Current Events > How do you feel about fast travel in open-world games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Do you feel it should be available to use whenever and wherever you want? Limited to certain points of the map only? Should there be an in-game explanation of the process (like taking a taxi in GTA)

Should the whole map be available and uncovered from the beginning of the game, or do you prefer games that make you explore to uncover the map?
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Have to be able to unlock/visit the area first before using fast travel.
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The option for people that like it is fine. I do my best to avoid it though.
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there should be something done to unlock it
retreading ground more than necessary is never fun

i just hate it in WoW when people are like
"Hey can i get a summon to the dungeon"
"im the only one here"
"but can i get a summon"
"im the only one here. we need two to summon"
*dude drops*

fucking dungeon finder baby
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I prefer not to use it and for the game to have multiple in-universe applications of fast travel.

For example Morrowind had all the Silt Striders, boats, and teleportation spells/scrolls.
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Morrowind fans hated it. I've argued with a ton of Morrowind fans about this and they hate fast travel even though it's optional. They argued they love getting lost in the world and it was half the fun. LMAO
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Made a topic about it years ago too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/615805-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61004611
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Veggeta_MAX posted...

Morrowind fans hated it. I've argued with a ton of Morrowind fans about this and they hate fast travel even though it's optional. They argued they love getting lost in the world and it was half the fun. LMAO

Which is fine, but with those of us who have like a handful of hours a week to play a game or shorter, we need fast travel
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I like it to be available for if I need it, but most of the time I don't really use it. I like to stroll through open world games as if it's a real place, and really immerse myself. But sometimes I have to stop playing abruptly, or I don't feel like backtracking to where I just was, or I'm just not feeling patient. In those instances fast travel is great.

Fixed fast travel, where you can only fast travel from specific places (Far Cry 2, Morrowind, hell I think even Witcher 3 had this) is total garbage. It's better than no fast travel, but seems to largely miss the point.
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eston posted...

Fixed fast travel, where you can only fast travel from specific places (Far Cry 2, Morrowind, hell I think even Witcher 3 had this) is total garbage. It's better than no fast travel, but seems to largely miss the point.

It was necessary for the intended experience in Morrowind, though. Fast travel was a way to simulate public transportation between colonized regions. When youre out in the Ashlands, youre in your own in a desolated desert.

If it's optional literally who cares?

The only people who complain are bitter morons with nothing going on in their lives.
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Yeah once you visit/unlock a location, you should be able to fast travel there from wherever (barring story circumstances that prevent travel there or at all)
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I like it. Saves me time. I'm cool with visiting a place once and then being able to go there whenever.
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I don't mind it, but I hate that devs seem to use its existence as an excuse to make needlessly large, empty worlds

Like, who gives a shit how big the map is when you're just gonna fast travel everywhere anyway
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Don't care if it exists, but I won't use it on a 1st playthru. After that I might start using it to save time when I already know there is nothing I want or care about seeing/repeating inbetween.
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there is nothing less fun than playing an open world game and half the gameplay is driving/travelling to the objective

exploration should always be a bonus that you WANT to do
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For my sake, I think the type of game very much impacts decisions like these. Like, Assassin's Creed Origins is telling a story that involves a journey across Egypt, and so it makes sense to limit fast travel and to leave a lot of the map hidden at start. Whereas Watch Dogs 2, made by the same company, is fine with letting you go wherever from the start. I think both of those fit their respective games.
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Caution999 posted...

Have to be able to unlock/visit the area first before using fast travel.

Imagine if Greyhound, Amtrak, or any given airline had this policy...

I like it.
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The only major restriction should be that you have to discover the area first (apart from minor restrictions like not traveling from interiors, or while in combat, etc).

Oblivion came out of the gate allowing you immediate fast-travel to the major cities and not having an immersive alternative, which I imagine infuriated Morrowind fans. Still, this is something Skyrim fixed on both fronts.

Immersion is nice, and admittedly there are some things that benefit from a game mechanic forcing you into them. I enjoy sitting down at a bar and eating a meal even though there's no in-game benefit to it, but unless there's something like NV's Hardcore Mode compelling me to do so, I'll inevitably neglect doing this most of the time.

But while I do normally prefer walking everywhere I go, fast-travel remains a necessity at times, especially in Bethesda games: it helps prevent tedium, and allows overworld cells to properly respawn without the player constantly walking through them and preventing just that. It's is a necessary modern convenience that should never be robbed from the many for the immersive benefit of the few. Its deliberate exclusion is fifty percent of the reason why I'll never waste time on Fallout 4's Survival Mode (though, to be fair, the boneheaded decision to force fixed save points onto a Bugthesda game bears more than half the blame).
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I like fast travel. it offers me the option to take the long way or the short way
I'm fine with being only able to travel to specific locations (cities in Skyrim, towers in BOTW, etc.), but fuck forcing me to go somewhere to start the fast travel (the Witcher comes to mind here -- I installed a mod that let me fast travel from anywhere which probably broke a few quests)

edit: oh yeah, I also like it when I have to discover the place first before fast travel is an option
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