No Quest Compass

[gool]

No quest compass, no compromise. I fucking swear if the game ships with any form of this bullshit I will personally turn people away from buying it.

[paultakeda]

No quest compass, no compromise. I fucking swear if the game ships with any form of this bullshit I will personally turn people away from buying it.

Luckily, you won't have to do that.

[BlackGauntlet]

I'd like an automap which I could right-click on to write some comments on a virtual "post-it notes", similar to the Realms of Arkania RPG.

In my teens, I had notebooks filled with maps of dungeons and stuff that are tagged with highlighted notes and was really grateful for that feature.

I wished I had put that much effort on studying...

Anyway, at my current age, my wife would probably throw those away if I had to make one for Wasteland.

[cantfind]

People should take notes (might be a feature in-game) - don't spoon feed us with a quest log which tells us where to go next.
And certainly no arrows or marks telling us where to go!
This should not be a game for 12 year old kids who take Ritalin and just have to be shown what to do next, who to speak to, etc.

If we need to find someone, let us investigate where he is, not just follow the arrow and let our character find him telepathically.

[harold]

People should take notes (might be a feature in-game) - don't spoon feed us with a quest log which tells us where to go next.
And certainly no arrows or marks telling us where to go!
This should not be a game for 12 year old kids who take Ritalin and just have to be shown what to do next, who to speak to, etc.

If we need to find someone, let us investigate where he is, not just follow the arrow and let our character find him telepathically.

You must have telepathic powers. I just wanted to write this word for word.

[__Pent__]

People should take notes (might be a feature in-game) - don't spoon feed us with a quest log which tells us where to go next.
And certainly no arrows or marks telling us where to go!
This should not be a game for 12 year old kids who take Ritalin and just have to be shown what to do next, who to speak to, etc.

If we need to find someone, let us investigate where he is, not just follow the arrow and let our character find him telepathically.

Some things should be automatically entered into the quest log, but not to the point that it gives you step by step instructions. ie. the main objective would be recorded, as well as any major updates to the quest, but anything beyond that is up to the player.

I loved Deus Ex's Goals/Notes system; it would tell you what you needed to do for each mission, and some details would automatically be recorded into the notes (usually computer passwords, but sometimes vague hints at available sidequests), and the player could manually add notes and make notes on images and maps. Wasteland 2 should have a similar system, along with the great writing Planescape Torment's journal had.

[Empiro]

For me, it's pretty simple: The journal and map should reflect what my character knows. No more, no less.

If someone tells him or her to meet someone named Bucky in the town of "Blah", and my character knows where the town of "Blah" is, then having it appear in my map as a penciled-in circle with "meet Bucky" is both helpful and flavorful.

[drmagnificent]

People should take notes (might be a feature in-game) - don't spoon feed us with a quest log which tells us where to go next.

You are wrong. This is a value judgement. What you mean is "I prefer games where I have to take notes by hand, because I feel a game should be a time investment."
And hey maybe that's how you enjoy games, but I don't enjoy tedious time wasting tasks. Having to write down every piece of quest text that may be important, the name of NPCs, possible item locations etc keeps me from having fun in the game. Which is doing the quests, killing/help the NPCs, finding the items. I think the people who are "NO COMPASS or NO BUY" are a little silly, but I have no problems with no compass.

There just better be a damned good map and quest log system.

[paultakeda]

As mentioned, a quest log should be included. Writing stuff down and drawing my own map is anachronistic and does not add to gameplay. Just because there is a quest log and a map does not mean the game is made easier for you, you still have to play.

As to a compass. I am fine with a quest compass as long as it is realistic. What I mean by this is, if I am told a quest takes place in Vegas, then I can mark Vegas as a destination.

Now if the quest is in a bar in Vegas, I want the quest compass to show only if I have been/seen that bar. If I have not, the compass stays limited to Vegas. If an NPC tells me the bar is on a particular intersection and my map includes that intersection, I can mark it and a compass can show.

The short of it: I want a log/map aware quest compass.

[alanschu]

For me, it's pretty simple: The journal and map should reflect what my character knows. No more, no less.

If someone tells him or her to meet someone named Bucky in the town of "Blah", and my character knows where the town of "Blah" is, then having it appear in my map as a penciled-in circle with "meet Bucky" is both helpful and flavorful.

I was thinking about taking this a bit further and making it so that characters/parties with the right attributes get additional notes on their map.

I've always found it interesting that many old school RPGers tend to feel that "My skill as a gamer should not factor in to how my character plays!" and we love it when new dialogues open up because we're smart (or dumb!), and how it's all calculations for our combat rolls. Though the idea of map notes is something that gamers adamantly refuse to give up that autonomy over.


I don't think a game like this needs a compass, so I'm pretty indifferent if they were to add one (I don't find they ruin my experience in the mainstream RPGs, but to each his own). I'd probably still like some level of map markers just to save me the tedium of jotting every relevant thing down.

[gongal]

What the hell? This is supposed to be a hardcore oldschool RPG experience. No damn compass and sh^t. If anyone's expecting crap like this, better go play some Failout 3

[clippedwolf]

I'm all for good journal entries and decent map.
Anyone else nostalgic about BG2?