Guild Wars 2

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

Ondriam.9862:

Agreed. I would even pay a one-time (or yearly, or whatever) fee in gems to have a pass to a restricted area with a bank and a TP. Just stop making me load 2-3 maps every time i have to do something.

Do you think this would cause any uproar in the community if we did a change like this, and if it did can you think of a better way to implement it?

Just put the banker there. There’s no reason to hide it behind a pay-gate or anything of the sort.

If you’re worried about players going into Heart of the Mists just for the bank, put it farther away from the waypoints so players portaling in have to spend some time running there, but players who actually left their characters in Heart of the Mists don’t lose any convenience.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

Wild Throw.9437:

Why complain about having a bank in the mists? I would say MOST people can just press “B” click their home BL then run right around the corner to the armorsmithing station and bam…a bank. And it is free, so just give the PvP pop a bank as well. I know I would sure love one.

Someone already put up a good argument point for this statement, that WvW isn’t always accessible. Sometimes there is a queue which for players in a hurry will cause them to spend some silver to get to a place with a bank instead of going to WvW for free.

So, off-hours players and players on lower population servers should have more convenient bank options? And why should players who actually want to play WvW have to wait in queue while PvE/PvP players use the bank?

While we’re on the topic, I think it would be a great idea to move the crafting stations from the borderlands to Edge of the Mists to avoid the bank queue problem altogether.

manveruppd.7601:

cheese.4739:

I’ll briefly repeat my suggestion from earlier in the thread: just don’t let people portal straight to Heart of the Mists from PvE; make them use the portal in Lion’s Arch.

We should be able to join/queue for games, and edit our PvP build, from anywhere in the open world, but have to waypoint to LA and then to HotM to access the bank/TP/whatever in HotM (that we could’ve just used in LA anyway).

I agree with you that the pvp build window should be integrated as a tab in the pvp window, but I think it’s important for players to be able to jump into HotM from anywhere. Helps them find people to play with, test builds on the dummies while they’re queueing. And it encourages new players to jump in and try it out.

I think that Asomal.6453’s suggestion from earlier (be able to go to HOTM from anywhere, but only leave through the portal), would work better, but only if pvp matches were changed so they dump you wherever you were before the match started when they ended (ie. HOTM if that’s where you entered from, or pve if that’s where you were when the queue popped).

Restricting access in one direction sounds reasonable enough – though the current system for leaving matches (can only leave Hotjoin to where you came from; if you manually leave at the end of a ranked match you go back to where you were; if you wait a bit after a ranked match you are automatically taken to HotM) is quite reasonable in my opinion.

Another option: add a ~5s waypoint charge to leave HotM and return to where you started. Portal to LA is always there (and free), but the option to immediately get back to wherever you were is still available – but expensive enough that it’s usually cheaper to have just gone to LA for TP/bank/forge if that’s all you planned to do.

I believe

1. This should bank should be accessed by either ranks, reward tracks but not really gems by any means unless you implement ideas of reward tracks and gem store option so its not totally pay to access

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

I said it before and I will say it again! Thank you for keeping this constructive and civil, that makes coming to the forums very refreshing.

Next I wanted to say my purpose for being here. My goal every time I come to the forums is to create conversation and try to truly understand what each of your thoughts are on a particular topic. Anyone can write “I want XXXXXX” and that doesn’t really mean anything to someone who is not willing to read between the lines. The first question I ask when I see such a statement is, Why and does is affected by that decision?

Luckily our community (yes I mean you fine gentlemen and women) are very good at explaining yourselves and giving great feedback on both high level and a detailed level, and for that I again appreciate you as a community.

Now back to the topic at hand.

I really enjoy the multiple ways that people are trying to solve this specific issue. I know people have been asking for it and that is why I am here. The goal here which a few of you have touched on is that this request actually meshes with a few high level design decisions. For instance:

1. Does this request (bank in the mists) fall into convenience or core functionality?
* Free, Gems, or gold
2. Should this be a reward for PvP’ers only?
* Based off rank, achievements, etc.
3. How do we gate it?
* Time, Prestige, etc.

I don’t think these questions are unsolvable by any means, but that still need to be solved. Many have already weighed in on these questions and came up with really good points.

1. Convenience.

• It should cost a new PvP currency called PvP bank access token. When a player earns a Leveling tome in the reward track, he gets PvP bank access token.
  2. Reward for those who plays PvP. People who play both PvE and PvP can use this.
• Based on the tokens.
  3. No gating.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

I said it before and I will say it again! Thank you for keeping this constructive and civil, that makes coming to the forums very refreshing.

Next I wanted to say my purpose for being here. My goal every time I come to the forums is to create conversation and try to truly understand what each of your thoughts are on a particular topic. Anyone can write “I want XXXXXX” and that doesn’t really mean anything to someone who is not willing to read between the lines. The first question I ask when I see such a statement is, Why and does is affected by that decision?

Luckily our community (yes I mean you fine gentlemen and women) are very good at explaining yourselves and giving great feedback on both high level and a detailed level, and for that I again appreciate you as a community.

Now back to the topic at hand.

I really enjoy the multiple ways that people are trying to solve this specific issue. I know people have been asking for it and that is why I am here. The goal here which a few of you have touched on is that this request actually meshes with a few high level design decisions. For instance:

1. Does this request (bank in the mists) fall into convenience or core functionality?
* Free, Gems, or gold
2. Should this be a reward for PvP’ers only?
* Based off rank, achievements, etc.
3. How do we gate it?
* Time, Prestige, etc.

I don’t think these questions are unsolvable by any means, but that still need to be solved. Many have already weighed in on these questions and came up with really good points.

1. First off, I think that a bank is somewhat needed for the mists. I find myself buying things from the TP in the mists.. and I take the portal to Lionsarch just to pick up my stuff from the trade post then I teleport back. Might as well have a bank in the mists for people that don’t ever plan to leave the mists.

