If more interesting encounters actually happened while exploring and traveling by foot. Sure seeing the world is pretty awesome, but I feel I am just wasting my time by not fast traveling because rarely does anything interesting happen while walking. There are some interesting encounters that randomly occur but they are so few and far between, usually it's just a long lonely journey where I occasionally get attacked by bears, wolves, trolls, bandits or dragons who are often weaker than bears... It would be nice to see more random NPC's and events pop up or more occurrences based on how you've been playing your character and what impact you've had on the world.... Also isn't sky rim suppose to be at war? Because it certainly doesn't feel like it, their are a bunch of passive military encampments scattered everywhere where soldiers are just sitting on their [censored]. Where are the random skirmish's and battles between warring factions? I have yet to see any in my 60+ hours of playing. I fast travel because I don't feel I am missing out on anything exciting.

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Lets see, I have encountered, two revelers, a very big giant, a couple of woolly mammoths, and bunches of riffraff. :grad: :wavey: :dance: :shrug: :twirl: :touched: :toughninja:

This is how i feel. When im traveling on foot it seems like im the only human alive. Nothing interesting happening. Only bears, wolfs and sometimes bandits. Also dragons but atm they feel more like a chore than epic encounter. Im hoping modders will atleast add some NPC's or something.

I see stuff all the time. I found thalmor judiciaries fighting off stormcloak soldiers. Imperial guards fighting off stormcloaks, bandits vs guards , the companions with their drawn weapons running around but I didn't stick around to see what was happening. I also found bandits fighting some spiders. And the most surprising was when a necromancer just appeared in winterhold to attack me (I hadn't started any quest ) and the guards attacked him and out him down.

Bandits taking on a dragon was also quite funny. Poor bandits didnt stand a chance and I found some hide armor in the dragon's belly afterwards to top it off

The stuff you can find while travelling on foot makes it worth it. I've found plenty of random chests with great loot in them from going on foot. And you also wouldn't find the dead bandits who have treasure maps on em. Some of the coolest experiences I've had are from just trying to track down the location of some treasure by the very vague hints and clues on the many treasure maps that are tucked away in secret corners of Skyrim.

I find running around the landscape to be extremely rewarding and always providing a new experience. There are a lot of places that provide clues tow hat may have gone on there. its fun. The world feels more alive than in any other TES game.

I killed an Orc who wanted to die on my way from Ivarstead to Riften, so I fought him and gave him an honorable death. But no Umbra, I mean, WHY WAS THERE NO UMBRA? I so expected it to be right there!!!
But yeah, you got a point, the dragon encounters are more annoying than they are epic (after the 7th dragon or so) and the other encounters are relatively scarce. Too scarce to not-fast travel from time to time in my opinion.

There was this time when I was leaving winterhold in a snowstorm and a redguard was walking along the road. When I talked to him he said he was going to join the imperial region and that someone like me wouldn't understand. When I replied with a snide comment he said I don't have to take this from you and attacked me. It didn't end well for him. The pack of wolves around the corner must have fed well that night

Go back 150 years before the automobile. Walk around for a few months and tell me how many people you run into... Not many. The game is realistic.

The most interesting fight for me was an ancient vampire vs 2 stendarr disciples at night. I wish there were more interesting fights like that because that was the first time I saw a vampire.

It wouldn't be too realistic if there were events constantly happening though...

Shooting lightning and fireballs out of my hands is suddenly realistic.

99% of what I encounter just wandering around is Bandit/Wolf trash. Yeah fast travel totally has no ill effects on the world because it's optional.

If it's not locked up in the back of a cave it's not aggressive/remotely threatening or extremely sparse population. You might see an NPC or 2 if you are near the roads otherwise its very barren and very trivial beyond picking weeds.

I don't know if this was scripted (probably) but I was near the throat of the world when I saw this person running somewhere , when he saw me he came and asked me if I could cure him of disease or have a potion since he had come into contact with vampires and he was infected. I told him I couldn't cure him and then he took off to find a temple and he marked my map with the dungeon he found the vampires. There was no quest in my journal though.

Interesting encounters and events do occur yes; I'm not disputing that but from my own experience they don't happen often enough... Maybe 1 out of 10 times I travel over long distances does something interesting happen, the rest of the time I just encounter wolves, bears ad the occasional dragons, bandit and troll. May be some people have more luck than me but I have played 65+ hours and have done quite a bit of traveling by foot and rarely does anything interesting happen. They should expand this system and its frequency then I'd feel far less tempted to fast travel.

I never fast travel, yet I RARELY come across any named NPCs. In Oblivion, NPCs would wander the world, and you'd sometimes find them lying dead on the ground. That offered so much realism! What about that stuff in Skyrim? Are there any wandering NPCs at all (wandering between cities, or places, according to their schedule that is).

I found a dead bandit before and his horse was just standing there so I took the hourse and just rode around. I've also seen animals running around chasing other animals and random travelers

Maybe they're scared of these things called dragons?

Don't want realism, I want to have fun. If i wanted to realistically walk around a frozen landscape, ide move to Nunavut and sell my car.

Ive started to stop using FT alot recently...Only ran into 2 sabres, 4 dragons, 16 goats, 12 mudcrabs, a nord, an imperial, a breton, 43 bandits, 13 necromancers and M'aiq the lair.

Just following the roads I've come across an old Orc who wanted an honourable death, M'aiq the Liar, a Khajiit and couple Redguards who tried to kill me, multiple thieves, bandits, mages of various sorts, one guy who got bitten by a vampire and needed a cure, and a few people who were captured by bandits, escaped, and were now lost. They gave me the location of the bandits so I could go take care of them.

Going off-road I've found two houses and three camps with journals in them. Two of the camp journals led me on a quest to a nearby tomb/cave, and one of those then led me to three more places.

Sure, but there still has to be caravans at least. And the people in Riverwood for example aren't much more protected there than in the woods anyway.

It might just depend on where you are walking. Walk off the beaten path and you might find more interesting stuff. Ive been attacked by frost trolls that ive had to shout off a cliff to win at a low level. Found a castle of forsworn people to take out and loot. Even a giant fighting a dragon for me to swoop in on. I find walking on the patch has less interesting things to encounter.

i tried to not fast travel at all, but holding so many items and having to drop stuff on my way back to sell it then meet other stuff that drops stuff i cant carry got old so i started fast traveling.

Yah, if more interesting things happened while traveling I would do it but 66 hours in with a lot of major quests complete most of my foot travels are extremely uneventful regardless of where I walk to. I just get occasionally attacked by the same predictable enemies.