Guild Wars 2

As we all know, waypoints are a gold sink. And, let’s be honest here; that gold sink serves no purpose except to make it more difficult for us to travel as much as we would like (no, it doesn’t make the wealthy less wealthy). It is fairly annoying, that at any level, the ability to travel as much as one would like is limited to one’s wealth.

Granted, as a decently wealthy person, I’m not as limited by this cost. However, the thought that I can’t explore the world for free (without walking…) is a major downer.

If I don’t have to go somewhere, I won’t. I think this mentality is what causes tons of players to just sit around the capitals to get the dailies done. If there weren’t such a tax on travel, you can be sure that players would go farther from the capitals.

Therefore, I think there should be a random chance to have a free WP travel item dropped from any mob (maybe the BL chests too). Whether this would be one day of free WP costs, or a week, I think this would be a phenomenal item. There is already guild research that reduces the cost of WP travel, so extending at least this courtesy to players without guilds should be reasonable.

Additionally, I think free group travel waypoint items should be implemented for parties and guilds. The person who got the item would double-click to activate, select a WP, and then invite players to that WP via shift-clicking into party or guild chat.

And yes, I realize there’s an election being held that would make WP travel free for a little while. But I think permanent occasionally free WP travel would make everyone happier.

I support this idea. However, instead of just making all waypoints free, we could make it so that:

1. Travel to a capital city is always free.
2. When waypointing to any other waypoint out in the world, the first travel is free. However, you are then put on a 30 minute timer where waypoint costs steadily increase with each use until they cap out at 3 silver. Not using waypoints for half an hour will decrease the cost again until it’s back to 0.

I feel that this would make it easier for people to travel to any capital city they wish, but also discourages players from just waypoint hopping across maps and taking time to see the countryside.

That is another interesting idea. But I think that you are mistaken in thinking that your proposal induces less server strain than mine.

With my proposal, RNG would limit the numbers of players capable of waypoint jumping at one time, thus being a non-issue. Having free capital WP travel for all players, on the other hand, would most certainly cause greater server strain.

Plus, I already view travel to capital cities as free, as all of the cities are within walking distance if you just log on to do dailies in low-level areas.

As for the second point you suggested, this would more than likely result in less of a gold-sink than my proposed changes. Having free waypoints for one day is likely to be less advantageous in the long-term. Many people log in every day to do the dailies, and for those people just having 1 free waypoint every 30 mins is the same as making the game free of waypoint costs.

The difference between my plan and yours is that yours would result in less of a gold-sink across the community, and “more” of a gold-sink for players that partake in guild events and are active players. With my plan, players that are more active are rewarded more.

I see your point, but personally speaking, I just want a permanent solution that doesn’t involve me getting lucky from chests or buying it from the gem store.

You seem to mistake the purpose of a gold sink. It’s not a “tax” on the wealthy. I have no idea how you came to that misguided belief. A gold sink is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a means to “drain” gold from the game as a whole. It’s opposite to a gold source which is exactly what loot drops are.

As for the cost of using a waypoint, it’s a subway fee. I mean you could always walk there and you had to at least once to activate it for yourself. The price scales based on level and distance to the waypoint but never, ever your personal wealth.

There is one case where it scales – its free if that character has no coin in hand.

Something that will effectively go away once all characters share a single wallet, I suppose…

No, I think gold sinks still need to remain in game. Waypoint costs are certainly a small part of the sink equation but it’s still required.

Nike.2631:

There is one case where it scales – its free if that character has no coin in hand.

Something that will effectively go away once all characters share a single wallet, I suppose…

It’s only free if you have no gold in hand AND no gold in your bank. If you have gold in your bank, it WILL take the WP travel fee from there.

wp cost is annoying sometimes, but I gotta say: if wping were free, I would never run anywhere. I would be mid-event and wp to the next spot where you’re defending this guy. probably wouldn’t get out of the city any more, just change how I got places.
I doubt 3s actually prevents people from joining killing jormag’s claw.

Mystic.5934:

wp cost is annoying sometimes, but I gotta say: if wping were free, I would never run anywhere. I would be mid-event and wp to the next spot where you’re defending this guy. probably wouldn’t get out of the city any more, just change how I got places.
I doubt 3s actually prevents people from joining killing jormag’s claw.

“hmm it cost 3s to get there but I can get back 15s. no this is too expensive, I am going to have to skip the event”

The only time where WP cost is really noticeable is when doing a t3 guild trek with only 3 people. Also when you are just starting out in the game.

