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

[Insideout Ink Demon]

maybe unlock fast travel once a certain amount of miles have been covered by the player, therefore the player has most likely searched as much as they're going to and is now just working through missions.

i personally didnt use fast travel on fall out until i completed most the games and had a few main quests left

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Walking across cyrodil took ages though... Your system is okay.

 

[Robert Ewing]

First, you don't HAVE to use this function. I never do on fallout New Vegas. I prefer to walk everywhere (excluding missions where it's just going back and forth large distances.)

Second, you have to discover the place first, am I right? So Yeah, the fast travel may take stuff away from the experience, but with the first point in mind, you have to actually explore to discover the fast travel point anyway, so you are always going to see a lot of the world by this means anyway.

Third, Fast travel is useful for the less hardcore player that wan't action instead of trudging through a wasteland for hours. I know I did when I got oblivion. I wasn't even aware that fast travel existed, and was over the moon when I realized it did. Because I found myself getting really, really bored. Thus, I didn't really want to play anymore- The fast travel saved me of that, it meant I could zip from action scene to action scene if I wanted, and explore if I wanted.

 

[Ickorus]

I don't like it but then again I don't have to use it if I don't want to and having the option is always nice if you're in a rush.

 

[Joshy206]

I think fast travel is fantastic. My favourite models, though, are the Ocarina of Time and Fallout 3 models. You have to have been there before and there are bonuses if you choose to walk. With the growing 'need' for larger worlds, thus with much more empty space, either fast travel or a fast way of getting around are necessary to maintain interest, and a Flash-like horse would ruin the mood.

Oh, and making time pass isn't necessarily too bad either.

 

[Jnat]

There's no vehicles that you can use in fallout, which sorts out that, and horses in oblivion kinda sucks.

 

[baker80]

Screw atmosphere, honestly, I've got things to do and places to be. I get precious little time for games these days anyway, so I'll thank you kindly if you don't make me spend half the time just walking to the fucking action.

 

[Kl4pp5tuhl]

I still haven't finished Fallout 3 because I hardly use the teleport-function.

Been playing it for over a year and a half now.

It's one of my favorite games, just don't want it to end.

 

[Nightmare-Child]

I am completely against it. The game should force you to walk places.

 

[TornadoFive]

I hate the fast travle system in Oblivion. It's a huge map, and they ruin it by making it so you don't have to see most of it. Yeah, you can just not use fast-travel if you don't eant to, but knowing the option is there takes away the fun. I really liked the system in Morrowind, where there was a network of travel that you could use to get almost anywhere. It forced you to see most of the map, while also giving you the option to quickly get between the major cities.

 

[Bobbity]

It's convenient yes, but it also removes any incentive for developers to include any more wonderful and interesting forms of travel, like Stilt Striders and ships.

Personally, I would like the auto-travel feature to remain, because it can be nice to just be able to go somewhere without a fuss, but I'd also like more scenic forms of travel - like gryphons in WoW, or, as the OP suggested, interactive ships/stilt striders etc.

Actually, now that I think about it, I love WoW's system of going places. Especially considering that, as a mage, I could make a killing on portals.

 

[MysticToast]

If I'm almost dead, low on ammo, and my armor badly needs repair, I'm NOT going to walk halfway across the Wasteland and risk dying. Fast travel is fine in RPGs. If you don't like it, don't use it.

 

[Revolution -X-]

I enjoy Fallout 3's fast-travel system : Find the location first, then you get the option to fast travel. I'm kinda lazy and I lose focus easy, so if I had to walk EVERYWHERE without a fast travel system, I'd probably lost interest in the game very very fast.

 

[Dastardly]

snip

I think the answer is to allow fast travel when it doesn't matter, and to trim it out when it does. Even in great stories, there are some parts where the details of a leg of the journey are sparse... and other times when you are given laborious detail.

Alternately, there's the option of allowing fast travel between MAJOR cities, but then only allowing normal travel to destinations near those cities. You can fly from New York to Orlando, but if you want to get to Tampa from there, you'll need to take a bus.

