Playing without fast travel = awesome. : V - Skyrim

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 6:06 pm

Glad you enjoy playing that way. Me, I like exploring the world too much to stop using FT..... if I did, instead of getting to spend my time exploring and appreciating the world, I'd instead be burning myself out because of all the time I'd spend doing the same exact "walk back to my house to dump loot/walk back to the region I was exploring" over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.... :wallbash:

But why do that?
Why not just flog it at the nearest settlement, or leave a cache for later, so yo can return?

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:31 pm

I sometimes do this, and even increased the default weight allowance so that I don't get over-encumbered after looting just two locations, but I doubt I could give up fast-travel entirely. Reason being, I don't see any point in 'manually' walking back and forth over the same cleared area, within which nothing is happening since everything is either dead or harvested/looted, when I can use FT instead. After all, I can't miss anything if there's nothing there in the first place.

Which is why I am always skeptical about claims that you 'miss out' by using fast-travel, since experience indicates otherwise. For one, in order to fast-travel to a given location you have to discover it first, which means you have to go out and explore. Thus, you actually don't miss anything by fast-traveling, since you traveled there the 'long' way at least once already and saw everything along whatever route you took while doing so.

I don't see it as "missing" anything. As long as you traveled there manually, to start with. There were areas I did miss, because I took a carriage there and FT'd somewhere else.

It has caused me to manage my inventory better. Not saying "micro" manage, but be more selective about loot and not just mindlessly hoarding everything not nailed down. I actually take the time to look at each item and contents of a body or container.

I did play with a Giant Follower, that had a carry weight of 1000. That was to supplement living on the road with mobile Alchemy and Enchanting tables as well.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:59 am

But why do that?
Why not just flog it at the nearest settlement, or leave a cache for later, so yo can return?

Exactly. Most people who think they rely on FT don't realize they could switch up their playstyle slightly and enjoy the game so much more.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:28 pm

Meh. I disagree and I'll take a pass. I'll explore areas, but I won't ignore fast travel when I'm playing.

Walking across the land (kicking up sand, sheriff's posse on my tail cuz I'm in demand) is tedious when you're on a mission.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 6:40 am

But why do that?
Why not just flog it at the nearest settlement, or leave a cache for later, so yo can return?

Packrat/hoarder. I keep a good % of the stuff I find. If I sold "locally" (which can still involve an awful lot of walking back and forth) and cached stuff.... those caches would still amount to several trips back and forth. Unless I went and abused TGM to negate my carry weight. But I don't do that. (well, except when carrying 500-1000+ lbs of crafting mats from the chest in Breezehome to the forge next door. :tongue:

)

Exactly. Most people who think they rely on FT don't realize they could switch up their playstyle slightly and enjoy the game so much more.

Just because you enjoy it that way, doesn't mean everyone does. Me, I'd rather spend an hour playing the game, instead of half an hour playing and half an hour doing makework bookkeeping/maintenance.

I also don't need to pad out my playtime. My 90 hour character? Wouldn't have been "more fun" if it had been 135 hours because I spent a lot of time backtracking to sell stuff.

Like I said to the OP: I'm glad he enjoys playing that way. I don't. :shrug:

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:23 pm

Packrat/hoarder. I keep a good % of the stuff I find. If I sold "locally" (which can still involve an awful lot of walking back and forth) and cached stuff.... those caches would still amount to several trips back and forth. Unless I went and abused TGM to negate my carry weight. But I don't do that. (well, except when carrying 500-1000+ lbs of crafting mats from the chest in Breezehome to the forge next door. :tongue:

)

Just because you enjoy it that way, doesn't mean everyone does. Me, I'd rather spend an hour playing the game, instead of half an hour playing and half an hour doing makework bookkeeping/maintenance.

I also don't need to pad out my playtime. My 90 hour character? Wouldn't have been "more fun" if it had been 135 hours because I spent a lot of time backtracking to sell stuff.

