Your opinion on "fast travelling" in open-world RPGs

[Bebus]

I loved, loved, LOVED the Wind Waker travel style. I loved the sailing. It was smooth and relaxing, with the waves peppered by the occasional shark, or the little gem collecting mini games that did not slow you down or take you off course.

But there was also fast travel there. You could fast travel to about 7 of the 49 map squares, meaning you could cut out some of the ridiculous cross map sailing, but still had to go a fair distance when you travelled.

You also only unlocked the ability to fast travel part of the way into the game, so you were forced to do a fair bit of sailing before hand.

I want to play Wind Waker again...

 

[Lucane]

I reckon the Fallout 3 system was ok. Having to find the location first before you could fast travel. It required you to walk there at least once.

But say, in Assassin's Creed. You were forced to go to the location via horse each time. Didn't see many people praise THAT system.

The 1st one? Only till you traveled to each main city once then when you got new chapters to back to the same ones you had an option to fast travel pop-up it's only when the story needed you to ride somewhere and it's apart of the key events.

OT:Fast Traveling's fine with me,with games not always being able to save at any given time having limited save point locations hinders time constrained players or those of us who just don't want to wade threw low level enemies who would only be there to give you pennies compared to your current level intended opponents.

 

[TheMariner]

Fast traveling for me all depends on the size of the open world. In something the size of Oblivion (~16 square miles) maybe it's not necessary. Or if you must have it, you should only be able to fast travel between cities. Now, if we're talking about something the size of Daggerfall (~62,400 square miles), then a fast travel system is a must in my opinion, with a city-based fast travel being the minimum of what you must implement.

Either that or make the normal travel options much faster. Take for example Just Cause 2, which has a map roughly 400 square miles in size. That's insanely huge if you mean to walk or take a car or boat. However, if you hijack a military jet, that 400 square miles seems like nothing.

Either way, you're supposed to absorb the powers of the dragons you kill in Skyrim, right? I can't imagine the power of flight would be out of the question. And if it's not written into the game by Bethesda, you can rest assured that some intrepid modder is going to do it for you.

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

It's the warp spell. You can go to places instantly so long as you traveled there first.

When you think of it in that perspective, it has been around for decades.

Thank god. I was afraid I was the only person here who "had the gall" to play an oldschool/J-RPG. Seriously, most games with Warp Spells even have the decency to allow you to teleport to any point of interest that you have ever visited, so even if you come across a quest that has you backtrack to an old dungeon, you can just Warp right to it; at worst, you'd be able to Warp to the town that was right next to it.

 

[Bat Vader]

I have to admit that I tended to to abuse the fast travel system in Fallout 3. That was mainly because I got sick of having to go through ghoul or super-mutant infested tunnels every time I wanted to visit a city.

I hardly use the fast travel system in New Vegas. That is mainly because everything is out in the open and I don't have to go through tunnels when I want to visit a new location.

 

[Imbechile]

If you hated the fast travel system so much why did you use it? To my knowledge it has always been voluntary.

Because I don't want to walk from Leyawiin to Anvil just to complete a simple fetch quest. Morrowind gave you the chance to travel from town to town. In oblivion it's either fast travel or hiking.
IMO it needs to be removed.

 

[Triangulon]

I agree with it in principle, however it needs to be limited and justified. I liked it Morrowind, as it made sense. In Oblivion or Fallout not so much. A faster method of travel, i.e. horseback would be prefferable for me. In Skyrim I wouldn't mind seeing limited fast travel in the form of some kind of teleportation spell.

 

[Knusper]

I don't mind it in games, but if your game is really good and actually interesting to explore, it isn't necessary. I never fast-travelled in Fallout 3 and New Vegas because I loved to meet interesting people, see interesting places and kill large Deathclaws.

Oblivion on the other hand, all you can find is more woodland and more bandits, minotaurs and goblins so there was o incentive to explore

 

[newdarkcloud]

I reckon the Fallout 3 system was ok. Having to find the location first before you could fast travel. It required you to walk there at least once.

But say, in Assassin's Creed. You were forced to go to the location via horse each time. Didn't see many people praise THAT system.

Where does everybody get this from? In Assassin's Creed, you only had to go to a city via horse the first time. Then, you could fast travel there. Admittedly the game had flaws, but this just isn't one of them.

