Fast travel? Why yes, I think I shall!
With respect to my colleague Shank, I am going to have to disagree with his recent post about how fast travel is bad for Skyrim, and Elder Scrolls games in general. In fact, I’m not sure I could live without it.
First of all, let me begin with the point he made that I agree with.
The Map
It really does bother me, that when looking at your map for the first time in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you can just jump to any of the nine major cities in Cyrodiil. For a game based on exploration and taking your breath away with its huge-ness, this seems like a big “oops” by Bethesda. Fortunately, as Shank said, they fixed this somewhat in Skyrim. You can still see the major cities, but you can’t just fast travel there (except by cart). However, I don’t think your map should be completely blank upon entering the world; otherwise, it’s not a map. And in this game based on realism, I want a map, not a blank piece of paper.
Granted, that map doesn’t have to be completely detailed, with every road, village, cave, and outhouse clearly labeled. What I’d like to see is a version of a map that you come across in the beginning of the game, that isn’t complete. Maybe an adventurer (who has just taken an arrow to the knee and is fading fast) hands it to you and tells you that he hasn’t had a chance to see all of Skyrim yet, but hopes that you can make good use of what he HAS seen. So since you start Skyrim in the central/southern region of the country, it might make sense if the map only detailed the land around Riverwood, Whiterun, Windhelm, and Riften, and maybe the rest was uncharted, or was only “approximate,” because the adventurer had not been to those areas yet. In the case of Oblivion, it would be fine with me if your map only had the Imperial City, Cheydinhal, and Bravil included on it, and the rest was either blank, or had “approximate” locations of the other cities.
Where Shank and I REALLY Disagree
Having a map that isn’t completely cleared and detailed for you upon starting the game is an essential part of any RPG. I certainly wouldn’t want to see a map that showed me everywhere I could go upon entering the world, and then let me fast travel there. I’m not advocating for that. But what I DO want is the ability to fast travel once I have discovered a location – like what we have now. I don’t have the time to constantly be walking back and forth from one side of the map to the other, just to get from point A to point B. It’s really awesome that it takes an hour and a half to get from one location to another in these games, because that means the game is huge, and infinitely explorable. But I don’t want to be handcuffed to walking.
On a good night, I get three hours to play games. On a more normal night, it’s about an hour. If I never fast traveled, I’d STILL be trying to get to Solitude for the first time!
I do agree that this game is designed to be explored, to not be rushed, and to not follow a linear path. But when I log into the game and it’s 10:00 at night, and I just know that our baby will probably start crying within a half hour, I just want to get something accomplished. Anything! Which is why it’s nice to open up my map, quick travel up to Solitude, pickpocket a few guards, kill a random Argonian (for my buddy Shank), turn in a quest, and get back down to Riften to sell my stolen goods. If I couldn’t do this, I don’t think I’d still be playing the game.
My Solution
So here’s what I propose: fast travel + random encounters/events.
If you ever played Fallout 2, you may know what I’m talking about. In that game, fast travel was possible between locations, but you were randomly stopped if your character happened upon an enemy (based on some sort of formula that I have neither the brains nor the time to try to explain). That same idea could be implemented into Skyrim (or TES VI at least) to give the world of fast travel a little more life. And to make things even more interesting, these random fast travel encounters could be with extremely difficult enemies, or groups, or maybe even an “area boss” that just happened to be out for a midnight stroll, so it’s sort of a punishment for fast traveling, without preventing you from doing it.
Additionally, when fast traveling, you could accrue some sort of “weariness effect.” Basically your character is exhausted from such a long trip, that upon getting hit with one of those random encounters, your stamina is down, or you just move sluggishly, almost like you’re over-encumbered. Or maybe if you fast travel too much within a certain amount of time, these effects could last for a while with no “known” cure (but there’s an idea for another quest chain right there, finding the cure to this “weariness effect”), just to give you another reason to think about NOT fast traveling, but still giving you the ability to do so. Maybe this isn’t a perfect idea, but I think if fleshed out, a “weariness effect” could be a good deterrent to fast traveling too much.
These tweaks to the fast travel system would work for me. It would let me jump from Solitude to Riften without having to spend all night walking there, but would make me think twice about clicking that button with a character that maybe isn’t prepared for taking on difficult enemies. I’m still not getting to see all that the world has to offer, but I’ll get there eventually. At the heart of my love affair with Elder Scrolls games is the exploration, the unknown adventure, and the desire to see what’s just beyond that next ridge. But when I just want to get some stuff done before the 11:00 baby feeding, and clear out my ridiculously long to-do list (quest log), this would allow me to do so.
Conclusions
So Shank, no hard feelings brother, but I reject your “no fast travel” notion (but hey, at least I took out another Argonian for you in this column). I don’t want to be punished for not having enough time to play the game. I think Bethesda has done a nice job of making a game that caters to both die-hards and casual players, which is important if they want their games to be successful. Believe me, I understand that fast travel goes against the basic principles of exploration and freedom, but the current system can be tweaked a little bit to make it more immersive and interactive. And while it still won’t force players to just go out and explore the world, at least it would make you think twice before deciding to hop from one side of the map to another.
