Game development Question

What will mounts exactly add to the game really? Are we going to use the mounts on the over world (faster travel)?
Or will they only be available in the scenes that are already small and do-able just running.
Do we want mounts only for the RP aspect?

I would like it more if we just could use some kind of horse wagon (rentable) for automatic travel over the over world to a specific scene. With NPC pirates raiding the wagon randomly that we need to defend before continuing.
If SotA was a massive big scene, without loadable modules (scenes) then yes a mount was really needed. Currently? Nope it does not make any sense..

Then again, having loadable modules (scenes) gives a lot more options on SotA world expansion without the need to really expand the main over world map itself. So I really understand why they took that decision in the first place.

Currently the only big priority I see on their task list is: FIX the hitching.

 

I bought some foals and a barn, but honestly for the amount of effort Mounts are going to take, I don't care if they don't show up until Episode 3 or 4. We've got more important (IMO) things that should arrive first.

 

how much $ stretch goal for free home placement on a lot (just to move my house 3 meter to the left)

 

I really can't see why some people think mounts are so essential. Essential for what, exactly? Do we need them just because every other MMO has them? Then why bother to make anything other than another WoW clone if we need to be like every other MMO out there?

If we had big connected zones that you had to run through to get anywhere, sure. (BTDT) But between the overworld and teleport scrolls, we simply don't have that problem. Teleport scrolls in particular solve the main problem of getting to where someone else is. Some people don't know what it's like running through half a dozen connected zones, uphill both ways, just to get to the next big city. We've got it so easy here. Fix the hitching and those scene load times (again) already!

 

I suspect the biggest motivation behind the desire for mounts is for personal lore building for character expression more than for actual gameplay enhancement. Akin to dyes and non-combat pets, and we have no shortage of those, lending credence to the absence of mounts seeming to stem from a technical issue rather than a philosophical one.

It's already been established in other games that mounts will bring in a lot of money from players - I think they run around $30 each in EQ2 and Neverwinter - so whatever hurdle is preventing a higher prioritization of them here is probably a pretty serious one.

 

That's nice, but they require a lot more tech, and what we do have a shortage of is dev time. And I still don't see how any of that makes them essential. If you wanna roleplay that you're riding a horse, then say it in your RP group, that doesn't need devs to do anything. And those other games you are talking about have an actual budget to hire staff to make them work. People constantly forget that this is not a big budget AAA game.

 

That was exactly what I was meaning by my post, that they're neither essential nor trivial and thus are justified being a stetch goal to fund rather than something that can be expected for free. But I thought your question was wondering why people even wanted them in the first place, so in answering to that maybe I failed to be as clear in what I meant in the larger scheme of things.

 

Interesting question.
The funny thing is that mounts are more often than not a difficult topic in mmo like games. Last time I looked it had something to do with the speed and rubber banding and collision.
But don't ask me for details, no idea why exactly.

 

There are a lot of different uses for mounts too. Yes we know this game is not like others but giving reasons to have mounts and make them do what they can in this game would give more incentive for them. For example horse racing,jumping hurtles, and even a possible battle mount. Theres lots of ideas I imagine.

 

maybe it can increase weight capacity as well

 

There's a lot more to it than just moving the house. AI work for NPC's is going to be needed. Up until now they were using a static system that baked the navmesh in ahead of time. Now it's got to be dynamic.

And no idea on the price, or if there are more things that are going to make it more difficult. But my impression is it is far from trivial.

 

What makes you think making mounts is easy in the first place?

There’s a ton of technical intricacies especially if you want to do mounts properly and not have them disappearing when you dismount (like Skyrim and Black Desert Online)

That’s essentially why the coconuts exist; that's much easier to accomplish and, guess what, the only difference between them and typical MMO “horse in your pocket” is the visual presentation.

 

Basically, a mount system introduces a new GameObject (the horse), plops your character as a child object of the horse gameobject, and controls to move your character are now diverted to the horse gameobject. Of course, there are also new animations involved. The core of the process is not difficult at all. There is even a $60 asset on the Unity Asset Store that will cover 99% of the work. It's not a difficult thing to do.

SOTA does not use a NavMesh for players in scenes (perhaps a navmesh is used on the overland map). You can jump. You can move on top of rocks and the roof of your home. They're using the physics engine and blocker objects to keep people in the scene.

 

instead of mounts I would rather them add a rune marking system like UO where we could mark a spot on a rune place that rune inside a rune book and recall back to that spot using teleport scrolls.

 

Well not instead but also

 

Or a player crafted item that allows you to manipulate the Lunar Rift and uses a Teleport Scroll.

 

Thanks, this is a type of explanation I was looking for.

 

You're welcome.