Guild Wars 2

Out of curiosity…

…Do trains exist in the Guild Wars lore? We’ve got blimps (or things of that sort) and all sorts of other Steampunk-esque vehicles, but I don’t recall ever seeing a train or mention of one in GW2 or what little I’ve played of GW1.

Then again, I could just be ignorant and it could be in front of my face. |:

Maybe they jumped that method because of Asura gates, waypoints, airships and cars (tanks).

We see motorized vehicles on tracks, though. We saw them in the molten facility for example, so the technology exists.

I think the fact that there are the possibilities of ED attacks everywhere speaks against the establishment of a long range network, though.
Too much mainentance and mostly a hindering factor (with the other methods possible) in dangerous times.

Solitary vehicle are much more viable right now, i guess.

I’m pretty sure there are train tracks (I think in the southeast of Gendarran Fields for example?). However I am also pretty sure there are no selfmoving trains, just carts which can manually be moved over tracks.

You have tracks for mine carts – that’s what Diovid is thinking of – but there are no train locomotives.

Only ground vehicles we have are the charr few designs of charr tanks.

tyrians don’t seem all that interested in land travel, for some reason. they figure they’ll just send some people with a waypoint kit in their backpacks, install the thing, and get everyone else there from that :P (note, this is a completely unfounded comment).

airships are a pretty new technology though, developed by the pact to fight those pesky dragons that refuse to fight fair and land on the ground so we can stab their toes.

There’s a lot of tracks for mine carts actually. The Prosperity Mine has some too.
There were a lot more back in GW1; mainly in the Shiverpeaks where the Stone Summit held place. Iron Mines, and A LOT inside and outside Sorrow’s Furnace.

Still is a lot of mine tracks in that area in GW2 also if I remember correctly. And in the Grawl Fractals. Well, yeah, everywhere basically :P

Edit: remembered one more, close to the Skill Point with the waterfall and the spider queen (think it is in Gandarran Fields, might be the one you were referring to Diovid).

As much as I’d love to see some leisurely travel methods, they don’t really make much sense in the lore. The entrepreneurs of the universe seem much more interested in the cheapest or fastest way to get things done.

Hype Trains do

They still use Dolyaks to move supplies from A to B. Typically, stories with magic don’t have much in terms of technology because it’s not really needed. Asura and Charr have given the GW2 universe a decent mix of both, withe Charr’s lust for power and the Asuran lust for knowledge.

Koviko.3248:

As much as I’d love to see some leisurely travel methods, they don’t really make much sense in the lore. The entrepreneurs of the universe seem much more interested in the cheapest or fastest way to get things done.

Actually Koviko, some sort of public transport system would kinda make sense (at least some sense) lore-wise.
The asura gates doesn’t make much sense either to us “rich important players”, but it has a purpose in lore. The Waypoint system is not something a lot of persons have access to (or can afford), instead the asura gates would be the main means of travel. That’s also why we have escort events, since the “normal” population wouldn’t be able just to jump from one WP to another.

Lore-wise, I think even Asura gates are supposed to cost money, they just don’t cost us any money in the game. I forget exactly where, but I remember an NPC (human female, I want to say… maybe Divinity’s Reach or a refugee camp) talking about how they couldn’t afford to go through an Asura gate.

Were it not for Mordremoth, the airships would more than surfice. Since you wouldn’t have to lay down tracks, blow up holes in mountains, cut down trees – etc. Too much maintenance. But airships? Who is going to cry when these things would slice through clouds, Zeus? Pah.

Koviko.3248:

Lore-wise, I think even Asura gates are supposed to cost money, they just don’t cost us any money in the game. I forget exactly where, but I remember an NPC (human female, I want to say… maybe Divinity’s Reach or a refugee camp) talking about how they couldn’t afford to go through an Asura gate.

There are two NPCs (Human Males, iirc) by the Ebonhawke gate having a discussion about the Asura gates, and more specifically, why they can’t just have Ebonhawke send troops over to DR and why they can’t just charter supplies through gates to Ebonhawke (iirc, though this conversation could be slightly different). The conclusion is that it could cost a fortune to do so, and that it’s just not worth it in the longrun.

TL;DR You’re right, Asura gates cost a decent sum of coin to use. More if you’re trying to transport goods or large quantities of things.

Interesting question though; they have invented choppers and armored vehicles. You’d think when they have mine carts on rails, they’d also think of locomotives or vehicles to pull those?

Mushroomz.4280:

Hype Trains do

kitten beat me to it haha

Vehicles all seem to be geared towards combat. Tyria is a land in constant conflict.