If map-point-click traveling is simulating walking, then it should be open for any city. It is not a real solution. Frankly if I was a point-click fast travel user, I would be sad. As an alternate travel options advocate, am I supposed to be happy about this? I am not. No one wins. This is actually the worse thing that could happen. Forced exploration. We need real solutions.

Oblivion's very much is. Sure, time goes forward after you reach the destination (not before or during), but nothing in the world affects you between the start and end of the "journey". The character does not exist in between the two points. It really isn't very different from teleporting then hitting the wait button. If you contend otherwise, then how is it different?

That said, I don't particularly care for the way Morrowind did it, either. It was better presented, but the mechanics were still the same underneath even though you had to talk to specific people to activate it. I actually think the way Oblivion did it was closer to the "ideal", but it needs some changes:
1) Risk. Random encounters that you can't avoid. Not all attempts at fast travel need to result in a random encounter, but the likelihood of an encounter should depend on how dangerous a given area is (deep forests being more likely for encounters than main roads, for example). Your stealth and visibility (light/chameleon effects) can also play a role. When you get such an encounter, the enemy automatically enters combat.
2) Proper simulation. Your character doesn't fly in a straight line in an instant. You could have the option of traveling on roads (safer, longer travel time), or through wilderness (dangerous, shorter travel time), but a proper path must be simulated. No auto-healing, and spell/potion effects that run out must happen at the proper point in the journey, not at the end (eg, no using a 1 second invisibility to be invisible for the entire trip).
3) Interruption. You're not a ghost. Any persistent enemies, or NPCs trying to interact with you, that you meet on your journey should automatically interrupt your travel as appropriate. If vampirism is in, then you should be interrupted if traveling when daybreak hits and you start taking sun damage. If lycanthropy is in, then your travel is interrupted on the appropriate nights when you change.

Ultimately, fast travel should not cause drastically different results than if you had travelled the same route manually.

I personally don't like Oblivions fast travel system and loved having epic journeys across the landscapes in Morrowind (or using a pretty good jump spell with my mage), but I see why it was implemented and probably why it won't be removed. However, that doesn't mean it can't be improved.

First, both systems should be added (Oblivion and Morrowind), but not just to keep everyone happy.
Paying someone to get you there safely is believable and I think safely is the key point.
The other option was walking there yourself, with all the advantages and disadvantages that it provided.
The problem I find with Oblivion's fast travel is there are no real disadvantages. Yes you miss out finding little caverns and towers etc. but the likely hood is you'll teleport somewhere near and then just find it while walking to somewhere you havent found yet. I feel that there are no disadvantages and as for finding rare artifacts (sorry for the generalisation) people who fast travel would be more likely to look online for the locations anyway as they like playing the game not experiencing it as a truly immersive experience and challenge (don't take this personally, this is just how I feel, apologies to those who don't do this xD ).

Now I think the way of improving Oblivion's system is to give it disadvantages. Real ones that make sense. These are just suggestions that I've managed to come up with, but I'm sure there are more and possibly better ones.
Firstly, I see this as the 'less safe' option. On Oblivion you somehow appear after travelling perfectly refreshed and ready to fight. I feel the journey should be difficult and the game should show this. You could lose health (from battles etc.) and definitely wear your armour down (if you wear any) and your fatigue. When you reach your location you won't be fully healed and rested, you would arrive there on the last leg of your journey after already resting somewhere probably far away. This would mean you would find yourself vulnerable after a long journey. If it is to a cave, tower etc. you would find yourself in a pickle if there were enemies waiting for you there, resulting in you wasting potions or having to run and hide. If you arrive in a town, it means you would most likely want to find an inn to rest in (I'm hoping they make these more necessary instead of waiting or resting on the floor outside - beds give you better sleep! ^-^ ).
But obviously this wouldn't be too much of a problem on short journeys.

Another idea though, but probably difficult to implement, is the chance of random enemy encounters on the way there. So your travelling stops mid way as your way (or your resting mid way) is interrupted by an animal or group of bandits. Defeating them would result in the fast travelling to continue, the downfall being you can't loot everyone as you chose to fast travel instead of walking. If you run away or hide, it could also continue to fast travel you away from them - again without being able to loot them.


If they don't happen to improve the travelling system somehow, this is the first kind of mod I'm going to look for to improve skyrim. Or make one myself ^-^

"So much easier to get around these days. Not like the old days. Too much walking. Of course, nothing stops M'aiq from walking when he wants."

Nuff' said.

Did you even read anybodys posts? They don't want oblivions fast travel taken away. They want more than one way to fast travel.

Not aimed at you specifically: does anyone bother to read anymore. Several people here seem to be missing the point that the op DOES NOT WANT OBLIVION FAST TRAVEL TAKEN AWAY. Before you guys start making fools of yourself, read everything.

