Guild Wars 2

So, here’s a question. Waypoints. How do they work, in a roleplay sense? Does one have to walk up to them and use them, a la Harry Potter’s Floo Network? Or are you able to just use them from anywhere?

Reason I ask is due to a debate in guild chat, over which makes more sense. Obvious things like attunement to said waypoints, contested waypoints.. Those are already understood.

I believe they act like light-weight asura gates. We’ve seen magical artifacts within the Guild Wars universe that allow for similar teleportation before, and in Guild Wars 1 it was an Elonian scholar that created the map warp system. That system worked in mysterious, indeterminate ways, but the waypoints are a bit more tangible and defined.

Specifically we know that the asura gates work by setting crystals to specific resonating frequencies (similar to tuning a radio). I’ve always just imagined the waypoints using similar resonating crystals, but they’re set to a specific frequency. This would allow someone to run up to one crystal and select another to go to, assuming you know the correct frequency (hence finding it on the map).

As for being able to use them from anywhere, I’ve chalked that up to D&D-style adventuring rules. Rather than having to roleplay the act of walking across an entire city to reach the inn, players sometimes opt to jump ahead in time with the understanding that nothing of interest or consequence happened during that stretch of time. I think of it in the same way — you just throw out the non-event span of time it takes you to reach the nearest waypoint crystal.

As for why you have to pay to use them, or how that works, I assume one of the following is true:
- The waypoints utilize certain metals as fuel for their transport process, and it’s been conveniently measured to match up with commonly-used coins.
- The asura that control them need to collect tolls for maintenance (especially for the waypoints in dangerous areas), and so there’s a bucket or a pay slot or something.
- Everyone in Tyria is very unlucky and has holes in their pockets.

So in short I believe that you have to walk up to one to use it, but for convenience and to beat out the monotony we can use the D&D adventuring rule of “nothing interesting happened between your starting point and reaching the waypoint, so we’re just going to skip to that point in time.”

You should speak with npcs instead of rushing in a game in with no end content.

Make a new character go to Metrica Province speak with the first Asura scout you see he will explain you about the “magical matter-transportive devices” more commonly known as waypoints

the first scout you meet explains what waypoints are.

they’re basically tiny one-way asura gates. the fee you pay is, i imagine, to pay for the upkeep costs.

He knows exactly what they are, he was asking for the lore behind them. You guys told him nothing he didn’t already know.

They’re tiny one-way asura gates — AWESOME, right? Sweet, so that doesn’t answer the OP’s question.

How does a player use them from anywhere on the map, in a lore sense? The waypoints just sit around doing nothing until you activate one of them from sometimes miles and worlds away. How can you justify my activation of a waypoint in let’s say Lornar’s Pass when I’m off in Metrica Province? It makes no kitten sense without some sort of time skip as I explained above.

but the thing is, it does. that’s all the lore explanation we’re given: waypoints are tiny one-way asura gates. maybe you carry a device in your pocket, maybe your map is an actual map your character carries around, and the map is full of magitech properties. we don’t know. we just know that waypoints are tiny one-way asura gates.

I believe in the synergetic a storyline there’s mention that the teleport gun is important because its the opposite of a waypoint (transponder no receiver versus receiver no transponder) indicating something about the waypoints lets you localize around them. As far as cost, based on conversations about shipping in DR I’m assuming the Asura tax adventurers for the waypoints, and because they use them so much they get free use of the big gates which we know locals pay for

I’ve always been partial to the adventurers either got lucky in a promotional lottery or purchased an expensive lightweight asuran device that allows an adventurer to remotely access the waypoint network from anyplace.

They keep it on them at all times, and they can just enter in the waypoint they want and insert correct change into the device (that gets teleported to the asuran WP management HQ) and they teleport to the desired point.

However for security reasons these devices need to be registered with a waypoint in order to access it. And unfortunately the devices can currently only be registered from short range.

Dra Keln.2015:

I believe in the synergetic a storyline there’s mention that the teleport gun is important because its the opposite of a waypoint (transponder no receiver versus receiver no transponder) indicating something about the waypoints lets you localize around them. As far as cost, based on conversations about shipping in DR I’m assuming the Asura tax adventurers for the waypoints, and because they use them so much they get free use of the big gates which we know locals pay for

actually the locals don’t pay for it, there’s a (hilarious) conversation near one of rata sum’s portals about it. basically the gate manager says something about paying a tax, and the other asura says “but i already don’t pay anything to use it” or something to that effect.

BrunoBRS.5178:

but the thing is, it does. that’s all the lore explanation we’re given: waypoints are tiny one-way asura gates. maybe you carry a device in your pocket, maybe your map is an actual map your character carries around, and the map is full of magitech properties. we don’t know. we just know that waypoints are tiny one-way asura gates.

Yeah but it doesn’t. The OP is asking for what “makes sense” specifically because few details are given. If you’re going to roleplay something that doesn’t have strongly established lore (such as the waypoints) the next step is to substitute with a community brainstorm.

Why are you always so contrary?

BrunoBRS.5178:

Dra Keln.2015:

I believe in the synergetic a storyline there’s mention that the teleport gun is important because its the opposite of a waypoint (transponder no receiver versus receiver no transponder) indicating something about the waypoints lets you localize around them. As far as cost, based on conversations about shipping in DR I’m assuming the Asura tax adventurers for the waypoints, and because they use them so much they get free use of the big gates which we know locals pay for

actually the locals don’t pay for it, there’s a (hilarious) conversation near one of rata sum’s portals about it. basically the gate manager says something about paying a tax, and the other asura says “but i already don’t pay anything to use it” or something to that effect.

I think the charge of using an Asura gate comes from transporting suplies. There’s a conversation in Rurikton next to the Ebonhawk gate about how the cost for shipping supplies is massive. I can only imagine that the Asura make bank out of the resources Divinity’s Reach ships them through the gate network.

Kerithlan.1659:

BrunoBRS.5178:

but the thing is, it does. that’s all the lore explanation we’re given: waypoints are tiny one-way asura gates. maybe you carry a device in your pocket, maybe your map is an actual map your character carries around, and the map is full of magitech properties. we don’t know. we just know that waypoints are tiny one-way asura gates.

Yeah but it doesn’t. The OP is asking for what “makes sense” specifically because few details are given. If you’re going to roleplay something that doesn’t have strongly established lore (such as the waypoints) the next step is to substitute with a community brainstorm.

Why are you always so contrary?

if you want a community answer, it was given. the player characters likely carry a device that lets them sync up and activate waypoints. that device may even be their map.