Fast Travel in Bethesda Games.

I recently stumbled upon a topic on a forum that broke into heavy arguments about the fast travel system in Oblivion, Fallout and Fallout New Vegas.

There were two fronts, the pro and the anti.

First to explain the whole system, 'Fast Travel' lets you open your map at any point in the game your not in a dungeon or encircled by enemies and you get to click on a settlement/city/landmark on your map, and you'll be instantly teleported to that location.

Now the anti-fast travelers, or the RPG puritans as I'd like to call them, make a strong case; once you travel you skip allot of content. You miss out on adventures, and you miss out on exploring the wonderful world created for you. It's too easy to 'abuse' the fast travel system.

The pro-fast travelers make some interesting points as well. Firstly, fast travel is an option, you can choose to ignore it, which is entirely viable. Secondly it's not fun to travel, especially after you already seen all that the game has to offer. And after I spent roughly a year in Oblivion I can definitively see that point.

Now the fast travel system is not a bad system. I feel it has just been wrongfully implemented in all the games.

Now say theoretically I was to create a travel system for Skyrim. I would play it out something along these lines.

Remove it from the map screen entirely.

Create a teleport spell, and make it have a cooldown. A long one, maybe an hour at the start, but have it retain the function of the fast travel system. So you cast the spell, a map overlay appears and you click on a location previously discovered. And as long as you are not surrounded by bad guys and you are not in a dungeon the spell will teleport you, and the cooldown will start running.

The reasoning behind it; It's too easy to abuse, but it can be such a drudgery to travel, cutting it entirely from the game would be a loss too great. Both sides make strong points, so consider this a compromise of sorts.

But wait there is more!

Skyrim introduces perks for the player to choose at every set levels. Make teleportation one of the skills your able to invest these points in. For those who have seen all that the game has to offer cutting the cooldown by half might be more interesting then taking a perk in a combat related skill. But why stop there? Add a perk that makes it usable in combat situations, a long cooldown get out of jail free card. And add a perk to make it usable in a dungeon.

If the spell tree doesn't allow this sort of implementation then use it in Dragon Shouts and make rare stones that allow you to upgrade that shout.

They could have implemented this in Fallout as well, keeping intact any sense of immersion the player has. Add it as a function to the PIP-Boy. Have the player encounter a piece of long lost pre-war technology that allows him or her to teleport to cities they have visited, but the ability drains the battery on the PIP-boy and it requires time to recharge. Add specialty vendors that allow you to upgrade this aspect of your PIP-boy for caps/money. Now you have a great money dump, and a form of travel that doesn't break the game or impedes on the players sense of immersion.