I suppose i use fast travel because it's an option, but most of all, it's a single player game. Do people seriously sit at home and get angry at how others play some daft game?

I don't see what real life examples do other than make, well, make no sense. I can't shoot bolts of lightening from my fingers irl, yet i don't let that curb my enjoyment.

You're right, my question was directed at those people in the thread that felt fast-travel was immersion breaking but that's not really adding to the fast-travel vs. walking/running/riding discussion so I'll start a new thread.

fast traveling gets rid of the adventure part of the game. Take a random contract from the DB, you fast travel to your destination, take your mark out (which often provide very little challenge), fast travel back. To me that's really boring without facing the obstacles that the road brings.

I have been using a lot of fast travel to pursue quests. Exploring has been about finding a quest target that I couldn't fast travel to, and sometimes curiosity about a marker that appeared in my compass.

Thanks to you who have pointed out the joys of "real travel". Right on! Why concentrate only on quests when there's a big world out there to experience. Of course, to each his own when it comes to play style. But I feel like my eyes have been opened.

Word of caution though. If you decide to clear a cave you just discovered, watch out for unusual items. For instance I picked up Bjorn's Drum. When I got the quest for it later the quest was ruined. I realize that's gamesas's problem but until they fix it, it will be YOUR problem. Fortunately I'm a PC user so could repair it.

I don't have that problem... despite fast traveling most of the time, I still find that I have so much more to do and see. I'd NEVER complain the game was too short. I'm almost 200 hours, and still haven't finished the main quest once. I've completed the college line twice, and companions once, but haven't finished the thieves' guild or dark brotherhood even once, either. If I never used fast travel... wow, I think I'd have hardly scratched the surface so far!

My problem is I have acute alt-itis. I can't help re-rolling as different types of characters. I have a mage at the mid-40s, a warrior that's nearly 40, a thief that's just broken 20, and another character I'm calling a cleric (heavy in restoration magic, with heavy armor, two-handed (blunt only!), and destruction magic to go with it) that's close to 20. I have been thinking about yet another character type I want to try (sort of JOAT type). Note that I don't abandon previous characters- I play each of them from time to time. Sometimes I might play one character an entire weekend, other times I might play 3 different ones in a single evening. It just depends on what I'm in the mood for.

I just don't think I'd experience near as much of the game as I do if I didn't take advantage of fast travel. Maybe I'll try not using it on one character, just to experience it, but I doubt I'll go so far as to abandon it on all my characters.

I've been fast traveling a lot less lately, and it does make things interesting sometimes. The thieves that try to rob you are normally avoided by telling them they're making a big mistake, or that I'm a Nightingale, and I always buy up any Skooma/sap/moon sugar the dealers have on the road. ..Hey, it's a fast growing market out there I need to monopolize it while I still can! Also Brotherhood Assassin attack on the road is pretty epic. Sometimes I run into a group of hunters so I barter off the hides of predators I've faced along the way. Also I haven't started the main quest yet (beaten it once before, accidentally saved over that file ) so random dragons aren't really a problem.

Though I will say I have been attacked randomly by a "Argonian," and "Wood Elf," - Yes that's their race I get it, but how come they just randomly attacked without any reason? No notes on the corpses, and they didn't accept a yield so.. The Argonian I was a bit confused about, the Wood Elf had to die since he was attacked poor little M'aiq.

I'm travelling on the road from Markath to Solitude. Uh-oh, I suddenly notice three imperial soldiers on a crossroad with a dead guy at their feet. Since I'm not too comfortable with Imperials, as my level 20 character is pretty much pro Stormcloaks, I'm forced to sneak around, between and over the rocks until I end up a bit further on the road and out of hearing distance. A little while later, I stumble on a cave-ish fort, but I decide to leave it for now as I don't want to get overencumbered too fast (heh heh). Suddenly a dead hargraven falls on the road. I shriek, but start to investigate as soon as I'm over my initial surprise. Does she have anything in particular on her corpse, which could've triggered her death? (backflash Morrowind with the falling wizard and his scrolls of Icarian flight xD) I search, but I can't find anything special. Only the usual stuff and some wisp wrappings. Maybe it was caused by something in the cave? I eventually decide to enter after all. Upon entrance, I meet a random adventurer like me, surprised by and fighting off a magical spider. He's not of the very courageous sort, because he rapidly runs away with his tail between the legs. I could only understand the whole cave apparently is filled with those unnatural creatures before he's gone like the (storm)wind. *eyes twinkling* Interesting ... The cave made for a fun little quest after all, with not too heavy loot (but valuable nonetheless!). (The hargraven had nothing to do with it 'though. I suppose it was some kind of bug, haha) Later on, while running much farther north on the road, I also encounter a "toll bridge" held by bandits, an empty camp with a diary talking about self-confident people willing to make a stop to the many gruesome murders along the road (still have to investigate that one), and a two-person caravan which was clearly attacked by Falmer, proven by the arrows surrounding the carriage.

