i have started the main quest on all my archetype characters and finished it on none,lol.

right now, i'm creating my last main character: my all-powerful hybrid. he will do all the guilds and quests and everything that the game offers and 'complete' all the content. he will be my pick up whenever i want to play character that has no real rules.

my DiD's will be my other characters and will be strict roleplays with strict rules.

I use FT when I need to store something and then I FT back to the dungeon I was at and continue on, I don't really pick up anything I don't think I will need or isn't worth enough since gold is too easy to get, I have over 25k and that's not even picking up alot of things at level 15, out of the first dungeon I didn't take anything but a sword, like 3 health pots, imperial armor and imperial gloves which it told you to grab

What's your favorite aspect of having the HUD off? Mine would be the decision to treat all enemies equally. I have no Idea the type of enemy I am fighting unless I see there gear or spells which sometimes doesn't indicate the level of difficulty ahead. I can't see the health pool of my enemy so I have to treat every fight with my upmost attention.

Originally I turned it off to escape compass icons that broadcast dungeon/fort/ruin locations and the red dots that broadcast the enemy locations. Then I noticed that I had a hard time telling tough bandits from weak ones, and I really started treating any bandit with a two handed weapon with a lot of respect. I also started noticing the differences between different types of draugr. It is amazing how much detail they put into the gameworld that you tend to overlook with the HUD on because it tells you what the enemy is and where it is.

But my favorite thing about no HUD is the lack of sneak crosshair, so I have to pay careful attention to the NPCs, both their reactions and what they are saying to know if I am hidden or not. Very challenging when breaking and entering or picking pockets in town and a lot of fun when sneaking around dungeons. You can really tell the difference between being hidden (eye closed) NPCs searching for you but not knowing exactly where you are (eye partially open) and NPCs knowing exactly where you are (eye open all the way) just by watching/listening to what the NPCs are doing. I never did that before because my eyes would be too distracted by the sneak eye. It has really put the fun back into sneak for me.

Exactly, I'm glad to have someone relate to my experience for once ha ha.

I am definitely going to try out the thieving without the HUD it does sound like a challenge. A few things I wouldn't mind knowing but cannot since the HUD is off are:
-getting a skill book but not knowing what it raised
-you can't tell what a person gives you as a reward or anything in general, you have to dig through your inventory
-names of people you don't engage dialogue with, the names of them are hidden without the HUD.

It is a real challenge. The first time I tried to join the thieves guild with no HUD I made it. The second time, I was paying less attention and I got caught by a guard. I paid the bounty and got admitted anyway, since you cannot really fail a quest in Skyrim. It was a good lesson in humility though.


I agree. I always check how much gold I have before I complete a quest so I can figure out whether the reward was gold, and if so how much, and if not, I dig though my inventory looking for something new. LOL.

I also turn the HUD on temporarily if there is a bookshelf full of books I want to peruse, so I can see the titles on the binders.

Sometimes I sneak up on people and pickpocket them just to find out their name. When I am in dungeons, with no HUD it is sometimes hard to tell friend from foe when you come across someone new. I will sometimes sneak up on them and pick their pocket just to find out what their name is. If they have a good name name, I stand up and initiate conversation. If their name is "bandit outlaw" I pick their pockets clean followed by a quick backstab.

On my first few runs in the game, I fast traveled like no one else lol. Now that I'm just playing to explore, and experience the game world, not necessarily the Factions, or MQ, I have maybe Fast Traveled twice in like 25 hours. There really is a ton of stuff you miss. On the Other hand, Having to walk from point A. to Point B on the other side of the map, back to point A, can get a little tedious.

I fast travel when something is very far. Let's say I am in Riften, but my quest is somewhere close to Solitude. There is no hell in way I am walking all the way there. So I'll travel to the "closest" point to get where I need. Which requires some major walking, but not butt loads of walking and I still get sidetrack and explore. But wth are these people talking about dungeons without quest. Only in oblivion did we have DUD dungeons. I have not found a single one in Skyrim not attached to a quest somehow.

More often than not I avoid using fast travel, but every now and again I'll use it just because I don't feel like trekking clear across the map to get to a place I was just at 10 minutes earlier. Not that I mind walking across the map, but when I've got to walk from Riften to Solitude and back again, it kinda gets on my nerves a bit.

My first character never used fast travel. I just walked everywhere. I made my next character and it became tedious as I was walking back and forth with nothing happening. I didn't want to run up High Hrothgar a billion times, run from one town to a small town multiple times, run from Riften to Markath so I started to use Fast Travel for repetitive trips. I just got sick of finishing a quest and having to run all the way to Whiterun or the other towns from a far away place just to finish the quest.

I still like walking everywhere but it takes up a lot of time in real life. If I'm going to a new area I walk from the nearest town. I usually do my own random exploration where I walk and go anywhere I like in the middle of nowhere.

Who cares about speed? With fast-travel, you're missing out on 90% of the game ...

On my second character (200+ hours now) i haven't fast-traveled once and i don't miss it either. I do sometimes use a carriage, but that's just for roll-play purposes ...

i'm on about my 6th character, not, including DiD's. it gets repetitious and boring to go over the same land all the time.

there is a lot of exaggeration about how much you 'miss' by fast traveling. as well, the random occurrences are still scripted events that you will eventually encounter.

using fast travel to sell loot, start/finish specific quests doesn't mean people aren't exploring by not fast traveling, at other times.

Fast travel is an option, and one that I tend to utilize.
You can only see the same landscape, the same random encounters so many times before they get repetitive. It's not like I fast travel everywhere - I often take trips from one city to another without fast travel - but when you have to walk to the other side of Skyrim just to deliver something, I'd rather save time and fast travel.
Just my two cents. Or ten cents, since the smallest denomination we Australians have is the five cent coin.

