Guild Wars 2

I was thinking last night as I went to bed about Guildwars not feeling much of a mmo etc like other games.

I came up with a few reasons the biggest one being waypoints.

I’ve played other games, Priston Tale, WoW , Final Fantasy XI, Lineage 2 and tried a couple others.

Granted these games were mostly on private servers but still felt more mmo and world ish, FFXI each zone is similar to ours being its own area with a load screen between them.

The biggest thing I can see in Guildwars 2 causing zones to be empty and lack of interest in Anets dynamic events which they said they added hundreds of since release that wasn’t well received are primarily the waypoints and how they’re used.

Waypoints in this game means you can instantly travel anywhere in the game to right to near your destination as there are 15 waypoints each zone or more.

What this does is eliminate the need to actually go through the zones unless you have a quest etc or doing hearts etc or are collecting certain craft materials.

The random encounters with other players aren’t there as much because why do you need to go through into a zone when you have nothing to do there or no champion etc to farm?

Point, there is no need. Because once you have all the areas you can just port right to that area like a dungeon or in this fortnights case the exact zone scarlets invasions are skipping everything between a town and that zone.

Also once you are done you can just port right back to LA without having anything else to do with that and other zones.

While I love waypoints as much as the next guy, its eliminating the need to go through zones bump into people and randomly come across things in the zone like a event or a player which you can lend a hand to and help out on your way back to or from LA etc or even do some casual gathering, mining etc as you make your way to your destination.

These encounters are what brings the main life into a mmo eliminate the need by being able to port everywhere on the map to roughly a few buildings from your destination you remove the need to run through a map bump into people and help people out and that takes that random social encounter aspect out of it.

When the game was first released no-one had the waypoints so they were all going through and doing the zones together but once they have the waypoints and areas they no longer need to return to most of the game they just port to the waypoint closest to there champ there going to farm etc or dungeon.

The cost of waypoints also once you get into the game is cheap 1-2 silver each way, a cost of about or less than 5-10 drops.

So we are seeing players port everywhere and not going back into zones unless they have to.

Another area is the fact that each area has soo many mobs and the difficulty of them compared to other games, in other games you level just above the areas level then you can gather and mine without there being too many issues.

In Guildwars 2 you are too busy to worry about the mobs to farm or craft in Guildwars 1 you could go back to ascalon at level 20 casual go through the area with no issues.

Imagine is Guilwars 1 was turned persistent where the instancing would just be modified like or zones and the Guildwars 1 towns.

It would be more filled with life in the zones out of the towns with people going through the zones to actually get somewhere than porting straight there. bumping into random encounters and making friends along the way.

Now looking at these things how could Guildwars 2 have been improved to bring life into zones and more random encounters.

.Get rid of waypoints only allow you to port to the nearest town to your destination for a fee like 20 silver free based on distance from that town, as we are between towns means easy travel and less reliance on zones.

Bring back res shrines as the new alternative to waypoints this way you spawn at the nearest shrine to your death place. -This way death is still handled in game responsibly.

Allow personal Asura portal devices for crafting and limited to a certain number of uses also make them require a fair amount of materials that way you can port to and from a certain area on a per use basis like an Asura portal waystation in that area.

Allow people o go through areas at a slightly less difficulty as you can do that in starter zones already once leveled up so roll that out more across other worlds.

Changing the game to this can be achieved in a living story avent where the Asura waypoints start failing to transmit portal and data information and become map resurrection points instead and the Asura then work out that a personal portal device would be better but comes as a cost etc.

(Continued)

The biggest thing in games I liked was being able to run through zones between 1 destination and another running into people doing some gathering and crafting on the way there and then partaking in a random event that I came across.

In gw2 the last few days I realised that while its nice to straight from A to Z via a waypoint I’m missing out on everything and meeting others thats between B-Y once I have done the trip once because there’s no need.

Other games handle the stuff with WoW griffon travel for a cost, FFXI, Ships and Airships, Lineage 2 some portals and ships etc but they all come at a higher cost than our waypoint that makes you think about if you are going to port or not and also there only to towns not to every kilometer or so of the world.

Sure I love fast travel as much as the next guy as mentioned but it can be too much to be detrimental to running into people that can help you or them on there/your way to somewhere else.

um….no….

Just because you perceive that there is nobody wandering around doesn’t make it so.

There will always be those who take the easiest, most expedient way from point A to point B, but there are wandering bands of players as well.

Removing waypoints will have the opposite effect. People will not come to the zones that have no waypoints unless they absolutely have to.

So, while I respect that you have an opinion, I also respectfully disagree.

No, from me as well.

I WP only if i have to get somewhere now like a world boss event. Else, i’ll usually use the gates to the nearest capital, and foot it over.

I’m cheap like that. Plus, i like to get distracted along the way for… dynamic events, helping a downed player, ore nodes that catch my eye… stuff!

Lol, 20 silver to the nearest town, I stopped reading there..

I like the fact that I don’t have interact with random people in this game, because most random people are idiots.

