My problem with the newest form of fast travel is that it is just like teleporting. I know that time passes by, but time has no actual consequence in this game save a few quests that require you to do something at a specific moment, so it's just teleporting with a lighting effect. To instantly move from somewhere in the Mountains to the Anvil docks seems like a cop out to me. - "I fast traveled the entire map, it's night time now and the person I'm supposed to turn this flower into is asleep. Oh well, I'll just click "wait" and stand in front of their shop for 8 hours until daylight again." - lame.

Now why don't I just not use fast travel you say? That's brilliant!!!! It's also what I do most of the time. Only problem is, that's still a long walk that I don't always want to make. And a much superior solution seems reachable to me. I'd enjoy hoofing it to Bruma, then fast traveling to Anvil in a way that makes sense. Why keep the system stagnate if improvements can be made? I don't want to eliminate any semblance of fast travel, just the "anywhere, anytime, no risk" part of it. I'd settle for just random encounters, with varying degrees of difficulty depending on where you're walking to and from. I also enjoy the mild versions of survival mods; or the "hardcoe" mode of New Vegas (Which just means you need to sleep and eat every so often; No staying up for 87 game days straight, while completing the main quest without so much as a single bite of bread. That said, I'd also like to see "You're too tired to fast travel" or "You're too weak to move quickly" implemented into the system.

Ideally, I'm game for a Morrowind-esque travel system. Have Boats take you by sea, mages zap you around quickly, maybe have the Horse stables (if they aren't implemented a day after release for a mere $2.99 extra - armor included this time of course :whistling: ) be able to rent you a horse to travel as normal, or perhaps fast travel you to another stable. Movement along the settlements should all be moderately streamlined, and then throw in some fun odd-ball fast travel options like the strongholds were in Morrowind, but no Random wilderness location A to BFE wilderness location B across the map. Mark and Recall, as well as the different Intervention-like spells were nice and could take you to various places as well. Perhaps have the Mages be able to teleport you almost anywhere you'd like, but you're walking back. You could have to explore that region first, to avoid going t unexplored places, so you can tell them where to place you - as to avoid trees and the what-not. Maybe even trained Horker rides. Well, maybe not. The overall point, take away our omnipotent power to "teleport" and give us some immersion filled fast travel options. Or both. That'd be great too.


- a few side notes -
I have no inkling whatsoever to fast travel to location A, then watch my character walk there. That's not fast traveling. That's watching someone else play the game for me. No Thanks. I would enjoy being able to walk around aboard to moving ship though. It'd be a novelty though, but that isn't related to fast traveling so it's a discussion for another place.

An Indiana Jones map, ala Dragon Age, that shows your progress is fine I guess if enough people wanted it, doesn't fix my "dilema" (spelled dilemma here on Earth) with fast traveling in the least.

"Don't use fast travel" is not an intelligent answer to those with preferences like mine.

"Just Role Play It" isn't an acceptable answer either. The more I have to make up for a game's shortcomings in my head the less likely I am to enjoy it in the long run. I put many hours gladly into Oblivion, but now it's just another RPG that I'll never install again. I just reinstalled Morrowind though since all of this Skyrim info got me itching to play a TES game again. It's just my opinion, but it is shared by others.

And sadly, I think the entire point is moot. I will be shocked if it doesn't have the current version of Fast Travel as it's primary means of transportation. It's easy to implement, doesn't hurt anything but the immersion, and makes the game much more accessible to the types of gamers who want to play the game quickly and then put it away.

I'm trying to recall, and I might just be imagining it... didn't Daggerfall's FT system cause you to sometimes arrive in town low on life, to represent having fought some enemies along the way?

Seems like a fair compromise would be to add in some elements like that. You can travel cautiously, recklessly, camping out, staying at inns, etc. Chances to arrive with some damage/fatigue, or perhaps even a disease.

