Fast travel is DAMN useful, and can save you hours of real time, but...
Transitioning from Morrowind, with its siltstriders, gondolas, and mark/recall spells (which were all really an inventive way around the world travel problem),
to Oblivion, where you suddenly can "teleport" (in the sense that traveling anywhere is effortless) without magic-- but only to certain locations,
broke the sense of immersion. I'm really hoping Skyrim changes this into a more involved system, if only to help players see more of a (hopefully) well-crafted world than one does when going between fast travel locations.

Obviously making things as easy as pulling out your map will be a must for casual players, but a system as simple planning your route on the map, and possibly integrating travel networks like river rafts or roads/trails that you've discovered, could change the game, and in a good way. Random events on the road, like bandits or meeting a trader, would be cool to see, and based on in-game tips (or your intelligence stats, or how much exploring you've done) you can deliberately avoid or run into these situations.

I'm still going to get the game, fast travel or not,but this is something I've thought about while playing Morrowind/Oblivion/Fallout.
What would you like to see changed for Skyrim's travel??

Edit: Bump, I see a few suggestions of being able to turn this on and off. It could be an optional feature, which one can toggle on/off.

The general consensus seems to be that satisfaction for all lies in finding something in the middle, where you have this system of in-game transport set up, but can *choose* to turn on the basic point-and-click method.
That being said, my suggestions above are meant to improve on the game-map aspect of fast travel, allowing you to utilize methods of transportation but nonetheless removing yourself from the game experience. I think it could be a unique feature, which would enrich the experience for even players who disdain the thought of scrapping fast travel.
..But personally,I could live without FT (with a transportation system in place, that is), but I understand that not everyone wants to be press-ganged to go back to any variation of the Morrowind system.

Edit: I just want to thank everyone for taking an interest in this. Who knows if the developers will take an interest in this, but then again who knows if someone reading this might not become a developer themselves. There are some great suggestions on this thread, and I'd like to give a shoutout to Uriel Nocturne and Spectre IV for their awesome ideas.

Just make it to where you go up to a carriage/convoy and it brings up the fast travel menu.

Yeah that is basically the Morrowind system, and I enjoyed it a lot... but seeking out siltstriders (in this case, caravans) was always a pain when you're in the middle of the boondocks somewhere, which is what made fast travel useful in the first place. I'm thinking something that joins the two systems in the middle would be ideal-- convenient and intriguing at the same time.

only to places you have discovered first. not every city off the bat like oblivion.

I just want it out of the game, or Morrowind style. Maybe instead of Silt Striders you could take a carriage, but I don't really like the whole "JUST FIND IT AND CLICK IT" system that had in Oblivion. I remember in Morrowind someone would tell me how to get somewhere through detailed information about the land, I miss that.

I like having travel options other than walking fast travel, but I don't want the situation where your travel options just make you jump from load screen into load screen with short jogs in between. Travel would be much more meaningful if time was a factor in anything in the game. Quests shouldn't be so open ended that you can receive them at the start of the game and finish them anytime you want, the quest giver would find someone else in that case. How long can the lady wait for you to get those rats out of her house?

Now if the travel system included walking fast travel only to landmarks on the map, and paid systems of travel for the towns, you could work out something nice. Planned locations for overnight stays and the fees included, chances for random encounters if they are relevant, and some provisions for you and your mount should be taken into account. The game would automatically plot a route to your destination, then you changes to travel methods as you need to. If you're in a hurry, you might take the fast sailboat over to the other side of the coastal region. If you're willing to go it slower, you can ride on the cargo ship and might have to defend against pirates.

Like in Daggerfall, some things might help in the travel. If you were a respected knight, you would get free stays at the inn. If you bought your own boat, you could store things on it and fast travel for free to ports. If you bought a horse, you can make it much farther everyday.

I like all the ideas here, aside from Bill Nye's "contribution."

You guys have put thought into it and thus your ideas are much better than a magical map of instantaneous travel.

Fast Travel is needed period. I'm not spending a half an hour realtime to go to a cave that I've already been to before hand. If you don't want to use Fast Travel then don't use it just don't ruin it for the people who do want to have Fast Travel in the game and don't have an extra half an hour to travel to a particular cave that you've already visited beforehand.

Mark/Recall.

I preferred the Morrowind system of using Silt Striders, gondoliers and other things that actually make sense. In Oblivion and onward Fast Travel made things a little too convenient and removed a lot of the danger and fun from exploration.

Indeed.

In Morrowind I'd actually be relieved to get back to towns, especially towns I knew. In Oblivion it didn't matter where I was in the outer world, I was never more than a few seconds run away from Fast Traveling back to town.

No possibility of worriedly running back to town and no need to plan out how best to get to some far off island. Just point and click.

I liked Morrowind's system but eventually it got rather annoying.
I want an improved system based on Morrowind's and optional fast travel(Which you can turn on/off at the main menu or whatever)

I have a 3 suggestions. :

1. Make it that we leave fast travel out. But for gods sake keep markers. If we had to go through every quest looking for something in a map filed with hundreds of distractions and miles of land to walk across then i think markers are the LEAST we can settle for.

2. Make it a "fast" travel. Like let us use a horse courier or something of that sort that gives us a ride for gold.

3. Keep the fast travel, BUT if we are to run into a monster (this would be randomly generated) then we would have to stop in our tracks and fight it. (although it would get very annoying.)

My suggestions :goodjob:

I think people are being a little dramatic about the need for fast travel anywhere. If previous trends are anything to go by, Skyrim's in-game map won't be unduly huge. If there's a fast travel network from various cities and points of interest then, combined with horses, a person could reach any location from a fast travel hub in about 10 minutes.


Now as a compromise, I'm fine with them implementing both Oblivion's and Morrowind's style of fast travel as long as we can turn off Oblivion's system (because as we all know, the urge to use it is pretty big.)

The thing I disliked most about Morrowind's system was how if you had to travel from one side of the map to the other, you were just cycling multiple load screens. And the load screens in Morrowind for me were lllllloooooooonnnnnngggggg.

I would also be willing to settle for an option to turn off fast travel, but only if it takes out map markers as well.

You shouldn't be able to fast-travel from the middle of nowhere. It should only be available along roads. That can please for everyone, casuals and hardcoes alike, can't it?

That could get pretty irritating, but I don't remember Oblivion's load times as being all that oppressive.

Personally it kind of reinforced the idea of distance for me. It took some work and effort to get across the world. You had to know the correct procession from town to town, you had to pay several people to take you there, and it took awhile.

In Oblivion you pulled up a paper map, clicked your heels thrice, and you were at the front door.

That's at the very least a good place to start Broken Scale

Why on earth would you want to do that?

Oh, yes. One mark is so useful, especially for non-magic users.

Going back to morrowind's Fast Travel system is bad. Oblivions Fast Travel system all it does is accelerate in real time how fast you go to a location. It still takes 10 ingame hours and 15 seconds real time if you fast travel from Anvil to Cheydinal but that same trip in real time takes 10 hours game time and 1 hour of real time or less depending on your speed. Thats why we need fast travel it cuts down on the amount of time traveling from one location to the other.

Which kills the sensation of the world having any breadth or depth

I liked having to wander and look around for a while in Morrowind, in Oblivion I knew where every key, corpse, npc, alter, shrine, etc. was just because the damn marker told me. It really kind of ticked me off when I'd go to a ruin I had never been to and instantly know what part of the ruin the mission objective was at.

So, you would rather want the one that is a pain in the ass to use?

Mark/Recall... scroll. There you go, sword-swinger.

Edit: or amulet/ring.