I agree, you miss a lot with fast travel, but if you just want to finish a particular questline, then it makes sense just to fast travel from city to city.

This.

I enjoy walking, the scenery is great, the random encounters adds interest, and its how I find most new places.

However, if I'm heading to do a specific quest, and the target is, say, near Riften, and I'm up by Markarth . . .I fast travel to the nearest location, and walk from there. I also tend to walk a little ways after getting out of a dungeon, then fast travel to whatever city I want to sell my loot in.

That's about all I use it for. That and for finding my horse, sometimes.

For me the traveling takes the place of grinding to level up skills. Along the way I fight things that I run into, go hunting, pick flowers, mine rocks, explore any ruin, fort, cave or whatever else I run across, and fight off whatever enemies I run into. This to me is a much more enjoyable to level my character than standing at the blacksmith mindlessly making hammers or running in a corner to improve stealth. There are all sorts of random things that happen in the gamer world. Things I would never see if I simply fast traveled everywhere. The only form of fast travel I use now is the wagon that goes between the main cities. I will use that occasionally.

Having to fulfill DB contracts from across the country makes a lot of sense in my book. If you were plotting to kill someone, would you do it anywhere nearby? It would be extremely risky, as the target could overhear you, a witness could recognize you, etc. That's how I would do it, personally.

And I don't understand. If you like the world and want to see it as much as possible (by not fast travelling), why are you complaining that you will have to spend time out in the world by not fast travelling? o.o
I personally don't see how carriages are any different than fast traveling. To me, carriages are just fast traveling with a gold sink attached.

I never feel forced, its there use it or not. I would like more things within the game as an alternative to fast travel. Carriages to all the cities, something like the mages guild teleportation areas, levitation, jump spells, Mark/recall, and intervention scrolls all of these was great alternatives to fast travel.

But all of those are just different ways of fast travel. The only difference is that using the fast travel we have simply cuts out the game-type explanation.

A restricted form and none of the spells are fast travel at all. Fast travel as is in Skyrim and in Oblivion was another hand holding feature that can take you right out of danger to anywhere on the map. I was also restricted by the scrolls I had the spells I knew and the silt striders and mages guilds I was by in Morrowind.

To the OP; A lot of people here condemn fast traveling and insist that it's funner if you don't. That is their decision but you don't necessarily have to play like them. Remember, playing is about having fun and you should play in the way that is the funnest to you. If you like to fast travel, then to hell with trekking all over Skyrim, but if you don't then go right ahead and explore the wilderness. Whatever is fun for you man.

If I want to complete any mission that involves going further than a couple towns away, I MUST fast travel. I will not get to my destination. I will however, gain two new shouts, a butterfly in a jar, a daedric artifact, get overencumbered, have to go back to whiterun, and end up starting a new quest.

I'm the type of person TES games were built to exploit..... and I like it

Can someone explain what exactly people miss by fast travelling?it's been highlighted how shallow and poor the content of the game is?I used to avoid fast travel myself,used it the odd time but what is all this stuff people miss out on?

You can't fast travel around enemies . . .even that mudcrap piddling around at the edge of the river 50 feet away.

If a teleportation spell allows you to move from point A to point B, it's no different than fast travel.

I've never used fast travel on any of my characters. I'm fine with carriages, but never fast travel.

You just have to think of quests that require a long trip as a larger undertaking. The journey is part of the quest.

Sounds more like your limited time playing, or even your lack of patience (wanting to finish quests quickly etc) are what is making you fast travel, not the game devs. I'll play a lot of times and never finish the quest, but rather spending the time to get to my destination, where I'll pick up at next time I play.

I tend to fast travel a lot because I hate having to spend the time walking to destinations. My main problem is the distractions with walking whenever I do walk I make a habit of discovering places ( I don't go inside I just mark it on the map). The problem with that is I tend to forget about it because I'm more focused on a quest to get from one end of the world to the other and can't spend a good 15-30 minutes exploring a cave that will in the end only give me more crud to carry and bring back home. The other problem I have is that there's no reliable autosave, sure there's autosaves when you walk out of a cave or something but it doesn't save after a certain amount of time (such as every 15 minutes). What I tend to do is go minutes and sometimes hours without saving while traveling then I get myself into a stupid situation where I can't save and end up getting killed in some stupid way and then all that I discovered and found is now gone and I have to walk the same way and do everything all over again. I hate that so I just fast travel a lot discover some areas then fast travel home or something.

