Guild Wars 2

Travel is more expensive to do to the event than the reward the event gives.
Either Travel should be decreased in price, or events should give more.
I’m leaning to traveling with less cost.

in my experience, if you are using a waypoint with that high a cost to get to the event, you are exemplifying exactly why the costs are the way they are: to prevent a zerg rush of players every time a particular event comes up. The events are for those around them, not everyone on a server.

It doesn’t help that people actively announce that champions or world bosses are up so they can get everyone around to kill it. Most people do it for the karma reward anyway, and if its a world boss? It’s the chest he drops, waypoint cost bekittenyou might pluck an exotic out of it.

Travel still seems exorberant, especially in scaledown zones that don’t scale their rewards up.
“Do what you want” is a falsehood. If you want the best rewards, you go to Orr. If you want rewards you can’t use, or very small numbers or money that don’t cover travel at all, go do lower zones.

If ANet is pushing the “do what you want” playstyle, the travel costs should alter on a per-zone basis to accommodate. Otherwise, it’s a lot of hot air.

Well I won’t play with my low level friends. They only have like a 20c waypoint cost compared to my near 2silver waypoint cost to travel to the same place they want to go when we’re standing right next to each other.

This is a level 20 vs. a level 80 travel cost. It’s really really silly considering money accumulation doesn’t scale. It’s relatively flat.

I often wonder if the waypoint money tenders are profiling me because I’m level 80 and they expect me to be rolling cash… not spending it all on dyes/crafting/WvW.

oh hey. . guess what. you arent required to use travel points.

I don’t believe they were intended to allow immediate travel anywhere. They are there to give you the choice to spend hard earned silver for convenience. And thats what they do.

There should always be a voice in the back of your head saying, “should i just run there?”

Sardoni.8361:

\This is a level 20 vs. a level 80 travel cost. It’s really really silly considering money accumulation doesn’t scale. It’s relatively flat.

It really really is not. If you know what you’re doing at 80, the cost of waypoints is in no way prohibitive, but it is high enough to encourage players not to use waypoints to get everywhere. This is by design and it is a good design.

frOst.2198:

oh hey. . guess what. you arent required to use travel points.

I don’t believe they were intended to allow immediate travel anywhere. They are there to give you the choice to spend hard earned silver for convenience. And thats what they do.

There should always be a voice in the back of your head saying, “should i just run there?”

“Is it fun?”

Running for 10 minutes to get where I want to go is not always fun. It can be. In fact it usually is. But when it isn’t, it isn’t, and neither is paying through the nose to not have to do it.

I’m not playing this game to facilitate Anet’s economic policy (gold sink), I’m playing it to have fun. And the prohibitive cost of waypoint travel is prohibitive because it takes time, real human minutes spent, to get the silver to travel. Or it takes real human minutes to run.

That should be respected by the developers and I feel like the cost of waypoint travel doesn’t respect my time at all. If I WANT to run, I can. If I don’t, there shouldn’t be a penalty that costs me just as much time to farm to pay for.

Unfun.

frOst.2198:

oh hey. . guess what. you arent required to use travel points.

I don’t believe they were intended to allow immediate travel anywhere. They are there to give you the choice to spend hard earned silver for convenience. And thats what they do.

There should always be a voice in the back of your head saying, “should i just run there?”

Oh hey guess what would be nice to encourage not spamming way-points…Mounts!

Its such a great immersive world I don’t understand why Anet insists on making us rely on the instant teleport system to navigate the world. Also give them something more to stick in the store since gems aren’t worthkitten all right now…

The problem isn’t only the cost for the travel. The money reward from events is generally too low. If you die even once on a high level event you already lose the money you would get because fixing one level 80 armor piece costs one silver. And if no one else is around, which is very common in the higher level areas, you need to warp a few times because you’ll just be overwhelmed by the amount of mobs.

I’ve found it very frustrating trying to complete a small event alone only to notice that I’ve already lost 8 silver. And don’t tell me that I suck at this game yadda yadda, even normal high level events are so filled with mobs that all attack you at once you have to warp a few times to finish it.
And why should I even finish it if I get ten times more money from killing a few harpies and selling their blood? I bet some events sit there for hours or days without anyone bothering to do it.
Events are nice and all but there’s really almost no incentive to try and do them alone at higher level areas.

True Galactic, some of the lower events can actually be harder because there’s no one there and have a higher chance of death then the “hard” level 80 stuff that really is just AOE as fast as you can!

yeah. too expensive. if i’m in iron marches and i’m going to arah… i can see it costing 2s… if i’m standing next to a wp, it should cost a copper. i don’t think you should have to chose between running everywhere or not leveling crafting. i can’t imagine how anyone who doesn’t completely play the tp can afford the crazy 25g cultural armor.

I think there need to be a few changes regarding travel-costs.

