so its not cheating when you are badly wounded, out of supplies and your gear is almost gone..........but all you have to do it just click on a map and your safe again. sounds like a cheat to me. in most other games, if im in that situation i have to at least make it to one of the teleporters or in the case of STALKER find someone to guide me somewhere. in oblivion/fallout 3 there isnt even the requirement that i do that.........i just click on my map.

Honeslty fast travel is amazing... But it really should be taken out of games because people should play the "real original" way. :brokencomputer:

Damn maps make games too easy nowadays. Mapping out dungeouns with graphing paper was where it was at.

There is a plus and a minus to it-

I like fast travel. For me ,if I have to spend about 10 to 15 minutes every time going from the top city to the bottom city, it gets boring pretty fast. I will sometimes make that journey if I have extra time to kill, but having fast travel saves time and gives you more game play.

On the other hand, fast traveling really can give you a disadvantage because you can run into a lot of creatures and bandits that you can train off of, and you can discover more things such as random quests, camps, ruins etc.

I didn't choose any options. I'm pro fast-travel, but anti fast-travel-without-consequences. If "Destination Here" from "Destination There" means travelling from one end of the map to the other, and has a total of one (1) safe passage through mountains infested with goblin-kind and other ne'er-do-much-beyond-hitting-on-and-generally-killing-folk folk's, then fast travel to that location should cost the player something. No? If it were otherwise the world wouldn't be a dangerous place.

If you're gonna mark up a journey to "magic travel", then having a write-up of a "magic battle" that you lost more gear, took more damage to gear, or general health than you would have if you'd have walked and fought yourself in real-time... isn't a stretch and shouldn't be rasped at. In-game menu, based on possible random encounters to and from location, based on gear, companions, and fatigue and whatever else, reads, "On your journey from Here to There you encountered several bad people who exist in the world purely to hurt characters like yours. In the fight for your life in the dangerous world you occupy, you lost three health packs, your companions' gear is damaged, and your feet hurt. Welcome to fast-travel."

Gamer 1: "What the hell! I fast travelled and lost three health packs, my gun/bow/sword was knackered, and my armour was all ripped! How is that fair? What am I supposed to WALK everywhere just to avoid this kinda thing?"

Gamer 2: "Yes. Unless your character is a wizard with his own portal stone or some other generic plot device that explains how he went from Here to There without any hassle, then you gotta pay for your Fast-Travel ticket! Enemies don't disappear and the world doesn't become less dangerous just because getting from Here to There takes a while and annoys you."

In lieu of a "after-the-fact" write-up explaining why you lost gear, I'd be in favour of random/chance encounters generated during fast-travel. Like the old days when you wanted to rest in Icewind Dale and suddenly your party was surrounded by eight trolls and a demi-god who came upon you all sleeping soundly around a nice little fire.

Demi-God: "Guess what adventurers! The world is dangerous! Ha ha ha! Try and beat me and my trolls when your mage is half-rested and lacking most of his heal and support spells! Mua hah hah! Don't you wish you'd have gone back to town to rest!? Don't you!"

Or as in DA:O for a more recent example, when you get annoying cross-swords on screen and you're thinking, "Crap, another encounter, no doubt my characters will all be surrounded by archers, warriors, and mages, and there'll be traps dotted everywhere. Total disadvantage every time one of these things happens. Can't we set a scout? Get some recon before walking blindly into every gods-damned ambush!? If only this were an open world adventure in which I could see enemies coming.