Waypoint fees are not as valuable as a gold sink as they are to encourage players to run around zones. Without fees there would be little reason not to jump between waypoints constantly while completing a zone. Encouraging people to walk, even just a few more seconds, makes the zone more alive.

I used to think waypoint fees were just a regressive tax, but I was wrong, they do actually serve a legitimate gameplay purpose.

Charismatic Harm.9683:

Nike.2631:

There is one case where it scales – its free if that character has no coin in hand.

Something that will effectively go away once all characters share a single wallet, I suppose…

It’s only free if you have no gold in hand AND no gold in your bank. If you have gold in your bank, it WILL take the WP travel fee from there.

I had read that previously so I decided to test it. I put all my gold in my guild bank then tried to waypoint. I couldn’t because of “insufficient funds”.

Funny, I got prompted if it’s ok to take it from bank.

I think of waypoints while clearing a zone as “save points”. Next day I can jump out the the furthest one found and pick up where I left off.

Huh. Because I ran a character down to 0 coin in hand and popped around freely – no block on moving, no comment it would come out of my bank. It may have been coming out of my bank, but it certainly didn’t mention it.

The only time WP fees messed me up was on my first character for maybe the first couple weeks. Thereafter, I learned that even when skint broke, you can kill a couple mobs and have enough for one teleport from vendoring the item.

Unless I am all the way across a given region from where I am headed (and even sometimes when I AM), I run it due to kills, drops, harvests, etc. I actually come out much farther ahead that way in totum.

When hopping all over the place (on those RARE occasions where we’re not daily-ing Kryta events – really, ANet, restructure the dailies a tad, please… kinda getting old being crushed by a flick of his mind), I don’t pay a bit of attention to the cost.

The impetus to keep people running around a map is why my suggestion includes a scaling fee that gets more expensive the more times you WP within a period of time. 3 silver was just a figure I plucked from the air; it could easily be scaled so that waypointing could cost up to 10 silver (or more) a trip if you went crazy hopping from one World Boss to another.

Gold sinks are fine, and necessary, but I hate waypoint fees, because they discourage me from traveling and exploring. Even if the cost is minimal compared to my savings, there’s just the subconscious feeling of waste that makes me say, for example, “hey, I need to go back to that zone to finish searching for jumping puzzles.. but 4s is a waste.. ehh forget it, I’ll just log off instead.”

Waypoint fees are, IMO, detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the game. Move that gold sink to some other mechanic, and let people explore and travel around without feeling like they’re being punished each time they want a change of scenery without waiting for half an hour while autorunning.

You also have to consider that they stop bots and players from chaining warping to gathering node clusters, acting as an economic guard for resources. I do agree that they can be kind of annoying and discouraging, but when it comes to exploration you do that on foot and rarely waypoint anyway.

I still support free ports to capital cities though

So, I’ve read your replies, and this is my question: why would a random-drop item that would make wp travel free for one day be a problem?

Most of you seem to be speaking only as though I want WP travel to be free all the time.

Stormclaw.5031:

Waypoint fees are, IMO, detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the game. Move that gold sink to some other mechanic, and let people explore and travel around without feeling like they’re being punished each time they want a change of scenery without waiting for half an hour while autorunning.

I absolutely agree. It’s not about the cost, so much as the psychological effect of constantly being trapped within a region.

Ensign.2189:

Waypoint fees are not as valuable as a gold sink as they are to encourage players to run around zones.

Wouldn’t attaching a fee to waypoints in the region, but not to those of surrounding regions solve that?

The way I see it, the WP fees are there to discourage any and all travel, as to keep Anet’s server load as low as possible.

Speaking for myself, there’s nothing “wrong” with it. It’s just that to me, it’s unappealing as a solution as it’s not permanent and it relies on getting lucky with drops.

Behellagh.1468:

You seem to mistake the purpose of a gold sink. It’s not a “tax” on the wealthy. I have no idea how you came to that misguided belief.

My belief is not that. My belief is that a goldsink is necessary: I never said, “let’s eradicate all WP fees.” However, I don’t like being forced into a corner where I HAVE to pay 100 percent of the time. It’s a psychological effect of being confined to a region.

Zaxares.5419:

Speaking for myself, there’s nothing “wrong” with it. It’s just that to me, it’s unappealing as a solution as it’s not permanent and it relies on getting lucky with drops.