Also, you’re basically asking them to completely rework their entire game design, because you want to meet more people in zones.

Good luck with that one.

You pose and represent your position quite well but I too, must disagree.

As I wrack my memory from GW1 I recall my displeasure of; if I wanted to take on a particular boss, lets say Borrguus Blisterbark, who was located at the bottom of Sacnoth Valley, you had to:

1. Map Travel to Longeye’s Ledge
2. Run to the gate to Grothmar Wardowns
3. Run all the way to the other corner of Grothmar Wardowns
4. Enter the gate to Sacnoth Valley
5. Run all the way to the other corner of Scanoth Valley
6. And then finely, I am able to get my whooping from Borrguus Blisterbark

My recollection of that experience was took forever(insert drama here) which meant that I rarely did it.

Waypoints give us options. I can either

• Gate to the closest city and run the long way to some remote location because I either need to do certain things on the way or I am feeling cheap(most likely the case).
• Utilize the nearest Waypoint I have open to the area I am looking for, a short sprint and I am there.

Your statement of, “The random encounters with other players aren’t there as much because why do you need to go through into a zone when you have nothing to do there” can not be disputed, as more opportunity by default means more potential for interaction.

However; if there is nothing to do there, then how much do I really care to be going thru there over and over. I get that GW2 is beautiful and all but there is a point of diminishing returns when function out weighs frill(and remember I can always go back there if and when I choose to, for the view).

I think it boils down to If Anet wanted you to go there for one reason or another, they would put something there to peak your interest to do so.
if you build it…they will come

I am just not seeing the benefit of eliminating WPs to encourage interaction as outweighing the detriment of removing the functionality of ease of use.

I’m torn on this. I personally am not really a big fan of quick travel in games where travel is instant. Where I can click on something and go from one side of the entire world to the other with one quick loading screen. I know however that I am probably the minority with this. To me it just kill’s the immersion (if that’s the right word) on the world for me. I know I really don’t have to click the way point and I could do the long run myself and sometimes I do. I’m personally ok with having them but I do miss the day’s of having to go to a doc and jump on a boat or maybe even some sort of blimp to get places. I’m sure this isn’t a popular thing to say but this is one thing I really liked with Wow. I was a fan of the bird routs, and boats. Heck they even did introduce portals for some types of insta travel but it wasn’t as easy as just clicking on something on the map. I kind of liked the need to plan out your trip and think about how to get someplace. This is just my personal oppinion and I’m sure we wont’ see it change in this game.

I get what your saying but when there are times where I try to cut WP costs and not use them I still generally don’t do the events I come across anymore because I just don’t need to. I’m already 80 so I don’t need the exp and legendarys are way too expensive for me to go after and use SP, and making superior siege for WvW is kinda pointless IMHO because you can get by on regular old siege just fine. I mean take Dragons for example. I don’t see many people do them anymore. Personally I don’t do Jormag much anymore because the fight is waaaaay too long for a bunch of crap blues and greens. Sure you have a chance to get a precursor but I mean the drop rate is so tiny thakittens nothing to worry about. I don’t do Tequatl because there is hardly anyone there so it fails usually. The only one I still do is Shatterer because in general I find him to be fun. At this point taking WPs away or modifying them to the point they hurt convenience will just hurt the game in general.

This is the thing some if you are fine with walking so this wouldn’t affect you the other majority of people love their fast travel to the point this is a obvious not wanted feature by many as thats why areas are empty too much fast travel.

If you have alternatives to what would make you visit zones more please do share.

As I’m reading above people don’t want to visit zones because there’s nothing to do there, drops from events are crap etc and it will hurt them making it longer to go places so they wouldn’t go where they want to go and quit because it would be too long to travel or people are kittens and I wouldn’t want to run into them anyway.

Also the fact of anet adding events etc get ignored or go unknown to the majority of players.

Other mmo’s don’t have fast travel and have active zones and feel more immersed with bumping into players.

And what I proposed would mean those people that really wanted to could skip areas and go nearly straight to places with crafted devices or if they had enough money etc.

But this system wouldn’t be a guaranteed granted for everyone to skip everything they don’t like every single time.

Mby gen store items where you click the map and get teleported straight there would work also with this system for 400 gems for 25 uses or something.

I’m gonna have to disagree with you here. I don’t think the problem lies with waypoints, they’re a mode of transportation and if you’ve got somewhere to be you want to get there as soon as possible. The problem I feel lies in how content is dispersed, incentive to return to it, issues with diminishing returns killing the viability of resource gathering and much needed reworking of enemy encounters.

A lot of players feel no need to really revisit old areas because, lets face it, existing content is rather ho-hum once you’ve completed it the first time and the main theme is played out over and over again throughout the game. Defend location from enemies for 5 minutes, kill X amount of creatures, Collect X amount of items, Kill Champion Named Mob in X amount of time, Escort Such and Such to Point Where ever. There’s no change up.