Exactly. The journey is part of the experience. For example, if I'm required to make my way to Riften from Whiterun, I know I'll probably go north of High Hrothgar and pass through that bandit tower to the west of the Imperial Prison, and plan ahead, maybe spend the night in the newly cleared safe haven. Or, if I'd rather not, I could head to Riverwood and try the path south of High Hrothgar, at the risk of encountering Frost Trolls, Haagravens or Wisp Mothers. If I'm going to Solitude, I know I'll have to be careful in that heavy bandit encampment on the crossroads by the Reach. When it inevitably becomes dark, I'll have to find a place to spend the night, ideally with a cheese wheel, a warm fire and a good read. I enjoy all these experiences, and find them just as satisfying as quests, if not moreso. I'm living in the world, not merely following a limited amount of objectives that amount to fetch quests.

It just adds so much to the game. I understand forsaking this for convenience, but I literally never fast-travel. It takes away quite a bit of the magic for me. If I'm feeling particularly lazy or really don't have time, I'll hire a carriage. Other than that, I always go myself. (I don't use horses, either.)

The difference is that it is Service provided by NPCs for a small fee. Also you are only able to Travel to the Holds. Not any location discovered. A Similar Services was provded in Morrowind that was even more limited. Which if memory serves me right no one had an issue with it. One of the major reasons people dislike Fast Traveling is due to it being an element that breaks Role Playing. I would say more so then the feature being considered a 'cheap' or a 'cheat'. A complaint often coming from the more 'Elitist' Members of the Community.

I don't see it as breaking roleplay at all. In both instances, you disappear and instantly reappear elsewhere. The only difference is one has a story spoon-fed to you (I rode in a carriage!). Well, I'm perfectly capable of making my own story when I choose to fast travel (I walked).

The way I see it, carriages are more of a hand-holding thing IMHO. If you can't have your own story attached to the fast travel (just get on a horse beforehand, or just say you walked), then don't use any of them and walk everywhere.

I don't feel a need to use it. It's just an option. I'm very patient, and I don't have a need to rush through the game. I play the game slowly, heavily roleplaying, and I haven't yet completed any of the quest lines. It's not the destination that is important, it's the whole journey. Walking in the rain/snow blizzard for hours etc. is part of the journey. A hero doesn't skip things. With this pace the game lasts a long time for me.

Fair enough. Though again it is a personal thing. That works for you. However I feel like it is kind of 'cheating'. Using the Fast Travel feature to say go to a Ruin you have already discovered/cleared out. Granted you have been there, and know how to get there. I guess I just prefer the old Morrowind way of getting around quickly. Drop a few Coins, and generally walk a bit more. There is no wrong way.

I'm aiming to follow a compromise in my current game. I'll use the wagons to fast travel between hold capitals, but when travelling to villages or dungeons, I'm going to follow the trail. I do use the map mod which shows all roads which makes it slightly easier, with all the passes in unexpected places off the main highways.

I try to avoid fast traveling as much as possible, but sometimes I just can't resist it. For example, you are in the middle of nowhere with your horse and you spot something interesting (a giant camp etc...) and decide to approach it on foot.

Yep, the probability of finding your horse again is about 50 %.

I'm not gonna walk back home.

The nice thing with Fast travel is that it is optional, I do still use it sometimes but most of my times are spent walking and that gives me quite a bit of random encounters, unexplored areas, quests etc.

My first playthrough I used fast travel most of the time rushed from one place to another just to finish that quest. Now I find myself not thinking about which quests to finish when, but more about just enjoying the game. Doing quests as I get in that area, exploring a heck lot more and gathering ingridients for Alchemy which I plan on level up sooner or later. The random encounters can sometimes be worth it, others time they are over in seconds. I run the mods Wars in Skyrim and deadly combat together with PISE and that makes the game a lot more challenging and fun. Also these mods makes random encounters a bunch more fun as I can meet some enemies that are a proper challenge.

By limiting my use of fast travel I did find myself to enjoy the game more then previous characters, and the trick is to get away from the thinking I have to do this quest now! Some quests are more desirable to do then otheres no doubt about that, but there are moments during my travels where I have stood on top of a mountain just looking on the sceneray thinking this looks blody awesome. Those are things you will very easy miss if you fast travel a lot.

That's what the carriage is for.

Let's say that Skyrim does force you to fast travel. So what? If the trip is so boring that you don't want to do it, then use fast travel. If the trip isn't boring, then don't use fast travel. Problem solved.

Let Bethesda know why you find the trip boring. Maybe someone will figure out a way to liven it up. Fast travel is a just a whipping boy for the real issues players have with the game.

It breaks it for all of 5-10 seconds, just like entering a walled city or a shop or a dungeon. For many other players, it does not break role playing.