Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Mounts: Personalities, behaviour and special designs.
DnSpecific
Member
Hi! I was watching some fo the existing mounts design and some ideas come to my mind.
Like Pokemons, mounts could have a personality that defines his behaviour. The personality of the mount is "random", but there are personalities more probable and those depends of the species. For example, let's think we have 3 personalities: Calm, playful and fearsome. (I dont know if we will only have mounts or also mascots, so I don't know if dogs will exist but it's a good example) Dogs are usually playful, the 80% of them have this personalitie, 15% calm and 5% fearsome. Wolves in other way have 80% fearsome, 15% calm and 5% playful.
When 2 or more mounts are waiting his owner, the interactions between them will be influenced by their personalitie. 2 fearsome dogs will be barking each other and 2 playful dogs will be playing and jumping together.
I heard something about we will have an animal breeding job, so would be interesting if personalitie depends off parents/grandparents personalities.
This could make mounts very valuable in the market, because people would pay a lot for his wanted mount with his wanted personalitie. I got this idea reading about Tidebreaker mount and watching this image:
Dude I love otters and I would love if my otter is just sitting there in his crossed arms, it just make me happy to see and I would look for a otter with that animation. Probably it's a waiting behaviour that only a "calmed" otter personality can do.
Unsual desings would be interesting to see. Like hairless or albinism in some species. Maybe a wolf with scars or with no tail. I got this idea looking again in Tidebreaker page and watching this image:
I know it's not a color but a rendered image, but the idea is there.
Maybe there is a albino Tidebreaker only findable in snow mountaints and only tameable by a max level Tamer specialized in marine animals (probably I could develop this kind of ideas in a job based post)
I would literally pay millions in the market to be the player with the albino Otter with calmed personality. And as I do, other players would pay millions for the "lion with two tails" or the "red bear" if there are only a few in the server. Maybe a guild is know for having all his members mounted in "wolves with face scars". That would be awesome.
- Personalities and behavior
Like Pokemons, mounts could have a personality that defines his behaviour. The personality of the mount is "random", but there are personalities more probable and those depends of the species. For example, let's think we have 3 personalities: Calm, playful and fearsome. (I dont know if we will only have mounts or also mascots, so I don't know if dogs will exist but it's a good example) Dogs are usually playful, the 80% of them have this personalitie, 15% calm and 5% fearsome. Wolves in other way have 80% fearsome, 15% calm and 5% playful.
When 2 or more mounts are waiting his owner, the interactions between them will be influenced by their personalitie. 2 fearsome dogs will be barking each other and 2 playful dogs will be playing and jumping together.
I heard something about we will have an animal breeding job, so would be interesting if personalitie depends off parents/grandparents personalities.
This could make mounts very valuable in the market, because people would pay a lot for his wanted mount with his wanted personalitie. I got this idea reading about Tidebreaker mount and watching this image:
Dude I love otters and I would love if my otter is just sitting there in his crossed arms, it just make me happy to see and I would look for a otter with that animation. Probably it's a waiting behaviour that only a "calmed" otter personality can do.
- Special desings
Unsual desings would be interesting to see. Like hairless or albinism in some species. Maybe a wolf with scars or with no tail. I got this idea looking again in Tidebreaker page and watching this image:
I know it's not a color but a rendered image, but the idea is there.
Maybe there is a albino Tidebreaker only findable in snow mountaints and only tameable by a max level Tamer specialized in marine animals (probably I could develop this kind of ideas in a job based post)
I would literally pay millions in the market to be the player with the albino Otter with calmed personality. And as I do, other players would pay millions for the "lion with two tails" or the "red bear" if there are only a few in the server. Maybe a guild is know for having all his members mounted in "wolves with face scars". That would be awesome.
3
Comments
I live with cats and they would need additional personality types, such as 'don't give a crap' and 'I will occasionally give you five points damage when you walk by.' Also, they may have dominant personalities but each individual will switch from one personality to another from time to time.
Horses, perhaps more like domesticated dogs. Hawks, griffin and eagles both loyal and aggressive. Fish, can anyone tell me if fish have personalities?
I get that Ashes is trying to be the next-generation MMORPG, but the more you innovate in a singe iteration, the more risk you take on. At the end of the day, Ashes is a single step in the progression of MMORPGs.
Steven even said something about this yesterday in the AMA. When asked: "Why use the holy trinity vs another system?". Steven explained that players need something familiar to hold on to when going into a game that is bringing new ideas to the table. The node system is the next step in open world MMORPG evolution. If it was the node system plus a lot of additional unfamiliar ideas, the game would put people off.
I would like to cite one of my favorite MMORPGs of all time as an example of too many new ideas at once causing an MMORPG to fail. Wildstar was not just a new take on action combat. Nearly everything in that game was a new way of doing things. To the point that many people were not willing to stick with it. I have heard close friends say something to the effect of: "I feel like a fish out of water in wildstar.". It was just too much innovation too soon.
I loved Wildstar, but when all of my friends did not stick around, I was not going to just play Wildstar solo. Sure, I could have found a new guild in Wildstar, but when your close MMORPG friends are playing something else. It is easy to walk away from a game you loved over friends. I think that is why Wildstar failed.
In the case of Ashes it is already taking an additional step into the next gen with its mount system. Mounts are already creatures with stats. This is not totally unheard of, but I would consider the way Ashes intends to do this a next step in MMORPG design.
I would worry about the health of the game if it was all the next steps ashes is taking plus your idea. Plus, your idea sounds like it would be a substantial increase on the DEV time of these mounts. That alone could be bad for the long-term health of the game.
All that said, I would like to see a game where your idea is in the game before I die. I just worry about it in Ashes.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I can get the sad behavior pack for my snorse and call him my fail snail...
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Animations, emotes for pets, mounts and you would be a great think to sale on the shop, would prefer this then cosmetic gear
I am all for character idle animation packs being sold on the store, I see no reason why idle animation packs for mounts cant be - though I could see the need for them to be mount type specific.