Let me preface this...

Like some of you, I was ecstatic about the new Survival mode. I was very supportive and rather argumentative in favor of why some of these changes are needed, sleep to save and no fast travel, in particular..although this thread is only directed toward the latter. Anything that would add some difficulty or more micro-management to a relatively over-simplified RPG pleased me, so it sounded great...in theory. With that, the past two weeks, I started a new character and set out with the intention to try out some of these restrictions in advance only to get a feel for them and how it might possibly change the game. After playing for about 40 hours so far on this character, this is the problem I want to address...

Fast travel is a system of travel that the developers incorporate into the game design from the very beginning of development. As soon as they know that fast travel is going to be a part of the game, it is already too late, because the game will become designed around that particular system of travel as they know players will use it as much as necessary. As per that intent, all the quest givers in the game become aware of this system and why a lot of the times they send the player off to a far away area on the map for some menial task (like it's just around the corner) or to kill some raiders that are, somehow, being an annoyance to a settlement way over on this side.

In Skyrim, this would have been at least a little more feasible and entertaining, as there were carriages in the game that could transport people between the various holds, not to mention player-controlled horse travel, which there is neither of in Fallout 4 (There are Vertibird taxis, yes, but their use is severely limited in comparison). But, it's more than just being able to save time traveling from place to place. If the game was designed without fast travel in mind, the designers could stop and think a little bit more about the places and quests in-between, make them a little more memorable and less repetitive while tying them together in order for the players to further believe that this is a seamless, working world and to be able to forget that there was ever a want, much less a need, for fast travel -- That is the most important part -- Make the players forget about wanting to just get to the destination as soon as possible, make the journey worthwhile and make the world itself worth walking through.

As it stands, this removal just adds a tedious and tiresome process to playing the game with all the back and forth traveling when the quests and world are still built upon a fast travel foundation. I understand what they are trying to do, and I'm in favor of that, but it has to start from the beginning of the development process, they can't just take it away after building the game around it then expect it to work as if it was intended all along.

Personally, I've never liked fast travel in most games and don't ever use it right away, but it's too hard not to when games that have it all but demand the players to use it. I'm kinda surprised I feel this way after strongly believing it could work.

Well put. I, for one, agree completely.

I never last long when I try a no-fast-travel playthrough. I will either get loaded down with loot I want to drop off and then return to hunting, or I will need to run to this Settlement to defend it, or as OP notes, a settler will ask me to fight these raiders "very close by" who are actually twenty miles away.

A lot of the problem with Fast Travel could be fixed by simply making the Radiant quests more intelligent --- have the AI look for nearby threat-areas and only use those. So a settler in Hangman's Alley might tell you to go to Back Street Apparel to fight some thugs, and that makes sense, since it is close by. But a Settler in Sanctuary will not send you there. They might send you to the Wicked Shipping warehouse which isn't ~too~ far away, for example.

I use Fast Travel a lot. I have heard, though, that walking is faster as far as game time goes..

And yes, intelligent quests that choose nearby locations.

Totally. I had the people Spectacle Island ask me to deal with the ghouls at Four Leaf Fishpacking on the weekend. Ghouls can swim now??? LOL!

I agree with you. The main problem with no fast for me is just plain boredom! It is really fun at first, but after a while it just gets tedious. You get in the habit of using certain routes to get to certain areas of the map. But those routes are empty because you already killed everyone there. So it is just boring running. Even worse if you use Aqua boy and jump in the water. Nothing to do there.


They need to establish some fast travel points around the commonwealth. If there were say 10 or so locations you could fast travel between.

2x sprinting legs and custom fitted you'll be flying

A matter of self- discipline. You can walk everywhere if you really want to, even if the journey is uninteresting. Now, once you get into the Institute, you could use fast travel and act like it is happening through teleportation.

I feel like Fallout 4 has considerably more "go talk to this person, then go back here, then go back to this person again" than previous games and those don't necessarily end up being closeby. I've been starting to ween myself off but I still won't say no if it's super far and I don't feel like walking

It could be argued that the entirety of Survival mode is added tedium. So why is Fast Travel unique in this?

/Devil'sAdvocate

It won't affect me at all, as I don't use fast travel. However I'm all for options.. Fast travel does not contribute to the difficulty of the game, and should therefore not be tied to a difficulty setting.

You mean jet fuel. But all that does is cut down on the time it takes. i tried that, still gets boring running the same route over and over

Once you get to the institute, relay there and then to where ever you please. Till then, take different routes so enemies are around while traveling.

Though I suppose it remains to be seen if this mode of fast travel will also be removed from Survival -- or, more likely, restricted entirely to moving in and out of the Institute.

good point, once you have the institute you can just nerf the no fast travel system, right... (well it just takes 2 screen loads which is hell a tedious but better than !walking! through the same territory over and over.

hmmm, I thought in general that the radiant quests are fairly close to the source (with the obvious exception of backstreet apparel, which I think is meant to get the SS into town), but I've never not fast-traveled so apparently they must not be close enough

I agree with the OP. I will wait for the inevitable mod to enable FT in the new Survival before playing it, as I am excited about the other features.

All true.

Though the problem is that there are 2 reasons to avoid fast travel. And when I say these are reasons I don't mean that they necessarily go together. Just that they are reasons that different people have given in the past.

1) Role-play.

2) Exploration.

The role-play side is where I agree with you on this one. If that's how you want to play, then it works. But on the exploration side, any fast travel defeats the purpose.

By Exploration, what I mean is that there is a ton of work that went into designing the game world. And in some ways, the only way you can see it is by ignoring fast travel and walking everywhere. So for that purpose, any teleportation negates that goal. I'm not throwing out a solution here, just pointing out the issue.

yeah, they could make it so you can only get to the institute from the place where you set up the initial teleportation device....

I personally found it very disappointing that everyone didn't freak the freak out the first time I popped into somewhere with the teleporter. It should be a BIG DEAL.

Except that that thing is a burnt wreck after it's first use...

I do not use fast travel unless there is a bug or glitch in any Bethesda game. I usually Walk as well since I find it relaxing in Bethesda's games and I do not like rushing these games. I have no problem having the feature in the game for those that want it.

well, if Beth decides the new Survival will have toggles for hunger, sleep, FT, etc.. then just customize to how you like

I used the veribird as a replacement for fast travelling on my first playthrough, its was more satisfying than a loading screen.

See...I disagree. I feel like the Commonwealth was built for no fast travel in case Bethesda wanted to do this with Survival mode.

Ever noticed how you find random armor benches, weapon bunches, power armor stations, chemistry and cooking stations just awkwardly out and about for no particular reason at all?

Exactly! I feel like in survival mode, you must survive and in doing so...make the commonwealth your base!

I think you can repair it (obviously you wouldn't want to have to do that every time, though)

or they could just make it not burn up on first play through (and repairable for save games).