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Have you tried turning off the mini-map in the Witcher 3?

Berserking Guts

Berserking Guts

Member
I realized I spend more time staring at the mini-map then actually getting lost and exploring the world of the Witcher, so I decided to turn it off and see what happens.

At first I missed the little conveniences that make navigating and awareness a non-issue. With your quest markers on you never have to worry about which direction you're running to, you just set your waypoint to north and start running.

After turning it off I felt the loss of my map almost immediately and I could already feel myself making mental notes of my environment. The first thing that occurred to me as I was exploring Velen and trying to find my way to Midcopse was that I was filled with adventure that I didn't have before. Now whenever I see a small house obscured by trees and bushes, or a small mysterious looking path that cuts off from my main path, my curiosity gets the better of me and I go exploring.

I feel like I'm earning the places I find, that I'm being rewarded for my observation. I like that turning off the map frees my senses to engage.

What other games are there that benefit from turning off HUD elements? And should developers make their games work around the option to turn off maps and radars?
 
N

Neoleo2143

Member
It feels like Assasin's Creed 1 and Zelda: Breath of the Wild were designed around minimalist HUDs.

Witcher 3 is a little too inconsistent for my liking.
 
Kadin

Kadin

Member
I haven't turned it off completely. But I did disable the Point of Interest markers and the quest paths. I don't need to be told how to get somewhere, I'd like to figure that out for myself.
 
D

Deacan

9/10 NeoGAFfers don't understand statistics. The other 3/10 don't care.
Turn off points of interest like chests, monster dens and definitely the awful quest trail dots on the mini map that ruin any sense of exploration.
 
S

Summer Haze

Banned
The God said:
Overrated idea. I ended up checking my map every minute to see if I was in the right direction.
Click to expand...

I did for a while too in the beginning, but the more I played the more I started recognizing certain paths and landmarks, and before long I was going to and from locations by memory. Much better way to play imo.
 
A

Aurongel

Member
Mod friendly HUD is ace. I use a mod that makes the minimal transparent except for icons. Just enough to let you know if you're heading in the right direction or not.
 
P

playXray

Member
I turned it off immediately and loved it. I then started to find things difficult later in the game and had to continually switch to the main map, making the whole thing kinda pointless. I turned it back on and it was the right thing to do.
 
P

Psoelberg

Member
Assassins Creed; GTA; Witcher - I always turn off the mini map as the first thing. Then you're forced to notice the small things in the environment.
 
fushi

fushi

Member
loganclaws said:
I only played the game with the mod Friendly HUD.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/365/?

Video of mod in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Yj-YxPMMs

It's criminal to play this game with a minimap.
Click to expand...
Do this. I spend most of my time walking around with no HUD whatsoever and only occasionally checking the map to see if I am heading in the right direction.

Plus, the default configuration of the mod allows you to show the minimap only if witcher senses are used. A very nice balance between usability and immersion.
 
S

Some Nobody

Junior Member
The God said:
Overrated idea. I ended up checking my map every minute to see if I was in the right direction.
Click to expand...

This. Game is too fucking big and I want to actually finish it all, not wander aimlessly forever.

I'm always with having the option to cut it off for people who prefer it, but I'm 99.9% of the time going to want it on.
 
D

Djostikk

Member
Game isn't designed in way where you can play it normally with no minimap though... It's not like Morrowind or Zelda where NPC's give you hints and the world itself is filled with navigating arrows.
 
M

markofhavoc

Member
My wife does the same thing! I mean, she doesn't turn off the minimap, she just can't be bothered to ever look at one 😅
 
SoulUnison

SoulUnison

Banned
Neoleo2143 said:
It feels like Assasin's Creed 1 and Zelda: Breath of the Wild were designed around minimalist HUDs.

Witcher 3 is a little too inconsistent for my liking.
Click to expand...

I'm currently doing a Rogue-like Pro HUD Master Mode BOTW playthrough.
If I die, I delete the save file.
It's tense, stressful, and amazing.

I also like to play the Metroid Prime games this way, and I'm thinking of jumping into a Fire Emblem like this.
 
C

CHC

Member
I play with it off pretty much 100% of the time. No big deal, you learn your way around the world. There are tons of landmarks and it's really well designed - things might look homogeneous at first but you will learn the roads of Velen and the alleys of Novigrad like the back of your hand if you don't rely on the minimap arrow to get around all the time.

Can be fiddly a few times when something is above or below you, but by and large if you're the kind of gamer who likes atmospheric exploration, turning off as much HUD as you can stand is a good move.

I also turn off boat HP, horse stamina, and all the other extraneous stuff. So when I'm not in combat there's literally nothing on screen.
 
J

JudgmentJay

Member
Kadin said:
I haven't turned it off completely. But I did disable the Point of Interest markers and the quest paths. I don't need to be told how to get somewhere, I'd like to figure that out for myself.
Click to expand...

It's been a while but I think this is what I did. If and when I replay it to finally go through the DLCs I'll probably disable the minimap as well.
 