And another alternative is the "overworld" model used in the older Fallout games: when you travel to an area, you see it as a line zipping Indiana-Jones-style across a map... but sometimes you're interrupted with random encounters. The problem, to me, is that this didn't make the world feel bigger--the randomness of the encounters made it feel disconnected.

 

[Weaver]

IMO the problem with Oblivion's fast travel is that, even with horses it still takes a long time to go places. With FO3 the problem is even worse. And really, to me anyways, a chance encounter with a bear, radscorpion or ghoul isn't lucrative enough for me to waste my time.

Hence, I feel the downside to their fast travel system is that, unless you want to spend 20 minutes walking to a place you essentially HAVE to use it. I'd prefer if they had methods of transportation that were fast but I could drive around, like a car or horse that moved at a reasonable speed.

That being said though, when I wanted to explore, I explored. When I wanted to do a quest quickly, I would fast travel.

 

[Herbsk]

One of the things I didn't like in Oblivion and Fallout 3 was the whole system of "fast travelling", i.e. click a point on the map that you've been to before and you will instantly be transported there, alive and well. It sort of destroys the whole epic scope the game is meant to convey with its large map, and it removes a lot of the potential for chance encounters.

I was reading an old Extra Punctuation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/8329-Extra-Punctuation-Fallout-New-Vegas] a minute ago and I noticed that Yahtzee happens to agree with me. I figure you'd rather listen to him than me, so:

When you instant fast travel in games like Fallout 3 you miss out on the adventure. If you had to ride a horse or a motorbike to your destination you might have an exciting encounter with NPCs, or catch a glimpse of something so intriguing on the horizon that you decide to take a detour to investigate it on a whim. Surely the whole point of the sandbox or open-world model is to give the player the chance to fill the gaps between major events with adventures of their own.

This was a big reason I failed to get the most out of Fallout 3. I completed the game in about 15 hours and I barely saw any of the map at all because I was waiting for quests to actually send me around the place and all that happened was I fast travelled between a few locations and then the damn story ended. Admittedly, partly my fault.

As stupid as it sounds, I even liked Morrowind's system better because it at least forced you to find Silt Striders and boats that would take you where you wanted to go (and would at least force you to move around a bit in between). But what I really want is Morrowind's system but where they show you doing the travelling (significantly faster than running of course). Possibly in a custscene, but why take control away? Why not put me aboard one of these things in my normal view... still able to shoot Cliff Racers as I fly by? Oh, and let me say to the pilot or equivalent "on second thought, set me down here next to that interesting looking ruin".


So that's my opinion: abolish fast travelling and implement my system. Don't even give me the option for fast travelling or I might use it. Don't let people skip sections of your game like that.

What are you thoughts? Do you like it? Hate it? What would be your ideal "faster than walking" travelling system?

Aside: has it been confirmed what the system in Skyrim will be?

This may be a tired old question by now - but why did you use the fast-travel system if you think it breaks the experience? Also, if you play on PC, you can probably find a mod to remove it if you dislike it...

As for myself, I've never had a problem with fast travel - in my first playthrough I didn't use it (XBOX) and on the second I like it because I wanted to get certain places faster and I did not want to spend all the time traveling...especially when the fighter's guild quests had me going all over the freaking map!

In summary, yup, I like having fast travel, and I have enough self control not to use it if I don't want to (ie - if the normal travel experience is rewarding enough not to use it, which it normally is. I save fast travel for times when I want to get back a sell my full inventory quickly (and that does not break the immersion for me)

 

[The_Echo]

The reason fast travel exists in these games is because the developers realize that their game world is too big.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd quit Oblivion forever if I had to make the trek from Anvil to Bruma on foot. Or from Rivet to Raven Rock in Fallout 3. That's just way too much to potentially ask of a player.

The fact remains that if you want to explore the world, you are entirely free to do so. Fast travel just makes it less tedious.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I still think World of Warcraft has the best way to fast travel. You pay a flight master for shorter journeys of hop on a zepplin for larger ones. You can still enjoy the scenery and you don't feel like you're missing out.