I honestly don't know why it does. The El Rey Motel has one, and it is literally right beside it. A 10 second walk. If Camp McCarran has one, why wouldn't it put you INSIDE McCarran? What was the reasoning behind this??? :brokencomputer:

That's actually... a good question. :stare:

Edit:

I always wondered why Old Mormon Fort, Kings place, Van Graff's, and Atomic Wrangler didn't have their own (or at least a Kings one) map marker. Kind of weird way they did it.

Better question, why does the El Ray have one? I can see Camp McCarran having one since its the biggest military base in the Mojave but a crappy little hotel within spitting distance?

When you fast travel to El Rey, it brings you to the El Rey. When you fast travel to Mc Carran, it doesn't bring you to McCarran, it puts you outside of McCarran. And if it puts you outside McCarran, you may as well go to the El Rey.

How about this one: why in hell does Jimmy's Well (wild wasteland) have a fast travel marker when it is right in front of Fields Shack?

That is a very good point. Never thought of that!

It's practically one marker

I'm thinking it shows that Obsidian aren't too familiar with this open world format.

Some areas in the game are 'separate' from the rest of the gameworld- they are a separate instance, basically. The Strip, Camp McCarren, Legion Fort. I guess the DLC zones fit in this category too. You can't enter or exit them from any point other than the entrance at their fast travel markers. Well, you can come and go from McCarren via the monorail, but that's an exception, and it still isn't like just walking in or out on foot without having to 'zone in', like you can at most other map locations in the game. So apparently, in these separate instanced areas, you can't put other fast travel markers inside of them. Whether that's due to the game engine, or just a decision made by the devs not to put any inside them, I don't know.

Well to be fair most big places like that do take you right outside the doorway instead of inside the actual complex itself.

And I guess maybe the reason the kings place doesn't have a fast travel point is because its so close to the north gate to the strip? One that I just thought of is Miguels pawn show, why would you have a fast travel point for it when it'd basically just a obscure shop with no real quests attached to it? Hell its just right inside the Westside entrance anyway.

Because Obsidian failed to implement fast travel markers in a practical manner.
Another example, why the hell does Coyote Tail Ridge need to have a map marker?
I get that it has something to do with Boone but it has absolutely nothing around it, there's a bush of that honey mequite crap to the west around 5 meters from it, but that's it.
There's no reason to have a map marker for it.

All these crap map markers made exploring completely unrewarding.

Why the hell does the Powder Ganger camps need to have map markers?
Why the hell does Lone Wolf Radio need a map marker? If it hadn't had one then it'd have been an actual reward to find the place and to find a skill book no less.
Why the hell does Primm Pass need a map marker? If it hadn't had one then the Deathclaw could have been removed and a shortcut could be rewarded to the players that actually explore.

Exploration in New Vegas svcked, far too many map markers, I didn't explore with my eyes on the landscape, I explored by looking at that damn compass, which I can't remove in the options menu.
And the ones that place you "outside" of places? Even more horrible.
The reason I don't use the Lucky 38 as a house is because I refuse to go through 3 loading screens.

Oh how I wish I had had a mod to remove around 80% of the map markers during my first playthrough.
Might have made exploring places and finding great loot fun.

There's certainly a lot of map markers that don't need to be there after the fact, like shacks and the aforementioned PG camps that you're likely never to return to - eg, there's too many really.

But I think some of them are the way they are because of:

-- quest issues: if you could FT to certain spots at certain times (ie, always), it might break npc convo triggers in some weird way (or make you able to miss/avoid something important until it's too late, maybe)
-- consideration that if you're hated by a faction, that a FT marker doesn't drop you right into the middle of a nest of that faction

Other than that...I think there's so many mostly for player choice.
But really, besides the too-many-loading screens in a few spots (which I don't like either, who does), I don't see why having oodles of FT markers is a bad thing. One can use them, or one can not use them and walk. They don't show up until you find the place the first time, unless you take that one Perk, so I don't see the 'no reward to exploring' issue, at least in regards to markers?

The problem with too many map markers are that the wasteland has nothing new in it. Every time there is something of interest there is a map marker holding your hand on the way there.
Too many map markers means too many locations are being advertised, too many locations being advertised means there is little to be surprised about.
Of course, I could try to "not look at the compass", but why should I? And besides, it's right there, I can't "not" look at it, it's in my face all the time.
It's not like "Oh I don't want any fast travel", cause that's doable, just don't use the fast travel markers (Though an option in the menu to turn them off would be pleasant.).
It ain't optional, using the dispenser from DM to spam weapon repair kits is optional (Though it should STILL be patched), using fast travel is optional, this thing I have no choice but to look at.
And every time I accidentally look down at that Brucedamn thing I can see if there is a hollow triangle and what direction it's in.
Takes the fun out of exploring cause as soon as you get within a certain distance those hollow triangles pop up to lead you the way.

So I think that Obsidian did far too much handholding with this thing.
They might as well have had big neon signs at all locations. :rolleyes:

Imagine if some of the caves didn't have map markers?
It'd actually be exciting to find one of them, "Wait, what's this? A cave? Hm, well I'm glad I kept my eyes peeled else I wouldn't had found this."
The game would actually be rewarding you cause you took the liberty of using your own eyes and mind to explore the wastes.

Obsidian ruined that for me.
Maybe others like to have every remotely interesting location pointed out to them once they reach a certain distance but I don't.

I'm not saying that only towns should have map markers, but the game really could have had 50% of them cut.

Oh, I understand. From day one I never paid attention to the GUI compass outside of the "red dots", and then I started dimming the GUI a ton on top of that, so it was always a surprise to me when I "found" a place the first time. Is that what all those triangles are for...yes I'm that unobservant, lol.

That would definitely make it a lot less exploratory if one does use/notice those things on the compass.

I'm like that with all games that have compasses...never pay attention/get tunnel vision I guess. Don't like to "look down" to the corner of the screen...typically the only reason I notice the red dots at all is because the color contrast or a large grouping catches the corner of my eye sometimes. :biggrin:

Map markers should only pop up once you heard of a certain area..(like do you know the way to primm, yes you take....) and then you get a marker (on your compass and on the map) + some areas won't be never heard of so you have to go out and explore them (cave, camp, etc.) to get the marker without that there is any indication on your compass.

The answer is quite simple. The map markers are there so Obsidian can actually brag about how many Fast Tract locations are there. I know this was one of the things they boasted about, more places to fast travel to than Fallout 3 or more places to visit than FO3.