Five hours later and I'm still completely lost

[Uncle Badass]

I've been given no direction where to go for any of my quests and every time I try to explore outside the city I die to enemies too tough for me to fight

Did I completely miss something where I can learn where to go or does this game just not have that?

[❤ FL☰☰K⬤]

You need to read dialogue and the low-level enemies are outside the ungated, Northwestern exit of Cyseal by the mortician's house.

Just mentioning the mortician's house is already too big of a hint.

[Uncle Badass]

I've already done everything I can do in the city and dialogue tells me nothing, I'm not going to scan the dialogue again for the seventh time.

I just want a simple awnser, is there a feature I missed that keeps track of locations I've been told, or did the developers just not think of that?

[The.Spaz.]

Simple answer is no. There is no real feature that helps navigation, its hard to point where but things are really not well navigated yet. The maps update and highlight areas of interest as you discover them, much of its left up to you to step outside and tough it out. As Badass said, start with the NorthWest exit.... I am a little stubborn and made the mistake and ketp on attempting the beach exit by the harbour. It did pan out pretty well for me as the rest of it has been largely a cakewalk. But essentially you gotta fling yourself out there and hope for the best. make love to the save key... it is your closest companion.

[Raze_Larian]

There is a tunnel under Cyseal with lower level opponents than out the NW gate (though even that should be ok if you've picked up a couple companions to add to your party, assuming you are not playing Lone Wolf main characters).
There are a couple entrances to the tunnel in Cyseal, and one just outside: find a hatch or dig somewhere that digging makes sense, specifically, the easiest entrance would be to dig up the largest dirt pile in the graveyard.

[The.Spaz.]

Originally posted by Raze:

There is a tunnel under Cyseal with lower level opponents than out the NW gate (though even that should be ok if you've picked up a couple companions to add to your party, assuming you are not playing Lone Wolf main characters).
There are a couple entrances to the tunnel in Cyseal, and one just outside: find a hatch or dig somewhere that digging makes sense, specifically, the easiest entrance would be to dig up the largest dirt pile in the graveyard.

Hey Raze, I finally figured out the problem with jahan. I have to approach him with the female character, me thinks even though there are two characters, one of them is still a higher priority to the game. Its weird though when I approached him one at a tim he still denied me.... dude has issues..

[Raze_Larian]

Did one of your characters make a deal with a demon, or something? (ie get thrown in jail and make a deal to get out)

[Solostar]

It has no waypoints, tips, or questmarkers becuase it is designed to take players back to the day when you had to be totally immersed and skillfull to play. If you can't figure it out you shouldn't play is basically how they tried to make this game.

Pen and Paper style.

[Uncle Badass]

Alright so as I take it, I already knew everything there is to know about this game, and the developers forgot to include the absolute most important feature in a game like this.
Well I guess I'll just go die around the map until I find my quest locations.

Originally posted by ftsHUNTSMAN:

It has no waypoints, tips, or questmarkers becuase it is designed to take players back to the day when you had to be totally immersed and skillfull to play.

Please note that giving the player absolutely no clues to a direction to go in does not mean the same as "needing to be immersed and skillful", as these are two entirely different things
I've sat in the town for a total of five hours desperately trying to figure out some kind of direction to go in. But as Spaz has said, there is none, so I have to piss around until I find something.

Originally posted by ftsHUNTSMAN:

If you can't figure it out you shouldn't play is basically how they tried to make this game.

That's not good game desgin.
Which is a real shame since everything else about this game is so well made and I was looking forward to enjoying this.

[The.Spaz.]

Originally posted by Raze:

Did one of your characters make a deal with a demon, or something? (ie get thrown in jail and make a deal to get out)

Nope! None that I recall. I didn't even attack the guards. Also wierdly enough Jahan got agreeable after I had talked to the Totem in the Goblin village and gained access. Also those spider cult bastards are annoying as hell.

[Raze_Larian]

Originally posted by Uncle Badass:

Well I guess I'll just go die around the map until I find my quest locations.

The north west gate is the only gate not closed off, that you can walk out of without having to ask a guard to open the gate the first time you approach.

