Okay, first hello everyone, new to this board, and this is my first ever topic.

In reading through some topics around the net I came across more than a few people who expressed issues with the Oblivion Fast Travel system. Many citing it took you out of the immersion of the game due to you pointing and clicking where you wanted to go and other various reasons.

There were also many who were for it, saying they would probably like something more along the lines of Silt Strider's that were part of Morrowind.



I was over on the wikia board for Oblivion and decided to read up on the Nords, seeing as we'll be seeing more of them in this game, and to read up on the background of everything, and I came across this section on "Shouts" and 'Roars". It's easier to post the words and then elaborate....


Nords consider themselves to be the children of the sky. They call Skyrim the Throat of the World, because it is where the sky exhaled on the land and formed them. They see themselves as eternal outsiders and invaders, and even when they conquer and rule another people; they feel no kinship with them. The breath and the voice are the vital essence of a Nord. When they defeat great enemies they take their tongues as trophies. These are woven into ropes and can hold speech like an enchantment. The power of a Nord can be articulated into a shout, like the kiai of an Akaviri swordsman. The strongest of their warriors are called "Tongues." When the Nords attack a city, they take no siege engines or cavalry; the Tongues form in a wedge in front of the gatehouse, and draw in breath. When the leader lets it out in a kiai, the doors are blown in, and the axemen rush into the city. Shouts can be used to sharpen blades or to strike enemies. A common effect is the shout that knocks an enemy back, or the power of command. A strong Nord can instill bravery in men with his battle-cry, or stop a charging warrior with a roar. The greatest of the Nords can call to specific people over hundreds of miles, and can move by casting a shout, appearing where it lands.

That's the part that caught my eye right there.


Now we know the game has "Shouts" which, Dovahkiin epically used on the dragon in the trailer, but I was thinking that using the lore of the Nords, Bethesda could use those Shouts much like the way it's described above to allow us to fast travel to visited places in dramatic fashion.

Have us use the Shout only after we've slayed a specific number of dragons and earn that ability, and have a ripple effect come on screen, much like we saw in the trailer where afterward it goes to a loading screen (I assume) and once it loads, have the ripple effect appear in the destination with us being moved into our desired location.

If we were on our horse at the time, have it teleport us to the stable of that city or to the outside of that cave/mine/rune etc.


And yes, I mean for us to earn the ability to use fast travel. Meaning you would have to travel on foot or horse everywhere else you wanted to go.

What are you guys thoughts on this and what are the chances that anyone from Bethesda would even read and implement this idea? lol

Hmmm... Sounds interesting...
Oh, and http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg!

Personally I dont see why they don't just bring siltstriders back and then everyone is happy. Mages can teleport and the rest of us can fast travel in peace without someone complaining there immersion was broken.

I think you shouldn't have to follow the main quest to obtain game features. You should be able to play how you want and ignore the main quest if you want.

I'm of the opinion that Fast Travel should only be able to used between towns and settlements, not every dungeon as it 'shrinks' the game world.

i agree with u mark thay should bring them back along with the mark and recall spells it made exploring more fun

dragon shouts can be obtained any time in the game u do not have to do main quest to get them

That sounds like a neat idea. I kind of want mark and recall back, with those Silt striders from morrowind to fast travel.

"nom nom nom" Thanks ^_^






You don't have to follow the main quest to obtain this shout I'm speaking of. Just face off with a few dragons and take them out heh

Also, I'm of the mind that we should be able to make that choice ourselves on whether or not we want to "shrink" the game world by Fast Traveling. If you don't want to use it for dungeons and caves then that's fine. But it shouldn't be removed for those who do want to do it.





Thank you. Yeah, I notice a good chunk want those back as well.

I'd just like to see something more unique and new to this series, that could easily be tied in to Elder Scrolls lore, you know?

Does anyone else find it comical when people complain about fast travel yet call for mark and recall to be brought back?

No. I just want the simple point-and-click to locations you've been to with time passing by to simulate the journey Oblivion had.

Then you should have no issue with my idea.

I'm saying this feature or whatever you want to call it, would look unique in that you use the Shout to travel, but you'd obviously set your destination much like in Oblivion by point-and-clicking it, with the time passing by as well.

Win win.

No, because dragon shouts have cool-down time requirements and to get the dragon shout, I would have to deal with the main quest with each and every character.

They aren't complaining about Fast Travel, they are complaining about Oblivions system.

Morrowind's world was small enough to have no Fast Travel, but I really think they should just keep Oblivions system and say "You know Guild Guide magic" or something, I don't want to have to go beat up a dragon to get fast travel. Hopefully Skyrim will be captivating enough so that I will not use Fast Travel on the first playthrough though.

Think outside the box man.

We don't know how things start off, but let's assume they (Greybeards) send you on a quest after you're told of your importance or whatnot. You have to visit everyplace before you can Fast Travel to it to begin with anyway, so on your way to the quest which ends up being a quest to kill a small dragon, you absorb his essence or whatever, giving you the ability to 'Shout" for Fast Travel.

Or after you set out, you literally don't earn the ability until you kill and absorb a set number of dragons, and immediately afterward, you're presented a cut scene or in game effect where an elder speaking in the dragonborn's tongue speaks to us in that ancient language, but it slowly makes sense to our hero. At which point this voice will inform us about the ability to use this specific "Shout" to Fast Travel.

