As I was swimming along the coast of Vvardenfell today, killing my millionth Slaughterfish, I realized there has to be another way. In reality only a mad man would swim miles through these Dreugh infested waters, which begs the question why not take a boat. I'm aware that there are ships that for a modest fee can take me strait to my destination, but what if I want to explore along the way?
We should have the option to either rent of buy boats to travel over large bodies of water (assuming that somewhere in the world there is a large body of water).
Bethesda Please add this option into Skyrim, It makes sense.

Well...

1) Immersive transportation system a la Morrowind

2) A mod called Water Life for Morrowind added boats that lets you watch when you travel. They spawned randomly in the world of water.
Here's a clip showing them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygiGbHGmMvE

I want things that resemble both 1) and 2).

I want boats for Skyrim, small row boats etc would love to have a Norse style dragon/long boat

I would make more sense than ever in Skyrim, it's cold as hell up there and going swimming in below freezing temperatures is insane.

I doubt there will be that much water up in skyrim. Maybe a lake at the top of some mountains. But it would be really dissapointing If they smacked a huge water feature that takes up a big enough part of the map where you'd need a boat to travel across

No matter how many times I read this I don't get how any stretch of the mind can make the travel system in Morrowind more immersive than the fast travel systems of Daggerfall or Oblivion. They are the same system except in Morrowind, half the time the travel system was useless because it was slightly faster to just walk the 10 minutes to your destination instead of walking 12 minutes to the nearest siltstrider to your destination. They are the same exact system except that you have to pay money and backtrack most of the game when using Morrowinds and as I've said, useless half the time <_<

However, I can say that it's immersive, just like fast travel in the other games was immersive.

You can believe what you want.

I say, however, that talking to a person offering a transportation to another town for a small sum of money is more immersive than being able to travel anywhere to everywhere from a click on your map without any cost.

Why? I can travel anywhere I want to no cost. All I have to do is walk there. If I want to go faster, I buy a bicycle, like buying a horse. But I don't have to pay anyone to take me anywhere if I don't want to. I can ALSO pay people to take me to places as well, but either way I get to the same place. So whats the difference?

You're talking about a whole 'nother question. Walking and traveling by horse is not fast travel. You also pay a travel service to take you to specific places (towns) of your choice.

If you don't see the difference, I suggest you re-read what I said.

Boats...an awesome thought. I hope they have Eskimo-style canoes for the northern seas.

I'mmmmmmmmm Sailingggg Awayyyyyyy
Set an open coursseeeee for the viiiirrrrgin seeaaaaa
Cause I'veeeeeeee got toooo be freeeeee
Free to face the life that's a head of meeee

Fjords are confirmed, and they contain quite a bit of water. Also, there's a coastline.

Usable boats is a good idea. Can't be that hard to implement either. Add some of them along the coast, make swimming a bit more difficult (encumbrance over 75% means no buouyancy?), and there should be plenty of incentive to use them.

It's more immersive because it reflects the need to walk to the station offering transportation. Sort of like having to walk to the bus stop in order to take the bus. If I had a travel system that could take me to the front door of my workplace everyday I would be delighted. But I don't. If I want to use transportation, I have to walk to the spot offering transportation, and then walk from the closest stop to my destination. If walking is faster than that, I'll walk instead.

I love that song! Styx rules...at least they did back in the 70s and 80s. Now...they svck...after they got rid of what's his name.

Fjords cornfirmed...WICKED!!!!!

I did think about this while in Anvil the other day - why don't those ships ever move? You wouldn't even have to be on them and it would make the game much more realistic

Onboard I'm the captaiin, so cliiiiimb aboard,
We'll search for tomorrowwwwww on eeeevery shoorrree
And I'lll try, Oh Looorrrrd I'll try
To Caaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrryy on

Is the bus sitting there waiting for you and you alone with no other passengers. Morrowind style travel netwok that exists in the game world solely for your use is less realistic than fast travel since fast travel can be explained as a passing of time.

Explain to me from your character's point of view why those travel services are available to you at all times.

On the topic of water travel, I believe that swimming should be much more difficult. In real life very few people can swim for miles. In real life boats are the primary means of travel across large bodies of water, while swimming is a dangerous alternative. They should have your stamina drain as you swim, and if you run out you drown. They could also make deep waters more dangerous adding large sea monsters, SWARMS of Slaughterfish, ect.
This could be counteracted by bringing back the Swift Swim spell, although instead of just making you swim faster it could also make it so you do not lose stamina when you swim, allowing you to swim for greater distances. Argonians could naturally have this ability.

Because that's where Realism/Fun meet on the graph. Maybe they could charge more at night.

I mean, why walk anywhere in the game? Why not go straight from the cave entrance to the boss lair, and straight from the boss lair to the counter of a shop?

Edit: Oh yea, the actual topic. I could not be more in favor of boats. It just makes sense. It's just one of those things that Beth doesn't need to add, but it would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they make the best RPGs. As I've said before, Two Worlds 2 has real time boats, if Beth can't handle it, I question their credentials.

Having a boat and a little crew sailing over the ice cold sea to Solstheim from Skyrim would be awesome

Yes to boats! :rock:
Yes to sailing, yes to rafting on half-frozen rivers! :rock: and yes to ice fishing :rock:

I want my pirate island off the coast of the country.

Take a boat or water walk out to it and fight a group of pirates and look for secret treasure!!!

Ehm, Morrowinds system can be explained as a passing of time as well, silt strider ports doesn't necessarily freeze time as you move from station to station. Besides, there were more than one silt strider in service in Morrowind, there most likely would be one waiting nearby most of times, given the fact that there aren't that many silt strider stands around. For the price they were demanding to carry you from Balmora to Suran, it makes perfect sense to carry a single passenger at a time. And I never saw a silt strider deny other passengers from riding along with me. Think of them more like taxi stands, if you will, it might make more sense to you then.

Basically the choice is between a system that forces you to choose whether or not it is worth it to use transportation that will cost you money, and might require you to walk a bit out of your way to get to a station - or a system that allows you to pull up a map, click a button and appear anywhere on the map. It's obvious which one is the most "realistic". Fast travel isn't that big of a deal for me, but your argument is ridiculous. You're quite capable of "explaining" the oblivion teleport-system as realistic, while the factor that breaks immersion for you in Morrowind is the fact that you never had to wait for a silt strider once you reached the station...facepalm moment :rolleyes:

This is an excellent suggestion. I wouldn't want to be swimming at below zero temperatures while wearing full heavy armor to be frank. If they're going "low fantasy" at least include something like this. Another excellent suggestion was boats/ships that actually move in and out of harbours (without you interracting with them), it would add so much to the atmosphere. Plus people carrying goods on and off ships, working on the docks etc (assuming Winter Hold or other cities have harbours)