1. Traveling to Lion’s Arch should be free. It already is free via the Mists, so why not embrace it?

2. Traveling within the same zone needs a minimum 50% discount. Picking up a few remaining POIs or assisting an event and going back seems extraordinarily expensive.

3. Traveling from one zone to another does however seem fair.

4. But traveling in a low-level zone should be cheaper than a high level zone.

In the end it should look something like this:

Travel cost in Copper = (Character level + Destination level) x distance multiplier (Rata Sum to Lion’s Arch would be roughly 1.0, within the same zone is always 0.3).

So a port from Orr to Lion’s Arch would cost roughly…

Character level 80 + Destination level 15 x distance multiplier (roughly 0.8) + 84 Coppers.

A port back would cost 1 Silver and 28 Coppers.

Porting around within Orr would only cost 48 Coppers.

This strikes me as fair and scales fairly for all levels.

Last time I checked… travel was free. You only pay if you use waypoints to travel.

Look at it this way… you could walk and save a few copper or you can take a taxi and pay for the convenience.

They want you to head out into the world on foot, not materialize at some node, collect it, then pop somewhere else. What’s the point in the world being so big if it only takes you nano-seconds to get there?

I for one love the design as it is. It’s your choice whether you want to spend money to travel or just travel. You pay for the convenience… as it should be.

Every mob in Orr can Pull Immobilize and Stun. Saying that you can just choose to run is laughable at best. To run between 2 WP’s in Orr takes 10-15 minutes assuming you don’t die and have to teleport anyway which is what usually happens.

Events only last 2-3 minutes, if you want to do an event in Orr, (the entire point of the zone) then you have to teleport to the nearest WP (which is hard since 90% of them are contested 100% of the time).

I spent 45 minutes and 10s trying to do events in Orr, only managed to get to 1 and was rewarded 1s….

I only teleport when I really have to (for instance, when I need to get to a new zone that’s a long way away, or when I get defeated and have to rally). Within a zone, I ALWAYS leg it when I can in preference to using waypoints; it’s not only cheaper, but you encounter a lot more stuff along the way. So, for instance, I start out from Lion’s Arch, gate to Hoelbrak, then TP to a waypoint in Frostgorge Sound and run the rest of the way to my destination, and I run from point to point in Frostgorge for the rest of my stay there unless I have to use a waypoint for some reason. I save silver, I get a lot more drops along the way and I have a good chance to get involved in events along the route.

It’s also a mess if you want to check out multiple dungeons, if someone is there to play with.
Right now, the only dungeons actually played are CoF and Arah.

The other ones are most of the time completely dead.

So when i look for people in every dungeon zone, i already paid around 10-20 silver just for that, just to realize that absolutely nobody wants to play those dungeons once again.

I think waypoint costs could be more based on zones like if your in 80 zones make them 2s but in lower ones keep the costs low levels pay. With no mounts you have to fast travel to make the game practical and 2s for a waypoint is a lot of money

ANet use way points to promote there game. They said we would not have to worry about endless running. And I’m 99% sure the phrase “a small fee” was used. That is big stinky pile of you know what.

I keep getting the feeling I have been duped by ANet. Just like in GW 1. If they keep this up I will not be looking to buy a 3rd game from them. Keeping your word is important.

Ashlotte.3719:

frOst.2198:

oh hey. . guess what. you arent required to use travel points.

I don’t believe they were intended to allow immediate travel anywhere. They are there to give you the choice to spend hard earned silver for convenience. And thats what they do.

There should always be a voice in the back of your head saying, “should i just run there?”

Oh hey guess what would be nice to encourage not spamming way-points…Mounts!

Its such a great immersive world I don’t understand why Anet insists on making us rely on the instant teleport system to navigate the world. Also give them something more to stick in the store since gems aren’t worthkitten all right now…

here here
this game needs mounts……… running everywhere is a joke unfortunately not the funny kind of joke

There is no solution that fixes all problems.
3 silvers really isn’t that much for traveling, whatever you do in an area, you should gain that by the time you go somewhere else.
I would hate to see mounts in GW2, first it would ruin all the sense of vastness that the game has, and if they wouldn’t be easy to aquire, it would make running feels like a waste of time, it would make new players wanna rush the game and want a mount.
If you’re too impatient to run and refuse to pay for teleport, you,re probably not having fun playing, u might want to go play any other MMORPG out there

Please don’t forget this same cost applies to re-spawning at a Waypoint that is just next to your defeated character… IMHO it is overly expensive, this is why I try not to die as much when higher levels, but if I do die, I always try shout out to see if someone would be kind enough to help give me a revive.

NO MOUNTS. You think there are too few DEs now? Wait until everyone has free quick travel. Nobody will stop to help you fight something, jump into a DE, interact at all. Mounts are neat….but they destroy interactivity within a zone. Think about when you played games with a mount…you just ran along the road & ignored everything around you.

