Morrowind was perfect without fast-travel. You had to come up with creative solutions. On the way to Balmora and don’t want to hike through the ash hills? Just use the spell
Waterwalking and use the river as a convenient highway.
Use Divine Intervention to teleport to the next temple in a town, then use the siltstrider to travel to the next city or boats to go alongside the coast. Mage Guild offered teleport devices to other cities. The Spells Mark and Recall did the rest.
That’s the trick to Morrowind. It does have fast travel, it’s just integrated into the world building much better. Between Silt Striders, Boats, Mage Guild Teleportation, Mark and Recall, Intervention spells, and things like Levitation and the Boots of Blinding Speed, you can actually often get around the map faster than in later games (just watch a Morrowind speed run). But to do so you needed to build up both your character, and your own knowledge of the game world.
Fast Travel wasn’t some feature that broke immersion to add convenience, it instead added to both. It enhanced the feeling of exploration, and character progression, while teaching the player about the world.
Until I played Morrowind, I had no idea that planning your commute to work can actually be fun. “Wait, so if I take the StriderBus to there I can transfer onto the MageMetro and then it’s a straight shot over the hill to my destination? Amazing!”
That being said, first mod that I made for Morrowind back in the day, was an extention of the transport network, with a bunch of teleportation points, and random silt strider stops all over. As much fun as it was to jump around, it gets old eventually
Morrowind was perfect without fast-travel. You had to come up with creative solutions. On the way to Balmora and don’t want to hike through the ash hills? Just use the spell Waterwalking and use the river as a convenient highway.
Use Divine Intervention to teleport to the next temple in a town, then use the siltstrider to travel to the next city or boats to go alongside the coast. Mage Guild offered teleport devices to other cities. The Spells Mark and Recall did the rest.
That’s the trick to Morrowind. It does have fast travel, it’s just integrated into the world building much better. Between Silt Striders, Boats, Mage Guild Teleportation, Mark and Recall, Intervention spells, and things like Levitation and the Boots of Blinding Speed, you can actually often get around the map faster than in later games (just watch a Morrowind speed run). But to do so you needed to build up both your character, and your own knowledge of the game world.
Fast Travel wasn’t some feature that broke immersion to add convenience, it instead added to both. It enhanced the feeling of exploration, and character progression, while teaching the player about the world.
Until I played Morrowind, I had no idea that planning your commute to work can actually be fun. “Wait, so if I take the StriderBus to there I can transfer onto the MageMetro and then it’s a straight shot over the hill to my destination? Amazing!”
I love it when tourists ask me a Metro question.
That being said, first mod that I made for Morrowind back in the day, was an extention of the transport network, with a bunch of teleportation points, and random silt strider stops all over. As much fun as it was to jump around, it gets old eventually
Meh, just put on the boots of blinding speed, maximise the map, and hope for the best…