And this wouldn't be tied in to the set number of Shouts we get to use during battle or whatever, so there's no worry of it affecting that.

What's wrong with that?

But that's the thing, you'll have to face a dragon at some point, why not have it be more central to the overall game mechanics?

And seeing as you're hoping to travel around without using Fast Travel at all, then you could easily avoid using it to begin with. No issue.

The problem is twofold. One, we already know dragon shouts will require cool-down times, making amending a locational mistake in the fast-travelling process time-consuming and/or tedious. Two, that would require every character to have to deal with the main quest for a key game mechanic. I know many people don't bother with Elder Scrolls main quests with each character... if at all. I don't believe the main quest and the whole hero thing should actually be forced onto a person if they want to obtain use of a simple, yet very valuable, game mechanic.

I think that this makes enough sense that it may be how they deal with the controversy about fast traveling, I know I certainly like it and it would be amazing to teleport on location with a cool graphical effect. To Seti, when do you ever need to fast travel multiple times in the time frame of a few minutes?

@Seti18: You make it sound like every second that passes in the game without swinging a sword or casting a spell is "tedious". Jeez, *play the game*. If you fast travel so often that cooldown time is a problem, there is something wrong with your playstyle.

"Oops, what was I think? I accidentally clicked on the wrong location. That person is in the other location."

"It's time to move my equipment from the house in this city to the new house I have in the other city."

"I changed my mind. I want to go somewhere else and do something else."

"No, the trainer I'm looking for isn't here. I'll have to go check the other town."

"Oops. I forgot to sell my stuff/put it away/clear my inventory or I forgot to buy what I wanted to buy before leaving."

"That task (talking to a person, getting training) took only a minute. Now it's time to go somewhere else."

"As always, before I fast-travel away from the city, I will fast-travel to the stables to mount my horse, first."




On top of that, no one seems to have addressed the "forced into the main quest" dilemma. Yes, I would find it annoying to be forced into the main quest and dealing with dragons for that game mechanic. I don't play Elder Scrolls games for their stories. They're nice questlines, but I don't always do them and I don't want to feel forced into them. Some characters just aren't the hero type and having to do the same thing over and over again with each new character for a vital mechanic would just be tedious.

1. Silt Striders are indigenous to Vvardenfell, but some form of travel service would be nice to connect the major cities at least.




2. The problem isn't with the concept of fast travel its with how its current style is breaking immersion. Mark and recall is a spell you have to cast and fits in the world, thus immersion remains unbroken.

The really big problem with OB travel was the cities being already on your map as fast travel destinations. Go to Jauffre, ok, open map, click you're there, no exploration, no fighting required. In Skyrim, I want to have to work at it, explore, get in a few fights, run out of potions, need to sleep in a camp, and have a real sense of relief when I finally reach the safety of the first town, and have a monumental task to reach a city. This should feel like a quest in itself. Much more important to me than worrying about whether I have to pay to travel or not, or whether or not there is a spell mechanic to justify it.

You mean to dictate how I should play the game and reinforce your thoughts with an arbitrary punishment or forcing me to deal with the main quest with each character? No offense, but I don't care what you think of how I play my game and I wish you wouldn't jump to pretentious conclusions about my playstyle just because I am concerned about something that you are not.

You're ignoring what I said above. This specific shout has nothing to do with the normal shouts that require a cool down period. At all. Using it multiple times in succession wont affect your magic pool for Shouts.

Furthermore, it's just a new look more than anything, which ties in to a new gameplay mechanic. You would still point and click to where you want to go, but in my idea, the screen would ripple after a shout from your hero/heroine, much like in the trailer after he shouted at the dragon, and go to a load screen, more than likely going by Oblivion.

Hell, they could even add the option to turn off the affect of the ripple and shout in Options if it bothers people.







I already said in another scenario that this doesn't have to be a part of the main quest. It could either be that we're forced into this situation from the start of the game as we learn of our hero, (think Oblivion when we start in the dungeon) and we're immediately faced with a smaller and easier dragon that afterward gives us this ability, or forced into facing a dragon as we leave whatever city we start out in, killing them and learning the ability then.

Either way, it doesn't affect anyone's style of play after that point, and it's no different then past games.

Or hell, maybe let us use Oblivion's Fast Travel system from the start, but after we kill a set number of dragons, we earn the ability to "Shout Travel" (Coining the term lol) which allows us to get from wherever we are to where we want to go faster than by the normal fast travel system. Like say, maybe only an hour goes by using the Shout Travel, but six or more goes by, depending on distance of course, using Fast Travel.

This is more of an added aesthetic that embraces the storied Shout of Dovakiin than anything else. I just think it helps to immerse us into this game, and make it more unique.

Fast travel robs you of the exploration experience, plus it has no consequences nor explanation.

So then we are forced into the role of the Thu'um-using Dovakhiin?



On another note, I don't get what people find so unimmersive about Oblivion's travel. Your idea sounds good and I'm not trying to bash it, but I'm okay with the idea of my character travelling without me for a short period of time and just having the mechanic be the mechanic it is.

As for other people's comments, Morrowind's fast-travel was no different in the immersion aspect. I fail to see how paying a person and fading out from your character's life for a short journey is any more immersive than just fading out from your character's life for a short journey. Time passes in both games. Events, encounters, and the showing of the actual travel part are skipped in both games... and cliffracers would not stop attacking a person just because they're on a ship or a giant bug.