Guild Wars 2

Yes, trains. The choo-choo kind. Steam locomotives. The Charr could easily build them. It would break the Asura’s monopoly on the country’s commuting infrastructure (competition is good) and provide an alternative in case the waypoint system ever breaks down (ahem).

Sure, you can run but what if your legs get tired? Or fall off?
It’s also great for those of us who don’t want to get cancer from excessive use of waypoints.

I propose a train line running in a big loop through all the zones, with two or three stations in each, usually at the big cities or important townships. (Skip Harathi. Nobody wants to see centaurs.) Buy a round-trip ticket and sit back, relax and take in the sights. Have a conversation with other players while watching the scenery go by. (Put a BL delivery agent on the train so players can buy hats while chatting and watching the scenery go by.)

Then there are the gameplay possibilities. Centaurs trying to stop the train (darn centaurs!) Fight bandits on top of the carriages! Listen to NPCs tell you about their dreams in non-stop looping two lines of dialogue. You need tunnels. (The dredge can build those.) When on top of the train, type /sit at the right moment and watch as your enemies get knocked off the train in looney tunes style. Then /laugh.

Overcrowding could be an issue. Perhaps limit the number of passengers per carriage (entry to the train is by buying a ticket at the kiosk) and auto-disembark travellers after a full circuit. Maybe even limit train rides to one per hour. Have a photo booth at the kiosks where you can buy a photo of you riding the train. Sell tee shirts for gems which say “I rode the S-train and all I got was this virtual tee shirt.” (The S in S-train stands for Steam, you pervert.)

Once a day, a world boss should appear on the roof of the train and players would have 12 minutes to defeat him before the train rolls off a cliff, killing everybody because the bridge is out. If they succeed, the boss’s corpse falls across the gap, providing safe passage for the train to continue its journey.

Trains are cool.

Nah ill stick with ley line guided waypoints

Okay, but you know those things douse you with x-rays every time you use them, right? Like the scanners at airports.

The smashed up machinery near the hidden strawberry patch in Diessa Plateau always looked a bit like a broken down train to me. Maybe the Charr did try it once but the asuran waypoints put the railways out of business. And steam trains went the way of the horse.

That makes sense. Those darn Asura would want to kill off the competition so people would keep using their products. They’re probably scanning our credit card numbers every time we use a portal too.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

That makes sense. Those darn Asura would want to kill off the competition so people would keep using their products. They’re probably scanning our credit card numbers every time we use a portal too.

That explains the WP charges >:O

Seems like the Dredge would be the locomotive types/maintainers. They already use a variant in the mine cart, they could easily build underground tunnels specifically for trains and work as a bridge for them to participate in cross-species interactions by moving cargo or people from place to place in an automated fashion. And with all the “Mordremoth attacking Waypoints” deal, you’d think people would want multiple means of transporting things other than magic teleports or the ever so archaic “put it on a Dolyak’s back” method.

Dunno about trains , but I thought about taxis, mainly as a compromise for people who want mounts, but without actually adding mounts to the game.
The idea is you can get a taxi to take you somewhere you havnt yet been, like a waypoint you havnt found , or a waypoint thats contested, or a POI that you dont know the location of. (note the taxi woudnt actually take you to the POI, just close enough so you could see it on the map.)
But heres the killer, like real world taxis, you pay thru the nose, and the further you go the more it costs, so its only something people would do when desperate.
Think of the taxi drivers being WOW goblins.
Taxi ranks would exist in each zone in a couple of places.

I prefer the idea of a massive train system with real departure and arrival times based on in-game time. I really love huge machinery, and how it can be implemented into semi-fantasy settings.

I’d love to go on a train ride! Just sit and see where it goes

I think it would be great. There could even be events tied to the train. Train robbers. Monsters tear up the tracks and need repaired. Etc.

It seems very strange to me that the developers go through so much time making the world so beautiful yet they make it so easy to bypass it all. Having train rides or flights through zones would be great to enjoy the scenery.

