Fast Travellling?

Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:32 pm

To see so few have experienced and appreciated Daggerfall's fast travel system is disheartening. It kills the total lack of immersion that both Morrowind and Oblivion brought to the table with their respective fast travel systems. All it needs is to be made less intrusive (default to the last used settings) and we would be in business.

Yes remember Daggerfall fast travel but not details, Just that you had options that you could pay a couple of septims to travel faster because you stayed on inns or something and that you selected foot, horse and boat if you had them.
However the cost was totally ignorable, you had more money in Daggerfall than Oblivion and believe one travel method was always faster if not it was just to check travel time with horse and boat and select the fastest.
Now add that you could fast travel to any location added to your map not only previously visited as in Oblivion / Fallout.
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Etta Hargrave
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:24 am

You know, I could completely understand the point of view for those against Morrowind's fast travel: it's messy and inconvenient, not to mention it was so cheap that it basically was the same as Oblivion's system.

But with the vastly overhauled AI schedules in this game, I think if anything there's more pressure on Bethesda to bring back some of Morrowind's systems. I mean really! Merchant vessels could depart coastal cities every other day, transporting NPCs to different towns and bringing new products for shopkeepers to sell. The player could either pay to hitch a ride on one of these ships, or otherwise sneak on.

Simultaneously, the age-old merchant caravan suggestion is completely plausible now. I mean, if there'll be roving dragons stopping at towns now and then, why not NPCs?

A transportation network on this scale would be amazing, although I guess I'll just have to mod it in myself. :P
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SiLa
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:24 am

Yes remember Daggerfall fast travel but not details, Just that you had options that you could pay a couple of septims to travel faster because you stayed on inns or something and that you selected foot, horse and boat if you had them.
However the cost was totally ignorable, you had more money in Daggerfall than Oblivion and believe one travel method was always faster if not it was just to check travel time with horse and boat and select the fastest.
Now add that you could fast travel to any location added to your map not only previously visited as in Oblivion / Fallout.


Well really, the costs had to be negligible. Daggerfall wasn't built around the assumption you would use fast travel, it is a necessity unless you planned to spend real life months traveling by foot/horse. And with time sensitive quests, you couldn't give severe time penalties to players or they would spend most of their quest rewards on traveling fees.

Tweaks can of course be made (encouraged even), but do keep in mind that at no point should players be forced to do something they don't want to (like blowing all your money at Arrille's on that sweet chitin armor then having to walk by foot to Balmora because fast travel costs are mandatory)

This is what I envision a modern day take on Daggerfall travel would be like given there is no random encounter system in place and at least vampires exist:


Spoiler
Travel Method - Determines travel speed and arrival time.

Reckless
  • Costs Money - No
  • Speed - Fast
  • Arrives - As soon as possible


Cautious (Vampires not choosing cautious can end up arriving during daytime)
  • Costs Money - No
  • Speed - Slow
  • Arrives - From dawn to dusk (After nightfall for vampires)


Travel By - Determines travel speed and cost.

Foot
  • Costs Money - No
  • Speed - Slow


Transport (Boats, caravans, etc. Not available to vampires)
  • Costs Money - Yes
  • Speed - Fast


Resting - Determines health restored, stamina drain, traveling speed, and cost.

No Rest
  • Costs Money - No
  • Health Restored - No
  • Speed - Fast
  • Stamina Drain - Yes


Camp Out
  • Costs Money - No
  • Health Restored - Yes
  • Speed - Slow (Time to set up/pack up camp)
  • Stamina Drain - No


Inns (Not available to vampires)
  • Costs Money - Yes
  • Health Restored - Yes
  • Speed - Moderate
  • Stamina Drain - No


To put it into perspective let me give a hypothetical in the form of one of those wonderful math word problems. An adventurer leaves Riften heading for Solitude at 9AM and is badly injured...

Spoiler
Base travel time - 24 hours
Base travel cost - 0

Travel recklessly: -25% base travel time.
Travel cautiously: If after sunset, add time difference between expected arrival time and dawn.
By foot: No modifiers.
By transport: -50% base travel time, costs 20 gold per hour saved.
No rest: No travel time added, no health restored, stamina reduced to 0 upon arrival.
Camp out: Add +11 hours of travel time if the journey continues past 9PM, health restored if time is spent resting.
Inns: Add 8 hours of travel time if the journey continues past 9PM, health restored if time is spent resting. Add 40 gold per night spent at an inn.

So lets do some formulas now. We'll do the absolute fastest, the absolute slowest, and something resembling oblivion fast travel.