2. I don’t see an issue with giving this to PvE’ers as well, I have seen people arguing that “OH PVE’ERS CAN USE THIS TO TELEPORT TO THE MISTS AND BANK!!!!!!” they can already do that by teleporting to the mists, taking the portal to Lionsarch and using the bank there for free, so those arguments should not be seen as a reason not to implement such a thing.

3. I think people in this thread are over-exaggerating and it really doesn’t need to be blocked or restricted imo. I wouldn’t mind there being a reasonable rank requirement of like 20-30 though. (this way more people get into pvping as well, so I guess it can’t hurt) I heard this same exact complaining from people when I suggested a cosmetic unlock system, people were saying all kinds of stuff from “IT WILL DESTROY THE INGAME ECONOMY IF THERE ARE COSMETIC UNLOCKS!!!” to “ARENANET WILL GO BANKRUPT FROM A COSMETIC UNLOCK SYSTEM!!!” and now we have the wardrobe system and everything is just fine. People got to see that on these forums people no matter what your suggestion is or how good and logical it is, there will be people throwing a tantrum and saying it shouldn’t happen.

TL : DR having a bank/tradepost in the mists wouldn’t hurt anything imo, might as well implement it for the convenience of the pvpers.

[/quote]
1. Convenience.

• It should cost a new PvP currency called PvP bank access token. When a player earns a Leveling tome in the reward track, he gets PvP bank access token.
  2. Reward for those who plays PvP. People who play both PvE and PvP can use this.
• Based on the tokens.
  3. No gating. [/quote]

Lol no offense but a “token” system is a bit kittened especially since we can simply take the portal to Lionsarch and use the bank there. No one is going to use up “tokens” if they can just take the portal to Lionsarch and use the bank there. I wouldn’t mind a reasonable rank requirement of like 20-30 (like I specified in my post above) but a token system would be a waste of effort on Arenanet’s part. I would NEVER use consumable tokens if I can simply just go to Lionsarch and use the bank there so as far as anyone with logic is concerned it might as well be implemented with a reasonable rank requirement (20-30 if needed) for pvpers to use.

Brewergamer.8357:

1. Convenience.

• It should cost a new PvP currency called PvP bank access token. When a player earns a Leveling tome in the reward track, he gets PvP bank access token.
  2. Reward for those who plays PvP. People who play both PvE and PvP can use this.
• Based on the tokens.
  3. No gating.

Lol no offense but a “token” system is a bit kittened especially since we can simply take the portal to Lionsarch and use the bank there. No one is going to use up “tokens” if they can just take the portal to Lionsarch and use the bank there. I wouldn’t mind a reasonable rank requirement of like 20-30 (like I specified in my post above) but a token system would be a waste of effort on Arenanet’s part. I would NEVER use consumable tokens if I can simply just go to Lionsarch and use the bank there so as far as anyone with logic is concerned it might as well be implemented with a reasonable rank requirement (20-30 if needed) for pvpers to use.

That is fine if players want to go to the portal to LA.

There is no cost to gaining tokens except for playing PvP. If pvp or pve players want to go to LA, that is fine. But that is extra loading time for them.

As I said, the tokens will be rewarded alongside with the leveling tome. It is a timesink, not a goldsink. It is a timesink which requires the player to be in PvP.

If a goldsink is necessary then the npc could apply a fee as I said before (1-5 silver), if a goldsink is not necessary then just put a normal banker (and tp I forgot) there.
Max waypoint cost I found it’s around 5 silver (gladefall-murdered dreams=5,14 silver). 3-4 silver could be a fee useful to prevent pve players from “dodging” a goldsink but not too expensive for pvp players.

i kind of like the idea of restriction to pvp players.

hey, its pvp zone. do some pvp, earn you the honor of talking to/buying from npc’s.
like you can only buy vigil stuff by doing vigil stuff (or whisper…) in pve.

in addition there can be different npc’s (bank, guild bank, trading post) with different lvl requirements.
or even a different requirement in the form of that you only get access to guild bank by winning x matches in teamQ; the bank by reaching rank 20 (or whatever); and the trading post by defeating all npc’s (class heroes, chieftain, lord…) in the mist.

i dont like the idea with tokens or any currency tho. no matter how i earn the used currency, it will always feel like a waste if you hit escape one time too often and have to rebuy your bankvisit.

could be located at the tower where the 1-40 rank reward npc’s used to be. just to be a little offside.

Revoke.1425:

If a goldsink is necessary then the npc could apply a fee as I said before (1-5 silver), if a goldsink is not necessary then just put a normal banker (and tp I forgot) there.
Max waypoint cost I found it’s around 5 silver (gladefall-murdered dreams=5,14 silver). 3-4 silver could be a fee useful to prevent pve players from “dodging” a goldsink but not too expensive for pvp players.

The silver fee can also be cheaper the higher rank a player has till being free from fee at rank 80

Revoke.1425:

Revoke.1425:

If a goldsink is necessary then the npc could apply a fee as I said before (1-5 silver), if a goldsink is not necessary then just put a normal banker (and tp I forgot) there.
Max waypoint cost I found it’s around 5 silver (gladefall-murdered dreams=5,14 silver). 3-4 silver could be a fee useful to prevent pve players from “dodging” a goldsink but not too expensive for pvp players.

The silver fee can also be cheaper the higher rank a player has till being free from fee at rank 80

Once again.. no one that has the slightest bit of intelligence is going to waste gold on using a bank in the mists if they can just use the portal to Lionsarch and use that bank. It’d be a waste of effort on Arenanet’s part to implement such a complex system if it won’t be used. Just put a bank and tradepost in the mists. Stop trying to overcomplicate it.

Brewergamer.8357:

Once again.. no one that has the slightest bit of intelligence is going to waste gold on using a bank in the mists if they can just use the portal to Lionsarch and use that bank. It’d be a waste of effort on Arenanet’s part to implement such a complex system if it won’t be used. Just put a bank and tradepost in the mists. Stop trying to overcomplicate it.

