hint, like "North in the Fields of Doom." I don't like it when quest logs are so ambiguous I'm not even sure what compass direction to start in.

[Krios]

Just make it optional if arrows, tooltips, etc are visible to the player or not. That should satisfy the majority of players.

[Gorth]

How about divine intervention? You get struck by a lightning bolt every time you veer too far away from your current active quest

[LadyCrimson]

How about divine intervention? You get struck by a lightning bolt every time you veer too far away from your current active quest

That would be rather hard on the armor. I'd have to spend too much gold getting the burn marks polished off all the time.

[Ieo]

How about divine intervention? You get struck by a lightning bolt every time you veer too far away from your current active quest

That would be rather hard on the armor. I'd have to spend too much gold getting the burn marks polished off all the time.

 

So long as you make sure you're wearing steel chain or plate, you can be your own Faraday cage and see only the visual lightning reminder! IT'S PERFECT.