Recklessly + Transport + No rest
24 - (24*.25 ;recklessly) - (24*.5 ;transport) + 0 (no rest)
24 - 6 - 12 + 0
6 Hours total travel time.
Arrival at 3PM.
240 (20*12) gold spent.
No health restored.
0 stamina upon arrival.

Cautiously + Foot + Camp out
24 - 0 (on foot)
+ 11 for camping out since travel takes us past 9PM.
35 hours total travel time.
Expected arrival at 8PM, add 10 hours to so we arrive at dawn.
45 hours total travel time.
Arrival at 6AM.
0 gold spent.
All health restored.

Recklessly + Foot + No rest (Oblivion style fast travel)
24 - (24*.25; recklessly) - 0 (on foot) + 0 (no rest)
24 - 6 - 0 + 0
18 hours total travel time.
Arrival at 3AM.
0 gold spent.
No health restored.
0 stamina upon arrival.



I admit, the values may need a tweaking here and there, but I think this gets the point across. This way, those who want to jump into the action can do so at no cost but in game time. Those who want immersion can dictate their method of travel with associated costs and time spent.
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sophie
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:55 am

I go Daggerfall style every time. I'm a book reader, so not everything has to play out in front of my face. For me when using those options, I find it pulls me into the world more, and I can envision my character traveling, staying at inns, or traipsing across the wilds only to run across an angry Spriggan or territorial bear, etc.
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Nicole Mark
 
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Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:41 pm

I don't really understand the argument against the "Don't like it, don't use it." stance. The people that still don't want FT, even though its totally optional, must have no self control. Are you so tempted that you cant not use it if its included? I could understand the want for a way to travel like in Morrowind, but most just want FT gone with no other explanation than; Its OPed and breaks immersion. Personally, I'd like to see Daggerfall style fast traveling, with random battles.
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Sabrina Schwarz
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:47 am

I think fast travel should be in the game, but I also think another form of transportation BESIDES walking and horses should also. IE, Morrowind style.
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James Shaw
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:15 am

I don't really understand the argument against the "Don't like it, don't use it." stance. The people that still don't want FT, even though its totally optional, must have no self control. Are you so tempted that you cant not use it if its included? I could understand the want for a way to travel like in Morrowind, but most just want FT gone with no other explanation than; Its OPed and breaks immersion. Personally, I'd like to see Daggerfall style fast traveling, with random battles.

There is no joy in walking all the way around the province, so if like in Oblivion, they do not provide travel options, like in Morrowind, there is no enjoyable choice other than fast travel.

This is where the "Don't like it, don't use it." is not a logical comment.

But if they provide other viable choices, then that sentence can be used.
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Sara Johanna Scenariste
 
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Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:49 pm

I don't really understand the argument against the "Don't like it, don't use it." stance. The people that still don't want FT, even though its totally optional, must have no self control. Are you so tempted that you cant not use it if its included? I could understand the want for a way to travel like in Morrowind, but most just want FT gone with no other explanation than; Its OPed and breaks immersion. Personally, I'd like to see Daggerfall style fast traveling, with random battles.


Yes.
I don't FT, but there are many times I could have used it in games, due to bugs or time constraints.
This arguement has been on every forum for a new game I've read, yet FT has still been included in them.
Why because the devs are not designing the game just for those with the loudest voices and strongest opinions.
It also works, when all the people that kicked up the fuss go away, those that still play can do whatever they wish in game with self control.
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carrie roche
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:34 am

There is no joy in walking all the way around the province, so if like in Oblivion, they do not provide travel options, like in Morrowind, there is no enjoyable choice other than fast travel.

This is where the "Don't like it, don't use it." is not a logical comment.

But if they provide other viable choices, then that sentence can be used.

I don't really understand the argument against the "Don't like it, don't use it." stance. The people that still don't want FT, even though its totally optional, must have no self control. Are you so tempted that you cant not use it if its included? I could understand the want for a way to travel like in Morrowind, but most just want FT gone with no other explanation than; Its OPed and breaks immersion. Personally, I'd like to see Daggerfall style fast traveling, with random battles.