I suggested that in the first post, then people said “no free bank” so I try to suggest a compromise. I would like the bank to be free but I will gladly pay without the slightest bit of intelligence some silver if I can avoid to waste minutes loading maps I don’t want to load.

Brewergamer.8357:

Once again.. no one that has the slightest bit of intelligence is going to waste gold on using a bank in the mists if they can just use the portal to Lionsarch and use that bank. It’d be a waste of effort on Arenanet’s part to implement such a complex system if it won’t be used. Just put a bank and tradepost in the mists. Stop trying to overcomplicate it.

The issue here is that we can freely travel to and from HotM without losing our place in the open world – not just down to the waypoint, but the exact location.
Adding bank and TP would mean that a large number of waypoint costs could be ignored (by people popping to LA or otherwise wp’ing to use such services) and certain gemstore items/high-value tradepost items (perma/single-use bank access etc.) would lose a lot of their value (so bring in fewer gem purchases/be less of a gold sink).

While restricting travel to and from HotM wouldn’t really matter on most worlds (where there’s at least one WvW map always open to travel to that can provide some or all of the useful stuff we want), for higher-population ones with very active WvW communities the HotM would possibly become a far too convenient stop-off point – this is likely why we’ve not been given them already, and why our Forge access was removed.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

Ondriam.9862:

Agreed. I would even pay a one-time (or yearly, or whatever) fee in gems to have a pass to a restricted area with a bank and a TP. Just stop making me load 2-3 maps every time i have to do something.

Do you think this would cause any uproar in the community if we did a change like this, and if it did can you think of a better way to implement it?

Wild Throw.9437:

Why complain about having a bank in the mists? I would say MOST people can just press “B” click their home BL then run right around the corner to the armorsmithing station and bam…a bank. And it is free, so just give the PvP pop a bank as well. I know I would sure love one.

Someone already put up a good argument point for this statement, that WvW isn’t always accessible. Sometimes there is a queue which for players in a hurry will cause them to spend some silver to get to a place with a bank instead of going to WvW for free.

paying for map travel is a joke as it is, just put a bank in so pvp players dont get punished for not wanting to go out of the mists, your giving us pve rewards so come on, give us the bank or just remove all the pve rewards and give us gold.

Mantheren.5428:

When we turn it around.

As a pvp player that lives in the mist, to access the bank they need to go through the LA portal and then access the bank. Then use the ‘Enter the mists’ button to get back to where they were. This costs nothing in WP cost, only a few loading screens.

So why is ok for the pvp player to have free access to the bank (and return to where they were) but not ok for the pve player?

I’d just throw a bank in there and save the pvp players some loading screens.

A very good point, if you click “Enter the Mists” when you’re standing next to a bank and then click “Leave the Mists” you’ll port back to the exact same spot you were standing at before, so you’ll be standing right beside the same banker. So a player in the HotM is one loading screen away from a bank just like any players in a PVE area would be if they added a bank to the mists but the difference is you’re right beside the bank when you port.

Anyway, I fully agree, just add a bank to the Mists, place it a bit away from where you portal into the mists if – for some reason that escapes me – you want to make accessing a bank less convenient for players in PVE than it is for players in PVP but just add it. There’s no “monetising” or tokens or rank or any super-secret handshakes required.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

I said it before and I will say it again! Thank you for keeping this constructive and civil, that makes coming to the forums very refreshing.

Next I wanted to say my purpose for being here. My goal every time I come to the forums is to create conversation and try to truly understand what each of your thoughts are on a particular topic. Anyone can write “I want XXXXXX” and that doesn’t really mean anything to someone who is not willing to read between the lines. The first question I ask when I see such a statement is, Why and does is affected by that decision?

Luckily our community (yes I mean you fine gentlemen and women) are very good at explaining yourselves and giving great feedback on both high level and a detailed level, and for that I again appreciate you as a community.

Now back to the topic at hand.

I really enjoy the multiple ways that people are trying to solve this specific issue. I know people have been asking for it and that is why I am here. The goal here which a few of you have touched on is that this request actually meshes with a few high level design decisions. For instance:

1. Does this request (bank in the mists) fall into convenience or core functionality?
* Free, Gems, or gold
2. Should this be a reward for PvP’ers only?
* Based off rank, achievements, etc.
3. How do we gate it?
* Time, Prestige, etc.

I don’t think these questions are unsolvable by any means, but that still need to be solved. Many have already weighed in on these questions and came up with really good points.

OK. Why does it have to be monetized for the subject to be paid attention to? I’m not trying to be hostile, but it’s a little disappointing when the subject is jumped on the second someone mentions gems.

This is an NPC not a special character/item/event and you can find them in every city and in some areas out in the PvE maps, surely this is something simple to implement should you actually want to. You’re not having to carve up rifts in time and space to achieve the positioning of an NPC.

This is clearly something that is for player convenience rather than something needed, I’m pretty sure that question doesn’t even need to be asked. This is absolutely a quality of life addition that a lot of people are asking for. In most games, if a player is asking for something for a simple convenience, mostly they get what they are asking for to improve their own experience (I’m not saying going through a couple loading screens is hard and I don’t really mind having a bank NPC or not), so shouldn’t that be the main focus issue here rather than turning Fagin and seeing it as yet another opportunity to cash-in on something that other games would have just put in without chasing that dollar.

It’s an NPC, why should it be a reward, why should it be time gated? It’s just to access a bank to clear an inventory, it’s not opening the secret realms of how to obtain precursors…….

Here’s the simplest solution: Add a bank NPC to the mists because players would actually like it, wouldn’t have to leave the mists if they were PvPers, etc etc. Just give the playerbase what they are asking for instead of turning it into an overly complex issue when it totally isn’t one.

Put the banker where the rank 80 glory vendor was. Have a huge big blimp in middle of zone showing the leaderboards top 1-25 players. This way when those PvP’ers complain about “in PvP everyone knows me, outside PvP nobody knows me” they wont have that problem anymore because everyone sees there name on the huge blimp.

