Ideas for the mount system stretch goals

We just had a fun universe chat about mounts within the game. I think the benefits of mounts need to be explained clearly. Right now, I don't necessarily see a need beyond vanity and a little speed, but I'm pretty happy with the latter with the buffs that I have with the fleet flute and speed potion + teleport scrolls.

Can I stay in zone longer with the carry capacity? How would a mount stay a live? Can I tie them to hitching post on the overworld so they are safe from the predators within the combat zone? What's happening?

Now, for me, the system has a stale design and no real benefit (that I can see). I need another horse mount like I need a whole in the head. If the mount keeps me in-zone longer, because it can carry an extra 1000lbs, great I can offload to a mount and play longer without going home. I'll buy a horse; I want to play longer sessions and sell off any loot I get.

If that's not the function, the design has to improve. To that end, keep the horses, but how about adding some new mount designs:

• Wyverns
• Bears
• Wolves
• Big cats (we don't have any tigers and lions in-game yet)
• Turtles (again not in-game yet)
• Shock Monkey (seriously this would cool AF)
• Troll (it would be hilarious running around on your troll pets shoulder)
• Kobold motorcycle (someone had this idea on universe chat and man it sounds awesome)

I think with the variety too each class of mount would have variable speed and weight capacities and all the sudden the system gets incredibly deep.

I know flying mounts are an incredible technical challenge that would prohibitively expensive. You built a lot of zones and there are a lot of towns and all of them have to be touched, right? I didn't mention any flying mounts because of it, but it would be awesome to have:

• Owls
• Eagles
• Bats
• Dragons
• Kobold helicopter?

I'd like to see those as possible purchasable items for the stretch goal. You can just give us the leash or whatever in-game and make it work once the funds come in for that particular mount.

 

rabbits, with tiny little saddles.

also, automaton servants. we must make them useful in a virtuous way.

 

That's me via alt.

 

We would also need heraldry leather vests (heraldry on the back) to go along with that.

 

Heck yeah!

 

Kobolds already have a mobile tree hewer, so wheeled vehicles are not without question

 

Yep! I remember seeing that.

That is a great way to add some funding... heraldry items like saddle bags and vests would kick ass

I forgot the damn rabbits!!! How could I forget!?!?! Shrink us down so we can ride little bunnies

The other cool idea was races so maybe that's way points that we can place and make custom tracks throughout a PoT. Like large gates you have to run through

The point being of this post is to give you product ideas to add to the stretch goal and create maybe mini-goals or sub goals that can be used to fund the sub goal and the overall goal. No doubt these are all ideas that require your sweat, tears, heavy drinking and fits of fowl language to make real.

 

Honestly we can do this one ourselves, just have a judge at the end.

Now, jousting... yes that's a pretty big addition... but that's something we couldn't do ourselves.

 

Good point. I was just thinking of something that could be tracked in the system and possibly have a leader board for even if we had to fish it out of the API.

 

What sets us apart from other games will be our systems that get implemented and are implemented and the quality of them which includes fun and enticing attention to detail. Going forward we do need to take this to heart. All systems we have need this. Grinding is not king but it of course is necessary. It will be in the way it is implemented and in the details that we stand apart. This is always my hope. Implementing system after system that incorporates the grind for the goods without the enticing reasons to keep doing them is such a bad mistake. Fight with me for us to stop doing that. It is just not going work to further the success of this game.

Fishing is so far one of those to grind for the trophies. Here's hoping there will be more like the daily catch of the day and message in a bottle, treasure chests and quests to discover while fishing like who's arm did I just fish up and the clue is a ring with an inscription engraved on it. The same would need to happen for any system we have. Those little details are what brings this game forward imho.

So for mounts in this game it could be a popular feature if we knew it was not going to be another such system with less meaning than this game deserves. So we rally for it and all systems to get their due. Mounts could be for jousting, for racing, for battle, and perhaps much later some gliding or flying ability. So far we have the new accelerated jump potions that do work in towns and are a lot of fun to jump from rooftop to rooftop. I was doing that in QA last night since I did not want to waste them in regular sota.







