Rapid Transit for GW 2

With designers still in the developing faze of GW2, I think it's a good time to make suggestions about what we would like to see before it even comes out.

With that said, you may or may not know that GW2 is going to be a non-instanced world. This means that the towns or outposts will be a fluid part of the explorable areas of the game... no more zoning. One thing that we can all agree we like about GW over other MMORPGs is the fact that there is easy transportation between towns and we don't have to rely on walking from town to town or having to level up our character just so we can buy overly expensive mounts to ride.

So, in order to keep this nice, quick and easy way of transportation, we need a new system to allow us to get from point A to point B. This is where I suggest using A RAPID TRASIT SYSTEM.

This could be implemented into the new game as underground tunnels which the Azura created. however my personal favorite idea for this system is a train.

By rapid transit, I mean that there is some form of transportation in the game, like a train, that you can board. Then it goes to a loading screen, and all of a sudden your character will jump out of the train when it reaches the predetermined destination, thus skipping any travel time that would have occured had you not taken the rapid transit.

This idea could be a good money sink for GW 2 as well. They could make it cost 100g to ride the train, or you could purchase a card that gives free rapid transport for 6 months for 10k a piece...

This way, I wont have to walk to every town that I want to visit. Having mounts, like in WoW, would be a kool option for those who like to go for rides, but for those who want to get places as fast as possible, it is nice to have other options.

The day I pay 10k for a boarding pass. They should leave the zonein system alone or make it so you can either map to a town or outpost and or travel their on a mount of sorts. Making it both fluid and if you want quick.

I do like the idea of instantaneous travel (through whatever means), with optional mounts that are maybe prestigious but completely unnecessary. I know that if the scenery is as good as GW1, I'd ride my horse every now and then.

But anything less than instantaneous travel is abhorrent to me, as it's simply forcing me to waste my time.

Anet has already confirmed that map travel will not change

Train???in a non industrial based society. ur overlooking the obvious idea
in the desert u have the teleport portals, why not portals in towns and u click on town u wanna teleport to and walla you are there?

I remember hearing this as well, though I can't remember where. Hopefully towns will be their own instance to keep to many people from being in the same district like it is right now and you can keep map travel.

Some sort of train would be really cool. Not a really train though, cuz that would'nt fit into the story. I though of something like a flying minidragon who is functioning like a cab. Like: U press a button and then that thing comes flying in to pick you up, and then full speed to the place U want. Something like that would be cool.

im am so freaking happy there dropping the dumb ass instances but i do think the map travel system need some serious change!

eliminate the load screen:make it like runescape were u can teleport far far away in the blink of an eye with no loading screen.

dont call it map travel:instead of map traveling make it more roleplaying realistic and close the fourth wall instead how about teleportation spells and ferries, and for people who like to enjoy nice relaxing rides...mounts.

I heard that GW2 was going to be mostly instanced, with only a few persistent areas for PvP, I think.

That doesn't stop it from having map travel.

ANet has not commented on the exact structure of the world of GW2, except to say it's a persistent world, with some instanced areas.

What I meant was, most of the game will still be map travel and instanced, from what I have read, there will be very little in the game that you cannot map travel through.

At least, that is what I have read so far.

They already have portals that travel from such far flung places as Surmia to Nolani, not to mention Asuran *cough star *cough* Gates. Why would we need a train?

My understanding is this:

All towns are instanced, and you would likely travel via map as you do now.
Everything out side of the towns is persistent (and thus likely broken up by region for lower server loads).

My 2¢:
I prefer slower travel. I would like some areas of the game that will take an entire day just to walk to. Areas that you can not be professionally run to, mapped to, zoned to or whatever. You have to make the journey. The game feels more satisfying when you uncover a new area that few people frequent. Those who do, hang around there in isolation from other areas. A distinct culture tends to form, specific to an area when games do that. For example: Those of you who played UO in the early days of the game may remember places like Bucc's Den, a pirate themed town, and the rules of that region (accessible PKing and many hiding places) attracted cut-throat players who added to the effective theme of the town. There was a hidden city only accessible to high level mages, thus the players there had the elitest sense of arrogance you would expect to find in such a place. Some towns were quiet country places and attracted friendly craftsmen instead of PKers. The regions were (in the beginning atleast) not easily accessible to everyone, and thus each one you uncovered felt like something totally new. You settled into an area that suited your play style. As such, the people defined the region just as much as the region defined it's inhabitants. It felt more real.

The terrain it's self should also provide challenge. The biggest downfall of the original guild wars was the ease of travel, allowing anyone to go where ever they want at any time with minimal effort. While I understand that was by design, it also left me feeling unattached to the otherwise beautiful scenery. Every town has the same mix of people in it. Newbies begging for runs, the occasional runner, and people who are just there for the sake of completing the quests so they may move on to the next area. There is no relation between the place and the type of people you could expect to find there. If travel is harder, where you choose to play becomes much more important and thus more immersive.

I do however like the idea of trains. While it works against my ideal for the game, it shows a progression of technology in the 300 years the storyline has advanced, and a more industrial look could be cool. Though, I would prefer boats if there must be a transit system.

If any of you have ever played Final Fantasy online and got far you'll know what a blast the boat rides were.

The noobs stayed bellow deck while the high levels would come up to defend incase ghost pirates attacked.. Fun stuff.

I will be using Asuran gates, most likely

I hope they dont make it like that.

Even if it takes an hour to get through, thats an hour of walking to where I want to be playing.

Now I have no problem with there being big areas for those that want to explore, I enjoy it myself when I have the time, but there should also be the option of just going straight there. Not everyone can spend hours at a time and if you have to just to get anywhere thats going to cut off a lot of players.

This is correct, They've already dealt with this.

Do you guys read the stuff they say about GW2 or just make it up?

your wrong it will be a fully persistent area except for dungeons and missions.

Wouldn't it be easier of they made Portals like in Titan Quest... every town has it and you can only travel to the towns you've activated this portal so for the high-end outposts you'll need more levels and such. I'd leave underground for caves and such

There will be changes to instancing system used. Persistent areas, similar to those traditionally used in other online multiplayer games, will be introduced to Guild Wars which may allow players to meet and interact while exploring.

Instances will still be used for missions and dungeons.

An "Event System" will be used to notify players of big events in the world, the return of a dragon, for instance.

~~From wiki

Look...
We still don't know for sure how things are going to work in GW2. Even if a magazine article released by a.net says so... the game itself is still over 2 years away. Lets not be quick to argue about how instancing will work. Just look at that "flashback to 2003" thread to see how a game changes over the course of time.
You really should take everything you hear about GW2 with a grain of salt. The only thing that probablly will stay the same for sure is the basic premises (that it is a non monthly fee MMO, the basic ideas of the plot, etc).