how so? if you are on the main road walking, how are you less likely to be robbed by some bandits than if you were in a 4 horse carriage? they would need to set up a road block to stop a carriage, and if they had good AI, they would see you walking up to the roadblock too.

Also, the carriage could have guards... we don't know everything about them yet.

A lone person is much more likely to go unnoticed for longer, thus may be able to perceive the danger. In a carriage you'd create a lot of noise alerting any potential ambushers of your arrival. And you'd be unable to hear anything going on ahead of you. Also, fast travel doesn't necessarily dictate that you must walk along the road, while fast travel using carriages would.

And having armed escorts seems like it would be more like to attract bold bandits. No reason to have armed guards unless there was some good loot for the taking.

I agree with this. it would be cool to see some kind of social class system that as your reputation increases, you unlock certain random encounters that only happen to the leader of the mages guild, or something to that effect. But i definately agree with the last sentence: "Furthermore the probability of encounters should lower as your rank increases because no bandit in their right mind would decide to pick a brawl with someone who just so happens to be the leader of every guild and also wearing the champion of skyrim armour."
This makes complete sense, and would add a cool effect to gameplay, possibly seeing a bandit attempt to come up and attack to just for them to find out youre the level 50 champion and them flee in terror :]

Well, the carriage is making more noise, but also going much, much faster, being almost impossible to stop on-foot. Unless the Bandits are setting up a whole bunch of very effective roadblocks, it would be harder to get the carriage IMO.

And when you map travel, you aren't necessarily on the main roads, your right. but when i'm walking through a forest or something in OB, i feel like i get ambushed by more random enemies than if i stay on the road. The road had more Bandits that tried to rob me though, but the forest had more enemies total IMO. having the road be safer, and the off-road be more dangerous is kind of a common dynamic in RPGs too.

Yep, because using a rope rigged across the road to trip, and possibly break the legs of the horses, would be a much too complicated way of stopping the carriage. :rolleyes:

Encounters only for carriage that is in real time, that would be cool if your riding and then ambushed or somthing

no need for the constantly sarcastic tone dude, it's kinda irritating.

i never said complicated, i said effective. during the night that rope trick might work, but during the day it would be all too easy to see.

The last one was the only sarcastic remark I made. You shouldn't read it into everything you don't like. And so what if they see the rope. They stop, to clear it. The rope still did it's job of stopping the carriage.

And making it seem like it was difficult to set up an effective way of blocking the road was imply it was complicated.

I voted for all 3 types of random encounters on map-travel only because there has to be a trade off between map-travel and carriages. Carriages you have to pay but you get a safe journey or map-travel at your own risk. Sounds much more interesting this way. For both of them I would like it to be Indiana Jones Style where you see your progress on the map rather than a loading screen and ta-daaaa you are in a different spot. I think one of the main problems with fast travel is it needs a sense of actually travelling.

PS: The Red Dead style of carriage travel does sound interesting but very time consuming (I know you can skip it) so skipping it could start the Indiana Jones map style.

oh sorry, i was thinking about a different thread i saw you're posts in.

They see the rope, they know there is something going on, and they go around if possible, if not they'd probably turn around and take a different route. They wouldn't run into a bunch of bandits.



i never said it was difficult to set up an effective roadblock, i just said it was unlikely that the bandits would set up a whole bunch of effective roadblocks, to the point where it would be easier to ambush carriages than foot-travelers.

Right, that's what you were doing.

It's not so easy to turn a carriage around, or take one off the road. Which goes back to the mission being accomplished and it is attackable.

I guess I'll just leave you to wanting magic carriages, since you'll defend them endlessly.

yeah maybe it wasn't the sarcastic tone i was picking up... maybe it was the douch-bag tone.

but alright, i think i was being perfectly logical, but you can try to reduce my argument to a blind obsession with "magic carriages".

Right, everyone who points out gaping holes in your logic is a [censored] bag. Got it.

Generally speaking the roads should be safer than the Wilderness depending on who's travelling. If it's some ranger type character then they should be safe in the wilderness.
The roads are an obvious target for bandits, however they are, if Skyrim is anything like Oblivion, patrolled. (Which is an obvious investment for a settlement to make, to support trade and the happiness of the people).

I would like all 3 encounters. But, only if they happen rarely, very rarely. Also, when attacked, I would like there to also be a chance that a guard would come and help. Not because I would necessarily need the help, but because that makes sense.

The encounters would have to be very rare. If every few trips your carriage driver gets pierced and/or killed it would break immersion for me, because I would be wondering where all these drivers come from, and why any are left.

yeah alright, whatever man.

Oh, I understand, you're still upset about me pointing out your ignorance in the boat thread. Lol

I would like encounters like Red Dead Redemption on the Carriges, but I also want random encounters like Fallout 1 when fast travelling.

They seemed to have gone to RDR quite a bit for transportation inspiration, so one can hope.

...be waylaid because he's "lone" - i.e, an easy/safe target.

:shrug:

Hehehe, waylaid...

And a carriage presents a much more profitable target. Having an extra person in the form of coachman isn't gonna be much of a deterrent to a gang of thieves. And they're not gonna be peering into the carriage while it enters the ambush point and be like "Look, it's Mr. Dragonborn!"

Carriages move faster and are probably more well-protected, so they should have less hostile encounters. Fast-Travel on foot should have more hostile encounters, from wolves, bandits, monsters, etc. Both should have equal encounters of other types. Carriages should use RDR-style travelling.

http://i56.tinypic.com/5wwab7.jpg

Edit: The Riften lake looks like it might not have a river that connects to it.

Only if I'm waylaid by a band of Orcs shouting "Spare no one!" :celebration:

In the end, for me, it all comes down to gameplay issues.


I'm in favor of random encounters when Fast Traveling, because it's something to quiet down the "Booo! Magic Map!" crew - obviously, it's not magic, and it's balanced, because you can be interrupted.

And, given that, there should be no encounters on the carriage, because otherwise why would you pay gold when you could just Fast Travel for free? There's got to be some sort of incentive to use the system. (other than "I like to RP that I need a carriage to travel").