Static.9841:

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

I said it before and I will say it again! Thank you for keeping this constructive and civil, that makes coming to the forums very refreshing.

Next I wanted to say my purpose for being here. My goal every time I come to the forums is to create conversation and try to truly understand what each of your thoughts are on a particular topic. Anyone can write “I want XXXXXX” and that doesn’t really mean anything to someone who is not willing to read between the lines. The first question I ask when I see such a statement is, Why and does is affected by that decision?

Luckily our community (yes I mean you fine gentlemen and women) are very good at explaining yourselves and giving great feedback on both high level and a detailed level, and for that I again appreciate you as a community.

Now back to the topic at hand.

I really enjoy the multiple ways that people are trying to solve this specific issue. I know people have been asking for it and that is why I am here. The goal here which a few of you have touched on is that this request actually meshes with a few high level design decisions. For instance:

1. Does this request (bank in the mists) fall into convenience or core functionality?
* Free, Gems, or gold
2. Should this be a reward for PvP’ers only?
* Based off rank, achievements, etc.
3. How do we gate it?
* Time, Prestige, etc.

I don’t think these questions are unsolvable by any means, but that still need to be solved. Many have already weighed in on these questions and came up with really good points.

OK. Why does it have to be monetized for the subject to be paid attention to? I’m not trying to be hostile, but it’s a little disappointing when the subject is jumped on the second someone mentions gems.

This is an NPC not a special character/item/event and you can find them in every city and in some areas out in the PvE maps, surely this is something simple to implement should you actually want to. You’re not having to carve up rifts in time and space to achieve the positioning of an NPC.

This is clearly something that is for player convenience rather than something needed, I’m pretty sure that question doesn’t even need to be asked. This is absolutely a quality of life addition that a lot of people are asking for. In most games, if a player is asking for something for a simple convenience, mostly they get what they are asking for to improve their own experience (I’m not saying going through a couple loading screens is hard and I don’t really mind having a bank NPC or not), so shouldn’t that be the main focus issue here rather than turning Fagin and seeing it as yet another opportunity to cash-in on something that other games would have just put in without chasing that dollar.

It’s an NPC, why should it be a reward, why should it be time gated? It’s just to access a bank to clear an inventory, it’s not opening the secret realms of how to obtain precursors…….

Here’s the simplest solution: Add a bank NPC to the mists because players would actually like it, wouldn’t have to leave the mists if they were PvPers, etc etc. Just give the playerbase what they are asking for instead of turning it into an overly complex issue when it totally isn’t one.

Because it is a free bank. Players can just port to HoTM and go straight back to the last place they went to.

runeblade.7514:

Because it is a free bank. Players can just port to HoTM and go straight back to the last place they went to.

… And the same can be done by porting into WvW, but I haven’t seen anyone EVER complain about that. Like, not even being sarcastic. I have yet to see one complaint about it. Look, we’re back to square two!

This is getting ridiculous. Is there some kind of deeper issue here? Does it really upset people that much to see PvP players get something that both PvE and WvW already have in their chosen game mode map(s)? I don’t understand why people continually overcomplicate the issue and bring all of this other garbage into it. Seriously.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

1. Does this request (bank in the mists) fall into convenience or core functionality?
* Free, Gems, or gold
2. Should this be a reward for PvP’ers only?
* Based off rank, achievements, etc.
3. How do we gate it?
* Time, Prestige, etc.

To prevent anyone form just coming to PvP to get to the bank, avoiding the cost of waypointing I think that it sho be in a secluded area, like Royal Terrace. It would require a PvP players key to access. You would have to get the key made at some vendor in PvP, perhaps the Arena vendor. It would cost 20g and take 24 hours to be made.
Ingredients
1. Gift of PvP (You would get this at rank 20, 25 or 30 chest)
2. Broken Key (End reward in a PvP track, along side some other random items)
3. 4 Mystic clovers (Reward in pretty much all PvP tracks)

You could also put a trading post in there, it would be nice.

Stephapanda.5804:

runeblade.7514:

Because it is a free bank. Players can just port to HoTM and go straight back to the last place they went to.

... And the same can be done by porting into WvW, but I haven’t seen anyone EVER complain about that. Like, not even being sarcastic. I have yet to see one complaint about it. Look, we’re back to square two!

Actually WvW has been brought up several times in this thread - on the higher population servers, at peak times, all four WvW maps with bank/crafting/TP/forge access are usually full and require queueing. The worlds with the most players *would* gain quite a lot from this particular don’t-lose-your-map-position bank.

Add to that the fact that in all maps apart from home borderlands, it’s entirely possible that your bank won’t be accessible due to lack of upgrade/enemy holding keep (and that the mystic forge isn’t guaranteed in[b]any[b] map...) and it becomes much more relevant that there would be permanent, free, always-available banking and forging and whatever else we got in the HotM.

Really, unless we pay for it (ewwww no, I hate this, please no) or we filter by PvP rank (which won’t really help; it really doesn’t take that long to hit 80 now), the only way to stop people from using HotM as just a use-anywhere banking/forging station is to gate entry or exit from it. This can be by charging to enter or leave (which doesn’t fix the ’get back to exactly where you started’ problem) or by only letting them freely move in one direction (can enter from anywhere/leave to LA or can only get in through LA/leave to... LA).

My favourite solution is definitely to allow players to enter from anywhere in the open world, but only leave to Lion’s Arch - through the portal in the HotM, or through the button in the PvP window that currently returns players to their previous location.
It makes it impossible to just pop in to ’use the facilities’ (and those who try to will just end up in LA where everything already is anyway), but regular customers who are there for PvP won’t have the inconvenience of mapping out and in again whenever they want to manage their inventories.

