» Wed Jun 13, 2012 1:13 pm
I use fast travel a lot, but I still don't like it's implementation. I don't have the time or inclination to walk the same paths every single time, especially when I'm trying to get from one side of the galaxy to the other. Travel services, teleportation spells, these are things I would like to be available rather than a click-the-map system. I want a wider variety of transport services---carriage, boat, mage, etc. I want a wider variety of improved personal magic spells---intervention spells to transport you to nearby shrines, mark and recall spells. I want these things improved on---variable costs depending on where you're going to and from, the possibility of interrupts along the way, range limitations to your personal spells. I want horses to be meaningful forms of personal transport rather than irrelevant headaches.
What I liked about Morrowind was discovering the most efficient methods of traveling long distances. "Okay, so I'll recall to here, catch a silt strider to that town, a boat to the next, then almsivi intervention to get to the next town's temple, then a mages guild transport to my final destination. It required some ingenuity and really reflected how well you'd come to know the area you'd been exploring. I always had a strong sense of where I was at any given time and what travel options were available to me without having to tab over the map every couple minutes.
Beyond that, Morrowind quests were designed in a way that was largley regional. Guild quests were located in or near the city in which they were assigned. I wasn't expected to travel from one side of the island to the other for every little bounty job. Once I started reaching the higher levels of a guild, quests became more dangerous and with a wider reach. By then I'd proved myself capable. Before then, however, guild leaders had the decency to give me jobs within the same hemisphere.