I don’t like using either as they feel a bit cheap, but it would be nice if they included possible random encounters while using these forms of fast travel. Baldur’s Gate would have something like a 30% chance of “being waylaid by an enemy”.

That would be kinda cool... fast traveling to Marketh and suddenly you find yourself ambushed by bandits or something...

Actually it's a good idea. But 30% is too much. Maybe do 10%. Or make it more safe or dangerous depending where you fast travel to

This has been brought up before and the idea then was have carraiges 100% safe and FT have the chance for random encounters.

Personally I think it is fine the way it is, but if they added this feature it would be fine.

I wish they would actually move a bit before the black screen came up. Honestly I wish we had the option to ride them all the way but at least a little actual movement before fade to black would add to the illusion of travel. I also wish my companion and anyone else with me would get inside and sit with me before the fade happened. Just little stuff like that really.

Carriages have always been targets for bandits and the like so it makes no sense for them to be 100% safe.

And I agree watching them drive would be great. In GTA4 I would hire cabs but never skip the ride. The cinematic was awesome...

I feel that if fast travel was removed and limited only to carriages, we wouls actually have a reason to ride horses refularly.

I think it would be better if the carriages worked like the ones in Red Dead Redemption. I liked being able to see the scenery while traveling.

There is a dev made mod at the wiki that lets you ride carriages like the openning. Ang if you walk or ride horse everywhere there are numerous random encounters.

Weren't you able to get jumped if fast traveling in Oblivion or was that a different game I am thinking of?

I would enjoy having some bandits trying to hijack the carriage.

I believe this is at least the fifth time a discussion like this has come up, and it will be at least the fifth time people decide it's not a good idea at all. And OP, if they feel cheap the don't use them.

Sorry if I haven’t read every topic that has been created, kinda new here, jeez.

And so far the majority of responses have been for random encounters, so keep thinking everyone agrees with you.

Can you get off the carriage mid-ride with that mod? Can you be attacked?

The developer points to this mod as an example of how difficult it is to make the carriage rides realistic. He's having huge difficulty with it, and that's why it wasn't in the game. They did want it to be, but it's crazy hard to do.

It will eventually drift back to the same outcome (I'm presuming this because it has most every time). However, in the off chance it DOESN'T, Bethesda will probably not implement this anyway since many people would have a [censored] fit if they couldn't at least fast travel.
However, for my opinion; if something like this would be implemented then fast travel and carriages would immediately become needless (you might as well just walk it yourself and get waylaid), thus it sort of cancels itself out because it cancels out the point of fast travel. I would rather they improve other aspects of the game, which need to be addressed as urgently as possible.
And no, I'm not mad at you for starting this thread, I'm exasperated that somehow these topics keep coming up.

It was discussed pre-launch within a fast-travel specific series of threads. I was a supporter of the idea at the time; however, the feature could quickly become a hassle, especially if it involves a load-screen (and especially again if this load-screen is on console). If the random encounters had some sort of purpose, like in DA:O encountering Zevran's group (with radiant encounters instead), maybe I wouldn't mind as much.

I'd be fine with this for carriages. But fast travel is, in my opinion, for those of us who want to skip the journey and save time. It'd be an unnecessary and frustrating interruption. I think of fast travel as an uneventful journey - nothing happens, in other words. No enemies, no travelling merchants, just a simple stroll/ride.
So yes for carriages, no for fast travel.

If there were a few more destinations for carriages, and if they went to specific places - so from Riften you could get to Windhelm and Whiterun (for example), but not beyond - then they would also actually feel different to fast travelling. Or at least have varying prices, relative to where you're going. That's the main problem for me: there isn't really a different between the two, other than the fact one of them costs 20 gold and you get a line of extra dialogue.

Pretty much this.

Unless an encounter actuall added something to gameplay it would be just an annoyance, imo. I FT because I don't have a lot of time so I just want to get to point B from point A. And an encounter with some bandits, that probably won't pose much of a threat anyway, just so I can kill them, loot some gold and fur armor, would just be a needless waste of my time. If I want to run into these things I will walk.

For those naysayers it could be toggle-able then. “Random Encounters while Fast Traveling?” [ ]

Some would love it, some would hate it. I think if the percent of an encounter was low enough the majority of people wouldn’t mind. Say, 5% of the time?

Anyways, thanks for all the opinions. Today my PC shows up so I’ll be switching from XBOX. Maybe someone will create a fast travel encounter mod in the future.

Cheers.

I would just like the carriage to be real time, obviously those who want to skip the journey would be able to, but I think it would be great travelling through Skyrim, looking at the beautiful scenery while on a carriage trip.

My only issue with carriages is that I can't seem to take one from Winterhold. Is that town not good enough to have a carriage?

I wish there were more carriages full stop. I try to role play so I take carriages and restrict fast travel as mush as possible. However as Arch Mage I'm always traveling to the college, but there are no carriages out if the place!

I would love to be able to just pick one up on main roads, they could also be attacked at random by bandits etceteras. In fact I wish there were more ppl on the main roads, kinda deserted which makes no sense.

Carriage rides would be nice, but if I'm going from Markareth to Riften and it's taking 15 mins I'd get seriously bored. Would have to devise a way around that.

I'd like to see a return to the Daggerfall system. There are two methods for fast travel : reckless and cautious. If you chose reckless, it would take less time but when you arrive at the destination, your health points, fatigue and magicka will be the same as what you have when you left. If cautious is chosen, it may take twice as long to travel, and you always have your health, fatigue and magicka fully charged.

I have a good idea.

Make Fast Travel work only between the major cities/locations...

Nice idea in principle, but back in Daggerfall health, magicka and fatigue all actually mattered - the hyper-regeneration of Skyrim would make this pretty redundant. In Skyrim it only really matters if you take damage during a fight. Maybe an alternative could be to give you a "well-rested" bonus or equivalent if you fast-travel with a carriage.