Guild Wars 2

Don’t get me wrong though, I love the mechanic for traveling and such, and Asura gates sure does it’s job, but, don’t you think it’s pretty boring that anywhere you travel, it always seems to be a portal and nothing else?

As an example, if I quote some lore of The Mists.

The Mists is the oldest thing in existence, constituting the fabric of time and space that connects the multiverse together. The Mists is the proto-reality that exists between the worlds which in turn are the building blocks of reality. The Mists resonate from the worlds around them, forming bits of their own reality – islands of existence that reflect the histories of their worlds.

The Mists sounds like a really, really cool place, a place between the worlds, a place that holds space and time, and you can go back in time to re-live it, Fractals being the example here.

But just stepping through an Asura gate and appear there, to me it just feels.. meh.

I know it sounds weird, but I liked the really small cutscene you got when you talk to the boat guy in Lion’s Arch to get to the Lost Shores, you actually took a boat there (Even though you didn’t really see yourself taking the boat).

TLDR; I think Asura Gates is a pretty boring option when you travel to places, make it more interesting!

Edit: Topic name got updated by moderator to fit how it actually is, thanks!

Im sure you would love those cutscenes after seeing them for 100th time too…and ESC wont work.
And for rest i cant agree on any of it, but hey you got your share of complaining congrats!

kRiza krimos.1637:

Im sure you would love those cutscenes after seeing them for 100th time too…and ESC wont work.
And for rest i cant agree on any of it, but hey you got your share of complaining congrats!

I wouldn’t really call it complaining, It’s more like, looking for a more interesting answer!

But yes, I do agree with seeing a cutscene over and over again will bore you out sooner or later, but I didn’t really mean that we should see cutscenes all the time.

What I more meant was, instead of seeing an Asura Gate, perhaps we can see a boat, zeppelin, Charr engine car or whatever that you walk up on instead and press accept to get a loading screen to get to the place, instead of just walking through portals.

I really like these small things that ArenaNet have put into Guild Wars 2.

Well lets face it, Asuras had contract for Tyria’s transportation network. Other races dont have technology to cover such distances in no time, like portal do it. Also, routes to magical places most often lead thru portals, which can be build only by asuras. Gods are gone so they wont be opening portals any time soon.
Even in fantasy setting things have to have some amount of logic, and traveling in charr tank from Citadel to Divinitys Reach would take weeks, not to mention you would have to ride thru some hostile areas.

I guess the reality is that once you implement something like asura gates, it’s there and ready as an option for all travel needed. Most of the time it makes perfect sense – as kRiza said, the asura having a monopoly on fast travel across Tyria is probably not a coincidence…heh. For going to the Mists it’s a little weird, but if we don’t use the method that exists already (asura gates) how do we justify accessing the Mists? If anyone found a way to hold a fairly stable portal to a part of them, it would be the asura (case in point: Dessa of the Fractals).

The ship going to Southsun Cove was nice and novel, but it’s also a commercial tourist venture on the part of the Consortium, so a bit of a special case, haha. And obviously it had to be a ship the first time since no one was out there to build an asura gate!

Add in a random factor, a transporter error.. like sending you to the wrong place, or changing your race/gender/appearance for an hour..

I love them. They remind me of this:

I would be cool if there was some sort of short animation video when you went through, though, before switching to the background image of LA.

Instead of a cut scene. Maybe it can actually a small playable area. A area void of objects but full of particle affects. It would look like you are actually flying through a wormhole.

An Asura gate to the Mists makes sense actually. After 200 years, they’ve mastered not only going to different places, but also to different worlds…seems like a logical next step for gate travel to be honest.

I think they should have used the teleporters from the Crystal desert.

OP let me get this straight, you would have prefer to see a cutscenes when you go through a gate right. Hmm as most people have already stated its will get boring really fast, but there is another way to go about what you are asking. What if we get one cutscene for every new location you get to. Let say you new character just get from loins arch to the grove the first time, you character will than Appear in front of the gate in the grove in the cutscene show you the whole city for the first time.

ThiBash.5634:

An Asura gate to the Mists makes sense actually.

The Asura Gates leading from and to PvP and WvW(which are Mist realms) haven’t built themselves, you know. IIRC, Balthazar once opened a portal to the Mists in LA, but it was never said what happened to it. Did the Asura traverse the portal to build the gates in the Heart of the Mists and WVW? Did the god portal close again? Or did the Asura combine the human god’s magic with their gates? As far as I know non of this has been answered.

All we know is that according to non-implemented guild upgrade features, the Asura have managed to create portable gates, which are able at least transport people to the device.

Doesn’t need to be a boring cutscene like in the Wintersday puzzle where you say “grrrr… when is it ending so I can play”. 1.5-2 seconds is enough to create a travel effect that is not boring.

It would be enough if they just replace the Loading Image with a Loading Animation where you fly through the wormhole like in Stargate. That way we don’t have a stupid movie that we want to skip after 1000000 Times, and still have a Animation, which also loads the Map in the Background. (Which should easyly be possible if they use prerendered cutscenes that just play)

Dungeon Siege III altho a horrible console rpg that completely destroyed the franchise did have an interesting take on fast travel. When you went into the portals you had to travel through weird alternate dimension made of swirly stuff, magical crystal etc. whilst the path came up to meet your feet in front of you. At one point in the game you even have to go in and fight a boss there.

You could do something similar in this game, making it the mists, and maybe even include a couple unique monsters/bosses/events that randomly crop up when you travel through. Would be far more engaging than just going through a portal straight to a loading screen then out the destination.

