My first couple of characters are just for fun and to learn the game and when some good mods start coming out I'm sure I'll be playing more seriously, but for now I'm having a blast. And I also have been using FT more than I normally have in the past, mostly to save time as others have mentioned.

I'm sure I just haven't figured out all the safe routes yet, but another reason I've been using FT is that I'm just tired of having to fight my way to every place I want to go in the city ruins. Many times I just want to get from point A to point B and they put so many hostile areas throughout the city ruins and it's so densely packed that you are basically having to fight raiders, muties and gunners almost every corner you go around - sometimes all at the same time. It just gets monotonous when I just want to get my haul back to base, or get from say Diamond City to Goodneighbor in relative peace, lol.

It can be difficult not to do it.

I try not to use it when possible. Only exceptions are when I'm overburdened as I find when dropping gear it disappears far too quickly to get back to it.

And when I manage to catch the blink-and-you'll-miss-it settlement attack notifications.

Personally FT has never bothered me, I dont fast travel everywhere, though.

I do like to explore amd will do so when I feel like it, again I will fast travel when I feel like it. My enojoyment of these types of games doesnt come from trying to be realistic or worrying about 'Murzion'

Though I undetstand for other people this is quite important, I just cant relate.

That's a good point, I also fast travel for settlement defense events. I don't really know how long you have to get there once you get notified of an attack, but I suspect that if I try to run across the map to get there, I'd be too late. Usually I need a bit of time to finish up what I'm doing before I can head out, so I would hate to then waste another 10 minutes running over and fail the mission.

BTW, those 2-second notifications were the bane of my existence. They're too easy to miss, and I hated finding out I failed a mission I wasn't even aware of. I'm now using a http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4106/? that changes the notification to a center-screen message box that requires you to click OK. I never miss an attack message now.

If I'm questing, I will walk. But supply runs and start points for random meandering get the fast travel treatment. I've never considered it to "break immersion", though. Never had a problem with it or considered it to be teleportation.

This is my problem with slow traveling. There are a lot of enemies that respawn in the same locations time and time again. There's a group of super mutants right outside of Goodneighbor that I've killed at least a couple dozen times now. There's another group of super mutants outside of the Commonwealth Bank that I've killed just as many times. The group doesn't really vary. I can walk up to the area and know immediately that I need to kill the one in the lower courtyard first, then take out the super mutant suicider that's going to come running out, and then take out the one on the exterior stairs, and so on. Getting more ammo and loot is always nice, but it would be nice if it wasn't just the same scripted group spawning in the same spots over and over again.

Exactly this ^

If there's one thing that breaks immersion for me it is things like this, not fast travel...makes the world feel so generic and obviously scripted...

I think a better way to deal with fast travel in future Fallout games is to have a fast travel system like Dragon's Dogma where you purchase fast travel spheres in shops, so that way you both explore and fast travel when it's an emergency or needed. The fast travel spheres were quite expensive in Dragon Dogma but were great to balance the game out from exploring and fast travel when needed too.

Rather like the Scrolls in Morrowind. I just want to see boats between docks. Its the most immersive and least intrusive change to the existing system

Why does it need a balance? I can already plot a route between any locations I've already been to that will guarantee that I don't run in to any enemies, since I know exactly where they spawn. Fast travel just does the same thing with less time wasted.

Yep.. I've probably used fast travel more in this game than any other.. and like you said, it's because of the junk. Now if the first thing you did in the game were to establish trade routes and settlements it might be easier to not fast travel since you'd have settlements to go drop junk off at. But that seems like a pretty difficult task to undertake in the very beginning of the game. You'd have to go to each settlement, do the settlement quest (some of which would be near impossible at low levels.) and then of course you need junk to build junk. Might be something fun to try to undertake though. Do absolutely nothing in the game but settlement linking at the very beginning. No other quests, no other motives.

I mix it up. Yes, I have a full time job, other games to play and real world people to interact with. So, if I am in a game questing, I use Fast Travel to get back to quest givers or to get close to a destination if I have a waypoint unlocked. I figure that traveling for quests is "work" and should be done as efficiently as possible. If have been over the path once, what is the benefit of walking the path again. However a lot of the time I spend in the game is walking from place to place simply because I discover more things that way, get more quests and have more fun. So, it's a mix for me.

Unless you are planning to develop every settlement you encounter you really don't need so many junk. I was obsessive pack rat my first 10 hours in, but when I broke down all my junk items just to have them neatly organized in Sanctuary workbench I found out I have waaaaaaay too many components. Except ballistic fiber. One settlement and couple of power armors need just a little junk. If you guys check your inventory you will probably find you already have more than enough.

It's nice to see everyone's perspective on this. I had a feeling I wasn't alone. Even if I tried to play a no-fast travel playthrough, I feel like I'd have to hamstring a few of my other habits in the game. Or go out of my way to advance certain questlines or establish settlements early on. It doesn't help that I have such a low strength and my carry weight is only 230... or that despite the few points I've pumped into Charisma, I still can't pick up Local Leader yet.

It's nice to know some of the strategies that you guys/girls have taken to assist in these efforts, but I've accepted my house rules at this point!

For some reason I've never minded fast traveling in these games. Some games I don't like to do it, but with all the loot management and since time still passes in FO4, I see it as saving me time, more than anything else. Yeah, I avoid respawn fights, but after a while I don't mind not having to fight the same 50 raiders or mutants over and over and over again, haha. I just pretend I have uber travel skills and managed to avoid combat hot spots while traveling.

That said I don't always FT - I don't when exploring/questing first time through, and in FO4 with many FT points so bloody close together anyway, I'll only FT if it's far far away, and mostly only when I want to dump stuff at my special home base vs. "just any workbench". I do like traveling on foot for the immersion/sense of exploring.

Why wouldn't anyone fast travel?