>start up open-world game >enjoy exploring >start unlocking

>install no fast travel mod
>fixed my fast travel autism

>>389280245
In Skyrim I would deliberately traverse the map on foot to pick up ingredients and get in random fights w/ forsworn, bandits, etc. I did fast travel a lot when mining and smithing though.

>>389280245
What this kind of games lacks are new ways with nice mechanics to travel fast as you progress. Horse is not enough

>>389280245

Simplest solution is to simply not let quest chains start from somewhere nowhere near the objective.
Get rumours, tips, notes etc into a journal from going around and talking and shit, but keep active quests separate and promise it won't take too long to go out your way to do it now.

Likewise, eliminate all gathering quests, replace with just paying them if it's not a single, unique item they need. A quest that asks you to get things and then pays out like 2% of your fucking current wallet and done is pure unfiltered garbage. What's especially garbage is things like the Zora who asks for Luminous stones, but he pays you less than how much you would get from just selling the fucking things, and since you can get money relatively easy like that, the ONE time you could use a diamond you could just buy it yourself - or probably even have a handful on hand already!

Also why not use some kind of postal system to avoid handing in for nothing special?
Design quests better, don't just add stuff randomly and half arsed.