The cost is simply ridiculous compared to the rewards from DEs in lower areas. It completely discourages you to go back and play in low level areas simply because neither the rewards for DEs nor the drops scale properly for your level. This is not to mention any possible armor repairs you might need to do.

I fully understand high costs when you are traveling from one side of the map to the other, but the cost of traveling to a waypoint which is right next to you is only a few copper cheaper than traveling halfway across the map. In my opinion this makes no sense at all.

The game promotes the whole ‘end game starts at level one’ thing but if you want to go back to a lower level area to play with a group of low level friends not only do you struggle to keep up cost wise if they feel like traveling around the map but the bulk of the stuff you drop is far too low level to be of any use.

I wouldn’t mind the cost of travel so much if I could guarantee that the purpose I’m traveling for is accessible. I have to pay 2-3 silver to waypoint to a skill point that may or may not be bugged? That’s just ridiculous. I don’t have time to travel back and forth or the money.

I used to whine about travel costs but I don’t anymore.

A high average of 2s is reasonable for level 80 travel, especially when used sparingly. Since I’m a cheapskate, I run everywhere on foot and I find that those places that seem so far away, really aren’t that far away once you just start running it.

Combine that with the fact a gold DE completion earns you a little over 1s at 80, and that events often chain into more events, I almost always come away with a net gain vs the travel cost.

This isn’t even mentioning that level 60+ drops vendor for between 40c and greater than 1s for greens or better. If you’re hard-up for travel money get some +Magic Find and sell your loot, people—that’s what it’s for!

I think there should be two options then you click on a waypoint you want to travel to. The first would be the current system, costing a lot for instant, convenient travel. The second option would be to take a “mount” to the waypoint. This mount would move no faster than a player character running. But it could follow a designated route to the destination and while on it, you could not be attacked by area mobs. So in essence, you would still take the same amount of time to get there, but wouldn’t have to worry about aggroing every mob in the zone when you try to run though. This second option could cost a low amount of copper.

Just run? Okay. Please let me run across the entire world map with my pathetic 10% passive signet ranger speed buff. It’s even more fun when my pet gets aggro because then I get to experience the joy of running at half my normally slow speed.

Besides all that, I have a job, 2 kids, a wife, a cat, etc. After a hard day’s work, when the kids finally get to bed, my wife is okay with me playing a video game for an hour or two… well it’s just extra special fun spending my time running across a kitten map. :/

Serakh.5648:

Sardoni.8361:

\This is a level 20 vs. a level 80 travel cost. It’s really really silly considering money accumulation doesn’t scale. It’s relatively flat.

It really really is not. If you know what you’re doing at 80, the cost of waypoints is in no way prohibitive, but it is high enough to encourage players not to use waypoints to get everywhere. This is by design and it is a good design.

I have to respectfully disagree with this point. During one of the earliest stages in the game, the first scout tells you that it is easier to use way points to cover large distances than it is to run. He is plainly encouraging you to use them.

I would submit that since that particular scout is “breaking the fourth wall” by explaining the user interface, he is a representative of the game developers; he is telling you what they would. That point being that the way points are intended to be used to cover vast distances, as a matter of convenience.

I agree with the OP that travel prices seem a bit exorbitant. This would be especially true if if they scale with your level, and not merely with the distance traveled. However, my opinion is based solely on anecdotal evidence, and bears further investigation, since I have no hard numbers to base it on.

Aryto.5873:

A high average of 2s is reasonable for level 80 travel, especially when used sparingly. Since I’m a cheapskate, I run everywhere on foot and I find that those places that seem so far away, really aren’t that far away once you just start running it.

This still does not justify the cost for respawning a defeated character. I never spend any coins traveling within the same map, but I still find myself poor because I spend my coins respawning my character whenever it is defeated or stuck some where.

IMHO the current traveling costs should be reduced by 50% or make it very cheap traveling within the same map by not factoring the character’s level…

I think the main issue isn’t so much the waypoints, but rather that the economy has a lot of gold sinks in general. It seems that by trying to avoid gold becoming useless, ArenaNet went a bit overboard with the gold sinks.

The individual costs of repairing, travelling, crafting and cultural items aren’t an issue. But combined, they make it hard to keep more than a gold in your pocket.

I think that travel to waypoints when you die should be free, or greatly reduced. Because if you are in one of the tougher Dynamic Events… like the Fire Elemental event where you die many times, you will run up a huge bill in waypoint travel. That doesn’t even include the huge cost of armor repairs. Its very hard to get revived in that event.

I’ve kind of stopped doing the Fire Elemental event because I’m tired of running up a huge bill of cost. Its wasted money.