There are general directions to some places given in books or dialogue. Quests are generally not designed to be run through in a linear manner, so you do sometimes just need to explore.

[Balalaika]

Logic?

Let us do this step by step. In 10 easy steps.

1. Murder case, you are the detective. Check!
2. Talk to everyone in town. That is what detectives do. Duh! Check!
3. Solve few mysteries and find few secrets as I do detective work. Check!
4. Still a dead end. Detective work is really hard and my head hurts. Check!
5. Time to dig dipper. Let us breakin in to some basments and locked doors, sneack and pickpoket. Do what CIA does and find some dirty loundry. And check every closet for a skeleton or two. Check!
6. Still stuck and have no clue! I blame todays MTV and Celebrity Cribs for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up my cognitive development. Check!
7. Steal enough loot in town. Sell it. Buy the best gear detectives can now afford. Let us go in to the wild. Maybe we will find answers there.
8. Still lost?
9. Uninstal and go back to console gaming or skyrim with checkmarks and gps.
10. Happy ending.

[Sanquiz]

All you need is read. Try it sometimes. Is good for your brain.

[❤ FL☰☰K⬤]

Originally posted by Uncle Badass:

I've already done everything I can do in the city

Are you level 4?
Then no, you haven't.

Originally posted by Uncle Badass:

Please note that giving the player absolutely no clues to a direction to go in does not mean the same as "needing to be immersed and skillful", as these are two entirely different things

Just because you say something, it doesn't give your claim any weight. There ARE clues, lots of them. Hell, I even left one in the very first response to this thread. Stop skimming dialogue. (You even skim forum dialogue.)

Originally posted by Uncle Badass:

Originally posted by ftsHUNTSMAN:

If you can't figure it out you shouldn't play is basically how they tried to make this game.

That's not good game desgin.

Oh, you're one of those people. "If they don't design it the way I want, it's bad design! I need GPS! Ahh!" I could claim just as officially that any game which falls back on GPS-rails to send you from point to point at the expense of properly fleshed out, descriptive dialogue and meaningful exploration is bad game design. So who's right? You because you agree with what you said? Because I agree with what I said so I guess that makes me right.

Maybe this game isn't for you.

Originally posted by Uncle Badass:

Which is a real shame since everything else about this game is so well made

It's very interesting that you can make this claim whilst having never made it past the first story quest. I'll enjoy reading your next thread about how you think the combat is unfair or some other trash after a mob of zombies twelve deep murks you.

[pocketnunu]

Wait. Some people here keep saying "Northwest" gate, which does NOT lead to the easiest enemies and is NOT near the mortician's house. The easiest enemies are to the west, through the already open doors of the West gate, which IS near the mortician's house. Every gate has a little sign next to it - sometimes you need to turn the camera to a better angle to see it.

The. Spaz. is correct. There is nothing in the game that gives directions. Sometimes, only sometimes, your map (M key, not the minimap) will give markers (a little gold square) for major places. Seems a lot of people have trouble with this lost feeling. I did too. But when you hit a brick wall, it means you need to go where you haven't yet explored.

Which takes us back to these gates. If you are stuck with the difficulty of enemies, use the West gate first, and explore the west. Make your way east as you level up and are better able to handle tougher enemies. By the time you meet Blossius and Livia, you can also hit the Southwest gate comfortably. Save the East gate for last. (Make trips back to town, report to Aureus and Arhu any discoveries for XP for concluding some quests as they come up. This helps also toward leveling up.)

[Xerxes Aragon]

Originally posted by Uncle Badass:

I've been given no direction where to go for any of my quests and every time I try to explore outside the city I die to enemies too tough for me to fight

Did I completely miss something where I can learn where to go or does this game just not have that?

Don't feel bad. I've played a total of 73 hours so far, split between two separate games on two computers, and I'm not even out of Cyseal yet with either game, nor completed some of the most basic quests.

As for this game being a throwback to old-style RPGs, I cut my teeth on games like Ultima, Wizardry and Bard's Tale on the Apple II and Amiga decades ago, and I'm still wandering around confused. So don't take it too hard.