EDIT: oh, I forgot about the other method that’s been suggested - give PvP players tokens through reward tracks with which to access HotM conveniences. I’m against this because it’s unnecessary hassle, and would be a nuisance to balance - how many matches/how frequently in each track do these tokens get awarded? How many uses do they have/how long do they stay valid for once used? I don’t feel that it’s worth the effort of making bank access ’fair’ through this system when there are, in my opinion, much simpler ways to go about it.

I think making it available by rank would be a good approach. (sorry if someone already suggested it)

Why this is better than making it cost gems, less uproar from the community, and it pretty much says “Hey this is a PvP area, if you PvP it’s good for you”.

Maybe rank 50 and up get the use of bank npc’s.

Another possible example would be to remove the “leave the mists” button, but that for me impacts more people than just your PvE player, it impacts the PvP player as well. My suggestion would simply reward the pvp oriented person for using the game mode.

Static.9841:

OK. Why does it have to be monetized for the subject to be paid attention to? …. [sic]

You’re ignoring the fact that this is a BtP game. Things like bank access gem items are what enables it to be a non subscription game. As such it has to be looked at in ways that convenience = gems. That’s standard business practice, and the company wouldn’t survive without thinking like that.

This would be PURE convenience for PvE players as they get free bank access from anywhere in the world.
This would be a much needed addition to PvP players as they must leave their instance to get to a bank.

I’m not going to repeat my suggestion, but there are suggestions out there now that resolve some of Hugh’s questions.

Actually, things like bank access gem items are only what enables it to be a non-subscription game BECAUSE Anet fosters that idea, nourishes it, and upholds it.

If you take a step back and look at GW1, also made by Anet and also published by NCSoft, they didn’t actually have a “Gem Store” until much further into the life of the game (well beyond where GW2 is now). Of course, they did make up for that by having expansions coming out so they were effectively releasing a new game every so often using the same engine, duplicating models and then tweaking slightly. They also added new weapons, professions, and models/races/skills with each expansion.

Now, I’m not saying that GW2 should have expansions and follow the same business model, but I am saying that I feel the reason why GW2 is so reliant on Gem Store purchases (notably “deals” that aren’t actually in the players favor) is because they choose to, not because they’re BtP.

Back on topic, as a PvE players with easy access to my borderlands (which is the only one with a bank unless you have keep upgrades), I would like a bank in PvP for when I do PvP. I like to keep my inventory clean so when I rank up (or get a reward chest), I usually get one or two items that can be put in my bank instead of deposited, and I would enjoy doing that.

As a PvE player who has been on a world where there is a queue, I can see it as being unreasonably easy if there was a Bank or TP in the PvP area.

Perhaps a best of both worlds, as far as the ideas in this thread, could be (although this could potentially use a lot of server resources):

• Within 5 minutes of entering the map from any non-Major City, you can talk to the bank… but… (note: You can talk to the bank after 5 minutes have passed as well, you simply don’t get the “debuff”.)
• If you talk to the bank you lose access to the “Return to PvE” button for the remainder of your 5 minutes.
• This can be bypassed by relogging (1.5 load screens).
• You can leave the Mists to LA.

The reason for this specific suggestion is that in 5 minutes, even the slow machines will have been able to load, so if you’re in the Mists for 5+ minutes, you’re there to PvP, test out builds, or research/hang out. In that case, it’s justifiable that you can access the Bank.
After 5 minutes have passed (heck, earlier than this), you are effectively wasting time if you’re trying to be cheap and efficient.
The part about coming from any Major City is to denote that the player HAD access to Banks before joining the Mists. There are Bank/Crafting zones outside of Major Cities, but that would take more effort to narrow down.
If you enter the Mists through PvP (or TO PvP), this doesn’t affect you at all. If you came from a PvP match, you won’t even get the debuff.

And you could add in the Mystic Forge again.

cheese.4739:

Stephapanda.5804:

runeblade.7514:

Because it is a free bank. Players can just port to HoTM and go straight back to the last place they went to.

… And the same can be done by porting into WvW, but I haven’t seen anyone EVER complain about that. Like, not even being sarcastic. I have yet to see one complaint about it. Look, we’re back to square two!

Actually WvW has been brought up several times in this thread – on the higher population servers, at peak times, all four WvW maps with bank/crafting/TP/forge access are usually full and require queueing. The worlds with the most players would gain quite a lot from this particular don’t-lose-your-map-position bank.

Add to that the fact that in all maps apart from home borderlands, it’s entirely possible that your bank won’t be accessible due to lack of upgrade/enemy holding keep (and that the mystic forge isn’t guaranteed in[b]any[b] map…) and it becomes much more relevant that there would be permanent, free, always-available banking and forging and whatever else we got in the HotM.

Thank you for your response, but I am on a t1 server that is “full” and the only time we have full queues for all 4 maps is on reset and that’s only for a couple of hours at most. Also, purchasing the bank npc in keeps/holding them is not necessary to gain access to a “free bank”, since all borderlands have a guild bank npc at spawn that you can access your personal bank from.

If I recall correctly, the bank is only available at “Your World’s Borderlands”.

Esplen.3940:

If I recall correctly, the bank is only available at “Your World’s Borderlands”.

Esplen.3940:

If I recall correctly, the bank is only available at “Your World’s Borderlands”.

You can access your personal bank through any Guild Registrar NPC (provided you are in a guild with a guild bank). All 4 main WvW maps have ways to access your bank without leaving the protected area. The only time all 4 maps have a queue (usually) is at reset night on t1 servers, and even then not for all that long. So the average player would be unable to access their bank through these methods something like <.1% of the time. So what’s the problem with giving this same access to PvP?

I’d like to add that adding a bank to PvP does not devalue bank items in PvE. Bank items have the advantage of having 0 loading screens, and do not detract any time from whatever activity you were doing beforehand. As has been said before, players who are willing to go through loading screens for free bank access already do so through WvW.

Alrighty then, maybe I’ll stop going to my borderlands and running to the Tailoring Station.