Like I said to the OP: I'm glad he enjoys playing that way. I don't. :shrug:

And that's fair enough.
To FT or not is a very individual choice.
We don't but then we have only a very small inventory at any given time anyway so even that aspect is of no consequence.

Walking keeps us fit!

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 3:03 pm

I don't really know why people act like those of us who use fast travel somehow miss out on enormous chunks of the game. You've still got to go to places in order to FT, you've still got to explore them, and you still get the same experience as the other guy.

The people who don't like fast travel are never going to understand that though.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:00 pm

One time I decided not to fast travel and made my own way to a location, and whilst I was on my journey, I came across two young boys on a deserted road talking to each other. One of the names I had heard of before, then it struck me that it was one of the children of a family in Solitude. They were all the way out in The Rift, which puzzled me at first.. but anyway he was selling Dwemer items which he had found in the ruins near by, and he wanted to make some coin off them. He tried to haggle with me (to no avail) and I eventually used my speech skill to purchase them at a much lower price. (mean, i know, but these are hard times in Skyrim!)

After that they wandered off into the wilderness, it was getting quite late as well. I hope they made it back safely! :hehe:

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:40 am

I never fast travel. Yesterday is a prime example why:

I embarked to Windhelm to join the rebellion from my home in Whiterun. I bought a horse and stopped by Ironbind Barrow at the request of an alledged "friend". By the time I exited the barrow it was about 10pm, so I walked down to a nearby, rather secluded, inn. I left my horse by the lake and went in for some shuteye. The next morning I decided to follow the river down to Whiterun in hopes it would take me straight to it (only going off of waypoints as well--no map), but as I'm travelling a dragon shoots out of a burial mound next to the road and begins to circle above my head! Epic battle ensues--horse survives! Upon absorbing the soul I had enough to unlock the new shout I got at the barrow.

The following may contain a spoiler, so I'll just tag it to be safe:

Spoiler

Further down the road. The walls of what seem to be Whiterun are in view. I cross a bridge and notice two dead sabrecats with an orc standing over them. I approach the orc to congratulate him, but before I could say anything he proceeds to explain that he wishes to die. not only that, but he wants ME to kill him. I understand now that orcs desire an honorable death while they are still "worthy" of dying. This was interesting for my character. Although he has no problem eliminating the alien from his land, he felt no honor in such an easy and meaningless kill. Although my character doesn't understand his ways, he is familiar with the sense of pride the orc clings to, and regretfully decides to comply with his wishes.

This was a pretty big turning point in the evolution of my character that I didn't calculate, and certainly didn't expect to happen but let happen. For the first time he was able to relate with one not of his own kind and deep down he felt troubled by this stigma to his customs. With this chip on his shoulder, I then move on to Whiterun in order to fulfill my duty as a son of Skyrim and join my old friend Ulfric in his quest to liberate the Nord's land.

For RP purposes especially, negating fast travel has been the single most beneficial thing that I have changed in my game play to increase immersion and my experience as a whole.

Great story. This is why I don't fast travel. I roleplay my characters and too much interesting stuff happens along the way to or from somewhere. I also work seemingly routine random events (like encountering the Old Orc) into my roleplaying by thinking about how such an event would affect this particular character.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:07 pm

Packrat/hoarder. I keep a good % of the stuff I find. If I sold "locally" (which can still involve an awful lot of walking back and forth) and cached stuff.... those caches would still amount to several trips back and forth. Unless I went and abused TGM to negate my carry weight. But I don't do that. (well, except when carrying 500-1000+ lbs of crafting mats from the chest in Breezehome to the forge next door. :tongue:

)

Just because you enjoy it that way, doesn't mean everyone does. Me, I'd rather spend an hour playing the game, instead of half an hour playing and half an hour doing makework bookkeeping/maintenance.

I also don't need to pad out my playtime. My 90 hour character? Wouldn't have been "more fun" if it had been 135 hours because I spent a lot of time backtracking to sell stuff.