There’s no perfect solution to please every style of player. My system may not be the best either, as I know many people disliked the fast travel encounters in Fallout 2. But I think rather than going to the extreme of cutting fast travel altogether, these might be good compromises. An unfinished map, fast travel encounters, and a weariness effect would surely make fast traveling a little more engaging than just popping open a detailed map, clicking on a location, and zipping there immediately. What do you think? Am I on to something here, or is fast travel still a bad idea? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, stay tuned to Elder Scrolls Off The Record for all the latest news, opinion, and gameplay in the world of Tamriel.
Great article, Brian!
I agree with you & Shank about the map!
And fast travel, well, if it’s there and if it’s optional doesn’t mean you have to use it so what’s the problem? I wouldn’t mind making fast travel only possible with the carriages from city to city but I wouldn’t want it completely removed. In fact, I only use the carriages to fast travel because anything else feels like beaming and that kills the RP feeling for me.
What I’d really love to have is an option to ride the carriage in real time!
Nice article dude.
Between my solution proposal and yours, I can safely say that yours is the more realistic – meaning, it probably has the best chance of being implemented in TES VI as well as appeasing the vast majority of players.
My solution is definitely more extreme in that I want to totally eliminate it – but hey, that’s the kind of player I am. I honestly don’t know many other players that play like I do (walk everywhere, explore everything, never fast travel). I feel like most players use a mix of walking and fast travel.
Like you outlined above, not everyone can sit down for hours and play. For that use-case, fast travel is necessary. I just can’t bring myself to use the fast travel system
Just a correction if I may – the ‘blank map’ I proposed last week was meant to be blank ONLY with respect to settlements/cities/towns – NOT for the actual world. Ideally, I’d want the map to only show me the geography of the world (rivers, mountains, etc) without showing me settlements. Basically, imagine the Skyrim map you start with, just devoid of settlements. Hope that clears it up a little.
Great perspective on a very key game mechanic!
Shadow hide you
With respect to shank and, I have explored every square inch of skyrim and cyrodil with several characters. I think that the elimination of fast travel would stop me from creating as many alts as I have (15). However I do like Brian’s idea minus the weariness de buff.
This could be implemented by the Beth Devs. They know how to do this, as in Morrowind, with the Tribunal expansion installed, simply sleeping anywhere gave a random chance of being attacked…
This is a very immersive feature this one is missing in Oblivion and Skyrim. And the Idea of being attacked while fast traveling without “official transportation” like carriage, ship or Silt Strider would surely add to the immersion and gameplay. It would make one think twice about fast traveling while not taking away the choice to do so…
Seeing both sides of the story was a great read. Great articles. From my playthrough with skyrim I have found myself jumping back and forth over the fence on this issue. Sometimes fast travel really improves the enjoyability of the game and other times it takes away from it. Fast travel is nice when it is something that You want to do. It’s not so fun when it is something the game wants you to do. What I mean by this is there are two reasons why you would fast travel.
1. There is something you want at a destination you have already been to. This is usually something simple like selling or buying goods, crafting, and chilling in your home. These are things that are not worth running across the world for. Having to leave a quest line you’re on and spend an hour running to go sell things because your bags are full is not fun. Having fast travel in these situations lets you do the things you Need to do and continue doing the things you Want to do without taking up too much time.
2. There is something the game/quest line wants you to do at a destination you have already been to. This usually involves talking to some random mage you can’t ever find at the college, or assassinating some random guy in his home. While these in and of themselves can be fun or useful, you usually do these to continue the story or quest line. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t stand it when someone in riften tells me to talk to some guy in winterhold and he tells me to go to falkreach. They are really going to make me go through all those loading screens and follow that quest marker in cities I’ve already been through? I would honestly rather have a fetch ten rat tails quest then have to constantly do this. I can understand the main story doing something like this, but does every semi large sized quest line have to make you do this? It would be much better to have a quest line in riften send you to places around riften… Or if they do send you to whiterun, there better be lots to get done there or you just wasted a half hour running there.
Conclusion:
I think bethesda forgot at some point that fast travel is useful but not fun. They stopped letting you find a road and follow it and started making you teleport all over the map. I had discovered all nine cities so early through my first playthrough, not because i wanted to see them, but because every quest line kept sending me to random cities… I hope that they make better use of fast travel and quest lines in future TES games instead of having us “play” through hours of loading screens.
Exploration is great, with the first couple of characters. When you have a dozen or more alts fast travel is 100% necessary. As far as the map is concerned, you are in a world that has been inhabited for hundreds of years. With that said I am pretty sure you can get a map with at least the major cities marked. Thanks for the article, and the podcast.
Mr. Steed
What the hell is with you guys and argonians they are such a cool race if you want to kill a single race kill the frican khajiit there damn accents make everyone want to kill them anyway so now you have an excuse to.
The way I initially play is abstaining from fast travel unless it seems 1: appropriate (i.e. “Quickly make your way to this location”) or 2 I have played through the game multiple times and just want to relax and play the game. Even so I normally don’t fast travel. The past two times I’ve picked up Skyrim I have stayed in The Rift because I don’t have enough to do outside of it to leave yet.
Fast travel ruins the game.
Well, you might say: No, just don’t use it.
Then I say: It’s not the same thing. If there is a feature in the game then you are “supposed” to use it and you will use it sooner or later. If it’s a 500 hour game, than you will be in a situation where a fast travel would be nice and you must tell yourself not to use it, which can be hard because you would not know what you will miss by fast traveling. If it’s there, then you use it and ruin the exploration. If it’s not there, then you will travel by foot and find many things of interest. So fast travel will ruin your exploration. The end.