Sins: I totally didn’t know about the Guild Registrar having personal bank access - thanks for that!

Can folks remember what things were like during the WvW seasons, though? Queues were definitely up much more often during those, though I can’t really remember by how much.

I may be missing something but I always thought it was just an oversight that there wasnt a bank, instead of something that was intentionally left out. I mean, wvw players have it without any kind of cost/requirement, even though its free for them to leave wvw and go to a city, so why are spvp players treated differently.

If its a matter of people skipping the gold sink associated with waypoints (and be serious, its going to be like .01% of the population that even bothers to go to spvp to save that 3s), just make it cost a waypoint charge to go to the mists from anywhere outside the cities.

If anything is done with gems it should be like the royal terrace but in the mists, where you have every vendor/crafting station/ect all right next to each other that you can port to. But a standard banker/TP npc should be somewhere for free.

Sins.4782:

I’d like to add that adding a bank to PvP does not devalue bank items in PvE. Bank items have the advantage of having 0 loading screens, and do not detract any time from whatever activity you were doing beforehand.

More importantly, bank items and TP access items don’t kick you out of instances like dungeons or fractals, which porting to the Mists would.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

These are awesome suggestions. Thanks for keeping it civil and constructive.

Marcos.3690:

ens.9854:

Okay bank just for rank 80 pvp’ers

Special hub in the mists for rank 80s. Includes trading post and bank

What are you trying to accomplish by gating this special area by player rank?

To actually give r80 a meaning. Currently it’s worthless and was given to the community. With this, current 80’s would actually feel some self worth as well as give others a reason to continue in pvp so that they can one day reap the rewards as well.

cheese.4739:

Brewergamer.8357:

Once again.. no one that has the slightest bit of intelligence is going to waste gold on using a bank in the mists if they can just use the portal to Lionsarch and use that bank. It’d be a waste of effort on Arenanet’s part to implement such a complex system if it won’t be used. Just put a bank and tradepost in the mists. Stop trying to overcomplicate it.

The issue here is that we can freely travel to and from HotM without losing our place in the open world – not just down to the waypoint, but the exact location.
Adding bank and TP would mean that a large number of waypoint costs could be ignored (by people popping to LA or otherwise wp’ing to use such services) and certain gemstore items/high-value tradepost items (perma/single-use bank access etc.) would lose a lot of their value (so bring in fewer gem purchases/be less of a gold sink).

While restricting travel to and from HotM wouldn’t really matter on most worlds (where there’s at least one WvW map always open to travel to that can provide some or all of the useful stuff we want), for higher-population ones with very active WvW communities the HotM would possibly become a far too convenient stop-off point – this is likely why we’ve not been given them already, and why our Forge access was removed.

I remember when people like you were telling me “NO!!! COSMETIC UNLOCKS WOULD MAKE ARENANET GO BANKRUPT IRL!!!!” we have the wardrobe system and everything is going fine.

Once again, people can ALREADY teleport to the mists and use the Lionsarch portal to get instant, free access to a bank and trade post. Your argument is once again invalid.

EDIT: I wanted to also include that people can also already teleport to WvW and get instant, free access to a bank and tradepost.

Stephapanda.5804:

Esplen.3940:

If I recall correctly, the bank is only available at “Your World’s Borderlands”.

Ahh yes I should have brought this up, people can already teleport to wvw and get instant access to a bank/TP. So there is really no logical reason as to why it should not be in the mists as well.

The people that are screaming “NO IT’LL DESTROY THE INGAME ECONOMY!!!!!!” obviously have not been informed that you can already do this in wvw, and the games economy is just fine.

manveruppd.7601:

Sins.4782:

I’d like to add that adding a bank to PvP does not devalue bank items in PvE. Bank items have the advantage of having 0 loading screens, and do not detract any time from whatever activity you were doing beforehand.

More importantly, bank items and TP access items don’t kick you out of instances like dungeons or fractals, which porting to the Mists would.

Interestingly enough, you can go from a dungeon instance you opened to a world vs world map, bank, leave via the ‘leave wvw’ button, and you’ll show up just outside the dungeon entrance. Upon re-entering the dungeon you’ll find your instance never closed.

Probably works the same way for HotM, but idk.

-EDIT- Not sure if it works this way in fractals, but it certainly does for traditional dungeons.

A PvE person while doing PvE stuff > must uses 1 loading scrren (pay some money) and teleport in a main city . Or uses 2 loading screens > Mist then LA

A WvWvW person must go in a ’’SPECIFIC’’ boardeline to use the TP +bank and then go back in his boardenline he wants to have fun .

A PvP person must have everything for free and with no loading screens ?
Nope…. as other ppl have said > the road to LA is free

Killthehealersffs.8940:

A PvE person while doing PvE stuff > must uses 1 loading scrren (pay some money) and teleport in a main city . Or uses 2 loading screens > Mist then LA

A WvWvW person must go in a ’’SPECIFIC’’ boardeline to use the TP +bank and then go back in his boardenline he wants to have fun .

A PvP person must have everything for free and with no loading screens ?
Nope…. as other ppl have said > the road to LA is free

All borderlands have a trade post and a bank. You are VERY uninformed and need to actually discover things before you go posting acting like you know things when you don’t.

Brewergamer.8357:

Killthehealersffs.8940:

A PvE person while doing PvE stuff > must uses 1 loading scrren (pay some money) and teleport in a main city . Or uses 2 loading screens > Mist then LA

A WvWvW person must go in a ’’SPECIFIC’’ boardeline to use the TP +bank and then go back in his boardenline he wants to have fun .

A PvP person must have everything for free and with no loading screens ?
Nope…. as other ppl have said > the road to LA is free

All borderlands have a trade post and a bank. You are VERY uninformed and need to actually discover things before you go posting acting like you know things when you don’t.