My proposal was never supposed to be the end-all-be-all solution, but it is a quick fix that would make things better in my opinion. I put forth a suggestion primarily hoping that others would either follow suit or agree with the sentiment.

Personally I would prefer not to see more junk in the loot table. How much is this thing worth? At most 4s.

4s for a full day of free WP travel? I guess you stay in one spot all day.

p.s. if you have a better idea, feel free to suggest it.

SeasThyDay.7398:

p.s. if you have a better idea, feel free to suggest it.

I have.

Let’s not touch wps. They are there for a reason and work as intended.

With the new wallet, unless it’s your first character, you will never have 0g ever again.

While 0 cost in cities is nice the cost in zones discourage skipping by random critter encounters, mat nodes and chance encounters with other players. It helps to keep large areas from becoming simply “flyover country”.

AntiGw.9367:

SeasThyDay.7398:

p.s. if you have a better idea, feel free to suggest it.

I have.

Let’s not touch wps. They are there for a reason and work as intended.

Nobody said anything about removing WPs or modifying the way they work. I don’t know if it’s because people are too lazy to read, but if you read the post that I made you would know that no changes to the WP system would be made.

And you miss the “work as intended” part which encompasses charging coin for their use.

1) They are usable once discovered.
2) You pay a fee based on level and distance traveled to end up there.
3) It’s free in cities or when you have no coin.

That’s how they work, therefore your suggestion about making them free all the time IS modifying the way they work.

SeasThyDay.7398:

Ensign.2189:

Waypoint fees are not as valuable as a gold sink as they are to encourage players to run around zones.

Wouldn’t attaching a fee to waypoints in the region, but not to those of surrounding regions solve that?

That creates some weird incentives where you could save money by leaving the zone and coming back to it instead of jumping within the same zone.

I don’t see any real benefit to out of zone travel costing more when it’s cross map rather than the next map over; once the distance is non-trivial to run the price might as well be flat.

GW1 waypoint travel system was free. However, there were no waypoints in the open world.

So how about making the starting areas of a Zone free or cheap (the ones at the portals) then the other areas within that zone are full price. This would allow you to go to whatever zone you would like, but for convenient travel through the zone you would have to pay a sum or walk.

My 2 cents

Behellagh.1468:

Your suggestion about making them free all the time IS modifying the way they work.

Please read my post instead of guessing what I’m arguing for.

P.S. What are your thoughts on the fact that Anet has no qualms about reducing ALL the waypoint costs, not for a few people, but for ALL people for 2 weeks.

Ensign.2189:

SeasThyDay.7398:

Ensign.2189:

Waypoint fees are not as valuable as a gold sink as they are to encourage players to run around zones.

Wouldn’t attaching a fee to waypoints in the region, but not to those of surrounding regions solve that?

That creates some weird incentives where you could save money by leaving the zone and coming back to it instead of jumping within the same zone.

I don’t see any real benefit to out of zone travel costing more when it’s cross map rather than the next map over; once the distance is non-trivial to run the price might as well be flat.

In my opinion, if someone is poor enough to wait for two loading screens, they deserve that gold.

Anyway, my point is pretty simple. You have to understand, that for me, cost is not an issue. I have hundreds and hundreds of gold (nearing a thousand). The problem is that it’s mentally taxing to think that you spend money for travel.

@TGSlasher.1458

I think you have to understand that Anet enforces these costs to prevent travel by WP as much as possible. Although I would really like that to happen, there’s no chance of that happening, as a single free WP anywhere convenient would make their server load go up by 15 percent or more.

SeasThyDay.7398:

Behellagh.1468:

Your suggestion about making them free all the time IS modifying the way they work.

Please read my post instead of guessing what I’m arguing for.

P.S. What are your thoughts on the fact that Anet has no qualms about reducing ALL the waypoint costs, not for a few people, but for ALL people for 2 weeks.

Sorry the argument got hijacked and I thought you were looking for no WP fees as I’ve seen in previous threads.

And it’s 4 weeks. And I don’t have a problem because you are still charged for their use. The slight disincentive is still there as well as the gold sink.

Waypoint charges should be eliminated completely, it’s just common sense. Anyone who thinks they should stay just want to be ‘politically correct’ and quite frankly there needs to be more people in this world to say it how it is.

Fully support.

^^^
|||||

Example of someone who wants them totally eliminated SeasThyDay. Again sorry for lumping you in with them.