I’m down, I could fulfill my lifelong (GW2)dream of being a bum hitching a ride from train to train across Tyria.

I hate trains already Rl, I don’t need them in games…waypoints are faster and i have yet to see someone being about to make a mess on a waypoint toilet.

Okay …

Probably the only place trains would make sense is Kryta and Ascalon. Just look at where they exist the most (outside of routes between major cities) and the environs there.

Besides I think trains would offend the asura (both in term of WP competition and technology). It is hard to picture a sylvari being attracted to them too other being curious about any human thing.

edit: I am not sure how the Norn would react to them. A case could be made both ways. But certainly humans and charr would take to them.

edit2: BTW, before people start debating train routes I was thinking they are most often in western game genres. Although geographically it seems like there are most east-west trains in the US than there are ones that go all over the place, the main exception being the northeast corridor where you hit several big cities in a short route.

I think you’re talking complete rubbish. But I also thoroughly enjoyed the post! Terrific!

If there were to be trains (the reason being to show off things that people may have missed) I would do 1 per zone rather than trying to go between them. Vehicles when switching servers tend to be a mess in other games. If someone wants to cross a region quickly they will either run or WP, so you need some reason why people would take a train instead

We have trains. There are champ trains, chest trains, karma trains, and etc.

This… would be really awesome! ANet could run a bunch of living world events around the inception, building, and operating of these trains and they could give players a place to hang out other than LA or sPvP.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Tyria needs trains. Trains are cool.

No, too risky. You can’t go to toilet if your train enters in combat mode. Not cool at all.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Okay, but you know those things douse you with x-rays every time you use them, right? Like the scanners at airports.

It actually rejuvenates the Cells in your body, cures diseases and cleanses your digestive system, which is why our characters stay young and healthy forever and never have to use the bathroom.

Swizzle.7982:

The smashed up machinery near the hidden strawberry patch in Diessa Plateau always looked a bit like a broken down train to me. Maybe the Charr did try it once but the asuran waypoints put the railways out of business. And steam trains went the way of the horse.

Similarly to how the emergence of the cross-country telegraph poles/lines eventually put the Pony Express out of business after about 18 months?

Menadena.7482:

Okay …

Probably the only place trains would make sense is Kryta and Ascalon. Just look at where they exist the most (outside of routes between major cities) and the environs there.

Besides I think trains would offend the asura (both in term of WP competition and technology). It is hard to picture a sylvari being attracted to them too other being curious about any human thing.

edit: I am not sure how the Norn would react to them. A case could be made both ways. But certainly humans and charr would take to them.

edit2: BTW, before people start debating train routes I was thinking they are most often in western game genres. Although geographically it seems like there are most east-west trains in the US than there are ones that go all over the place, the main exception being the northeast corridor where you hit several big cities in a short route.

Any asuran not involved in dealing with the waypoints would also not mind them (Including Inquest.)

lol this is awesome, plus one.

may your thread never die.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Sure, you can run but what if your legs get tired? Or fall off?

I could run from one end of Tyria to the other, and I could be attacked, slashed at, shot at, knocked off cliffs, chomped on, and even body slammed, but my Asuran legs will not tire, or fall off.

I refuse to use my feet, the feet of another being carrying me, a machine carrying my lazy bum etc etc as long as there are teleporters waiting to carry me^^-

Or how bout this, since it’d fit with Mordy related stuff: Giant vines that you have to tame through a group event. You can then use them (until the event resets) to travel across large expanses of forest in a train-like fashion (the vines would move you on their own). And you can let go and start gliding at any time, too.

That would be a cool integration, I think.

I really thought the airship would slowly travel the world. each day you’d be in a different map or city. I really thought it would take place once shiny LA was unveil and the camp beneath the airship disappeared.

I do like the idea of a traveling method that moves nonstop. A major concern, if you call it a train Anet will sooner or later nerf it.

Have it so that player interaction, such as long term defense and/or sustained event completion, would allow for either the construction or destruction(if ignored) of said train/airships lines.