Oh i am sorry …
Atleast my i am not one of these ’’dudes’’ that know that they can can use the free WvWvW/LA TP +bank and they are against the the monorized convenience , while the core functionality is free :PPP

Edit : Try to understand my point of view…
1) If they dont create goldsinks > then they will reduce the Silver coins rewards > then it will hard enought for the PvPers to trade gold for gems …
2) Withought goldsinks > then all traits + amulets will gold 5 g (even 8-10 gold in the future)….

Stop seeing the ’’Now’’ and try to immagine the ‘’Worst Future Senario’’ in everything ….

This is extremely ridiculous and I have yet to see a decent argument against adding a banker in the mists. All I have seen is uneducated posts with misinformation and sketchy speculation. Players do not have to pay for a banker in WvW or PvE, so why should sPvP players have to pay silver to use a bank? That is kittening ridiculous and the majority of players posting an argument against it are PvE players who do not give a kitten about what happens with sPvP players or their convenience.

For any other people who want to skim the first page and ignore the rest to make a misinformed post about the free bank in WvW: you are already able to enter into WvW on ANY (!!!!!!!) borderland and have access to a bank and trading post. This does NOT ONLY APPLY to home borderland.

Also, the loading screen “argument” is extremely stupid and adds nothing to the discussion. sPvP players sit through tons of loading screens already to enter and leave matches, if you were unaware.

Stop trying to shaft sPvP players out of a bank, every other game mode has at least one on their major map(s). PvE players can already go to WvW and sit through the SAME EXACT AMOUNT of loading screens to enter and exit as they would in heart of the mists. Why don’t the PvE players in this thread go crusade against the WvW free bank AND trading post if you’re so concerned about the in-game economy and gold sinks.

We (the PvEers)are united with the WvWvWers , aginst the evil PvPers !

It not cool that we have gold sink (consumable foods+gear up alts+use WP cost) + more loading screen and more miles to walk (back and forth from the town/wvwvw starting areas > to in the heat of the battle/farming spot) , while the evil PvPers have everthing in few steps !

Fine i will stop talking in the thread
But in the future when the traits will cost 8-10 gold , and the winning rewards will be the same 15-25 silver , you will be forced to play x1,5 game more than now (and the prices will bel climbing) .
In the same time it will hurt new player and you wont be able to farm silver for the gold>gem trade

( but in the same time , if free trials will arrive here , then it will force them to buy the game and use the PvE to unlock the new Traits , hmm :P.
If the new traits will be few and spacy (like the introduction of LoL characters) , then they will not whine much . But if they cost too much and they will introduced too fast , then they will blame the game as asian money grind/grab.
But still … less traits = more ’’stale’’ game …
While a ‘’too fast’’ trait introduction , with less gold needed will effect the balance … )

cheese.4739:

Stephapanda.5804:

runeblade.7514:

Because it is a free bank. Players can just port to HoTM and go straight back to the last place they went to.

… And the same can be done by porting into WvW, but I haven’t seen anyone EVER complain about that. Like, not even being sarcastic. I have yet to see one complaint about it. Look, we’re back to square two!

Actually WvW has been brought up several times in this thread – on the higher population servers, at peak times, all four WvW maps with bank/crafting/TP/forge access are usually full and require queueing. The worlds with the most players would gain quite a lot from this particular don’t-lose-your-map-position bank.

Add to that the fact that in all maps apart from home borderlands, it’s entirely possible that your bank won’t be accessible due to lack of upgrade/enemy holding keep (and that the mystic forge isn’t guaranteed in[b]any[b] map…) and it becomes much more relevant that there would be permanent, free, always-available banking and forging and whatever else we got in the HotM.

Really, unless we pay for it (ewwww no, I hate this, please no) or we filter by PvP rank (which won’t really help; it really doesn’t take that long to hit 80 now), the only way to stop people from using HotM as just a use-anywhere banking/forging station is to gate entry or exit from it. This can be by charging to enter or leave (which doesn’t fix the ‘get back to exactly where you started’ problem) or by only letting them freely move in one direction (can enter from anywhere/leave to LA or can only get in through LA/leave to… LA).

My favourite solution is definitely to allow players to enter from anywhere in the open world, but only leave to Lion’s Arch – through the portal in the HotM, or through the button in the PvP window that currently returns players to their previous location.
It makes it impossible to just pop in to ‘use the facilities’ (and those who try to will just end up in LA where everything already is anyway), but regular customers who are there for PvP won’t have the inconvenience of mapping out and in again whenever they want to manage their inventories.

EDIT: oh, I forgot about the other method that’s been suggested – give PvP players tokens through reward tracks with which to access HotM conveniences. I’m against this because it’s unnecessary hassle, and would be a nuisance to balance – how many matches/how frequently in each track do these tokens get awarded? How many uses do they have/how long do they stay valid for once used? I don’t feel that it’s worth the effort of making bank access ‘fair’ through this system when there are, in my opinion, much simpler ways to go about it.

That + it will make HoTM a PvE hub.

HoTM should be a PvP only hub.

It’s annoying at most, yeah having to leave to clear a full inv of shards,clovers, boxes ect… but hugh is secretly working on a deathmatch game mode so i don’t think he should be bothered

Brewergamer.8357:

cheese.4739:

The issue here is that we can freely travel to and from HotM without losing our place in the open world - not just down to the waypoint, but the exact location.
Adding bank and TP would mean that a large number of waypoint costs could be ignored (by people popping to LA or otherwise wp’ing to use such services) and certain gemstore items/high-value tradepost items (perma/single-use bank access etc.) would lose a lot of their value (so bring in fewer gem purchases/be less of a gold sink).

I remember when people like you were telling me “NO!!! COSMETIC UNLOCKS WOULD MAKE ARENANET GO BANKRUPT IRL!!!!” we have the wardrobe system and everything is going fine.

Once again, people can ALREADY teleport to the mists and use the Lionsarch portal to get instant, free access to a bank and trade post. Your argument is once again invalid.

EDIT: I wanted to also include that people can also already teleport to WvW and get instant, free access to a bank and tradepost.