-Imagine setting up a horse race track in your town with hurdles you can place to jump and while on your mount you use the space bar to jump just as we do when having our character jump. There will be some skill and reflexes to doing this in my thoughts.
-Imagine bringing your horse along to gather resources. He/she will be able to carry some of the load but problem is he can't teleport so you will need to walk the map. And you will need to watch over your horse so they don't die. Armor to protect and skills to give your horse would greatly improve the fun.
-Perhaps we could get a cart to attach to the horse to do some cart racing well in the future. We do already have the yule sled you can sit in but it cannot be pulled. My pet Rudolph stands by it still waiting.
-Sound the horn or shoot the gun and off they go needs to get implemented as an emote
-Imagine making a section of town as a horse racing track (we do already have this we can do for a gust ball field). Just imagine hurdle jumps, jousting competitions and more. Attach those carts to the horse or a saddle with heraldry blanket on it.


We do have this race track in Arie in game now. Well to me it does look like a race track and there is a lone horse there too waiting to be saddled up to run the track.

 

Allow us to shrink ourselves and ride our pet clockwork dragons.

 

It's a jousting arena.

 

Our pet airships? Ok we're going crazy now.

 

You make a great point. We need to get away from throwing in mediocre system after mediocre system and instead make each system we have shine and stand out. that will set us apart and bring us success. As such while I like the idea of mounts, We are not ready for it yet because we have to many systems that are just mediocre and if we bring this system in now it will just be more of the same. My opinion.

 

I didn't say now. The OP is mentioning episode 2 wishlist and that is when mounts were scheduled in previous discussions by the devs. I do agree with you that I am really tired of getting systems that are not quite completed with some reasons being from missing progression features that provide much of the reasons to continue to do them, dailies attached to some of them.

They end up leaving a virtual grindfest that ends when all is accomplished. Then what is left is either continue to build more content for them or let everyone lose interest in them over time. There are truly things that could sustain these systems to have longevity some of which I and others do mention continuously. It is those details that keep getting left off and leave a system stale. Things like The dailies from merchants connected to them, the achievement system related tasks, the discovery system which allows for occasional quests to be fished up and later the treasure map system (still hoping for this to be something special).

Anyway I do agree we need to tackle what we have left standing in undone status that makes those systems unbearable to do over time and too it makes the game unbearable over time to play after a while. Brewing, cooking, and taming for a few to mention that are not done. Ok sorry I am ranting but hopefully we can get heard one day. There is just so much possibility. Can we please push a button

 

I think there's some excellent questions here -
What benefit(s) would a mount system add to the game?
I mean, a movement speed bonus while mounted is assumed, but how much speed? (given the historical nerfs to player speed due to issues with server recognizing where players are?)
I've seen mounts implemented both really well and really poorly in this regard.

Like, BAD: In some games, there's this lengthy fiddle around to find your whistle, equip an item, activate a skill with a long cast time, watch a lengthy 'get on horse' animation, and then enjoy a 20% move bonus until you get knocked off your horse by a monster breathing on you.

Given the size of scenes and even the overworld in Sota, if 'getting on mount' is anything more than 'instant' it is probably going to be not worth fussing with unless the mount is giving some benefit other than speed. However I think its unlikely that every single animation is going to be adjusted to account for "while sat on a horse" as that seems like a lot of work, so mounted combat is probably not practical at least at the onset.

In other games, I've seen the mount treated as an equipment slot item that, even when not visibly ridden, conveyed certain bonuses for having it equipped (such as increased armor/etc).
I've also seen mounts convey additional capacity space or have their own inventories, be able to bed fed/grow to be faster, more hardy, etc. The problem is that unless the mount is treated as equipment, these sorts of bonuses cease to be in effect once you're not ON the mount, which you'd never be, if you can't fight on it or if getting damaged knocks you off of it. If you CAN fight on it, then we run into the "players are going too fast problem."

But as mentioned, individual scenes are far too small to really need to ride around within them, excepting maybe some sprawling POTs. Assuming no combat functionality, what is the mount system going to do for us and why should we care about funding it? Other than the roleplay/cosmetic joy of riding around on a giant cat, of course.

I'd really be interested to know how this system is envisioned to work. If its going to be a 'fluff only' system or worse, something that requires giving up your neck slot (ala taming) for something with no real benefit, I'm afraid its just going to be another one of these things that get implemented that after the novelty wears off, nobody bothers with.

 

also butterfly mounts

@kaeshiva all great questions and I think it points to Port not discussing how they think mounts should work and why the system isn't funded. It's too vague

 

Has anyone attempted to build a Jousting Arena yet? Would love to visit one.

 

I'm good with any mount so long as they come with laser beams.

 

Let's not forget that we have a pet broom that can be used as a mount.