Guild Wars 2

I do not understand why it costs more and more money when one has to travel from one location to another based on character level.

Example: Traveling from Divinity’s Reach to Wayfarer Foothills

Level 3-5 would costs 8 cp (on average)
Level 50-55 would cost 1 sp 76 cp (on Average)

I guess Anet profits on this, but what’s the logic behind this (if any)?

A level 55 makes more than a level 5 so the sink needs to take more money from it same reason your armor repairs go up . With that said if your just trying to get from divinities to wayfarer just take the detour it’ll save a lot of cash in the long run

Yea – I thought as much.

Maybe I should travel naked to save on the costs.

It’s meant to reflect the total amount of gold the character has at that certain level (just like armor repairs) so that it costs a similar percent instead of being awfully expensive at low level compared to high level. I do however find the way it scales with distance at higher levels to be quite weird when compared to lower levels.
After lvl 80 these gold sinks becomes very inaccurate because of the imbalance of gold between different players. The only gold sink that actually works and makes sense then is the trading post fee, since it gets more expensive by trading expensive items.

it’s Anet man.. They have no logic on economy. Better make the game anti-social GG

The travel costs are rather high when you start playing and leveling your first character. However, once you are level 80 and making 2-5g/hr, the travel costs are manageable.

I still think that any character with 100% map completion should have ALL travel costs waived. It’s a reward for hard work, and it would encourage people to help lower-level friends/guildies.

WP costs aren’t significant unless you use them CONSTANTLY.

Hint, don’t do that. You’re supposed to run around a bit.

Hey Don,

I found the waypoint costs to be insignificant at lower levels, burdensome at mid to cap, and once I hit level cap to be insignificant again.

There are some free ways to travel around – use the Heart of the Mists (crossed sword icon) for a free asura portal to Lion’s Arch which has free asura portals to all the major cities.
You can do the same thing by entering WvW.

There’s also a HoM portal stone you can pick up for free from the karma vendor in the smuggler’s cave in Lion’s Arch – this will cut waypoint costs in half when going to the northern zones.

Once you get to a certain point in your personal story there’s a free portal to Orr from your Order’s headquarters.

CoRtex.2157:

it’s Anet man.. They have no logic on economy. Better make the game anti-social GG

What is your suggest Mr. Economics? Keep travel waypoint costs as cheap as a lvl 1 should have?

Or keep them as expensive as a lvl 80 would have?

Or better yet, free waypoints for everyone! I’m sure everyone would prefer that over inflation!

Vol.5241:

CoRtex.2157:

it’s Anet man.. They have no logic on economy. Better make the game anti-social GG

What is your suggest Mr. Economics? Keep travel waypoint costs as cheap as a lvl 1 should have?

Or keep them as expensive as a lvl 80 would have?

Or better yet, free waypoints for everyone! I’m sure everyone would prefer that over inflation!

There was free instant travel in GW. Did that break the economy?

The economy in GW worked completely different, don’t even try to compare these games.

CoRtex.2157:

it’s Anet man.. They have no logic on economy. Better make the game anti-social GG

Insulting the creators of the game on their own platform, way to go dude.

Meret.5943:

Vol.5241:

CoRtex.2157:

it’s Anet man.. They have no logic on economy. Better make the game anti-social GG

What is your suggest Mr. Economics? Keep travel waypoint costs as cheap as a lvl 1 should have?

Or keep them as expensive as a lvl 80 would have?

Or better yet, free waypoints for everyone! I’m sure everyone would prefer that over inflation!

There was free instant travel in GW. Did that break the economy?

Maybe if they were the same game you’d have a point – but they’re totally different

I can understand the logic for repair costs at higher lvl’s (broken), but travel costs should be separate as is does not fall under the same category (technically). We are just traveling.

It just an extra toll booth. Totally unnecessary.

I agree with Vol.5241 in terms of charging a certain rate (Fixed) without any inflation, but hell I am just ranting.

Meret.5943:

There was free instant travel in GW. Did that break the economy?

Oh come now. Not only did GW1 lack a player-driven trading post, it didn’t even have a persistent world. The idea of there being a difference between instantly traveling somewhere and walking there was silly because everything was instanced. There was no “missing” an event because you took too long to get there.

It’s just a gold sink. There are plenty of them in the game, but games need gold sinks. Repair and travel are the two most universal ones. If everyone had more money, inflation would kick in and it would affect the game’s economy.

There are those who would argue the game’s economy sucks anyway, but if you’ve played a few games without gold sinks, that had real inflation kick in, you’d realize how necessary they are.