Like I said to the OP: I'm glad he enjoys playing that way. I don't. :shrug:

Yes, it would have been more fun. You would have had more random encounters, saw more interesting landscapes etc. That's the beauty. If on one of your runs you found a random cave to explore, great! Explore it! You can continue on your merry way to sell your items knowing to head back to that after.. maybe you'll find an ultra super mega rare item inside that cave.. you never know!

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 2:16 pm

Sometimes I fast travel, sometimes not, depending on my mood. If I load up my character and she's not on a mission or shopping or whatnot, I'll often fast travel to a random location on the map to simulate her traveling without me and pop in on her like, "Hey, what's been going on with you?" I find it fun. Also, sometimes after a long and beautiful trek, I just don't feel like huffing it all the way back. I can understand both gaming styles.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:15 pm

You know I really wish Skyrim was like morrowind when it come to travel, I wish there was a way to make the game only let you fast travel to main city's. But Yes It is fun not to fast travel.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:02 am

it's a big world with lots to experience, so go explore it. You do not even have to give up fast travel to do it.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:27 pm

I have only fast travelled in a few instances. This once, I had forgotten to unload my stuff in Winterhold to save up space and I was just about to enter a dragon priest dungeon in the reach. Too far to run all the way back to the college

Also during some of the main quest I felt the urge to do it because after every quest you had to double back to Riverwood for the 100th time. But I was able to restrain myself. I just took different routes every time.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 2:05 pm

I always play open world games in 'explorer' mode. I don't follow the quests or feel the need to rush around anywhere. I gather quests and complete them as I come across them. (anyone else notice that your quest arrows leading you places go away after gathering a large amount of quests? I have no idea what the limit is but after awhile the quest arrows just stop popping up.) anyway. I use fast travel if it's available, meaing if there's a horse cart nearby and I want to get to a certain hold I'll use it. However this still really limits fast travel as the horse carts aren't in every hold. To me bethesda's open world games have all been 300+ hour games. Takes me forever to finish them.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:17 am

You know I really wish Skyrim was like morrowind when it come to travel, I wish there was a way to make the game only let you fast travel to main city's. But Yes It is fun not to fast travel.

You already have the option of just only clicking the cities when map traveling. There is also the carriage system which only travels through the big cities.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:56 pm

Well I've started on my fifth character just under a week ago and so far he has not used the fast-travel feature unlike my other characters. So far I've won the war for the Stormcloaks and done contless bountys for the Jarl of Riften. I don't play to fast-travel once with this character and I'm having a lot of fun.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:14 am

I only use it when I'm stranded faraway from any of the city holds. Other than that, I usually used the carriage, increases the game's immersion for me.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:12 pm

I barely ever fast travel. One time I was walking along a road and 2 ancient dragons decided to show up. I was put into one of the most challenging and fun fights of my life and It was great when I delivered that final blow and the battle ended with bandits deciding it would be a good idea to attack me.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:00 am

I always play open world games in 'explorer' mode. I don't follow the quests or feel the need to rush around anywhere.

Ditto

To me bethesda's open world games have all been 300+ hour games. Takes me forever to finish them.

Hmm, I don't think I've ever really "finished" a Beth game. There's always more things to find/explore/discover, even on my fourth or fifth or sixth character. And I've spent more than 300 hours on each game (well, not yet for Skyrim, but it's getting close), just not all on one character. Still enjoy my FT, though.