I doubt they are ever getting rid of fast travel, so now it becomes a matter of if the Dev's want to include some sort of public travel. It doesn't seem like something they care about though. I don't see anything wrong with FT though, as long as they add a random battle stop every once and a while.
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Melanie Steinberg
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:33 am

I feel like I should point out that the core of this argument (and basically every other conflict on this board) is that people get up in arms when freedoms and choices are taken away. It's not just "change is scary" as many seem to denounce it as; it's that if a series of role playing games presents you with a freedom in one game, and then takes it away in the next people are going to be angry. That's unavoidable. This is why the "hardcoe mode" was such a popular idea, since it presented more options towards gameplay. The sides of the argument take place depending on which game you had played first. If you played oblivion first, then went back and played morrowind, there is (I feel) net more choice you can do, so there was no disappointment in the lack of features or choice. If you played morrowind first, (again, in my opinion) there was less freedom in oblivion and you felt cheated (can you tell which game I played first?). As for fast travel, having both morrowind and oblivion fast travel in the game would present the most options, however, many wish to revert back to morrowind for simple personal preference.
I doubt they are ever getting rid of fast travel, so now it becomes a matter of if the Dev's want to include some sort of public travel. It doesn't seem like something they care about though. I don't see anything wrong with FT though, as long as they add a random battle stop every once and a while.

I agree, fast travel is clearly here to stay and to think they would get rid of it to satisfy the minority (when everyone's paying the same amount) would be ridiculous. However, I would LOVE to see fast travel handled like Oregon Trail. I could make my mammoth drawn carriages ford rivers, it would be glorious.
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Marguerite Dabrin
 
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Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:10 pm

I like how it works in Two Worlds 2, you have a teleportation stone on your person (in your items portion of your inventory) and you can take it out and use it to teleport to anywhere in the world where there is a teleportation platform (with a sweet animation), but you can only do it where there is a clear view of the sky.

Then later you can also buy teleportation platform and put it down somewhere, and then that becomes an active place you can teleport to using the stone, for instance you could put it outside of your house and teleport to it :)

I really liked that part of Two Worlds 2 because it takes something like fast travel that can be cheap and immersion breaking if you don't like it (I do, but others obviously don't) and puts it into the game world as something material, something you can see and know how works (like silt striders).
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Sammykins
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:48 am

I agree, fast travel is clearly here to stay and to think they would get rid of it to satisfy the minority (when everyone's paying the same amount) would be ridiculous. However, I would LOVE to see fast travel handled like Oregon Trail. I could make my mammoth drawn carriages ford rivers, it would be glorious.

I got inspired with Oregon trail system, but more from the implementation in Mount and Blade, and suggested a similar method http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1162378-fast-travel, which is a version that IMHO fits better with elder scrolls, and adds a lot of choices of random encounters in the middle of the travel, and the types of interactions that the player can have with any mark and place on the map, like sneaking up to a foe, or entering a town and starting in a guild hall in that town, within the same action, and so on...

I really liked that part of Two Worlds 2 because it takes something like fast travel that can be cheap and immersion breaking if you don't like it (I do, but others obviously don't) and puts it into the game world as something material, something you can see and know how works (like silt striders).

Yes me too, I like the new point of view with the fast travel and the in-game implementation, which has a meaning and is not immersion breaking and fits with magical nature of Nirn as well.
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Hella Beast
 
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Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:31 pm

Had no problem with Oblivion's system other than that the cities were marked from the get-go, so I chose "Only Oblivion style". Wouldn't really mind Morrowind's style either. Anything that isn't cumbersome in the late game when you just want to get to the good stuff quickly.
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Ben sutton
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:23 am

Frankly now your over reacting, being able to jump from discovered point A to discovered point B is not the same as having battle winning uber gear.

That's not all it does, though. It completely avoids encounters you should have. It heals you without using items or anything. It lets you travel when you may not be able to. You can travel at almost any time. There's no risk to using it. And it's quite fast in game-time. I fully understand the want for a FT system, and in principle, I have no issue.. but Oblivion-style Cheat Travel is just wrong.

This is what I envision a modern day take on Daggerfall travel would be like given there is no random encounter system in place and at least vampires exist:

The main problem with Daggerfall's system in this day and age, is it doesn't match the size of the game world. In DF, it really did take several days to get places, and there were a number of settlements for any trip you could plan. But with the world like MW/Ob, it doesn't take more than a day to get from one end of the world to the other, and there aren't all that many road-side inns. Although it may be able to work if tweaked sufficiently, and your suggestion works towards that direction, it still seems a little discongruous.

I don't really understand the argument against the "Don't like it, don't use it." stance. The people that still don't want FT, even though its totally optional, must have no self control.

Most people do want fast travel because they don't like walking everywhere (and many quests were designed with the expectation that you'd use it). They just don't want it how it was done in Oblivion, but there was no other option. Not using a fast travel method was just as bad as using it, which is why that argument fails.
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Angelina Mayo
 
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