 

[Vidi Kitty]

Probably been said... but don't use it? In Fallout 3, I used the fast travel system only a few times when I had already been to everything between me and my destination. An option to turn it on and off would be nice and all, but someone who truly wants to get into their character and experience the world shouldn't need to have an option to make it possible. Options are optional because you are not required or forced to use them.

 

[Dexiro]

With some games like Oblivion where there's a lot of copy/paste I was actually thankful for the fast travel, but when there's actually a good deal to explore and quests don't require too much travelling I prefer regular exploration.

Taxi's, mounts and teleportation scrolls/spells make for much more interesting exploration.

 

[Treblaine]

The issue here isn't "fast" travel, it is more accurately "insta-travel".

But this can work with the right framing and I think you could use Star Trek as a model, with their other literary licence of the Teleporter. Star Trek it worked as it almost always had an establishing shot of the ship orbiting the planet, then inside the ship, then down onto the planet where the environment was so different.

Do "insta-travel" systems do the same? The danger is if one end of the map looks more or less the same as the other if you insta-travel to that other place with the same type of soil, buildings and characters. it needs to have that contrast between the USS Enterprise bridge and Alien Planet.

Going back to a "lite"-RPG like Legend of Zelda they often do it better than the hardcore RPGs as each area has such different feel from location to location.

From the dreamy pastoral farmland with meandering music, the ambient sound of farm life dougy laid back country folk, contrasted with the desert land of dramatic music, echoey ambient sounds from the rock walls with spry local.

Does the extreme north of the Fallout world look any different from the extreme south?

That's what can make insta-travel really bad, if the world is too homogenous. Novel locations should not be constrained to DLC packs, they should be there from the start and integrated with the game world.

 

[Frybird]

I don't really got the time/patience to take large games slowly. Also, i'm easily bored.

So you can drive, i'll go over the Case Notes.

 

[baker80]

WHAT?

FFS I've wasted hours of my life.

Nah, he's just full of shit. That only applies to the Director's Cut version, if you got early retail instead you were fucked.

 

[nicholaxxx]

if you have to find the place first, I'm fine with it, in oblivion, however, it removes all need to actually explore the world with "I need to get here... HURR DURR FAST TRAVEL" one fo the reasons why I didn't like oblivion, personally.

 

[Peter Croft]

*gasp* blashphemy!

 

[Xaio30]

I feel that the oblivion kind of fast-travel completely strips away my immersion. Now I could simply ignore it, but that would force me to walk/horse whenever I wanted somewhere.

What I propose to Skyrim and similar games is traveling services that costs in-game money. Like small boats, carriages, caravans, rangers etc. that takes a small toll and then transport you to predefined places.

 

[Vault Citizen]

If you hated the fast travel system so much why did you use it? To my knowledge it has always been voluntary.

Because I don't want to walk from Leyawiin to Anvil just to complete a simple fetch quest. Morrowind gave you the chance to travel from town to town. In oblivion it's either fast travel or hiking.
IMO it needs to be removed.

What about using a horse?

 

[Baby Tea]

I say that if the map is more than ~15 square kilometers, you need Oblivion style fast travel. Otherwise it will get really, really tedious. More RP oriented options should still be there, though. No excuse for that.

I can agree with this.
However, I will add that my 'big' character in Oblivion, the one who discovered every location, who did every quest in the vanilla game (Pre-Shivering Isles), and who kicked so much ass it was unfair (My Altmer Pure-Mage), was the one who I made the conscious choice to never, ever use fast travel. Ever.

I have walked the length and breadth of Cyrodil, and it was freaking epic.

You really get a much better scope of the size of the land when someone asks you to go to Anvil from Cheydinhal or Bruma and you are gearing up for the long haul. Plus I was able to use my powers and skills far more often, saw WAY more stuff, had some very fun off-script moments (Blasting a bear with a fireball and see his corpse tumbling through the air, over a cliff, down a hill, and into several trees. Hilarious), and over-all made me just fall in love with the game. I liked it before, but my no-fast-travel playthrough sealed the deal.

I'll be doing the same in Skyrim. No fast travel, unless they give me a 'Be here in 2 days to save the guy from that other guy!' option. Then, naturally, my character would want to help. So RP choices only. Otherwise? Walking or horseback only.

Can't wait.