Next Fallout - Map & Locations

[Dienan]

In Fallout 1 & 2 the explorable map was very large. The distance between locations forced the player to spend days maybe weeks to travel in the desert to reach them. Random encounters was a gread concept. It made moving between locations more challenging. That way, the Highwayman in Fallout 2 kind of fit to the lore and the Fallout universe perfectly.
In Fallout 3 & Fallout New Vegas, the distance between locations is very small. Thus the explorable map being many times smaller than original Fallout. Basically, if you're a good sniper and the draw distance wasn't a problem, you could kill Vulpus in Nipton from under the ranger unification statue without them ever knowing.
In the future game, I would like to see the old school map. Somehow that prevents free exploring. What is the best option to keep random encounters/free exploring/having a highwayman not break the game and actually making it better? Beaming down from the sky (fast travel) makes no sense to me since it's impossible to encounter a legion hit squad while doing it..

 

[Oppen]

That way, the Highwayman in Fallout 2 kind of fit to the lore and the Fallout universe perfectly.

You are mixing gameplay with lore, and those are different things. If the Highwayman fit the lore in Fallout 2, it fits the lore in any posterior Fallout in similarly civilized regions. It doesn't fit the mechanics because of the smaller map, not the lore.

In the future game, I would like to see the old school map. Somehow that prevents free exploring.

Beaming down from the sky (fast travel) makes no sense to me since it's impossible to encounter a legion hit squad while doing it..

Why would that prevent free exploring (as in making your own route to places you haven't visited; if you mean the hiking simulator, you are right) or encountering a hit squad? I can picture it working the same it worked for the first two. It might not be as attractive for the newer audience, but plausibility and looks aren't the same thing. You wouldn't have an open. sanboxed world, but you couldn't have both because that would be too requiring both for artists and developers (otherwise, you would have a crappy, repeated environment everytime) and for computers to run it.