Guild Wars 2

Anyone feel like waypoints make the world smaller? I don’t have a sense of exploration in GW2 while traveling, which is ironic, since exploration was supposed to be a huge selling point for GW2. It’s still there, except that the experience is lessened because of instant travel.

Flight paths, mounts, running, and actually, physically, moving inside the game world needs to be taken into consideration.

I’m not sure how this could be balanced either. The only solution i can think of is lowering the amount of waypoints for each zone, because right now, there is way too many.

I guess they make the world feel smaller, but at the same time, I welcome them. It’s frequent for me to see people in map chat say “Need help, [WP]” and I can jump to that waypoint to quickly help out. Or I see an event is up and link it in map chat to get help doing the event.

If I had to run / walk / fly everywhere, I would show up after bosses were dead, or worse, players were dead / had given up. It helps us all play together.

From a GW1 perspective, it fits with Lore and the Asura Gates, also, GW1 you could instantly travel from any outpost to any outpost in the same campaign, and swithcing campaigns didn’t add much time at all, so it flows from there.

Way points are fine. You still have to actually walk to the waypoint in the first place in order to use it. The system in GW2 is actually an improvement over GW1. In GW1, you could be in a party and if 1 member went through a gate, it would bring everyone through. Players could get from one side of the world to another without ever actually traveling through the areas between. I like the way points much better.

so don’t use them. they are optional. I think if there were less of them respawning on death and having to re-walk the entire zone would be more of a hinderance on exploration.

We already see this problem in orr where all the waypoints are contested all the time so you end up spending hours just trying to get from 1 side of a zone to the other because you have to start all over again from the beggining.

You make a good point about linking WPs in chat for help. I do it all the time. I just think there should be less, and maybe only in relevant spots, such as; Trading Posts, Repairs, Zone Exits, World Events, etc.

I like WPs way more than e.g. Flight routes. Flight routes might be fun/interesting/immersive the first few times but after a while they’re just time when you alt-tab out, take a bio break or watch paint dry.

Rehashed Jibe Tube.7102:

so don’t use them. they are optional.

I knew someone would bring this up. They are not optional if you’re in a party though. The other members of the group will want you to instant-travel, and if you don’t, they will probably kick you out. So it’s not really optional.

nexxe.7081:

Rehashed Jibe Tube.7102:

so don’t use them. they are optional.

I knew someone would bring this up. They are not optional if you’re in a party though. The other members of the group will want you to instant-travel, and if you don’t, they will probably kick you out. So it’s not really optional.

I have people I party with frequently that have an in depth hatred of WP costs. Personally, I don’t care. We’re grouping for a dungeon, and I WP to the entrance. Some of these people though, I watch…. they zone to Heart of the Mists, then to Lions Arch, then they run through LA to the other set of portalz, zone to the major city closest to the dungeon…. some times they even run across the map if the dungeon is in a zone by a major city.

I’ve never kicked them, nor complained. I get it, they’re saving some money. I tend to go look for things to smack near the WP and while they’re saving the money by avoiding the WP, I’m making the coin back with the saved time.

Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Nope, one of the designers worst decisions in the game. I swore them off weeks ago and the game has been more fun, more immersive, more profitable, and more challenging ever since.

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Way points are fine. You still have to actually walk to the waypoint in the first place in order to use it. The system in GW2 is actually an improvement over GW1. In GW1, you could be in a party and if 1 member went through a gate, it would bring everyone through. Players could get from one side of the world to another without ever actually traveling through the areas between. I like the way points much better.

That was only possible in GW1 because of the instanced nature of the game and the waypoints were actually locations (towns/cities). You could get runs to specific places which I think added to the game. And no you couldn’t get runs to everywhere. Only in Prophecies could you get runs to most places. In factions and nightfall they didn’t allow for that.

In GW2 the problem for me lies in two parts. Cost and size of the world. I actually think the world is way too big. Too many zones to start the game with. Waypoints then make the world more accessible but it gets a bit funny if you are more casual and don’t do fractals every day to have to cough up 3-4 silver for one waypoint click.

All in all the game probably needs them so people can jump to events more quickly, but I think that the waypoint system was much better in GW1 than GW2, but this is one of these items where GW1 was instanced and GW2 has a persistent world. So, I find it tough to compare the two really.

For a MMO however it is a bit odd, I agree, but between events and the world being way too big I suppose the game needed something and this is probably cheaper and easier to implement than mounts and such

Orr is already a pain..without waypoints would be twisted.

I like waypoints. I dislike having to hold down W or turn on auto run just to travel a distance.

I have no desire to run from Lion’s Arch to Cursed shore.

I have no desire to run from one end of Metrica to the other end.

I like waypoints.

I don’t care if others feel cheated because I’m not there to help them with the dynamic events.

I’m going to use waypoints. I would like to see waypoints placed so that they won’t get contested or at least will clear on their own so that I can make use of those waypoints so that I don’t have to run there.

More waypoints please.

Don’t worry, once you get to Orr most of the WP will be contested a majority of the time and you can wade through the plethora of mobs every 10 feet.

I’m okay with waypoints overall and for most of the leveling, but they become far less trivial an expense at later levels, so much so that I tend to avoid using them unless I need to get to a major hub. It really irks me to have to pay out hard earned silver on a traveling convenience that was previously costing me a handful of copper.

without mounts, there is no way i would play this game if i had to walk everywhere at the current rate of speed. even one waypoint per ‘area’ would not be enough, not even close.

lagrangeify.5641:

I’m okay with waypoints overall and for most of the leveling, but they become far less trivial an expense at later levels, so much so that I tend to avoid using them unless I need to get to a major hub. It really irks me to have to pay out hard earned silver on a traveling convenience that was previously costing me a handful of copper.

Gets better at 80, I promise. 4s for a WP to a dungeon that’s going to net me 1g+ is trivial

Does kind of pinch a bit when doing personal story though…. go here, do the story step, WP back to talk to an NPC, WP back to where you were to do another step…. that gets old quick.

Hmm, iirc, if you have no money on your character you can still WP, but it takes money from your bank.
But what if all your money is safely stored on one of your alts? Does this mean free WPs?

Its the cost of using a waypoint that makes the world smaller.

If someone needs help acros the map and it costs 2s to get there…lol sorry bro you’re on your own.

“Hey guys Jormag is up” 3.5s to get there plus 30 mins of mindless charzooka 1 just to get blue drops? NAHHHH IM GOOD

Rieselle.5079:

Hmm, iirc, if you have no money on your character you can still WP, but it takes money from your bank.
But what if all your money is safely stored on one of your alts? Does this mean free WPs?

No, it means “No WP for you” the only exception is if you die, then you are allowed to teleport to the closest WP for free.