DonQ.4056:

I can understand the logic for repair costs at higher lvl’s (broken), but travel costs should be separate as is does not fall under the same category (technically). We are just traveling.

It just an extra toll booth. Totally unnecessary.

I agree with Vol.5241 in terms of charging a certain rate (Fixed) without any inflation, but hell I am just ranting.

Until recently, I said they should couple travel costs to the zone’s average level, not the character one (they could just have used the sidekick level system). Since the loot you get in low level zones has been increased, this isn’t really necessary any more. Travel costs simply don’t matter once you’re level 80.

If you travel a lot to hit all the boss events for the loot, just consider the travel as a cost of doing business. Thats how I look at it. If someone can’t make enough off the event to cover the travel cost, don’t go. Even if I go to a temple run in Orr for fun, I still get more than enough loot to cover the travel costs. Perhaps you have a different reason for the travel though.

Hawkian.6580:

Meret.5943:

There was free instant travel in GW. Did that break the economy?

Oh come now. Not only did GW1 lack a player-driven trading post, it didn’t even have a persistent world. The idea of there being a difference between instantly traveling somewhere and walking there was silly because everything was instanced. There was no “missing” an event because you took too long to get there.

I’m not understanding, I guess. Why would the fact that a game is in a persistent world vs an instanced world absolutely NEED to have two different travel cost structures or else?

I guess the main problem is that you’re not understanding the basics of economics.

I don’t pay a single copper on travel, I go by foot. :P

Moneysinks shouldn’t be as hard on new players as on veteran players.

It’s more of a discount for new players than a penalty for higher level ones. Waypoint costs are largely insignificant for any level 70+ character.

There should be a discount if you completed the map though, say 10%

Meret.5943:

Hawkian.6580:

Meret.5943:

There was free instant travel in GW. Did that break the economy?

Oh come now. Not only did GW1 lack a player-driven trading post, it didn’t even have a persistent world. The idea of there being a difference between instantly traveling somewhere and walking there was silly because everything was instanced. There was no “missing” an event because you took too long to get there.

I’m not understanding, I guess. Why would the fact that a game is in a persistent world vs an instanced world absolutely NEED to have two different travel cost structures or else?

It’s not just that it’s a persistent world. It’s that it has a marketplace. This changes things up quite a bit. More, the economy in GW 1 actually was quite bad. It didn’t work for a lot of reasons.

Inflation was rampant on some items where you’d almost never be able to afford them as a more casual player, where as a dedicated player (I avoid the term hard-core), you could sit and farm the underworld and just get free ectos forever, and thus there was a balance of haves and have nots that was completely unfair.

A new person starting out in GW 1 would have to work really hard to get anything “cool”, where as a person who knew their way around kept getting richer. This didn’t lend itself to building a growing population. It lent itself to a bunch of people who played the game to continue to play the game, while everyone else felt the investment was too high to continue playing. I don’t think we should look to Guild Wars 1 as a shining example of a working economy. The only people who could really play it in the end were the farmers unless you didn’t want cool stuff.

This is one of the reasons Anet is against farming over all. They don’t want one group of people who just farm to get all kinds of loot and make an upper class of people who keep everything good away from the lower class, even though that’s happened to some degree with things like precursors. This is the kind of thing they generally want to avoid. They can’t stop it completely but they can limit it.

Farming ruins the economy because it allows a small group of players to control the market. DR mitigates this a little. Gold sinks prevent inflation which makes it possible for new people to play too.

Low level blue gives you 10-30 copper, while a high level blue gives 60-90 copper. This is balanced by the travel costs as well.

I think it makes sense.

Iruwen.3164:

I guess the main problem is that you’re not understanding the basics of economics.

I bow to your superior knowledge.

It’s why I asked the question…

Vayne.8563:

It’s not just that it’s a persistent world. It’s that it has a marketplace.

Well the comment I responded to made a point of the “persistent vs instanced” world as an important reason why travel costs money in GW2 and not in GW. I wanted to know why. Do you think GW’s economy could have benefited from travel costs?

In a small way—don’t jump down my throat that it’s not the same thing as a trading post, I’m fully aware—GW did have a marketplace. The materials, rune, and dye traders’ prices did fluctuate based on supply and demand.

A new person starting out in GW 1 would have to work really hard to get anything “cool”, where as a person who knew their way around kept getting richer.

This is how it works. There is no getting around it. It’s happening now in GW2, and it won’t stop.

The only people who could really play it in the end were the farmers unless you didn’t want cool stuff.

All I can say is, perhaps that was your experience. I’m still playing “in the end” and I’m not a farmer by any means. I have lots of “cool stuff” (imo).

/shrug

carry on