Guild Wars 2

As we’ve seen in the Living Story, Waypoints are brought up by the characters. I’m curious to know the actual rules and limitations of the Waypoints.

Such as why do they shut off when conflict is nearby, why can everyone use them, is there a size or group limit to them, wouldn’t they make Asura Portals redundant, etc etc.

Unfortunately, there’s no actual lore on the use of waypoints. It’s largely “they exist, and by pure happenstance they’re situated on ley lines because via trial and error those locations were found to be best for waypoints to be placed.”

We do see NPCs use them, and they do such by running directly underneath the waypoint. With LA’s redesign, we’ve seen our first case(s?) of non-sapient beings using them (particularly, a dog). For some scripts, the NPCs will appear at a different waypoint when disappearing at one.

We also know that the charge of waypoint uses is a part of lore – though unclear but likely for mechanical prices to be the same as lore prices – and the way that the money is collected, so we were told in an interview, is a dues ex “we didn’t think about it” case of it disappears from your pocket and piles itself in the Arcane Council’s treasure vault (I’m serious, that was what Angel McCoy told us when asked how waypoints work…).

For contesting… no real clue, but if you go to certain waypoints in Orr they have al ittle device on the ground you can interact with and if they’re contested it’ll give an error indicating a powerful enemy force nearby. So the contesting may be an automatic defense measure to prevent use by enemy forces.

And for some reason, waypoints are free inside cities. Lore approved, since those little orphans scamps use waypoints to get about, as well!

Shiren.9532:

Why didn’t the people of Lion’s Arch WP out when Scarlet attacked?

Assuming the answer is the conflict caused them to stop working (which is really sketchy given how many WPs work in conflict zones like Orr) why didn’t the nobles in Maguuma WP out? We had, iirc, at least three working WPs in Verdant Brink during BWE2, including one at the noble camp. Why are we wasting our time and Pact time defending and escorting nobles in the middle of a battle zone when they can just use the WP in their camp to at the very least travel to Camp Resolve? These are nobles, not regular civilians, and at least one of them is portrayed as having a good head on her shoulders even if Farren is reduced to comic relief.

Camp Resolve isn’t far away, hell the entrance to Verdant Brink leading to Amber Sandfall isn’t far away. If waypoints are real, why didn’t the rich nobles cough up the coin to save their own lives? Even if money was an issue, wouldn’t Rata Sum be fairly expected to wave costs when lives are in danger? That’s got to be less expensive than wasting Pact resources behind enemy lines to try and fortify and protect nobles.

The implications are to actually use the waypoint, you have to be directly under it.

As for “Why don’t they just waypoint out??” My assumption is that sending cargo through waypoints is either far more expensive (We know it’s fairly expensive to ship by asura gate), or just harder to do.

One theory I’ve had is the gold is an out of pocket expense. It’s doubtful many of those nobles are carrying their wealth with them. Just as well, the servants likely don’t have much ‘cash’ on them. So it’s a choice, waypoint yourself out but leave all your belongings and servants behind, or evac by heli/airship. I’ve not done that event chain, but it sounds like a number get evacuated by air and their belongings alongside them.

Contested waypoints may simply be a case of “It’s unsafe to teleport there.” how this is figured? Unsure. In some cases perhaps it’s a manually triggered thing at the camp. Or maybe it’s an auto shut off if dragon energy is too much in the area? That specific part I can’t explain.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

For contesting… no real clue, but if you go to certain waypoints in Orr they have al ittle device on the ground you can interact with and if they’re contested it’ll give an error indicating a powerful enemy force nearby. So the contesting may be an automatic defense measure to prevent use by enemy forces.

I’d always imagined it’s because waypoints were fairly unreliable. A bit of stray magic being fired off here and there, a bit of shoving and they stop working.

Shiren.9532:

Why didn’t the people of Lion’s Arch WP out when Scarlet attacked?

Scarlet is the only person we know who had a mobile working teleportation device. Everyone else needs to physically get to the WPs (as noted before). Also one of the first things that was attacked in LA was the capital gates. That combined with how fickle WP are…

CureForLiving.5360:

Scarlet is the only person we know who had a mobile working teleportation device.

Kudu had one too.

Lost in Hyrule.2963:

And for some reason, waypoints are free inside cities. Lore approved, since those little orphans scamps use waypoints to get about, as well!

Waypoints in cities are paid for with property and sales taxes most likely. Think of them like roads. You don’t pay a toll for most roads directly, but indirectly they’re paid for by the municipality.

Because much of tyria doesn’t directly fall under a ruling municipality, the waypoints in “the wild” are essentially toll booths since there’s no local government that collects taxes.