It's sort of a tangentially related thing, but some quests should have actual time limits. As Kodiak points out above, the feeling that things are static and that time doesn't matter is a major issue.

fast travel in oblivion was NOT optional. why do people still keep using that stupid, ignorant argument. the whole game was designed around it so you only had two options, walk everywhere or use the magical no cost, no risk teleport map. people that claim you had to walk around for hours in morrowind are just flat out lying. they are being deceitful and completely dishonest. or they absolutely svcked at gaming in which case ........tough luck. dont screw me over cause you cant play the game. with only a few exceptions of waaaaay out of the way places you were never more than a couple of minutes away from a boat of silt strider or a mages guild. in most cases you were less than 30 seconds away.

most other current rpgs dont have the stupid magic map. even dragon knight saga which has the ability to instantly travel to your battle tower even in the midst of battle (stupid design decision) makes you walk to all the other teleport spots around. two worlds 2, the witcher, dragon age etc. all of them either have specific spots you have to use to travel around or in the case of dragon age you have a travel map that shows you your progress and you have random encounters along the way.

let me emphasize this again for people that just cant comprehend something very basic. people that complain about oblivions fast travel are NOT complaining about all fast travel. we are complaining about something that has no cost or risk and is no different than using the movetoqt or coc console commands. other games have figured it out so why are people still defending oblivions crappy system.

lets turn this around. are people that want oblivions fast travel system lazy? is that it. is it just to much for them to spend a few extra seconds to get to that stable or that boat dock. is that to hard for you? are we supposed to make the game super easy just so people that svck at gaming are happy while screwing over people that want a fast travel system that makes sense in the game world. considering that some people claim they walked around for hours in morrowind, they are either lying or they svck at gaming. dont penalize everyone else just because of them.

alot of people complained about hitting with magic projectile attacks. JUST DONT USE THEM, THEY ARE OPTIONAL. just use on touch or make an archer or melee character. you dont have to use a mage. its OPTIONAL.

Settle down Squeekers.

People who like the fast travel don't "svck at gaming". Usually they just want to get to the action, possibly because they have families and jobs and can't devote their hour of gaming to walking from point A to point B.

It's important that they still have a usable fast travel system so that they gameplay isn't dragged down by long walks from objective to objective.

Think before you post.You may not like the options but they are there.

what hours? where? what long walks? you were never that far from any travel point in morrowind. even the super far away distant ones were withing ten minutes and those were only in very small number of quests. people spend alot more time walking around in other games today like the ones i mentioned. does the travel map in Dragon Age take a valuable family time. does having to use the portals in the Witcher cause people to give up time for work. somehow i doubt it. i will settle down when i stop seeing those stupid "just dont use it, its optional" responses. that doesnt even make sense. the whole game was designed around it there are no choices. you either walk everywhere or you use the magic map.........thats it. thats like telling someone you either have to take the bus or walk, but dont complain its a choice. how about having a bike or a car as well now that is having a choice. there is no reason that bethesda couldnt implement both systems. its easy. you plop down a few npcs, give them some dialogue. you then set up the scripts for where you are allowed to go, put a horse/cart or a boat next to them and tada. ingame fast travel. i bet it wouldnt take more than an hour or two for an experienced betheseda programmer to put them in.

overall im not super worried about it cause if the CK is similar or as easy to use as the GECK ill just whip out a basic one myself. i dont even care if i just use the same npc for all the areas. as long as i have to actually go to an ingame representation and pay some money. what i am upset about is this constant dismissive attitude from people who cant grasp that when you only have one fast travel option, you pretty much HAVE to use it, especially in a boring, repetitive game world like oblivion. most people dont want to walk everywhere we just want it to make sense.

I don't think anyone would mind choices, but I don't see how player skill factors into it at all.

If I remember right, there were times in MW you were quite a ways away from the travel point, unless you used levitate, mark or recall. I know I used to walk for quite some time to get to a travel location.

In any case, if you have an hour to play, you probably quite enjoy the fast travel system in place. It just has nothing to do with player skill.

Well there are two reasons why that still isn't IMO a good argument, first is that this was also seen in Morrowind, second is that FT doesn't dictate that you must do this, because it is a decision of the developers, and so the problem doesn't lie with OB FT itself but rather the developers. Ideally, the world and everything is made, and then FT is implemented, making sure that everything in the game is made without FT in mind.

Fast Travel not optional? Damn, I read tons of posts of people saying that they never used fast travel.
Something's wrong.

I guess nobody read this, because people are still repeating "don't want it don't use it".

You can post that over a hundred times, there will still be people going "IT'S OPTIONAL DON'T USE IT".

Is anybody actually arguing for the complete removal of fast travel? I think that argument is just a figment of the collective imagination here. Every fast travel complaint I've seen has been about alternative fast travel methods, or adding a toggle (which is dumb...). Every TES game has had fast travel, it won't be removed and nobody expects it to be removed.