Running a long distance to reach the next storyline instance, over mob-infested territory, often means arriving with totally broken armour, (with no convenient repairer nearby.) This is another reason to use a long-distance waypoint – as a means of ensuring your toon arrives in a battle-fit condition.

The only other way I’ve found around this, is to carry a spare armour-set…. which takes up precious storage spaces…. however it’s cheaper than purchasing a repair cannister. (Or waiting for one to appear in loot.)

Using free tele to closest town and then tele to map reduces a lot of overhead cost…. unless ur just lazy

Because this is a F2P game and in order to make profit and keep the game running for free, ANET has money sinks everywhere to encourage you to buy gems for gold.

@Zierk – This is NOT a free to play game. I spent $60 for my copy. Not having a monthly subscription is not the same thing as F2P.

For me the waypoints cost system is fine, with two exceptions:

1. Teleporting into a low-level area (but not out of it) should cost the same as it would if you had actually the level that you are downscaled to. I have several times detected myself wondering whether I should help a guild mate or not. I like to help but the waypoint costs – 3 silver or more for what? I am usually quite poor, 1 g is the usual amount of money I have on me which is – or so I have heard – not much for a level 80 char.

2. Teleporting into any town should be free. It is already some kind of free (via Mists, Lion’s Arch, Asura Gates) but if it is officially free, it is a bit faster and you have that option when you have died, too.

Guild Wars 2 uses micro trans to make their money (beside the box cost) so they added heaps of gold sinks to ‘almost’ force you to buy gems and convert them to gold.

Asking them to remove theses gold sinks would mean they need to find another to pay for the servers. (eg monthly subs)

Personally, I think there are too many gold sinks, but I understand they need to make a profit to keep the game going.

Because I don’t grid for gold, I normally only have 1-2g on me at any time. And with the anti-farming code (lower drops are 10 mins kill the same mobs) I will always only have 1g….

How to make a game world void of life:
You make fast-travel free or very cheap.

Bottom line:
Sometimes you run, sometimes you fast-travel.

Keep travel costs the same.

Make traveling to Lion’s Arch free. Maybe even the other major cities, just so I don’t have to sit through two loading screens if I want to get to Divinity’s Reach or Black Citadel.

Make porting to Fort Trinity free. Alternatively, once you finish your Story, make traveling to Vigil/Priory/Whispers base free. One or the other, not both. I’m Vigil and that port from there to Trinity is essentially useless. I spend more money porting to there for a free port to Orr, than I do just porting straight to Orr, or going to the Grove, etc.

At level 80 it costs me almost 4 silver to get to a lot of places, that is keeping me from travelling to different zones, on my level 80’s I basically go from Cursed Shore to LA and back, but only when I need to empty my bags.

I really don’t bother going to other zones and explore or do other things because it’s just not worth the cost. The cost of travel negates any reward I would receive.

Dee Jay.2460:

I think there need to be a few changes regarding travel-costs.

1. Traveling to Lion’s Arch should be free. It already is free via the Mists, so why not embrace it?

2. Traveling within the same zone needs a minimum 50% discount. Picking up a few remaining POIs or assisting an event and going back seems extraordinarily expensive.

3. Traveling from one zone to another does however seem fair.

4. But traveling in a low-level zone should be cheaper than a high level zone.

In the end it should look something like this:

Travel cost in Copper = (Character level + Destination level) x distance multiplier (Rata Sum to Lion’s Arch would be roughly 1.0, within the same zone is always 0.3).

So a port from Orr to Lion’s Arch would cost roughly…

Character level 80 + Destination level 15 x distance multiplier (roughly 0.8) + 84 Coppers.

A port back would cost 1 Silver and 28 Coppers.

Porting around within Orr would only cost 48 Coppers.

This strikes me as fair and scales fairly for all levels.

you can get around cheep if you port to the mists and then use a gate to where ever your going , it might not get you exactly where your going but close enough for free

They make money from us buying gems and converting them to gold.
I don’t see them reducing the cost of waypoints.
Do I want them to? Definitely.

Geez! Do a couple DE’s and that’s it! You have regained the amount you’ve just spent.
Finishing ‘heart’ events on a certain zone grant way over the amount of a teleport fee too.

Maif.7594:

Keep travel costs the same.

Make traveling to Lion’s Arch free. Maybe even the other major cities, just so I don’t have to sit through two loading screens if I want to get to Divinity’s Reach or Black Citadel.

Make porting to Fort Trinity free. Alternatively, once you finish your Story, make traveling to Vigil/Priory/Whispers base free. One or the other, not both. I’m Vigil and that port from there to Trinity is essentially useless. I spend more money porting to there for a free port to Orr, than I do just porting straight to Orr, or going to the Grove, etc.

Traveling to Lion’s Arch is “free”. Press H, go to PvP tab, and travel to the heart of the mists (for free). Then take the Lion’s Arch gate.