It's mainly a problem from a roleplaying perspective. Could I only use it in towns? Sure, but the game is obviously designed to the contrary.

To the "people who want to use it all the time", well in Morrowind there are console commands. And you really can't expect every game to just hold your hand. I'm sure there are people who want everything to die in one hit, but does that make it a valid design choice?

But I like low-effort overkill! Sometimes I stay in bed just because the idea of moving the blankets seems like too much work!

Seriously, though, I agree with you, fast-travel is a game mechanic like any other, and can be implemented well, or not. Oblivion did a poor job, other games did better.

I just quoted you to emphasize that not everyone had enough time for Oblivion's world to seem small. I thought it was rather large, because ten minutes is often a significant part of my play-time.

So you want them to condense the world so they can leave out fast travel? I have no problem walking around if the world is meaningful. However, I have no interest in spending extra time walking around through an automatically generated generic landscape for the sake of walking around in an automatically generated generic landscape. Which is why I support the fast travel in Oblivion at its current state, which is what this thread is pertaining too. So are you arguing against fast travel, or world design, or both?

There aren't console commands on consoles. That's like telling someone no boss is to hard, because they can simply go into god mode. No, it doesn't make sense. However, this most often happens when you exaggerate someone else's original point so that your argument gains validity. I'm sure there are people who want to memorize every detail of the game and not even have an in game journal that catalogs current and previous quests, but does that make it a valid design choice?

When was it stated anywhere in the OP that this thread was about fast travel in Oblivion? Oblivion is Oblivion, there's no way of changing it.

I'm just saying for future titles I'd like to see a little more creativity than a magical teleport from anywhere.


It's true everyone has their own opinions, and obviously the extreme on either side is not desirable, that's why a middle ground would make the most sense.

Never let it be said that the forums are a waste of time. The mindless repetition of this single word, like a prayer, provides immense insight into the workings of the human mind at its most dogmatic, irrational, uncreative and fearful. If you are baffled by terrorists screaming 'Allahu Akbar!' or protesters outside the Supreme Court bemoaning circumcision or tinfoil hatted men frantically babbling about Roswell, simply remember this word and be comforted, for such impulses are normal and are common in our community. Now excuse me while I go try and save a mind.

***

You have a corndog. A man comes and takes away your corndog and hands you another hotdog smeared with kangaroo feces on a stick. He tells you that eating the soiled corndog will provide you with the sustenance to get through the day, but eating it is completely, 100% optional. It will taste disgusting, but getting all you errands done on an empty stomach will be difficult and perhaps more unpleasant than eating the piece of filth you have been given. So you eat the corndog and try to pretend that the dung is just peanut butter.

This thread gets more ridilculous with each post. :facepalm:

You're telling me.

Going from Tyoko to San Fransico. It's a big vast Pacific Ocean with pretty much just water. I'd prefer just fly there.

Say from Paris to Toulouse it's another story. Might want to get off train along the way.

100% agreed :tops:

40% confused.
I'd love the reimplementation of 'stilt striders' (or something indigenous to the northern mountains); I'd also like to be able to pay for teleportation (especially if there was an actual deadline where I had to have the PC in a certain place at a certain time). But I don't understand the point of view (yet), that perceives Oblivion's 'Fast Travel' as a kind of instant travel or magical teleportation, or even some cheat to resort to ~ I don't get it, and I haven't seen it explained in the nearly four years I've been reading this forum.


***Gosh, has it been four years!? Almost.

This is true. The thread is about "fast travel" in any game that implements it. (but admittedly ~here, that's mostly going to be TES & FO3/NV)

That is similar to acting and not breaking the "4th wall" (the barrier between stage and audience). While it can be done in some plays/dramas, as a rule, it ruins the illusion you're crafting in the performance to remind people they are watching a drama and not experiencing it.

Wow Gizmo, I'm really surprised that your Pro Fast Travel. Anyway I don't really care as it's use is optional.

i see fast traveling as your character hiking without your help

For me it is:
- An immersion breaker
- No cheating since its built into the game
- Time compressed conventual travelling
- a positiv feature for a big game since I don't have 3 hours a day to play
- something I rarely use (only when I have to travel to the other side of the Cyrodiil or when I just don't wan't to go)

I voted:

• An 'Immersion' breaker
  
• Not a kind of cheating
  
• Unexplained instant travel to a distant location
  
• A positive feature for a large open world RPG
  
• Something I often use

I really like fast travel, I think they could flesh it out a bit more, but overall I find it to be very beneficial and a good part of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcHoe7hmags

So you would totally support purchasing passage to other cities via an immersive transportation medium? What an excellent concept! Much better than clicking your heels together and thinking "There's no place like Kvatch..."

Depends on the game and type of FT your talking about.(MW style, RDR style or Oblivion style)
I like a FT system like MW with an explanation and costs to use.

Oblivion FT mechanic reallly just didn't sit well with me and I felt like it was a simplistic answer to a problem of convenience or tedious walking. Ruined exploration with just a click of a button and it made me feel lazy or only know a certain way to get there and never to explore other unknown paths that were not near a FT marker. It leads away from the road less traveled and just causes us to just use main roads and etc.


Also due to FT, there might be a developer mind set designing the world around a certain game mechinic to lessen problems or ilks.
Which could lead to people who don't use FT system into bothersome or boring walks because everything of interest is near the travel points and not off the beaten road.

I think you misunderstood me. It's not a cheat. I was arguing against exactly what you're talking about -- it's not cheating or unexplained teleportation. I was simply saying that the distinction between that and simply having "time-compressed conventional travel" is important, even in a game with unrealistic stuff in it.