My take on it is, I feel that they use the Oblivion style fast travel from the simple point that they gear the game towards the casual player, not the hardcoe player. But in truth that is what they probably should be doing, as I am certain that the casual players far outweigh the numbers of hardcoe players that play the game. Probably about 80% casual to 20% hardcoe, and truly casual players just want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, so they can finish the game as soon as possible and move on to other games. Now my only problem with putting other options in besides that form of fast travel, would it take away from other aspects of the game if they dedicated time to making other forms of fast travel available? I would rather have fleshed out cities and dungeons etc, than other options for fast travel.

Bethesda should just implement lore-friendly methods of fast travel like in morrowind, which would include boats, carriges etc. Also there should be a certain chance (albeit very low) of the travel being interrupted at a random point in its route for certain reason ie bandit or creature attacks (land or sea), breakdown, attempted kidnapping by the carrige rider etc.

I don't use fast travel, and it's pretty tedious. I miss a travel system I could *believe* in, something immersive, because I completely "drop out" when teleporting through time and space. Daggerfall got it much better (options where you pick the cost most suitable to you), and wouldn't affect the fast travelers much. Making the "it's optional" argument invalid. They should read a skill book on debating to avoid ending up looking like spoiled kids...

what dilema. use it or don't. *relaxed sigh* wow, that was simple right?.... no, what do you mean your being forced to use fast travel. *frustrated sigh*

I think that would be a cool idea, to have roving bands of randomly spawning bandits with lots of loot would be awesome. It would fit in to since the bandits would be nomadic, so you could theoretically run into them anywhere.

MW had mark and recall, wasn't modded in.

As far as fast travel, don't see it as a predicament. It's a tool available to the player, and if the player chooses to use it, or not, fine.
Saying fast travel is a cheat to avoid conflict is like saying using magic or bows to fight from a bit of a distance is cheating. Or magically/chemicallyhealing yourself from near death injuries is cheating.
Having competed repeatedly on my high school forensics team, I am pretty sure I know how to debate.
I can't remember situations in a TES game where fast travel was the only means of getting from point to point in a quest.
I do remember TES games where the map would not open up if you relied on fast travel as your main means of getting round.

Caves and tombs already have loot in them. That is why I explore the world. There is no need for random treasure boxes lying around, although there sure are a few lying around in the other games but those are completely different reasons.

I'm in the morrowind style camp. I loved walking around red mountain and getting lost and having to look at my map again and start over on my little trek.

I'd like a silt strider type system to get around faster without having to fast travel everywhere.

I agree with you and I'd be very surprised if they didn't include this alternative in Skyrim. It makes sense, it's simple, many people want it and it doesn't affect in any way the other option (fast travel). Come on devs, you can do this.

Well perhaps modders will have other FT options out within the first few weeks of play

Personally I would like to see quests that unlock acient teleport chambers scattered around the country side. You still have exploration but a way to get around a but quicker.

Alexandur, I will join you in your holy quest. I'll simply quote that line now whenever I see one of those stupid posts. It's easy and might just be short enough that at least a few of those guys will read and comprehend it.


You mean like they had in Morrowind?

Oh, and Mamagato:
This house believes you didn't read the actual arguments of the other side.

And all this could be avoided if you couldn't fast travel from one part of the map to the other to complete quests 24/7. Instead, sleeping should pay a bigger part of the game, enabling you to fast travel from point a to point b, but sleeping in point b wouldn't be enough, sleeping would simply trigger a slow regeneration rate where the fast travel meter would "recharge". So, travel from A to B, sleeping over at B, taking the carriage back to point A and then being able to fast travel back to B (or C, D, etc). It's IMO a good way to blend both the fast travel and carriage option together while at the same time giving sleeping more of a purpose in the game.

At the same time we could add more benefits of using the travel options, for example the possible "hardcoe/survival"-mode, we would get rested at the travel service and would make us less thirsty and hungry, compared to fast travelling, where our character is supposed to walk by himself, making him tired, hungry and thirsty.
The fast travel services would in general be faster at the destination than you would get when fast travelling there too.

Exploring should be encouraged by the game, finding ancient tombs at the depth of a dungeon should bring more reward/benefit that in morrowind for example, all I found was a flesh-rot disease and a few scrolls worth 100 each, unfun..