G

ghibli99

Member
There was a great video about how this isn't really as good as it sounds, since the game is designed around guiding you where to go vs. NPCs, etc. giving you actual decent directions. I didn't really play TW3 for the exploration since Geralt's controls for traversal just aren't all that good/interesting. It'd be so cool though to see CDPR design a game around more intelligent direction, waypoints, and traversal... not a carbon-copy of BOTW mind you, but something less automatic. FWIW to add some context, I loved TW3 (and HoS even more so).
 
K

Keinning

Member
I did. But the game isn't really tailored for playing with the minimap off so i turned it back on a bit after. Never used PoIs though.

Its a similar problem bethesda games have (but way worse for beth). They just assume you will follow the markers so barely anything says "village x is north of here, cave y is southwest, near the waterfall" and so on, and the landmarks don't really make geographic sense either, so following roads and paths are not guaranteed to take you to somewhere relevant every time. So even if you disable the minimap/quest markers on console, you will probably just get lost. New Vegas was a bit better on this (both in locations making sense than in people actually speaking as a normal people would about distances and landmarks) but it still felt weird in some places
 
sotojuan

sotojuan

Member
No. Sadly I don't have enough time or patience for that. I like completing objectives and quests more than exploring the world. I support the option though.
 
O

obeast

Member
If you're playing on PC, FriendlyHUD should be mandatory. Having a floating marker (that you can toggle) is game-changing, and it was a mistake for CDPR not to include it in the first place.

The game is vastly improved by turning the minimap off (you will inevitably end up looking at the minimap rather than the very impressive scenery much of the time), but it's damnably difficult to navigate in its base state without one. Seriously, get FirendlyHUD if you can.
 
F

Ferrio

Banned
I tried, but I couldn't handle it cause the lack of a compass. I don't mind not seeing the map, but some basic directions so I know I'm not slowly wandering to the west would be great.
 
G

ghostjoke

Banned
It's the only way to play Witcher 3. Things stop being checklists and start becoming part of a world. It's really not that hard to navigate once you get over the initial hump. You start to remember names, landmarks, main roads, rivers (rivers are your best friend) etc and get a feeling of when you overshoot things. I rarely have to check the map anymore beyond getting a general idea of where I'm meant to be going at the beginning of a mission.
 
M

meerak

Member
Pretty much the first thing I did.

Not sure if they ever updated this but the real bummer was you couldn't just have a compass on screen without any other BS info. Tragic.

A compass is pretty much the only on-screen indicator I want from any game.

A "view-compass" button would be boss, on that note.
 
A

Arion

Member
I try to play every game with the mini map turned off if I can. Played Blood and Wine without the map and it works fine honestly. The quest description tell you a lot about where to go and what to do. They even tell you landmarks and where to take turns on the road. The quest description I feel is one aspect of W3 a lot of people ignored.

Also played Yakuza 0 with the map turned off and now I know Kamurocho and Sotenbori like the back of my hand.
 
C

Cyanity

Banned
I played TW3 from beginning to end with the hud completely disabled. Now I can't imagine playing it any other way.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
No. The designers built the game and its quest system with it in mind, so I wouldn't have much fun just constantly being lost.

If I had infinite time, I would totally do it and spend 500+ hours just exploring the game world, though.
 
Berserking Guts

Berserking Guts

Member
meerak said:
Pretty much the first thing I did.

Not sure if they ever updated this but the real bummer was you couldn't just have a compass on screen without any other BS info. Tragic.

A compass is pretty much the only on-screen indicator I want from any game.

A "view-compass" button would be boss, on that note.
Click to expand...

The sun is your compass! :)
 
C

Cyanity

Banned
Zefah said:
No. The designers built the game and its quest system with it in mind, so I wouldn't have much fun just constantly being lost.

If I had infinite time, I would totally do it and spend 500+ hours just exploring the game world, though.
Click to expand...

But they really didn't design the game to be played with the minimap on. Plenty of us in this thread played through the game with it disabled and, I think, feel better off for it.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Yep, love it.

Other great games with map/HUD off:

- AC Unity: gorgeous, fully playable
- Far Cry 3/4: becomes so much better
- Dying Light: gets super intense and immersive
- GTA IV: often too clunky, but starts to feel more like a HBO crime drama or something
- uhh loads of others I'm forgetting

It's a great thing to do.
 
W

WolfeTone

Member
I'd love to have been able to do this in Witcher 3, but it just wasn't possible because so many of the quests involve going to specific locations that can only be found by checking the map.

I liked playing without the HUD in Breath of the Wild since NPCs actually give you directions. The game designers don't just assume you can follow your mini-map to your destination.

I've heard Morrowind is also set up in this way. Shame it was abandoned in their subsequent games.

I wish more games were like this but it's probably too much work for the average developer.
 
T

The God

Member
Lukas Japonicus said:
I did for a while too in the beginning, but the more I played the more I started recognizing certain paths and landmarks, and before long I was going to and from locations by memory. Much better way to play imo.
Click to expand...

Props to you if you were able to do that. TW3 is way too big to play that way imo. I'm not trying to spend X amount of hours to visually memorize a map that big.
 
V

Van Bur3n

Member
Arion said:
I try to play every game with the mini map turned off if I can. Played Blood and Wine without the map and it works fine honestly. The quest description tell you a lot about where to go and what to do. They even tell you landmarks and where to take turns on the road. The quest description I feel is one aspect of W3 a lot of people ignored.

