Obtaining Mounts

Devorandom

I am curious as to what the community thinks about how the mount obtaining process should be. In WoW many mounts seem extremely underwhelming to get, while the harder stuff to get is generally not very unique.

As we already have had a lot of mounts sold on the store, do you think that has already lessened the value of mounts overall in the game? The dragons that we receive while we hold political office in nodes or when we rule one of the 5 castles seem like really good rewards to me, but for the other mounts I do think the store has lessened their value to a certain extent. Then there is the breeding system which may make the problem worse.

I think mounts are a great reward to get people motivated to play the game more and if they are too easily achieved I think that kills off a certain section of content for many to enjoy. What say the people?

Damokles

We already know that.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Mounts

Devorandom

Well there is more to it than that as we know. We can find dragon eggs very rarely. But the other problem is that if its only through animal husbandry that cuts of a major content motivator. That wiki link also did not talk about the ease at which they could be achieved which is an important part of the acquisition process.

Damokles

Well they did say that we get our starting mount early on and that most store mounts will be skins.
And dragon eggs will most likely not possible except for ground use only. They did say that only node majors and other important single users will be able to fly.

Devorandom

The dragon eggs will let people fly but they are have a duration on how long the item lasts. The real question is how easy should it be to get new mounts (skins), and how unique will they be? Its an important balance to strike I think.

I am of the mind that unique skins should probably be a separate reward path and very rare for the most part. Then there would be a separate set of appearances for the animal husbandry mounts. This letting the skins act as status symbols for those who achieved something great in the game, and then the actual mount's appearance getting better along with the breeder's skill.

T Elf

Well another way to make mounts unique is thru barding. You will also be able to dye these items.
The only thing we've really heard for sure is that the first mount will probably be attainable early. I, myself, am not worried that all the good looks will be out there and that there will be nothing to look forward to; remembering that you first have to find the in game mounts that fit the skins you want to use.

Virulent

devorandom wrote: »

As we already have had a lot of mounts sold on the store, do you think that has already lessened the value of mounts overall in the game? .................... but for the other mounts I do think the store has lessened their value to a certain extent. Then there is the breeding system which may make the problem worse.................I think mounts are a great reward to get people motivated to play the game more and if they are too easily achieved I think that kills off a certain section of content for many to enjoy. What say the people?

First, no mounts have been sold in the store and never will be. The only thing that has been sold are cosmetic skins. If you bought a mount skin from the store believing you were buying a mount itself to use in game then sorry if you didn't understand that.

As the game is in development we don't know how valuable mounts will be in the live game world, given that there will be a whole profession just for it and that mounts may expire, I'd say mounts will have quite a value to them. Unique stats for mounts will be possible in breeding, which could be very lucrative business. A horse mixed with a frog could enable you to jump to high ledges or go underwater briefly. Considering that there will be extensive amounts of "jumping puzzles" through the world, yes, mounts will have value.

Just to be clear, the only thing that's been sold in store are purely cosmetic skins for mounts. They don't grant a mount to players. You will still have to acquire a mount as a player in game through quest/level before you can use a mount skin bought in store. And you will have to acquire the correct mount for the cosmetic skin you buy in store, Land Mount/Gliding Mount/Aquatic Mounts and Royal Mounts.

Devorandom

Ya I mis-worded that, I should have said skins on the store, and I know there will be variations based on breeding. But the question was more about the mount reward economy from other content not related to the breeding system. Mounts are a great driver for players to peruse certain content, so the question is how many mounts/skins are achievable through other content. I am very happy for the breeding profession to be a large part of the mount pool but like I said I would definitely like some mounts and skins as rewards for clearing certain content.

How much do people think should be rewarded through other content and what quality level should it be at?

EdEaglefeather

At some point, The nice folks at Intrepid will give us precise details on all mounts .

Devorandom

Yes, but the point of this thread was to ask the community how they thought it should be implemented.

Damokles

Interesting idea for taming (two different methods to obtaine a wild mount):
1. Beat it till it is on deaths doorstep, bind it and then tame it = fast method and results in a less trustworthy mount
2. Build a relationship, aka. feed it and give it a massage or something, then after building a trust metre, tame it = slow method, results in a trustworthy mount that will have more hp (to show that it would take more hits for you or something)

Volgaire

Well you obviously go to the forest. Kill the mama dragon. Take the baby dragon. Proceed to brainwash it into believing that it's mom was about to eat it. Make it create a new dragon egg somehow before it finds out the truth. Kill former baby dragon and new mama dragon. Repeat proccess.

Alternatively after killing mama dragon go to @nagash and have him raise it's corpse.

shothi

The time and items it takes to successfully tame a animal won't be easy.
They could even introduce a small RNG aspect to the stats they have once you tame them, would make breeding so much more important.

I want to hear more about the breeding and taming system.

xyxs

Do they have bird mounts? Talking about breeding mounts reminds me of breeding Chocobos in Minecraft.

unknownsystemerror

Last information given was that any animal would be tameable with the exception of world bosses and certain named mobs. We know there are gliding mounts that will hover just off the ground. Whether there will be something modeled off an ostrich remains to be seen, but given the popularity of it, most likely.

xyxs

Thx for answering.

kriin

I'm guessing you will need a lead to walk the animal home, you may have to get its health down low enough for hostile animals. Grooming and feeding it will level you up in animal husbandry and when our level is high enough you can attempt to breed it. The female horse will be pregnant for X amount of days/weeks before giving birth. But there are many ways they can go about this, it could be simple or complex.

Jahlon

devorandom wrote: »

, but for the other mounts I do think the store has lessened their value to a certain extent. Then there is the breeding system which may make the problem worse.

I'm interested in why you feel this way

1) The store doesn't give you actual mounts, it only gives you mount skins. You are going to have to go through all the work to get a mount with the abilities that you want, or to get a mount that the skin can be applied to

2) The Breeding System makes the problem worse? I would think, if nothing else, the breeding system gives players who becoming rich a task worth doing. When you have a world that is deliberately big and made to stay expansive, the faster the mount the better off you are.



As far as how many mounts/skins are available through other content, we know that the plan is to have a plentiful amount obtainable in game. This isn't a set up where if you don't buy stuff from the cash shop then you look like trash in game.

Damokles

I wonder what kind of mount I will have to tame to use the Otter skin xD

unknownsystemerror

They haven't given us a breakdown of the various groups yet, but they have said that there will be various "pools" to draw from. Until they let us know how in depth they are going we just don't know. If they go real basic with Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians and so on then people will have a huge group to apply the skins to. I doubt that it will be as limited that you need an actual otter to apply the otter skin, but it will be something from that pool group.

sunfrog

There will be 10,000 people per server so that allows for a wide variety of mounts. Everyone wants to be unique. People also like the latest thing so mounts will change with trends. If everyone is riding horses then a crab appears people will want that. I see mounts changing with the holidays, seasons, and trends. Then there's also rarity to consider. People will want hard to get mounts.

Think of it like trading cards. Some people like the Yankees, some like the Red Sox, then there's limited edition cards, promo cards, rookie cards, and cards you can only get at conventions. The skins you can get now are limited edition but you can't sell or trade them so they don't count, but the mounts created in the game will be salable.