No it isn't. This is just how the game mechanics work, outside the gameworld, if your gonna argue based on the mechanics, than Morrowinds traveling services are also teleportation, because nothing in the world effects you between start and end of the "jouney". In game, it is not teleportation, so people need to stop insisting it is.



I agree, random encounters would be wonderful.



No argument from me here, Oblivion is definitely not the ideal, but as you say, putting the morrowind system into it is just a gimmicky skin deep alternative, it doesn't solve the problem of you being cut off from the world the minute you Fast Travel.

Why can't they just make you pay for fast travel, and you can only do it in between cities? That'll simulate that you are paying for travel services.

Morrowind M'aiq should have said:

"Why would M'aiq want to go everywhere so easy? If M'aiq wanted to do that, M'aiq wouldn't be fishing on this island. Travel is a journey for M'aiq, and if one decides to stay at a place, who knows what fish one might catch. Of course, nothing stops M'aiq from easily selling the fish in town when he wants to. He simply has to teleport or swim... or fly. One can always fly, but beware of the dragons."

Fast Travel will be in from now on because it allows reviewers to see more of the game quickly, giving it a higher score.

This increases sales.

And in Skyrim he should say;

"M'aiq thinks some people are too focused on fantasy. They should find a better way to spend their time."

Huh?
That would be kinda weird, seeing TES is a fantasy game?
Don't really see your point

I really don't understand why something so optional is an issue.

Seriously explain this to me.

Because it takes away the option of travel services like there were in Morrowind.

Because we don't like it.
We prefer something better as an alternative or as a replacement. And for the actual reasons why we do prefer that, read the thread.

M'aiq likes to pretend the problem has only two imaginable solutions: Walking or teleportation. People untouched by Sheogorath would call this a false dichotomy.

I will allow myself to quote my own post from the previous thread as I still feel it is relevant to the subject and, as it was posted shortly before the lock, received very little feedback

as i already said in the last thread, definitly we should find the places where we wish to travel, and those places should be only cities, there is no need for traveling services since we are not going to waster our money in it, and definitly the landscape as we saw is not going to be any boring, even tough i could see some beaulty on oblivion landscape, looked like a regular forest, full of amazing sets and places.. but even with that, we need more unique giant dungeons covering alot of the landmass, togheter with the trees and mountains, snow, rocks,, yea you got it, i will mostly walk to explore since is one of the funniest things to do in any elder scroll games, the only thing that would kill all thjat is limitations in land scape, invisible walls, and "do the main quest till you unlock the next landscape" thing, but definitly none of these things will be in our game, its obvious...

Haha, I just think it would great for them to mock all the people who love their "immersion". Just like they did with the cross bows, and companions and whatever else people asked for in Oblivion.
I used the word fantasy instead of immersion because they probably wouldn't have M'aiq say that, since his jokes are a bit more subtle. ^_^

Well, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/immerse is one of the things that has made TES so great compared to other RPGs.
There's a thought behind everything. It's very "deep".
If M'aiq said that, it would be like he said "Don't play TES"

The more time a player spends in menus the more gameplay will suffer, fast travel in OB felt like a developer debug tool. BORING.

For me, it would be a bit like; "Haha, you guys didn't get all of your teleporters/boats, M'aiq thinks you should go svck on it."
I can sort of see why you would want different travel options. But for me, I just want to enjoy the game for what it is, and not worry about how realistic the game world is. And I think that how it is for most people, and Bethesda has to appeal to the largest amount of their customers.

For [censored] sake... if you want to explore a little, don't travel to the closest point to where you want to go. Why is that so hard? Are you unable to controll yourself?

Actually, I think it's not only about realism.
It's also about seeing the environments more, having to travel more.

But the biggest fault about OB's fast travel for me is that there is no explanation. If there was some more to than just click + time passes, I'd be a bit more for it.
Something that actually shows that you're actually traveling. That's the biggest reason why I dislike OB's fast travel.

Red Dead Redemption had both travel services and "fast travel" in the game. So it would please everyone. And there you actually got to see yourself traveling too, for the sake of scenery (but with being able to skip the scenery and just end up at the destination). This is pretty much as "ultimate" and "whole-covering" as it can get, I'd say.
Would hope for Bethesda to do something similar in Skyrim.

Which is precisely what I said. There is no "fast travel" in Oblivion's game world, because it is entirely a meta-game ability. It only exists through its mecahnics, so if the mechanics are bad, it is bad.

No real argument here, but it still not teleportation -> in game, that is the only objection I have to it. As you have said, fast travel doesn't exist inside the reality of the gameworld.

It might function "like" teleportation to the player, but the character experiences everything real time, so when the OP demands explanation lorewise (ergo in the gameworld), he is misunderstanding what OB FT is a simulation of, further than that even, he is misunderstanding what Fast Travel, as a mechanic, actually is (or isn't).