Also played Yakuza 0 with the map turned off and now I know Kamurocho and Sotenbori like the back of my hand.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "quest description"? You mean the stuff Dandelion is spewing in the quest menu, the active objectives, or what the NPCs tell you? I can think of a number of quests where the NPCs were definitely not specific in where you needed to go and the former two most certainly don't tell you much either.

As for me, I can memorize the lands of The Witcher 3 on a larger scale, but its the multiple smaller paths that can throw me off. As such, I keep the mini-map on, although it isn't all too helpful either.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
fushi said:
Do this. I spend most of my time walking around with no HUD whatsoever and only occasionally checking the map to see if I am heading in the right direction.

Plus, the default configuration of the mod allows you to show the minimap only if witcher senses are used. A very nice balance between usability and immersion.
Click to expand...

Installed this now. Followed the instructions in the readme, but what do you turn off in the 'vanilla' settings menu? Just minimap? Just a bit confusing as the mod actually adds more HUD stuff unless I seemingly disable this stuff in-game. (I'm just going with default settings in Friendly HUD mod menu but it still feels cluttered and the new distance numbers on the compass and waypoints are actually taking away more immersion...)
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
If you are on PC it is absolutely mandatory to install FriendlyHUD.

90% of the time there are exactly zero HUD elements on my screen and I can bring up the map temporarily by holding down a button.

It's really a game changer.
 
Berserking Guts

Berserking Guts

Member
I'm playing on Death March and so far I've made it past all the early Keira side-quest stuff, and I'm at level 10. Haven't really had too much trouble navigating the world yet. Funnily enough turning off the mini-map and objectives is making the world feel smaller as I start remembering routes and locations. I'm even remembering village names now and seeing them as actual places rather then check markers.

The best experience I've had so far was trying to find my own way from the Bloody Barons place to Oxenfurt.
 
C

Cathcart

Member
Almost instantly. Also turned the icons off on the main map and looked at it only when I was really lost. Only way to play if a game has a really interesting world.
 
Falchion

Falchion

Member
I need to try this when I jump back into my playthrough. The Witcher HUD is so big so has so much going on, I wish it was dynamic like Horizon Zero Dawn.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
Every game that has world markers is better off played with minimap off.

Any modern Ass Creed played like thar is a new experience.

Witcher seems hard to pull that off thought as it doesn't Mark the destination on the screen without the minimap.
 
KyanMehwulfe

KyanMehwulfe

Member
Was one of the first things I did haha (just video showing first time I fought a bear hhh)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYSNmxctHzU

I found it a bit annoying after a while because it was hard to sometimes find all the monster corpses in the grass to loot, or to consistently find things like herbs.

That said, it's worth it IMO and I agree with all the visual benefits. I try play most games like this... Both my recent 2 Deux Ex MD playthroughs were HUD-less. I play MGS V fully HUD-less. I usually try play it now with the mini-map and as much of the HUD turned off.

MGS V is so much better with No Markers... the red triangles turn a pretty awesome stealth game into 'crawl around playing Pacman with red triangles' hahaha I got to about Mission 5 or something, first time I reached The Palace... I was staring across the desert looking at this cool palace, taking it in, planning my ideas by watching the patrols, and then I marked everyone and I was thinking to myself, 'god, that kinda ruins the scene' it's just a sea of red triangles., basically making me omniscient to all potential nearby threats.There's no vulnerability, uncertainty, or tension anymore.

GTA V is really where it started for me as a console trend... The same thing.... turning it off really changes the game. I found myself noticing small details and landmarks for navigation a lot more rather than just staring at the mini-map and driving down mini-map corridors or 'playing pac-man with police' on it.

That said, GTA V can also be tricky sometimes without the mini-map. Some random events (coupled with how fast NPCs de-despawn) are near impossible without the mini-map to help you instantly 'keep up' without direct LOS.

But I pretty much exclusively play without the mini-map. It's actually made me realize the cop 'search' AI in GTA V is actually OK. They don't 'heat seek' you out as quickly and obviously as I thought, and they have some pretty genuine search patterns first. No mini-map kinda emphasises the hiding aspects more too and makes you not try to outrun them (which just spawns more cops in front of you).

Going back to Witcher 3, even no mini-map for herbs and the like is OK, really. You get used to it, and they're not that important that you truly must have them show on your HUD. I play MGS V with no HUD/Markers too and not having animals, etc appear is fine.

The one thing I wish Witcher 3 did was that the HP bar would disappear OOC. It does when it's at 100% but if you're <100% it still hovers there. Not sure if you can tweak that on PS4 via a patch now but that was one thing I wished we had more HUD control over.
 
C

ChronotriggerJM

Member
I'm forever an advocate of minimalist / no huds. Mini maps are a garbage concept and distract from the actual beauty a game can provide.

Games need to be better designed, giving more information via the game itself, not static text.
 
L

LordBaztion

Member
I played the entire game without the minimap because I like to play without UI. The consequence is that had to pause to see the map all the time but it worth it.
 
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