After some interesting discussion in the "Why Oblivion fast travel svcks" thread (a.k.a., the most misleadingly named thread on the forum) I'm curious about doing a poll that might clear up a few common misconceptions. I think certain people on these forums haven't been as successful at representing themselves as what they actually believe about fast travel as they could have. This, hopefully, is a chance to show everyone that both sides of the "fast travel debate" don't actually disagree on anything. We shall resolve this debate through SCIENCE!

Please choose the answer that fits best. If you don't think any of the answers fit, you are outside the target of this survey.

This is not a thread for discussing the merits of any particular kind of fast travel. We have no shortage of those. Rather, this thread is for questioning whether we need to argue about fast travel at all.

Okay this would be the third fast-travel thread up, but wait this one has a poll.

This one's not about fast travel so much as it about the fast travel debate (and why it is silly).

The point I'm trying to prove here is that there's an obvious answer - just have both.

I prefer Oblivion style without all the cities unlocked at the beginning.

I don't want to get into a huge argument or anything, but I do wanna say that I think people hating on the Oblivion fast travel is ridiculous. Yes, I prefer Morrowind's, but I didn't once feel like Oblivion's fast travel ruined immersion. Maybe that's 'cuz I didn't use it too much, just when I had to get to some city on the other side of Cyrodiil.

Frankly, Oblivion's fast travel is better than Morrowind's because it allows for more options of what you will do with said fast travel. You could use it all the time or not at all or somewhere in between where you put limitations on yourself when you will use it such as only using it when your in a town to go to another town or only using it when you need to travel to the other side of the province for this really engaging quest and you can't wait to find out what happens next.

However, I have put up a compromise. Keep Oblivion fast travel but make a travel network that is only available at certain points in the day to reflect the fact they have to usher other people across the province. A static travel network is not acceptable in TES anymore, thus is why it must only be available at certain times during the day or else it doesn't fit in the living world which now embodies TES and makes it the greatest RPG series of all time. That's my compromise for those that don't wish to RP and limit Oblivion's fast travel to only being used in towns to travel to other towns. However, I really don't think having two travel systems will make it in the original copy and the caravan version would be more along the lines of an expansion.

both should be the obvious choice for anyone. i play first person view exclusively but i certianly want the third person experience to be as good as possible for those people who do use it. i hate oblivions system but if they had both of them i dont see why you couldnt keep the map travel in the game for those that prefer it.

I had no problem with Oblivion's fast travel other than the cities being unlocked at the beginning. I loved riding across the world, but sometimes I just wanted to get somewhere quickly. Takes away frustration in my opinion.

As long has humanity colonizes Mars within my lifetime i dont care if skyrim has oblivion or morrowind fast travel systems; i would prefer both then everyone is happy .

I'd take Morrowind's over Oblivions in a heartbeat. I remember planning for each journey I took out in the wilderness, and the uncertainty that came with in. I would do anything to get that feeling back.

thats sounds like how the might and magic games did it. which i had no issue with. if i got into town to late i went and stayed at the inn. it also makes sense since obviously its more dangerous and slower to travel at night anyways so why would some schmuck making a few septims risk his life for that.

Yes it does wonders for role playing.

I'm curious why so many people are voting for only one system or the other instead of both.

me too. im a huge [censored] when it comes to the issue of oblivion style fast travel but i dont want the option removed just because i dont like it. EVERYONE should be picking both available.................its a no brainer. obviously if you could only have on or the other i would prefer something more in line with STALKER or dragon age origins but there is no reason they couldnt do both.

The problem is, very few people "want" both. Most people want one or the other. BUT, everyone can agree that they would rather see both than see only the one they dislike.

That's how I feel. If I was given intradiegetic fast travel (Morrowind style) I would never use extradiegetic fast travel (Oblivion style) BUT I understand there are some people who feel the opposite way. And there's no reason the two systems can't exist side by side.

However, the best compromise would be a Daggerfall style system, where "fast travel" is not fast in game terms (unless you take a service system) meaning that "auto traveling" is generally slower than even physical walking. Also, you are charged a certain amount of gold for that travel, to cover expenses such as sleeping at inns, healing potions, weapon and armor repair that would normally happen over the course of travel. This removes the "Oblivion style" of fast travel outside of the vaccum that it existed in which made fast travel essentially teleportation at the speed of walking.

I think that the reason you could travel to all the cities right away, was so that it would be easier to explore by having starting points scattered around the province, instead of having to traverse all over the place right away.

Call me old fashioned, but I thought the Morrowind style was the most immersive. Fast travel would get you near your destination, but you had to hoof it the rest of the way. You also had to potentially use several different styles of fast travel, depending on where you were going - making travel interesting. Even with MW style fast travel, you could easily miss some really cool stuff - For example, I only recently found a sunken shipwreck near Seyda Neen because I always took the strider to Vivec.

Just dropping in a few feet from your destination seems a bit lame, even if you do have to walk the first time. I can see going harbor to harbor, or guild to guild (for mages), but anything else just seems dumb IMO.

Once again, I need to ask. Have you actually played Oblivion? This isn't how fast travel worked at all in Oblivion. You could NOT fast travel to your destination before you already found it, so there was no exploration loss at all and you couldn't just fast travel and appear two feet from your destination unless you ran around the entire province and discovered every POI, in which case you deserve to be able to fast travel there.

I think any travel system is much more immersive than Oblivion's. Fallout (1, 2, and tactics mind you), Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Morrowind, Wasteland, you name it. The Oblivion fast travel is horribly anticlimatic as it consist of only "Hey let's go here *click* I'm there!". No transition, no random encounters, you just click... and you're there. How fun is that? How immersive is that? Simple. It isn't. Because it's none-existent.

Edit: I'm not participating in the poll because there is no "neither" choice.

I enjoy immersive ways of traveling by boat, guild guide, silt strider, your own magic, walking/running, riding horses, or whatever. But fast travel is convenient when necessary. So having both would be nice.

My opinion hasn't much changed from the other topic - and that is - Fast Travel is there for all round convieniece .

I vote yes on this one!

Morrowind style was my favorite. I found it much more immersive and it adds a lot more realism to the world.

I can control my temptation easily. In fact, when actually playing the games, I'll "walk", not run, to my destination, since it's immersion-breaking for me to run the whole time as that is something I would never do in real life. But then if I'm just in a hurry, I'd like to be able to fast travel there. In Morrowind I have to open the console and COC myself there. So yes, both Morrowind and Oblivion style fast travel should be in the game. Morrowind's fast travel makes it much more immersive as far as role playing. Oblivion makes it more convenient in case you're in a hurry.

Why not add a Daggerfall option? That was the best way to handle fast travel.