And this is how my every-day non-fasttravel along the roads goes. Pretty much not boring, I'd say. Oh yeah, and that's not even mentioning how many times I've been able to encounter awesome M'aiq because of it yet. Dragons aren't that much of a problem with me yet, I sometimes encounter them, but really not too much. And not every dragon attacks me, a few of them just fly over my head, roaring every now and then, and depart in chase after the sunset again.

Most of the game consists of scripted attacks by 2 wolves that die in one hit?

Yeah, there are like 3 random encounters + Maiq ... or so ...
Fallout3 had much more things happening. I expected Skyrim to top that, but for some reason they haven't put much work into that component.

Obstacles

1.) You have to take a really long route up a winding mountain. Not quite sure which is the right way considering there is no road. Instead, you choose to side jump up incredibly steep cliffs. Frantically tapping jump is quite a challenge indeed.
2.) Wolves! Oh gosh. Those wolves that have battle music play and die in a hit. Tough. Maybe it will be a Sabre Cat... OOoooooohhhhh!!!
3.) Dragons!!!! Trying to loot dragons that die in unfortunate places, that is a challenge.
4.) Bandits. Non-leveling bandits. Obstacle. Carry-weight is not unlimited and those Steel Swords add up. Oh and a waste of arrows you cannot craft
5.) Forsworn. Gigantic obstacle!! Stupid buggers silly hats are pretty hard to see past.

Please elaborate on how not fast traveling adds obstacles to the world? The only benefit it serves is you find more caves or fortresses...that have loot you do not need or gold you do not need.

You need your logic circuits checked.

I understand the appeal of not fast-traveling in a game like Skyrim. However as much as I love exploring the world even I prefer FT when it comes to completing missions. Once Ive had my fill of doing a few quests - THATS when I stop FTing and then just wander around the world checking stuff out and exploring. I think I would avoid FT if the horses would go faster but Im sure theres a mod out for that

I use the items to level my crafting skills. I buy empty Soul Gems before going on an expedition, then upon returning I buy ingots and use the now-filled gems to enchant the items I improved with the ingots, which I then sell off to cover the costs, as well as fund the purchase of additional Alchemy ingredients to combine with the ones I picked/hunted to make more potions for use or sale.

I don't start really raking it in until I get the Speech perks that increase vendor cash reserves, since then I can actually sell the better stuff without having to buy supplies I don't really need to make up the difference, save for a few top-end items I make for that purpose. I do all this so that I can amass tons of cash; yeah, there's nothing to spend it on now, but once the CK is released I'll be greatly increasing the number of training sessions per level, and as a result will be dropping hundreds of grand at once when training a skill that's already at a fairly high level.

I just thought that NOT FTing might be why some of us consider the game too easy or easier than standard Fters.

Because we spend the time to travel and explore, we come across more incidents and more fights that help us level up faster overall. It takes us longer but we end up tougher and stronger and able to deal with problems much easier than others might who just do the scripted quests.

This, except I don't use a horse.

The logic's fine, thanks. Using fast travel has no impact at all on your ability to explore and experience the game world.

I always use fast travel unless im too heavy and pop werewolf to get to a town, on all my wanders i have never seen anything that has made the long walk worth it.

That said if im going somewhere and i see somewhere on my compass i will go there so i can fast travel back later.

Sadly, yes they do.

With an avatar like that, I can't take you seriously about "missing the game" Not a personal attack or anything but I just soiled my armor.

Teleport? What? YOU CAN TELEPORT IN SKYRIM??? HOW???? I've been fast travelling all this time OMG!

Yes, finding lots of mudcrabs and wolves (which all die in one hit) certainly makes you much tougher and stronger.

You end up finding every location through quests anyways. I like to fast travel to get quests done, and then maybe explore if I just want to kill some time.

Everyone plays the game the way they want. I personally just turn the difficulty all the way down and watch an easy movie. If I want difficult, I'll go play a laggy FPS.

There are various quirky little locations that don't get quests or map markers.

No that only works until you zone into a city (or some other area) and then it turns itself back on. That command is misleading.

It's the same with 'tmm 0' -- it only hides the markers until you discover the place again.

There is however a mod on the Nexus that checks and keeps fast travel disabled.

Most of my fast travels were because of the greybeards and their damned mountain. I walked all the way up and down the first times, but after the third "go up, talk to them, go down" quest or so, I just fast traveled.