Coconuts! (Yes, they do work)

There's a loading screen tip about using coconuts for travel that I hadn't known about, even though I've been a pledger for some time now. They really do work and they greatly reduce overland travel tedium...and can help you avoid those unwanted overland encounters! There are some provisos:

• When you have coconuts equipped in both hands, many things cannot be interacted with, including gates, boats, and even NPCs. There is a message stating "You are mounted atop a mighty steed! You must dismount before speaking." This can be done as simply as un-equipping one of the coconuts.
• That said, it's a pain to equip and unequip the coconuts vs one's normal weapon. One way around this is to pick your favorite Combat Deck. Set it to use your normal equipment loadout. Then make a copy of it and label it something like 'Travel'. Equip the coconuts, then set it to use THAT equipment set. Be sure to click 'Done' when finished. Note, while you are 'mounted' you can't use quick swap of just about anything else. But you can open your Combat Deck window and switch between decks using the Equip button. Kind of kludgey, but it works. Alternatively though, you could just open your inventory and equip/unequip your weapon vs the coconuts.
• They absolutely do work. Inside zones, it's basically a no-focus drain -- albeit unarmed -- unlimited sprint. On the overland map, it's like being able to sprint up there. In fact, when crossing bridges and other impediments, the clop-clop skipping will stop and your avatar animation will appear to look like it's running rather than jogging. (Probably a bug.)
• Yes, this is definitely fast enough to outrun a lot of overland encounters, provided you don't get too close to them. And yes, it's way faster than normal overland travel.
• If your character does not have coconuts or you have lost or destroyed them, travel to Owl's Head. Talk to Nob the Stableboy (near the crafting pavilion & public vendor). Just mention the word 'coconuts' and he'll give you a set. I had to do this with my new alt character because coconuts aren't a standard reward anymore. He can also teach you a few emotes, including various lean ones if you just say the word 'job.'
• This lore was during my inactive time (after initial pledge, but before I began playing seriously), but apparently the coconuts -- inspired by Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- were intended as an April Fool's joke. But pledgers begged they be implemented as a kind of in-game mount, since Portalarium wasn't going to have mounts in SOTA Chapter 1 anyway. So they did. Thus we have "mighty steeds" that are in fact us bangin' two coconuts together. Presumably coconuts delivered by either African or European swallows, depending on which of 'em is migratory.

I'm posting all this because I didn't know what these silly coconuts ever were for, and it took that tips loading screen to tell me they actually did serve a purpose.

 

Tip: You only need to remove your right hand coconut in order to dismount.

 

Excellent write up and information. Good going and thank you.

 

What other game has coconuts for a mount? Tell it to a guy, who says ESO is better .

 

Those coconuts are a reminescense to "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", where Lancelot had a servant running behind him clickering with 2 coconuts instead of being mounted on a horse.

 

I re equiped my Runner Build to try out

 

I think Monty python movies are great!
BUT I hate the immersion breaking coconuts!!!!!

 

I don't use them anymore, I just tried. They're funny, i love the easteregg and they do not break my immersion, but I always forget to switch decks and then cannot cast while I have them equipped.
For me the winged people are more immersion breakers , i allways feel like carnival if i see wings or i think of Manga style .
I like some Kobold tech and have no problem with some steampunk , but wings are...

But if people love it, let them have it!!!

 

Another tip for your "travel deck" is to have it load light armor (I believe the chest piece is sufficient) to change your armor class to "light". Heavy armor has a small run-speed penalty that cloth or leather armors do not.

And, you can improve this even more by training up your "Swiftness" skill in the light armor tree. It increases run speed and attack speed while wearing light armor.

So, your travel deck should consist of cloth or leather armor chest piece and a set of coconuts.

Also, when you need to interact with something, I find the fastest way to "unmount" is to have my paper doll character sheet open right next to my inventory screen (opened to the equipment tab) and just drag any weapon/wand/shield/mug/etc onto my paper doll. That will replace one (or both if it's a 2-H weapon) of the coconuts. Then you can just drag the coconut(s) back when you need to run a long distance again.

 

Thanks for the details and tips! I just visited the stable boy in Owl's Head and received right and left coconuts. I was also rewarded with learning to perform "NosePick." Bonus!!!! LOL!!

 

This was news to many team members too! He he he. This is nuts, er eh, coconuts!

 

News to team members ?
Hmmmm.....

 

Additional tip

• No need to unequip, instead have the [c] character display/paper doll open, then when you want to interact with stuff, like open a door, simply drag the coconut and hover above said object and still holding the coconut press a shortcut key, like [e] or [0-9] and then release.
  While the coconut is 'held' you count as unmounted so that you can interact with objects, and as soon as you release the mouse the coconut bounces back and you are mounted again.

Funny tidbit, back when the landrushes was after every wipe then this was "how the west novia was won".




Trivia time:
The coconut thingie started as a injoke for the stretchgoal battles between darkstarr and lord british
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...tretch-goals-rematch-voting.8342/#post-143238
So it was supposed to be part of the dueling challenge:



More Trivia:
This resulted in some wanting a coconut bra, which we actually got in R22 as a craftable object.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/release-22-instructions.37891/



Even more trivia:

There are Nightmare Mount coconut sets as well.

That started as a joke by @Themo Lock back in may 2015 where he made this image as an injoke on UO using the monty python injoke:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/sota-nightmare-mounts.27327/

Then three months later in the next Telethon the devs put that up as a telethon reward as an injoke on the injoke on the injoke, which funnily enough got achieved and implemented:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=52974


Then they repeated that for the winter telethon, giving us the Icy Nightmare Mount set as well
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=55625




So all of this is a grand case for dev+user bouncing feedback and jokes with eachother creating a pretty unique experience along the way.

 

Here's another tip: to interact with a boat while holding the coconuts, just jump in the water then double click the boat.