Are Flying Mounts okay in Ashes?

For those who don't know, currently the only known source for flying Mounts in the game is being a mayor of a node. This Flying Mount is extremely fast compared to ground mounts and can be used without limits, anytime and anywhere in the world.

That being said, I really think flying mounts, even with their currently limited availability, either shouldn't be a thing or be nerfed & restricted massively. I'm aware that becoming Mayor is a difficult feat and there won't be many people on each server able to use a flying mount, yet I still think the line between ground mounts, which keep players in the game world, and flying mounts, which completely detach players from the game world, should not be a crossed in the way it currently is in the Alpha.

It was stated multiple times that one of the main purposes for flying mounts is to allow Mayors to overlook the battlefield in node wars, and I think it's fine if that was the exclusive timeframe where you could use them, but having permanent access to a superfast flying mount provides way too many advantages, and frankly feels completely out of place in this otherwise very grounded and slower pace feeling MMO. I'd also like to highlight the fact that many MMO players view the introduction of flying mounts in World of Warcraft extremely negatively and ever since have a pretty firm stance against them.

I definitely think the spectacle of seeing somebody on an epic flying mount could be exciting to have in the game, but I think it should be an extremely limited ability that is restricted to very specific activities and events in the game instead of being a permanently available pocket mount. I know we're in an extremely early Alpha stage and nothing is final, but I really hope that Intrepid will eventually change these flying mounts to prevent a lot of the cheesy strategies that flying mounts enable currently.

I know a lot of the guild leaders that are looking forward to having a massive advantage over everybody else will obviously heavily disagree with this take, but I encourage everybody to have a civil discussion about this topic and really think about if flying mounts are something they really want to have in Ashes.

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Taleof2Cities

I lost you when you said “cheesy strategies”.

What power is one (1) mayor going to have in a node siege involving hundreds of players?

Besides being able to survey the battle from the sky??

BRAD_AoC

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

I lost you when you said “cheesy strategies”.

What power is one (1) mayor going to have in a node siege involving hundreds of players?

Besides being able to survey the battle from the sky??

I'm talking about all the stuff you can do outside of node sieges and other events. Scouting for easy Caravan targets, farming & processing several times the amount of materials of any other player (Mayors are by default the best tradeskillers in any guild just because of the mount) and a lot of other stuff that is kinda gamebreaking in one way or another.

I honestly think if Flying Mounts would be exclusively usable in Node Wars and other events, they'd be pretty fine.

Taleof2Cities

You know there’s a a cap on the harvestable/processing materials a character can carry in inventory, right?

And, processed items still have to get from the freehold back to the node city.

That’s the whole reason for caravans in Ashes of Creation … to carry large quantities of supplies from A to B.

What other “kinda gamebreaking” examples do you have?

I don’t think the impact is as big as you think it is … but we shall soon find out now that Alpha 2 is live.

Podgnil

BRAD_AoC wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

I lost you when you said “cheesy strategies”.

What power is one (1) mayor going to have in a node siege involving hundreds of players?

Besides being able to survey the battle from the sky??

I'm talking about all the stuff you can do outside of node sieges and other events. Scouting for easy Caravan targets, farming & processing several times the amount of materials of any other player (Mayors are by default the best tradeskillers in any guild just because of the mount) and a lot of other stuff that is kinda gamebreaking in one way or another.

I honestly think if Flying Mounts would be exclusively usable in Node Wars and other events, they'd be pretty fine.

fully agree with u. its top op in open world, and usual game situations.

BRAD_AoC

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

You know there’s a a cap on the harvestable/processing materials a character can carry in inventory, right?

And, processed items still have to get from the freehold back to the node city.

That’s the whole reason for caravans in Ashes of Creation … to carry large quantities of supplies from A to B.

What other “kinda gamebreaking” examples do you have?

I don’t think the impact is as big as you think it is … but we shall soon find out now that Alpha 2 is live.

Well my guildie is the Mayor of Miraleth on Shol (EU) right now and the farming and processing he can do is absolutely crazy. Because of the flying Mount you can use multiple different stations in different places at once to process vastly more materials than any single player ever could.

You also don't need to use a caravan to transport materials over, he's literally just flying everything from one place to another, and because he's so fast it doesn't take long whatsoever. I think you don't truly understand how broken the flying mounts are currently.

Aszkalon

BRAD_AoC wrote: »

I honestly think if Flying Mounts would be exclusively usable in Node Wars and other events, they'd be pretty fine.

Then no One will ever be able to exploit a for example flying Island like the tiny Ones around the Aela Capital which lies in Ruins and is the starting Area ... ... ^.^

ShivaFang

The plan is for Flying mounts to only be owned by Metropolis players (5/server), as well as a limited number of players who have hatched eggs for short periods of time.

The current implementation of being a mayor of any node is temporary since Metropoles aren't in the game yet, so flying mounts wouldn't be possible this early on a server normally.

thunderfury2024

The plan is for Flying mounts to only be owned by Metropolis players (5/server), as well as a limited number of players who have hatched eggs for short periods of time.

