Please, give us option to play WITHOUT quest markers

Gameplay
#35

My first choice (if it ever becomes a choice) is to make hud elements optional. If the designers decided to remove quest markers altogether, then I would certainly hope there’s ample information in the game to point me toward the quest destination. You wouldn’t, after all, tell someone “fetch the furznitz in Upper East Neverfindington” without giving them a map, directions (and a way to jot those down), or point them to someone who can direct them on their journey (or towards the next person who can continue them on their journey). I have played a game (maybe games) where the destination is stated in the quest, but then you only find the place through blind exploration. Most people throughout history have not lived as explorers of the physical world. We tend to stick to places we’re familiar with and, when traveling, like to have an idea where we’re going, beyond “it’s that-a-way”.

Sorry if that came off a little harsh towards those who favor the “hardcore” option - I don’t mean it to be. I certainly would like for you to be able to play it your way, but would hope that doesn’t preclude me from playing it my way.

1 Like
#36

what is mindlessly difficult, is that like intelligently stupid?

#37

You really should stop being agresive all the time. It’s annoying, especially if you don’t have anything to say on topic. Beside of that, that comparision doesn’t make sense at all…

1 Like
#38

he put two together two concepts that don’t fit at all. the comparison is easy to understand.

#39

Aside from the bugs, quite.

Yet there have been times, (most recently Risen 2), where I’ve taken a break from a game, come back and discovered that along with zero marker, the conversation and log entry were also completely devoid of any destination hints. So I had a quest task with no indication of location which saw me re-visiting everything in order to track it down.

Should the map and quest log resolve this, fine. If not, it amounts to replacing engaging game-play with aggravation for the sole purpose of… aggravation… and maybe bragging rights? Neither of which make for compelling content.

No. It isn’t. The latter is an oxymoron, the former not. I get English may not be everyone’s first language but comprehension thereof matters when nit-picking it. :smile:

#40

@213: You do remember, that you should be careful with your words and posts, right? If not, let me just remind you:

It was taken from the robes, capes and cloaks thread (if someone’s wondering, where this quote is from). If you don’t mind, then do mind from now on. Even if this quote doesn’t sound too harsh, it still is a warning from the team. I don’t know the warning limit, yet you shouldn’t provoke it if you want to stay here in the forums.

#41

I agree. The game needs to be made without markers in it at all. We follow instructions from our journal or from the people we talk to.

1 Like
#42

It should be made with options for people who prefer markers and people who don’t.

4 Likes
#43

Exactly. It should be quite easy to make markers optional. I think for somebody like Dan who criticized Skyrim heavily with a list of 100 points such a design issue should be mandatory.

Player should be able to flexibly and easily turn stuff like minimap, compass, quest markers and stuff on and off anytime.

But of course players should be able to solve quests without using markers. Just for those who want an “easy and casual” experience there is no reason to not give them the possibility to turn markers on.

4 Likes
#44

Marker off for me, other wise why an open world? I like investigating, asking NPc, think, and finding clues, to solve a quest.
Markers make the game so linear and player act as a robot, he don’t pay attention to the dialogs (why should I do? I will get my arrow at the end of this dialog). And this is also a good excuse for the game designer to dump down the scenario.

1 Like
#45

Having markers or a compass in a game has never made me feel like I wanted to skip through dialogue or pass up the chance to explore, especially the first time I played it.

#46

[quote=“bebuce, post:31, topic:16259”]Having in-game support for making screenshots would be nice. And having support for recording a video of my gameplay would be totally awesome. The game could just keep record of the game state and render the actual video afterwards frame by frame, not in real time, which would allow to render it in the best possible quality. With the possibility to switch HUD elements on and off after it has been recorded. One of the games supporting this is Team Fortress 2. Maybe not worth the effort, but…
[/quote]

That would be totally awesome. I know some games did that. It allows you to change camrera (e.g. in Trackmania) and in that in addition to rendering in the best possible quality really makes awesome videos on youtube.

1 Like
#47

I really like the idea of this topic. It reminded me of the Gothic games (as well as some other older RPGs) - I quite enjoyed having to think about things and finding things through exploration. Sometimes I had to look up a guide on the internet when I got stuck for a long time, but that was really worth it. Nowadays, there are no guides anymore, because the games basically do everything for you.

Personally, I think that this is one of the bigger issues in modern games - even if they give you an interesting quest, they point you in the exact direction or spot right away, so your task is just riding or going to the spot, pressing an action button and clicking through some dialogues. It also kind of takes away a lot of the excitement - for example, if you are to go on a super dangerous mission into some bandits’ chief encampment, but then you see every bandit as a red dot and their chief highlighted on the map… any feeling of danger is usually gone, either you are strong enough (have good enough equipment etc.) to take them down or you don’t.

I think it would make a lot of sense in KC: D, especially as it should be closer to the “hardcore” RPGs more than other games out there (and as said, there should be some investigating). Having optional quest markers is fine though (or more likely, the option to disable them), everyone wants something different from a game. Not having the option to disable the markers would be very dissapointing though.

2 Likes
#48

We should have only a map that works a bit like a good old treasure map. You could put there your own markers ‘‘X’’ marks. But it shouldn’t show on a compass, a compass isn’t even supposed to exist yet.

#49

You may want to double-check when compasses were first used.

But again - this should be an option for players. I would rather Warhorse had it so people who want or need the compass can have it show up, or they can turn it off if they’d rather not see it.

1 Like
#50

I agree, its all about options. Obviously the game needs to be accessible to most of the people and to some, having no navigation on the map could be very frustrating. I just hope that Warhorse will put in the extra effort to adjust the design to people who want to actually follow the dialogues and conversations and want to explore and figure out things based on that instead of being taken by hand and pushed to the exact spot by the game.

From the interviews and lectures given by Dan Vavra which I read, I have faith in Warhorse in this regard. That would be very refreshing instead of the pointless dialogues in most of modern games where you just want to skim through them, pick up quests as fast as possible and get going. It almost seems as if many companies from the game industry think that “average gamer” means “without a brain” and therefore there is a marker for everything.

Having a treasure-like map sounds interesting, but probably wouldn’t appeal to the majority of players. But again, its all about options.

2 Likes
#51

It’s hard to define hard-core mode. But we are answering your prayers. We will try to find a compromise for everybody, which includes the option of disabling features like quest markers, maps and the compass. There isn’t any clear image yet, but we are definitely working on it. So hopefully we’ll create a pool of settings which satisfys everybody, from casual- to hard-core gamer.

13 Likes
The 2,100,000$ goal has been reached!
Normal vs Hard relating to quests/markers/clues
#52

The new Deus Ex had plenty of options to disable HUD features (crosshair, interactive object highlight, quest marks, and so on). I think there is no need to force it on everyone, even in the ‘hard core’ mode (though some things should not be available in it), but people should have option to disable those additional hints (and I do not think they have to play in hardcore mode to do so). So if we have bunch of settings we can play with, I will be quite happy.

For example, I do not like games with checkpoints, I prefer to be able to save my game when I want to. On the other hand all other options I like hardcore. I know that other people prefer checkpoints (no quick save), but they want regeneration. So options to let player choose custom difficulty would be awesome.

#53

It would be great if these features could work as a part of the gameplay instead of a switch-off-able menu/HUD feature. I remember Dan Vávra mentioning several times he wants to avoid traditional game menus and HUD and find ways to work around these.

Like making the map and compas as obtainable items that you have to get in-game and can put them away if you want. Or like having an optional mind-compass Perk/Trait to get either at the game’s start or during the later character development.

1 Like
#54

That would make it much more immerse. I approve. Would bring me back to my Morrowind days.

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