--------
Random example, from Fallout 3. Typical "major quest" process: Pick a quest location that's far away (like, going to Republic of Dave, or down to the Nuka Cola museum place). Start walking there.... get distracted by a dungeon/ruin/whatever. Explore it. Emerge with Piles O' Loot. FT back to Megaton to sell/stash. FT back to dungeon. Continue walking toward quest location.... get distracted by a dungeon/ruin/whatever. Repeat over and over and over. Eventually (probably a week or two IRL since I set out to go to Quest Location), finally get there. Having wandered all over the place, explored a dozen or more dungeons, found all sorts of nifty stuff, etc. Plenty of FT.... but also plenty of exploring. What it didn't include was several (cumulative) hours of walking back and forth to Megaton, through explored/cleared/safe terrain, over and over and over, getting more and more bored. :shrug:

But, hey - to each their own. That's what's great about these games.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:52 am

I've been playing Deus Ex, an equally good game (I'm a fan of the Deus Ex series as well as TES), for the last week or more and all I can think about is how much I miss Skyrim. It's an absolutely dreadful situation because I love Deus Ex as well and I feel like I'm not allowing myself to enjoy it as much as I should. I suppose this is what it feels like to cheat on a woman?

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:00 pm

It's not a bug. The game was designed this way. It worked this way in Morrowind and Oblivion and I'm sure it will work this way in TES VI too. The reason there are timers is so that dungeons and exterior cells don't respawn enemies over and over unrealistically if the player spends a lot of time in one cell.

As I understand the way the timers work, you just have to stay out of the cell for a certain number of in game days and it will respawn, correct? So, if I am wandering back and forth along the same road between Whiterun and Riften and not enough in game days pass, the stuff on that road won't respawn, but if I take a trip to Marketh and spend a sufficient number of days in that area, then everything along the road between Whiterun anf Rifton should respawn. It doesn't seem like fast travel is necessary to get stuff to respawn. Spending a day or two lounging around in an inn (something my characters do after a big campaign) should work just as well as fast travel to get cells to reset. Am I understanding all of this correctly?

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:07 pm

Which is why I am always skeptical about claims that you 'miss out' by using fast-travel, since experience indicates otherwise. For one, in order to fast-travel to a given location you have to discover it first, which means you have to go out and explore. Thus, you actually don't miss anything by fast-traveling, since you traveled there the 'long' way at least once already and saw everything along whatever route you took while doing so.

Well, there are always slightly different routes to take and new stuff spawns all the time. Like Baconbits story above, I have had many random encounters along the road that were more memorable than any of the scripted quests.

Hmm, I don't think I've ever really "finished" a Beth game.

Me neither!

--------
Random example, from Fallout 3. Typical "major quest" process: Pick a quest location that's far away (like, going to Republic of Dave, or down to the Nuka Cola museum place). Start walking there.... get distracted by a dungeon/ruin/whatever. Explore it. Emerge with Piles O' Loot. FT back to Megaton to sell/stash. FT back to dungeon. Continue walking toward quest location.... get distracted by a dungeon/ruin/whatever. Repeat over and over and over. Eventually (probably a week or two IRL since I set out to go to Quest Location), finally get there. Having wandered all over the place, explored a dozen or more dungeons, found all sorts of nifty stuff, etc. Plenty of FT.... but also plenty of exploring. What it didn't include was several (cumulative) hours of walking back and forth to Megaton, through explored/cleared/safe terrain, over and over and over, getting more and more bored. :shrug:

I used to play Oblivion this way. Then one day my fiance asked me why my character was eating stuff that I could save to make potions. I explained the concept of "roleplaying" to her. She immediately grasped the concept and started to "roleplay" all of her characters. She even started all of her characters over again because she wanted to "roleplay" from the beginning. Pretty soon, she started telling me that fast travel was not "roleplaying" and I am like, but I only use it to dispose of loot and I fast travel right back to where I was so I can continue on my adventure. And she's like "but your character would have to walk, so if you are really roleplaying, then you would walk too," and I am thinking that I created a monster here.

Long story short, I gave her way a try and I found it to be more immersive. Makes me think more about what loot to take, given the long slug to the nearest settlement. Makes me feel more like I am in the moment.

But, hey - to each their own. That's what's great about these games. :smile:

Yep. There is no "wrong" way to play as long as you are having fun.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:30 am

Am I understanding all of this correctly?

I almost never fast travel myself. So I'm not familiar with how fast travel affects the game's spawning mechanics. But what you say sounds right to me.