Ok so if you get an objective that is far away, then you will fast travel. What if you had made a journey there instead of just heading in the area of the quest? What I mean is, If you do get a quest from Riften that says head to Solitude, then the trek there would take a long time, now the question is if it is imperative that you get that quest done immediately, but I say there is no real time limit to when quests should be done. The journey to the quest in Solitude should can be a long one, and you can have stories to tell when you get back from there.
Same thing to you from the reply I made above, I am not pointing out what you are doing is wrong at all lol Just suggestions to help you realize or to just share some options to make the journey there...bearable.
I noticed I use fast travel when I am heading out for a quest that is in the immediate area, and when I am heading back and I KNOW that no random encounters will occur I use fast travel.

If I have to deliver something that needs me to venture across the map then I will put it aside until I eventually make my way over there. Do you feel compelled to have to complete a quest that asks of this?

Not at all, but I often like to just get it out of the way. I find this is especially the case if I'm saving for something - for example, when saving for a home I like to get the quest rewards as soon as possible. Also, although I much prefer the Skyrim quest journal to Oblivion's, I find that Skyrim's journal gets more cluttered, and I find myself with a temporary case of OCD

i understand the points you are making, but, i've played over 200 hundred hours with many characters. i have had many characters that never fast traveled. i now have one primary all-purpose, do-everything, ubergod character that will use fast travel if desired, whenever.

as well, i play DiD characters that do not fast travel.

many people have the incorrect notion that those who utilize fast travel have always used it.

as well, having never used fast traveling on many characters, the high praise of never using it is, imo, exaggerated.

Well said. My first character fast travelled, but my second didnt, and I enjoyed it. However, I'm now on my fourth character and fast travel 70% of the time, and don't 30%.

Exploration is great and all, but sometimes I just want to do mission after mission after mission, and fast-travel is great for that.

Besides, I often try to run across mountains and rocks where you're not intended to go as a player and I often get stuck, annoyed, frustrated, or glitched. That's just me though.

I do agree with this, and I do have many more interesting encounters without Fast Travel BUT, I still think sometimes fast traveling can help when you just wanna get stuff done.

I consolidate. For example, i got this quest from the enchanter guy at the Mages College to pick up something in Morthal. So instead of just fast traveling there and back, i left that quest in my questlist until i had two other reasons to go to Morthal. Voila!

As for walking getting boring, you do realize that you don't have to stay on the roads, or take the shortest, direct route possible, right?

Sadly Skyrim is not the same as Oblivion. In Oblivion I could find dungeons of intrigue that were not attached to any specific quest. But anything in Skryim that is of intrigue to me is always attached to the quest. This takes the adventure and the need to explore out of the picture, and so I fast travel instead. Except Rashir. Rashir rides Shadowmere, and treks all over cause he has a horse.

I use fast travel unless it is a first time visit. Fast travel to the closest location and walk. I see each quest individually, so i will turn off all other not related quests and focus on my task. Only if there are quests stay together otherwise i will leave it for later.

Someone think it worth the time (real time) to travel to the same place same route again and again, not to me. I got a life to run, I got limited time to play, all i want is straight to the point and start doing my quest, usually i only have time to do 1 or 2 quest and i am done with the night. And i don't see any relationship between FT and RP, i played different characters with different skills and choices, that's quite enough role play elements to me.

For immersive, actually i don't get it. Even no FT, no hub, no... whatever, it is not real to me. It is a video game it always is. Did you feel tired swinging your giant axe? Did you feel heavy with all the gears and stuff on your back? Did you feel you are gonna die if you move just a step out of your cover? Did you find your physical fitness is not as good as you think and a mage is actually better than you? Did you ever fear to jump down from a rock and it will break your leg? Did you ever stay inside the forest without real eye contact to your enemies and you can only feel it when it is not moving?

This is like somebody played counter strike and able to get headshot without crosshair, is that making him a better shooter in real life? For combat immersive, i rather play airsoft gun with friends.

i take the horse carriages thats as much fast travel i do. if i do a quest and finish i will walk to the nearest city and then use the carriage to get back to my house in markarth. the reason i dont fast travel is because of the fun you can get into on the way back from quests for instance.

im playing on master difficulty i had a companion radiant quest to save a person from a bandit camp. i make my potions and set out for the quest which is between markarth and white run. i manage to kill all the bandits and in doing so used up all my health potions. so i try to go back to whiterun, i wind up in some valley with mountains on both sides of me i see some bandits ahead of me i use sanguine rose and use the dremora to tank and i eliminate them now sanguine rose is out of chargers . none of the bandits had health potions on them so i m still down to 0.

so i see a road in front of me and i hear commotion on the side of the road is a peddler being attacked by forsworn i see the horse of the peddler go after a couple of the forsworn, the horse is acting as a tank for me so i go up and kill the two forsworn. the other 2 come at me i manage to kill them but im down to 1/4 hp.

i manage to walk down the road a ways i see whiterun in the distance im almost there
then i see some stone steps and a necromancer coming at me, i manage to kill him but im again down to 1/2hp but i see a guard tower and run towards it and i sleep in the guard tower until morning, and i make my safe journey to whiterun and finish the quest

if i would have fast traveled i would have missed all that fun, so im kinda paranoid when it comes to it i dont want to miss something cool like that. i would like to see mark and recall maybe brought back

That is getting into different perspectives, a mind made reality which bears no connection and the other one, the physical reality we live in. You have to understand, we can imagine things that don't exist or go against the laws of physics so we can sort of break away from the given physical reality that we all live in. What I mean by "we all live in." is that I can easily go to your location in this world and you can see me, but when it comes to the mind made reality well... that's free will and that's something we cannot change or "meet up at", it's a gift.