Aether Compass map indicators?

[BreathlessTao]

No, I tell you what's not fun - running around like a headless chicken in these gigantic new zones that resemble 1.0 maps in certain aspects, trying to find your way around obstacles and failing over and over again, for hours on end, when there's an actual game to play. That's not fun.

[Callinon]

No, I tell you what's not fun - running around like a headless chicken in these gigantic new zones that resemble 1.0 maps in certain aspects, trying to find your way around obstacles and failing over and over again, for hours on end, when there's an actual game to play. That's not fun.

Exploration and finding hard-to-reach areas IS gameplay.

It's not the kind of gameplay you personally want, and that's ok. But that absolutely is gameplay.

Personally I've enjoyed the aether current hunts so far. Especially figuring out how to climb certain hills/mountains to get to where the current is. I quite enjoy that kind of thing (also enjoyed GW2's vistas a lot).

[Laraul]

Exploration and finding hard-to-reach areas IS gameplay.

Exploring hard to reach areas for the sake of exploring those areas only one time JUST to unlock something probably shouldn't need to be unlocked in the first place is awful gameplay. You think once players have attuned to every Aether Current, they are going to ever explore those areas again? Of course not. They will *never* want to bother exploring a map AGAIN. This is something people are going to look back on very unfavorably.

This was obviously added at the very last minute. How else would you explain providing a key item that when used generates a line of text to the log window. Sounds like my old <pos> macro in FFXI, since there was no on screen map or coordinates display. Fortunately if it was added at the last minute, it will likely be replaced by the aforementioned compass or something similar.

[Dezolis]

Exploring hard to reach areas for the sake of exploring those areas only one time JUST to unlock something probably shouldn't need to be unlocked in the first place is awful gameplay. You think once players have attuned to every Aether Current, they are going to ever explore those areas again? Of course not. They will *never* want to bother exploring a map AGAIN. This is something people are going to look back on very unfavorably.

Awful gameplay? Using that logic, the entirety of the world is awful gameplay. Not to mention the story. You only go through it once and never touch it again.

Bad game design is the minimap feature to begin with. When you place markers on the minimap, we find ourselves staring at it the whole time instead of using the environment around us to look for clues. I guarantee you this compass was intended, very deliberate design.