I don't want to be forced to spend 30 minutes walking back to the town where my quest started after exploring some Ayleid ruin (or whatever the equivalent will be in Skyrim).

"fast travel only breaks immersion if you use it. You are not forced to..."

At no point in time did MW's system force you to spend 30 minutes as long as you were adequately prepare for adventuring. Mark/Recall and Intervention worked exactly like the OB fast travel system (only with reduced functionality which could have been fixed by Bethesda, but was fixed with mods). Even if they had simply added a fast travel magic effect that could be purchased as either a spell, scroll, or enchantment the OB system would not have been as much of a total failure to the RPG crowd.

I don't think so...games should always take charge and dictate. It is human tendency to resort to the easiest course. Presenting options for systems that greatly diverge the game experience is, in my view, a bad idea.

I think it's time we actually define what Fast Travel (FT) is, because FT isn't just traveling fast (like on a horse).

FT is when The Player skips time, which The Character experience real time. When you take a silt strider, it takes The Character 4 hours getting to the destination, while you jump to that arrival instantly.

The in-game map has never been 'explained'. Well, I suppose the Oblivion Map, which had like a cartographers 'seal' affixed to it is sort of explained - though not why you already have it with you in prison and don't have to buy it from a merchant. Why would a map with travel information need to be explained? Why does it even have to be magic? You think they can't develop colored ink in a fantasy setting? Why couldn't my character just 'ink-in' the line on the map as I travel and find the routes? Or, perhaps, the cartographer which made the map put the established travel routes on the map already when you 'acquired' it, just like major roads and cities are already on the map when you get it?

The Morrowind option is the best option. I know fast travel is optional, but I still don't like it. Morrowind had it right, where you have to catch a Silt Rider to get somewhere, or a boat. It adds to the immersion.

This.

I fully expect laziness (both from the developers and gamers) to win over immersion.

I'm fine with the Oblivion method as it's good for people with only so much time to play, so half of the game time isn't spent travelling or trying to find transportation. That said, I've no problem with doing that and still allowing people who want to spend money on something similar to silt striders to do so.
Or possibly revamp horses (I'm not a big fan of them in Oblivion, they're a pain to climb down from when being attacked, and they get in the way when you're trying to fight the attacker) so that when you mount your horse, it brings you to a fast travel map.

Laziness? Oh yes, how dare I not want to walk the same, tedious, repetitive paths over and over again.

Morrowind's style just wasn't that good, it was unrealistic and ridiculous.

Mage's guild teleportation in Daggerfall was a privilege of the upper crust of the guild, and now they're teleporting every dog jerking [censored] who walks through the door for ten or fifteen bucks? That was a terrible plan. Giant fleas and their owners take you overland any time you want for ten bucks? You couldn't feed an animal that size if you charged three hundred bucks a ride. Fishermen in small boats will row you up and down the coastline for fifteen bucks? That would take all day, and then they've got to row back. There's no way they aren't taking a huge loss over their fishing industry. Gondolas. The best idea yet of transport, but with the dock being thirty feet below the boardwalk and the city being small, it's faster to walk where you want in almost every case. Bad city design on that part. Intervention spells? Treating the blessings of the Gods as average [censored] spells that require no interest in religion at all? Real slick, Todd. Mark and Recall were fine, but I would prefer Anchor/Recall and Mark/Call as separate spells so you can teleport things to you. Not that the proplyon indexes were terrible or anything, but they were a pain to put together and they didn't take you anywhere useful.

What they should do is an overhaul that addresses many facets of the travel system, and the maps in general. Maps like http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/6812/208206-black_marsh_map_oblivion_large.jpg look good in the game, and they aren't terribly time consuming to put out. Considering that, I say they make a ton of the maps and integrate them into the game world.

I'd firstly suggest that you'd have to buy all the maps you were going to use, as well as the compass. They had a wet compass in Redguard, so we know they can be items. Next, you'd need to buy the map or get the guide to the town if you wanted anything zoomed in. Buildings wouldn't have mini-maps or anything, they weren't tourist friendly. For more detailed maps of places outside the city, you'd have to talk up scouts and local mapmakers to get a map of the smaller piece of terrain, and to put landmarks and locations on there. As always, you can either pay for information about the area, or you can work for it with exploration.

Using the maps this way, you can also use them to fast travel. The map interface should be http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/fcry2mapbig.jpg so you don't have to be in a menu to operate. The animation to bring those out looked alright too.

To fast travel with them, you'll need to be able to navagate the paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. The more you know, the better you'll be able to fast travel. The Outdoorsman skill will let you be better at dead reckoning and fast travel off the roads, while better Equestrianism skill will let you evade fast travel traps along the way.

When you get a quest from someone, they'll point to where it is on your most relevant map and you'll mark it. None of that quest marker business, so you can't mark people with it. Only locations.

As a standard, many maps need to be wrong, or just flat out lies. In this time, the boundaries are only somewhat agreed upon. Disputes over borders are still a common thing, and maps are one of the best ways to lay claim to something. Each noble would likely have his own type of map for his or her interests, and make their subjects see it their way. There shouldn't really be an official map of what is what in the world, and the overall map needs to look quite a bit like http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/457/26326036.jpg. It shows the major cities, a couple major roads, and the basic outlines of topography, but it's a pretty sparse map.

Then, maps by membership. Chances are that they aren't going to map every wayshrine of Arkay on a merchant's travel map, so you'd have to talk to the right people. Find someone in the town who worships Arkay, and don't forget that the society is henotheistic. Believing in Mara doesn't mean you give a crap about Kynareth. Getting maps as rewards again will be a great thing.

Lastly, you can sell locations to people. If you find an unmarked trade route, you can sell that info to some bandits. If you find out where the Baron's summer getaway house is, you can tell his enemies, or for a lesser price the Thieves guild. The guild might resell the info to the Baron's enemies, and clean house once they're through with the place. You guys might remember in Daggerfall being able to choose how you finish quests by taking evidence to someone related to the quest for a different outcome. There was a time Helseth was having you deliver a message for him, but you could take it to Barenziah for her approval and reward. You'll also remember revealing the mine to the elf in Vivic city in Morrowind, and that he gave you a daedric weapon for it. That's the kind of deals you should be able to work out. It's up to you to find and sell what they might be interested in.