Why deal with that in an area where mob encounters are uninteresting, lopsided, overwhelming and unrewarding? It might be worth it if enemies would at least drop decent loot but that’s almost never the case. Those events that are good for farming mats or gold are quickly nerfed, killing any interest they might have held.

Lets not forget that drop rates for crafting mats are so obnoxiously low players are usually better off farming the cash to buy them from the AH then gathering them directly, so the interest of visiting the area for gathering purposes isn’t really viable either.

As for living world, the bulk of all new added content centers around the same general areas, Lion’s arch, Divinity’s Reach, Wayfarer’s foothills and such where there’s a pretty stable population on any given day to begin with. Or in a whole new area made specifically for the purposes of hosting the new content. Excluding the occasional side trip to finish off an achievement, there’s no incentive to move to another area.

Plus the total population of the game is spread across about 50 servers, some of which are seriously dead. Merging low population servers would be a good first step in helping the situation.

i dont fully agree on what you say, but i do agree there are too many wp’s. they could remove just a few, to increase the bits of walking. keep the key locations, but remove a few in between.

the dynamic level adjustment should be upped i think maybe 1 lvl
if your downgraded to lvl 20, it will be lvl 21.

bit like the OP, but not as drastic

It’s not waypoints it’s the FARMING. It’s taken over everything b/c Anet just keeps punishing those of us who actually Tried to do Events the way they were meant to be done. (and they’re still doing it and ignoring us too when we attempt to get basic confirmation on whether a mechanic in that D.E. is even working as intended).

You bump into other people who are also trying to bump into other people. Everyone else is doing their best to avoid you.

I don’t want to have to run from point a to b longer than needed and waypoint cut down on the travel I need to do.

I don’t care about immersion.

If someone wants to skip way points, you can play with them. There are a few around that thinks the way you do and would gladly run around with anyone doing whatever.

I generally would rather get to where I want to go and do what I would rather do than have to run there and interact with a bunch of stuff that I don’t feel like doing. Since I don’t care to do the stuff in the zone I would have to run through, I would still skip the stuff and ignore map chat.

You are only going to inconvenience me and I don’t care for that because I’m not going to play the way you want me to play.

Or simply they should implant a <<golden mob>> that spawn randomly in each area and stay there for 2-3 min
If u havent use any waypoints for 15 min u get a buff that <<offers x10 more rewards >. by killing that mob
A Norm Npc shoutcast the apperance of the <<golden mob>> and the start of the hunting game .After 10 kills it dissapears :P

Edit: Or maybe it is captured across the lands , by vecious mobs /tied to Dynamic Events . And in the end transform into a beautiful princess and u fly all over Tyria with her rainbow pony !

Killthehealersffs.8940:

Or simply they should implant a <<golden mob>> that spawn randomly in each area and stay there for 2-3 min
If u havent use any waypoints for 15 min u get a buff that <<offers x10 more rewards >. by killing that mob
A Norm Npc shoutcast the apperance of the <<golden mob>> and the start of the hunting game .After 10 kills it dissapears :P

Edit: Or maybe it is captured across the lands , by vecious mobs /tied to Dynamic Events . And in the end transform into a beautiful princess and u fly all over Tyria with her rainbow pony !

If there is something GW2 is missing it definitely is not an NPC spamming map chat. There are some F2P games which does something like what you suggested and it is extremely cheesy and annoying.

I am wholeheartedly in favor of having to work my way through the zones on foot. Once I uncover areas of the map and get the WPs I want the option to move quickly. Sometimes I will plow my way back through killing and doing events….and sometimes I go to where I want and do what I need to do. An example…several days ago I was cooking up some food and found that I needed an ingredient sold by a karma vendor in the middle of Timberline Falls. Now, if I have to run all the way down there just to pick up some shallots…that is beyond irritating.

I agree that many of the mid-level zones seem very lonely. In order to possibly correct this, I would hope that they would work on more incentives to be playing in the zones…rather than taking away conveniences to try and force you to transit on foot.

Just my nickel’s worth.

Not really.

Right now, the main reason why you don’t see people roaming around in other zones is that the Invasion events happen on a 45-min hourly cycle. Considering that these events have the most number crowds, they are also simultaneously the best farming option currently. In between clearing loot and selling stuffs, there isn’t much time to do anything else until the next Invasion event starts.

In other times, the main reason why most zones are empty is that there is nothing significantly rewarding to do there. What am I gonna do in Gendarran Fields at level 80? Farm T2 mats which I can buy by the hundreds with the gold I can earn doing higher level farm-able content?

Actually, the main issue that leads to this situation is that characters level up too fast. Areas are distinguishable by their level, and while your character down-levels in lower-level areas, the loot do not scale to your actual level. In other words, there is a disconnect between the area level system and the character level system, which according to basic design of the game, is not so significant that almost everyone equalizes easily at level 80.

In other games, other-level areas are populated because not everybody is max level. And it is actually hard to get to max level. In GW2, level-scaling cannot compensate for the different loot drops.