oh good lord, i knew this would happen v_v.
from the moment they introduced the handholding features, and focused on getting new players into the game, i realised then that this game will be what oblivion/skyrim was for TES series: a game relying on hand-holding too much, that you can't play without it.
i was hoping the quest system would be more like the two previous games, and the gothic series, where you have only indications from NPCs and use your map to reach your destination. but now, they adopted,from what i understand, the "skyrim" approach to quest design: minimum quest description with a GPS where you need to go.
yet, they promissed before we'd be able to play the game without any hand holding features, how eutopic is that. well i guess an other broken promess to add to the pile.
a bit off-topic now:
the same thing happened with the UI and inventory system. the game feels like it was designed with a gamepad in mind that you can't play it otherwise, and the keyboard and mouse was probably slapped to the game at the last minute, hence the inability to change the controls at release, and the clunkyness of the KB/M with the UI and HUD.
add to that the terrible alchemy system, and the simplified dialog options (which started happening since TW2,but whatever).
they also said the witcher sense wouldn't be a hand-holding feature and is to immerse the player more, yet it turned out to be a glorified detective vision.
in short, CDPR focused so much on catering to new players that they forgot about the old fans of the series, which happened with bethesda since TES III: Morrowind.
i love CDPR and their games, not only for their story, but also for their realism,challenge and respect to the lore, and the way the hand-holding features were handled set a worrysome future for Cyberpunk, and other possible upcomming titles.
i really hope they try to fix this sometime in the future. and if not, hopefully some modders would be able to change that with the REDkit2.
---------- Updated at 06:36 PM ----------
Well, for a start, by forcing you to pay attention and understand what's going on, making your contribution to the game something more than some passive braindead "I have no clue but I must follow the mark".
THANK YOU ! someone who gets it !
not only that, but it's also more immersive. something someone with a short concentration span would probably hate it, if not brain dead in certain cases, and i'm talking from what i seen how new gamers play games like skyrim. they just follow the dot,they never even bother with the quest log.
---------- Updated at 06:39 PM ----------
The first Gothic has no minimap. You get real good at navigating. Of course it is a smaller world, but also pulling up the map from time to time isn't so bad. I think no minimap is kind of cool. Gothic doesn't have a compass either which I was kind of mad the Witcher 3 didn't have until I started my Gothic playthrough again. There are ways to immerse yourself in the game if the quests are built in a way to help you. For example, there is a treasure hunt in the Witcher that has you find landmarks as you search. That is how the every quest should be. It would be a lot of work I know. Minimaps and quest markers probably save the devs a huge amount of time.
the second gothic, and gothic 3 also didn't had a mini-map, just a compass ^^
and yes, i fully agree with you on everything ^^
---------- Updated at 06:50 PM ----------
There are quite a few requests over at Nexus Mods for a mod that replaces the mini-map with a compass that has arrows pointing to your objectives.
That, combined with a mod that removes the quest markers on the world map and replaces them with giant yellow circles indicating the region of the world the quest takes place in, would do a lot to alleviate the issue I think. Some of the quest descriptions might need to be edited to make it more clear where to look for your objective, but overall I think it would work well.
interresting. however, wouldn't it be even better to add more text to the quest log ? in fact, it'd be even easier that way for the modders, instead of making what you just described.
i know the NPCs don't always give you clear indications, but it'd be nice to guess where the place you need to go is, by simply asking around, or using a sort of a "guide to the region", which you can use to find the place in question.