villain of the story
Arcane
By the way, is it just me, or do seasoned Daggerfall players find a way to complete even large complicated dungeons in one or two minutes?
My (general) methods are a) ignore rooms, b) keep running down hallways and corridors, c) only open a door if it seems to lead to a large giant room or a ramp, d) if there is a high place you can reach by levitation, forget everything and levitate there first, e) if there is an underwater place, go there first, f) pull every lever, skull, or torch (even when they can't be used), and g) go through every teleporter. One modification - if the quest requires killing a special creature, only enter a room if you hear an unusual sound from inside. This general technique filters out all pointless running around, and seems to quickly direct me to the target. I give 75% of the dungeon a miss, and quickly get where I need to get.
Plus, I always use Invisibility and Feet of Notorgo. And Recall. Like everyone else, of course.
I used to go crazy (in a completely having-fun way) with several methods which eventually evolved into my rule of two thumbs:
(1) drop loot at any intersection you come upon, eg. a door in a corridor counts as one, an elevator by a corridor counts as one, any spot where there are at least two more ways to go counts as one.
(2) anytime you come full circle to a previous intersection (where you've dropped a loot), drop a second loot in a way easily discernible to point where you just came from, go back where you came from until you reach the previous intersection and drop a second loot there as well. Now you have just shut off an alternate route.
Now I know most layouts by memory. Boring :'(