One could argue that the waypoints in kryta and ascalon sort of fall under the banner of their respective lords, but it seems to me these territories ascribe to a more lenient feudal system as outlying territories, since it’s likely impractical or just plain not cost effective to collect taxes from the very few people that actually live there.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

CureForLiving.5360:

Scarlet is the only person we know who had a mobile working teleportation device.

Kudu had one too.

Didn’t Snaff develop one too? The pocket hole or something, which Logan later used to abandon his team and go save the Queen during the Ogre Revolt

Djahlat.9610:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

CureForLiving.5360:

Scarlet is the only person we know who had a mobile working teleportation device.

Kudu had one too.

Didn’t Snaff develop one too? The pocket hole or something, which Logan later used to abandon his team and go save the Queen during the Ogre Revolt

Ok fine I was wrong XD
But yeah, I do at least feel certain about the statement “not everyone and their dog has a mobile teleportation device and must thus physically get themselves to a wp to use it”

CureForLiving.5360:

Djahlat.9610:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

CureForLiving.5360:

Scarlet is the only person we know who had a mobile working teleportation device.

Kudu had one too.

Didn’t Snaff develop one too? The pocket hole or something, which Logan later used to abandon his team and go save the Queen during the Ogre Revolt

Ok fine I was wrong XD
But yeah, I do at least feel certain about the statement “not everyone and their dog has a mobile teleportation device and must thus physically get themselves to a wp to use it”

Wouldn’t every player have one too? Since you’re able to use waypoints from any location in the world while you are not in combat.

That’s mechanics and can’t really be used to argue lore.

Game mechanics do not = lore.

Otherwise one could argue that an asura is capable of physically overpowering a norn.

I’ve had to look into this for dealing with a fiction story I’m working on; Two Lay Healers from an old ‘RoleMaster based’ setting got dropped in the middle of EotM. So of course they would have no base knowledge of the waypoint system, or how to operate it.

For the purposes of this story, I’ve decided that they will have to ‘attune’ to each stone (preferably touching them) in order to gain access to them. And once within range of one, they’ll be able to ‘see’ the other unlocked stones nearby (inspired from how Ender IO Travel Anchors work – http://wiki.enderio.com/Travel_Anchor).

While not 100% in-line with known info, it still explains short-distance travel fine. Maybe concentrating harder/longer will allow you to target stones at larger distances; I’ll probably flesh that out as they stumble about. After all, they are not Tyrians, and will likely have their own ways of doing and seeing things…

Kalavier.1097:

Shiren.9532:

Why didn’t the people of Lion’s Arch WP out when Scarlet attacked?

Assuming the answer is the conflict caused them to stop working (which is really sketchy given how many WPs work in conflict zones like Orr) why didn’t the nobles in Maguuma WP out? We had, iirc, at least three working WPs in Verdant Brink during BWE2, including one at the noble camp. Why are we wasting our time and Pact time defending and escorting nobles in the middle of a battle zone when they can just use the WP in their camp to at the very least travel to Camp Resolve? These are nobles, not regular civilians, and at least one of them is portrayed as having a good head on her shoulders even if Farren is reduced to comic relief.

Camp Resolve isn’t far away, hell the entrance to Verdant Brink leading to Amber Sandfall isn’t far away. If waypoints are real, why didn’t the rich nobles cough up the coin to save their own lives? Even if money was an issue, wouldn’t Rata Sum be fairly expected to wave costs when lives are in danger? That’s got to be less expensive than wasting Pact resources behind enemy lines to try and fortify and protect nobles.

The implications are to actually use the waypoint, you have to be directly under it.

As for “Why don’t they just waypoint out??” My assumption is that sending cargo through waypoints is either far more expensive (We know it’s fairly expensive to ship by asura gate), or just harder to do.

One theory I’ve had is the gold is an out of pocket expense. It’s doubtful many of those nobles are carrying their wealth with them. Just as well, the servants likely don’t have much ‘cash’ on them. So it’s a choice, waypoint yourself out but leave all your belongings and servants behind, or evac by heli/airship. I’ve not done that event chain, but it sounds like a number get evacuated by air and their belongings alongside them.

Contested waypoints may simply be a case of “It’s unsafe to teleport there.” how this is figured? Unsure. In some cases perhaps it’s a manually triggered thing at the camp. Or maybe it’s an auto shut off if dragon energy is too much in the area? That specific part I can’t explain.

This ^ For the most in the game it seems like cargo uses gate travel and not waypoint travel.

Another theory I have is that you cannot waypoint out of contested areas unless you can find a safe area, the citizen of lion’s arch were in constant danger.