Revolutionary Suggestion regarding contested waypoints

[Bambu.4270]

Ever feel like you'd like to go a certain place but you're not in that map yet? You open the world map with that little button in your minimap or keybind, find hard that waypoint that leads you to your destination of dreams. With all that excitement, you press waypoint to that specific waypoint and what happens? This waypoint is contested, you have been directed to another one that is miles away!! This just wont do. It's like giving a big candy to a kid then after the first lick you take it away, throw on ground with force and stomp on it with your both legs and then point at the kid and laugh.

Now to the epic suggestion that will revolutionize the waypoint industry:

Move me right away to a map instance that has that specific waypoint OPEN! Instead of being forced awkwardly to a random location, I reach my destination and will remain a happy fluffy dolyak! But sir, you can't do that if all maps are contested, then sadly I have to be relocated but until THIS FORCED ACTION happens, I'd like there to be some justice regarding waypointing to a waypoint that I didn't know it was contested.

[Irreverent.3594]

And some wp's are contested 99.9%-100% time. Why they do even exist...

[Game of Bones.8975]

I would rather have a note pop up that says the WP is currently contested please choose another.
I can't open a WP that is known contested and be transported so why does the AI allow it in the short time between my left-click and the loading page?

[Lonami.2987]

Just remove contested waypoints altogether.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@Game of Bones.8975 said:I would rather have a note pop up that says the WP is currently contested please choose another.

I can't open a WP that is known contested and be transported so why does the AI allow it in the short time between my left-click and the loading page?

Because before you're on the specific map, the game can't know that the waypoint is contested. There can be several copies of the map running, with different status for the waypoint in different copies.

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

Yeah, actually this is something that bugs the daylights out of me for a few reasons. I know that Anet is doing the "this map is stuck in time" thing, but these WPs that are broken due to mordy but still on the map is an issue. Specifically the one at a very convenient location in timberline. While I might remember on occasion that its broken, I still forget sometimes and there are story steps that actually HAPPEN there. While I don't go there often anymore, new players might and its just vexxing to have to deal with a WP that looks ok on the map only to find out its permanently broken. Not to mention its still required for map complete.

So the suggestions are:A- Remove these WP altogether. They serve no purpose other than to annoy.B- "Fix" them and make them functional again. I can't imagine this is that hard of a task to make them operational again.

[Ampa.2749]

In Siren's Landing you can teleport to a shrine any time, since they don't become contested. But if you're not paying attention you can get your butt kicked the moment you arrive because a boss is standing right there blowing everything up. I would vote to do the same thing with way points. You transport across the world and take your chance. Perhaps you could get a couple of seconds of stealth as in the mud wallows so you can get your bearings before you have to fight or run.

[SkullsandRoses.5803]

Considering we PAY for waypoint travel I dont think that is too much to ask! I dont want to pay to be miles away from my destination, I want to pay to go to my destination. Your idea works for me ... either that or make WP travelling free imo.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

I too would love to know if a WP is contested before I spend money on trying to go there. It's partly why I'm so frustrated with the HoT maps -- I cannot reach many of the places I want to go. Perhaps if you pick a contested WP and are directed somewhere else, it wouldn't cost your toon anything.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

shoulda voted for kiel...

[Tiger Ashante.1792]

@Bambu.4270 said:Ever feel like you'd like to go a certain place but you're not in that map yet? You open the world map with that little button in your minimap or keybind, find hard that waypoint that leads you to your destination of dreams. With all that excitement, you press waypoint to that specific waypoint and what happens? This waypoint is contested, you have been directed to another one that is miles away!! This just wont do. It's like giving a big candy to a kid then after the first lick you take it away, throw on ground with force and stomp on it with your both legs and then point at the kid and laugh.

Now to the epic suggestion that will revolutionize the waypoint industry:

Move me right away to a map instance that has that specific waypoint OPEN! Instead of being forced awkwardly to a random location, I reach my destination and will remain a happy fluffy dolyak! But sir, you can't do that if all maps are contested, then sadly I have to be relocated but until THIS FORCED ACTION happens, I'd like there to be some justice regarding waypointing to a waypoint that I didn't know it was contested.

