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Quest Markers: What's the Philosophy?

Published on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 By Dill_rat In Star Control

I'm curious what Stardock's position on quest markers is. Modern games are very hand-holding with regards to making sure you always know exactly where to go next, with map arrows, shiny glow-y halos around objects, etc.

I do think we need good quest journals and search capabilities for the starmap, but if an alien contact says "I lost that thing-a-ma-jig while fleeing pirates in the Nebulon Cluster (or whatever)", some games follow that dialogue up with a direct pointer to the exact location.  Other games (probably few modern ones) would leave it to you to even figure out where the so-called "Nebulon Cluster" is, let alone where in the cluster to look.  What's the philosophy on making us look for things and discover things for ourselves?

Personally, I prefer giving the player enough information for them to find it themselves, but I don't prefer map arrows and flashing indicators unless I've been given precise information within the story.  I think it would be fun if the quest started with an "area of investigation" (like a wide circle on the starmap) that gets smaller and more precise as I collect more information and clues. Then I can start searching right away if I want, but if it's too hard to find I can keep digging into the quest and uncovering more clues, and possibly more background.