I really have to reiterate that we often had to refer to walkthroughs because we got lost in what we were supposed to do. I don't think quest markers should be necessary, but I think the quest log should provide a strong sense of direction. For example, when you're stuck in the prison it might say something like, "Explore the prison to find a way to escape." and then update it with any leads you find. Combine this with a good map with landmarks labelled and as long as the map isn't too big, I think quest markers will be unnecessary.
I remember one time there was a quest where the clue was that we had to find a cave that was north of a beach... And we were like -- which beach? 70% of the map is north of a beach. >_>
It's no 'Original Sin' if you consult a walkthrough ;-)
I support better directions and more clear and sometimes less cryptic quest log entries.
Cleaning up dialogs and moving already read topics to a clearly marked subsection would help decrease the 'too lazy to read' problem.
Their main solution in EE to the 'problem' was mostly the introduction of the many more map markers. Some quest texts were improved but there is still room for more improvements.
Information in D:OS is distributed in many different places. Sometimes even conversations between NPCs give story background or can help in quests. That should not be changed.
I watched people not even try out the most simple things because they were convinced before even trying that it would not work. ('Need "Crossbow" ability to use a crossbow', nonsense.)
So while some texts - and dialog organization - could (and should) be improved, the most required device would be a brain washer that washes experience from other games from players' brains, because that is in very many cases the single biggest obstacle. (Also keeps people from trying out things, even if it would be only a single mouse click. Reading seems to be the most unpopular thing in games, that includes even tooltips in the character sheet.)
Who knows, that a PDF game manual exists, at least on Steam ?
Laziness (reading), impatience (Original Sin really requires learning how riddles and quests are done) and most of all 'bad education' by other games are what make Original Sin sometimes seem harder than it really is.
I also make all those 'mistakes' again and again but still would not want the style of the game to change. Once you learned some kind of pattern, how riddles and quests are designed in OS, you have an easier time with new stuff. I never had to look up any walkthrough in EE anymore, although for example the immaculate fort in Phantom Forest changed a lot from classic to EE. The fair in Cyseal had changed. But in EE I no longer thought I knew everything better than the game, because classic had taught me otherwise. But I had learned patterns in classic.