It's an interesting idea, but personally, i would much rather they return to the original system>you open your map and you see from anywhere the state of the waypoint, ie: whether it's contested or not. I never understood why they changed it, it all worked fine. Currently it's terrible, when you look at ur map, you have no idea of the state of the waypoints in a particular map unless ur in it. They all look available, then u get into a map only to be shunted elsewhere. It feels like some sort of trickery and i really don't like it.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

Remember the Pact commander Mastery line? Why not adding a 6th mastery that allows you to use contested waypoints by paying an increased the cost?

That way you'd be able to use them even if there's no other instances of the map where they are not contested.

This mastery could also allow you to unlock with a character any waypoint unlocked by any other character already, by paying something like 1 gold. Or even make waypoints account-wide altogether if you enable an option in settings.

[rapthorne.7345]

@Irreverent.3594 said:And some wp's are contested 99.9%-100% time. Why they do even exist...

There's at least one WP I can think of that was destroyed as a part of the season 1 living world content. It remains inactive, but on the map and part of map completion, to this day

[MithranArkanere.8957]

@rapthorne.7345 said:

@Irreverent.3594 said:And some wp's are contested 99.9%-100% time. Why they do even exist...

There's at least one WP I can think of that was destroyed as a part of the season 1 living world content. It remains inactive, but on the map and part of map completion, to this day

There's one in Brisban Wildlans in a Priory camp, and one in Timberline falls near a Jotun settlement.

One in Iron Marches gets contested by a mordrem vine, but completing nearby mordrem events unlocks it.

[Shaaba.5672]

This is a tangent, but related to defunct WPs due to season 2. I still get sad when I can't walk through the gates at Ft. Salma. I remember what a bustling little village it used to be and cry myself to sleep over it's fate every night.

No really, I do :p. But seriously, I'd love to have some clean-up happen there. I know, I know - locked in time, blah blah, but this seems like more of a waste of than most of the map changes.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

@Tiger Ashante.1792 said:It's an interesting idea, but personally, i would much rather they return to the original system>you open your map and you see from anywhere the state of the waypoint, ie: whether it's contested or not. I never understood why they changed it, it all worked fine. Currently it's terrible, when you look at ur map, you have no idea of the state of the waypoints in a particular map unless ur in it. They all look available, then u get into a map only to be shunted elsewhere. It feels like some sort of trickery and i really don't like it.

The original system isn't possible anymore, since they changed to mega servers. This means that not one map is tied to the other maps by server anymore (virtually anyhow) and there's no guarantee that a waypoint is actually contested to whichever map IP you get send to.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

I suspect this is what's going on with the mega-server with regard to contested WP.

The game does not know you want to go to zone X until you select a WP and confirm that you want to go there. At that point, the game searches for copies of that map, and sorts out which map copy to put you in. If there's one copy, you're in. If there are multiple copies, it sorts based on party, guild, server and whatever other criteria are in the routine. Once you've been sorted, you enter the map. At that point, contested/not contested is checked. If the WP is contested, the arrival point gets changed.

ANet could, I suppose, add contested/not to the sorting routine. However, what weight do they give that criterion? If low, then you'd only go to a copy with that WP open if no other criteria superseded it. If high, then people will end up in a map other than the one their party/guild/friend/whatever is in whether the WP being contested or not mattered to them or not. That would chap some hides. The same thing would happen to people if the game first checked for the WP being contested.

I suspect, as a result, that one way to do as the OP desires would be to create an option to override all other map copy selection criteria if the WP is contested. That could be part of the WP confirmation. A toggle whose default is off (i.e, don't select for a map copy with that WP open) would mean that people who don't care or who prefer that they end up in the map copy with their friends would not have to perform an extra click. Another alternative would be an option in the options menu to use WP contest as the primary criteria for map selection. How much work either would be, or how big the demand for this would be, I can't even guess.

[Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921]

You're idea has one downfall I can see, Dragon Stand is entirely consisting of contested waypoints until meta is done opening them up. If you were to ask me what they should do is give you the option to choose which waypoint you enter the map on that isn't contested give us a selection of the three closest uncontested waypoints.

[Cloud Windfoot Omega.7485]

How it should work, clicking on the way points should query all available maps to try and find one which is currently operable. If it cannot, then it should alert the player to the new way point and ask if they wish to continue.