In the asura personal stories there are malfunctioning gates, random transportations, etc.
Also: exiting CoE

@Rhaps. Oh no not the Causeway?

IMO, Asura gates are Stargate rippofs. The only thing missing is the 7th Chevron so that I can travel to unexplored zones.

I have seen several things within this game that are mimicking other games…and it’s sad.

It’s not a Stargate, it’s a FAR gate.

Onshidesigns.1069:

Instead of a cut scene. Maybe it can actually a small playable area. A area void of objects but full of particle affects. It would look like you are actually flying through a wormhole.

This came into my mind as well. You could have 10/15/20 or so very small ‘corridors’ through The Mists with varying scenery and the game loads during the period that youre running through it. Many games have employed what I like to call ‘buffer zones’ between maps to load and even the most basic games (Fifa 13 comes to mind) allow you to play some aspect of the game DURING loading so its far from impossible.

The trouble with this is….its a lot of coding for very little gain. While id love to see it it’ll never happen =(

Yeah, no.

Most of your suggestions would actually be pretty funny for about an hour or two. After the 500th time you try to use a gate and get stuck watching an animation/event/minigame/random condition you’d be less amused and more in the state of mind that puts fists through computer screens.

Asura gates are fast and convenient travelling. That’s it.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

IMO, Asura gates are Stargate rippofs. The only thing missing is the 7th Chevron so that I can travel to unexplored zones.

I have seen several things within this game that are mimicking other games…and it’s sad.

You mean the seventh chevron as in the point of origin, or the eighth chevron to go to other galaxies?..

Also, i think the loading screen takes long enough, a cheapo travel to most dungeons take a few loading screens. slowing down instantaneous travel seems counter productive, not that i mind either way.

I suppose, you could do something like a mist lobby, and all gates connect here, so you can exit to any gate you want.
in other words, move the lobby out of LA, and have the lobby contain more gates. like Ebonhawke, WvW, PvP and the currently locked gates in all the orders’ bases(i havent done my story, if they are unlocked later, dont tell me). Not forgetting the currently under construction gates in LA.

This makes it interesting as well as speeding up long distance gate travel.
for example instead of Grove → Lion’s Arch → Divinity’s Reach → Ebonhawke. We could have Grove → Ebonhawke. In addition, the lobby could even be designed with some minigames..

You could replace the loading screen with a gate traveling movie clip… same time but different than the standard screen (the one you see when going to any other area)
It could even be different depending on start/end locations.

Horses haven’t been invented yet. So instead of saddling up on Moa birds, the Asura capitalized on the lack of mounts by putting portals all over Tyria. When you think about it, it makes perfect logical sense, right? Sure it does.

Acaelus Thorne.3862:

OP let me get this straight, you would have prefer to see a cutscenes when you go through a gate right. Hmm as most people have already stated its will get boring really fast, but there is another way to go about what you are asking. What if we get one cutscene for every new location you get to. Let say you new character just get from loins arch to the grove the first time, you character will than Appear in front of the gate in the grove in the cutscene show you the whole city for the first time.

No, you got it wrong.

I already know a cutscene would be annoying after many times as I have already stated. I just said the cutscene when going to Lost Shores was pretty neat.

I just think Asura Gates was a pretty boring option to use when you travel between places.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Yeah, no.

Most of your suggestions would actually be pretty funny for about an hour or two. After the 500th time you try to use a gate and get stuck watching an animation/event/minigame/random condition you’d be less amused and more in the state of mind that puts fists through computer screens.

Asura gates are fast and convenient travelling. That’s it.

I never said you should watch a cutscene 50000000 times. I just said the cutscene taking the boat to Lost Shores was pretty neat since the only thing we use when traveling now is using portals.

The looks of portals everywhere, taking you anywhere looks and feels pretty meh, but the mechanic is really nice for instant traveling.

I would have enjoyed a different travel method. I just think it is stereotypical and overused.

Why not have something like from the movie ‘War of the Worlds’? Ride a massive lighting strike towards a big Tesla tower. The effect of someone landing near one of those portals would be much kooler than goign through a gate.

They’re just re-textured star gates. What do you expect? It would be awesome if it were more like TERA, and when you hit one of them, you’d go into a warp tunnel of sorts. This warp tunnel is actually the loading screen if you use the Pegasuses.

Or any effects at all. I hate it when people just pop in and out of existence, add some special effects to that ANet!

Thereon.3495:

Onshidesigns.1069:

Instead of a cut scene. Maybe it can actually a small playable area. A area void of objects but full of particle affects. It would look like you are actually flying through a wormhole.

This came into my mind as well. You could have 10/15/20 or so very small ‘corridors’ through The Mists with varying scenery and the game loads during the period that youre running through it. Many games have employed what I like to call ‘buffer zones’ between maps to load and even the most basic games (Fifa 13 comes to mind) allow you to play some aspect of the game DURING loading so its far from impossible.

The trouble with this is….its a lot of coding for very little gain. While id love to see it it’ll never happen =(

Thinking about my idea, It’s kind of like the loading areas in Assassins Creed.

Acaelus Thorne.3862:

@Rhaps. Oh no not the Causeway?

Oh yes! That’s it. Not a fan? I think it could be fun. I mean gw2 would obviously do it far better than DSIII which is utter trash from beginning to end.

I think I understand what you mean. There’s a certain mystique or authenticity about the more conventional forms of travel; horseback, carriage, ship, etc. in this sense Asura gates seem like a terrible deus ex machina… And they are. But at this point I think they’re far too established in both gameplay and lore to renege on now.