That is a very bad concept. If there are flying mounts, they should be available to everyone.

Tjaeden

thunderfury2024 wrote: »

The plan is for Flying mounts to only be owned by Metropolis players (5/server), as well as a limited number of players who have hatched eggs for short periods of time.

That is a very bad concept. If there are flying mounts, they should be available to everyone.

ABSOLUTELY WRONG. The more prestigious and powerful these mounts are, the more epic and climactic the battles will be.

Mayor's will not be hotdropping on solo gatherers, or even ferrying goods like in Alpha currently.

They will be Countering the other flying players.

thunderfury2024

But then the mounts will only have streamers or players who are online 24/7.
It will be impossible for normal players.....

Hinotori

thunderfury2024 wrote: »

But then the mounts will only have streamers or players who are online 24/7.
It will be impossible for normal players.....

Normal players will have their gliding mounts.

Flying mounts being restricted to 12 people for a whole server feels fine to me... they might be op for scouting now in 1 biome and they're all clustered together. But on the full map? With everyone spread out?

I personally think the leaders will be too busy come launch to use them as they're being used in the alpha now. But we'll see.

BackgroundDust

thunderfury2024 wrote: »

But then the mounts will only have streamers or players who are online 24/7.
It will be impossible for normal players.....

this game will not give you something just because you logged in and this is absolutely great because when you achieve something you feel it.

Dreoh

thunderfury2024 wrote: »

The plan is for Flying mounts to only be owned by Metropolis players (5/server), as well as a limited number of players who have hatched eggs for short periods of time.

That is a very bad concept. If there are flying mounts, they should be available to everyone.

Nooope lol

thunderfury2024

BackgroundDust wrote: »

thunderfury2024 wrote: »

But then the mounts will only have streamers or players who are online 24/7.
It will be impossible for normal players.....

this game will not give you something just because you logged in and this is absolutely great because when you achieve something you feel it.

That's not the point at all.
In my opinion, it's fundamentally bad when something is unnecessarily limited to a few people.

Aszkalon

thunderfury2024 wrote: »

That is a very bad concept. If there are flying mounts, they should be available to everyone.

This backfired in WoW to a certain Extent, though.

How many People i more or less "knew" in WoW for Example took their Time and rode on their Ground-Mounts through the Dragon-Isles ?

Yes. It would take noticeably more time. But some Area's were very beautifully made. Only to have +97% of all Players just quickly DASH OVER THEM in the Air with Dragon-riding because it is so fast.

Is is the Reason why in many Expansions People needed to "unlock" flying on the new Expansion's Continent first.

People shall appreciate Verra. Not think they are (quite literally) "ABOVE" exploring it and can just quickly fly everywhere.

Plus. When Everyone can fly -> People will not cross the Oceans with Ships.

Would be ONE HELL of a Shame if they miss all the cool Content that Sir Steven and his mighty Crew plan to have available on the Oceans.

theoneyouknow

I also think it's not a good idea to limit flying mounts to a few players per server if you consider the advantages one can have with this.

Of course, you can stick to the concept of providing the mayors with mounts for those specific roles.
Why not make these mounts "unique" in a special way, but also give the normal player the chance to "grind their ass off" to earn themselfes other flying mounts.
With this you still have something special for the uniqe roles in terms of what mount it is (e.g. a Dragon) but on the other hand you give the normal player the opportunity to also have a flying mount (of course something other than a Dragon in this example)

Hinotori

theoneyouknow wrote: »

I also think it's not a good idea to limit flying mounts to a few players per server if you consider the advantages one can have with this.

Of course, you can stick to the concept of providing the mayors with mounts for those specific roles.
Why not make these mounts "unique" in a special way, but also give the normal player the chance to "grind their ass off" to earn themselfes other flying mounts.
With this you still have something special for the uniqe roles in terms of what mount it is (e.g. a Dragon) but on the other hand you give the normal player the opportunity to also have a flying mount (of course something other than a Dragon in this example)

That's what gliding mounts are.

Aszkalon

theoneyouknow wrote: »

I also think it's not a good idea to limit flying mounts to a few players per server if you consider the advantages one can have with this.

Mark my Words,

you won't ever see a " SINGLE ", epic Ground-Battle of two Armies against each other, if all the participants in these Armies can fly around.

You will constantly see People dashing down from the Sky like some Eagles or other Birds of prey -> looking for assumed weak-points of the opposite Army to attack.

You could of Course disable Fly-Mechanics for things like Node-Wars, Node-Sieges, etc. -> but how would this even be explained how this would suddenly be unable to work ?

Would someone need to place a powerful Artifact ? That prevents People to use flying Mounts around the Radius of one or several Metropolis' Cities ?

I see so much trouble coming only with the Possibility that everyone can fly ... ...

RazThemun

Not a fan as it would make the map much smaller and to easy to navigate. A glyder to get down steap terrain or a mountain is about as far as I would like to see it go in regards to flying mounts. But we shall see what intrepid does.

BaSkA_9x2

So you're saying that in a population of three thousand players, 5 flying mounts is too many?

Yeah, no.

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