It depends. I use it all the time, most recently in New Vegas, and have to say that the only negative things that I can think of about it are the massive hike in a games pace and the unexplained lack of confrontation along the road.

I'm trying to use it a lot less because I just seem to miss so much of the awesome, moody gameworld by bamfing from location to location. Traveling manually in FO3 and NV is really enjoyable if you take the time, but sometimes you just feel like you want to get there and do what you're trying to do.

It's not that i have anything against it. I just really liked the way they did it in Morrowind. It felt more immersive.

Fast travel (as I perceive it) is... Not an 'Immersion' breaker but it's definitely less immersive than the Morrowind FT mode.

Fast travel (as I perceive it) is... A kind of cheating... kinda.

Fast travel (as I perceive it) is... Time compressed conventional travel to a distant location.

Fast travel (as I perceive it) is... A positive feature for a large open world RPG... well i would rather say it's a neccity really. It's how it's implemented that really matters.

Fast travel is... Something I rarely use.

I don't use it. In Morrowind, between:

1. Silt Striders
2. Guild Guides
3. Mark/Recall
4. Propylon Chambers (with the official plugin)
5. Boats
6. Almsivi/Divine Intervention

every single place in Vvardenfel was accessible in minutes. Seriously, if you set it up correctly, one could go from wherever to wherever in a very short period of time. And one doesn't have to lose to feeling of immersion in doing so.

And if you're going to use the "it's optional" argument, fine. But give me back Mark/Recall, and Interventions first.

there are about a million of these threads in the skyrim section now.

im assuming when you say fast travel that you specifically mean oblivion/fallout 3 fast travel. i dont know many people that are opposed to fast travel period, just the method.

first off, in games like oblivion and fallout 3 ITS NOT OPTIONAL, ill repeat that cause some people just dont understand basic concepts of game design. oblivion style fast travel IS NOT OPTIONAL. the entire game is designed around the use of the fast travel mechanism considering the number of quests that send you from one side of the world to the other. most people do not want to walk all over the place for tedious quests especially if they have done them a zillion times before. however, oblivions system is essentially a cheat.

1- it has no cost whatsoever

2- there is no risk whatsoever

3-its very easy to exploit to get you out of trouble........in STALKER, if i use up my last medical kit and im low on health and ammo i have to survive long enough to get back to civilization or hope i stumble across a stalker that will take me there for a fee. this is not the case in oblivion. if i use my last magicka potion and last health potion and my gear is worn down and have no repair hammers...............it doesnt matter cause all i do is click on my map and TADA im back safely in town. no threat whatsoever.

4-oblivion/fallout are actually in the minority with their method. DAO gives you an overhead map where you almost always get a random encounter. two worlds 2 and the witcher use teleporter stones which you have to actually travel to in order to use. even with just cause 2 you have to pay for the black market to take you somewhere.

a simple fix would be to do it like daggerfall did it. have a cost and a possibility of a random encounter if you choose to use it. even better would be a system that uses both of them. i havent played it myself but supposedly red dead redemption has both methods involved.

as for morrowinds system.....as another poster pointed out you were never more than 30 seconds to a minute away from travel services except for a couple of waaaay out of the way quests. i put people that had problems with morrowinds travel service in the same group as people that couldnt follow simple, written directions and have to use a big arrow to show them where everything is.

Fast travel makes travel services inferior in every regard except for this "immersion" thing. Technically, it's pointless to have fast travel and travel services at the same time in the same game.

I love Fast Travel in games. I don't care if I have to pay for it or not. In Bethesda games, I get so much money that paying for it wouldn't matter at all, and in RDR, I had enough money that paying for it didn't matter. I don't need an in-game explanation for how my character arrives at a location. I simply imagine my character walking across the land to my destination. It is something I would have done also, just in a much shorter amount of time. It is also not cheating. Cheating would be using something not meant to be used (like a gun in Fallout that does a zillion damage with infinite ammo that grants you infinite health), not an in-game mechanic that just shortens the time traveled from Point A to Point B.

Yeah. Well...if the game has enough civilization to allow for it. It'd be a little difficult with FO3, due to huge lack of civilization. However, FO3 did have the chance of landing into a group of Talon Company or super mutants, so there was an occasional risk. NV probably could have pulled it off, with FT caravan options going towards settlements and areas of commerce, as civilization was definitely there, with plenty of places to stop by. OB could have easily allowed for it, again with caravan options from major settlements and cities. Heck, got a mod for OB where the MW style FT is implemented, and it works pretty damn well for that game.

However, I find the poll too limiting. It's either full on FT or not. With Morrowind's design, it was fast travel, but limited. DF pulled off FT, due to the fact the game was the size of England, and you had to pay to use FT and it took days, weeks, or months, depending how far one was going, how fast, and what mode of transportation. Not to mention you could be stopped due to a random encounter.

To cut it short, I'm not against it, but I am against of how it is implemented if there is no cost and/or risk.

I find fast travel necessary to some degree, but to other degrees it seems stupid and pointless yet people out there complain about it. One instances where I find it useful is in a game like EverQuest 2 which I used to play. In Lavastorm I believe it was there's a zone for Sol'Sek Ro and it was a pain to get there on foot, but if you get there and activate the teleporter beacon you can use the teleporter at the zone-in point. An example where I find it completely stupid is if it takes you 10 to 15 seconds to get to the point yet are lazy and decide to teleport.