You seem to be completely missing the point, so I’ve highlighted the important bit: going through the portal isn’t just the minor inconvenience of a loading screen, it also sets the player’s open-world location to LA, so they can’t instantly port back to where they were – they’ll have to pay waypoint costs and maybe run for a bit to reach their target destination.

Brewergamer.8357:

You are VERY uninformed and need to actually discover things before you go posting acting like you know things when you don’t.

Please don’t be obnoxious to people – especially about their ‘ignorance’ when you’re not even reading posts properly before replying to them with sarcasm and unpleasantness. This thread has been surprisingly civil so far, and it’d be great to keep it that way.

manveruppd.7601:

More importantly, bank items and TP access items don’t kick you out of instances like dungeons or fractals, which porting to the Mists would.

This is kinda true… but between dungeon paths the party always has to leave the instance, and folks could pop to HotM then to bank stuff.
Fracs does involve completely leaving the insance, aye… are they party-based now, or (still?) owned by the player who first entered the fractal hub? It’s inconvenient to leave the map, but relogging character does just plonk you in LA anyway so access to HotM isn’t all that relevant.

I think to have a bank in the mists will be fantastic, i will definitly pay to have the access

What about the new PvP reward Track?
How about packing a 2 weeks PvP bank Token into the Final chest or something.
Something like that.
Now that Glory has been phased out this seems to be the easiest way to implement.

As for the argument that WvW isnt always accessible, the problem there is, that this basically discriminates ppl on servers with high WvW activity, just saying.

The problem with making the PvP Bank free:

• It will turn HoTM a PvE hub. PvErs can instantly go to the HotM with a click of a button and go back to where they were. It will make cities obsolete except for crafting or buying unique rewards. There are vendors and trait sellers.

PvErs should go to their own hub.

HoTM is usually my most visited map. I for one, and multiple other people I know, usually pvp on our alts that are not max level. I save all my chests on my low levels alts, then put them in the bank to open on my main. With the Fort Mariner way point being contested and all, it’s quite the trek from HoTM to the bank. This is a request purely for convenience (at least for me) but if the main towns for PvE and WvW have banks and trading posts, why shouldn’t we, the PvPer’s, get access to them in our main town?

As for the rank gated/time gated idea, I don’t think that should be implemented. I’ve been r80 for awhile now, but I know that a large percentage of the people in HoTM aren’t. Implementing a bank and then not letting someone use it because they haven’t PvP’ed enough doesn’t seem fair to me.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

FeelsAlright.5860:

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

Ondriam.9862:

Agreed. I would even pay a one-time (or yearly, or whatever) fee in gems to have a pass to a restricted area with a bank and a TP. Just stop making me load 2-3 maps every time i have to do something.

Do you think this would cause any uproar in the community if we did a change like this, and if it did can you think of a better way to implement it?

Wild Throw.9437:

Why complain about having a bank in the mists? I would say MOST people can just press “B” click their home BL then run right around the corner to the armorsmithing station and bam…a bank. And it is free, so just give the PvP pop a bank as well. I know I would sure love one.

Someone already put up a good argument point for this statement, that WvW isn’t always accessible. Sometimes there is a queue which for players in a hurry will cause them to spend some silver to get to a place with a bank instead of going to WvW for free.

Lolololololol someone says gems and look who shows up.

This makes me sad if nothing else. I want to start a conversation between players and developer and instead I get bad mannered. I still love you though.

Put the banker in but give him/her a waypoint fee’s worth of silver to access. Done.

Edit:

Order of Whisper’s Banker, “Ho, traveler! With recent Asuran technology we’ve managed to bring a personal bank into the Mists… the material cost is expensive though, so if you want to access our service you must pay a fine…”

-Accept: Pay 4 silver 95 copper.
-Decline: No thanks!

We got a genius overhere!
Well, I do agree on what he says, it fits into the game, you still get payment (if that was even such a big problem) and we’ll get a bank in HotM, love the idea!

Besides that, just think about the PvP community aswell, who actually don’t care about silvers that much, but just want to get acces to storage when your inventory bugs out with all the trash you currently get in PvP…

first off, I personally cannot understand the need for some sort of restricted access at all. like it has been stated over and over: you can already go to the mists and get free bank+tp access by using the LA portal. you can also go to the borderlands, that’s also free, although sometimes there’s a queue, but then again, you can walk up to the nearest asura gate and go to any city you want - also free of charge.
so there are numerous ways to get to free and easy bank+tp access. putting a bank+tp station in HotM wouldn’t do any pve’er any additional favors. it would just give them one more way to access these features free of charge.

secondly: The same principle of getting free bank access goes for PvP’ers. just press "leave the mists" and kablam, you’re in the grove, doing grovey (yes, bad pun intended) stuff with your bank clerk. you don’t have to go to LA and suffer endless loading screens and bad city design (although it’s gotten waaaaay better since the destruction and reconstruction, kudos for that).

thirdly: i don’t understand the need for a bank in pvp at all. just buy some 18 slot bags for 2g or sth like that and you’re set for ages. unless of course you want to arrange a mosaic with all the "2 blues and a green" rewards you’re getting of pvp. it takes ages to complete a stack of level up tomes and skill rolls. the occasional exo being rewarded is actually not interesting, when you think of 20+4*18 inventory slots you can easily obtain by investing close to nothing and less.

summarizing: the bank in pvp land would be nothing more than convenience and a nice bonus for EVERY player who hangs out with us pvp guys. it’s not essential and therefore should be free of charge, ungated and acessible to everyone.
you could consider it a "thank you, pvp-players, for supporting us for so long, even though we tend to neglect you from time to time and haven’t gotten any new content and game modes out. also, we love you and we want to show you that we do in fact care!"-gift.

and, last but not least, i ask you to consider one thing: who in their right set of mind would use a bank that costs silver, tokens or anything, if you can get it for free around the corner?