Mounts- improvement to Griffon; Raptor for every player

There is totally something missing in Griffon and I wonder if the Mount Team took this matter into consideration.

I mean Floating.

If you fly on Griffon from the highest tops you cannot just stop, look around and enjoy the outstanding views; you have to be on move ALL the time, the pressure on keeping the griffon in the air makes this mount very tiresome, why does the griffon even has the wings if what it does while falling looks like the griffon writes the last will.

250 gold for a mount that cant even fly, the griffon looks like a penguin. (Cant wait for Penguin Griffon skin- it will be a very good match for Griffon's mechanics).

I dont mean to be rude, take it as a small advice.

2nd thing

Why is not Raptor available for everyone?

The beta before PoF could make some people think that even without PoF they would be able to have such a nice friend.

I hope that soon you will make one of the mount and gliding available for every player, but with some restriction like no access to the masteries.

I think everybody should have the mount no matter if its new player playing for free or having only HoT.

The same gliding.

80 level should give non-masteried Raptor and Gliding to everybody- we all should be equal, no matter if somebody just doesnt have the money or just want to 'touch' something before buying it.

That is my opinion anyway, and I am ready for the critique or even giving me a warning.

I play for almost 5 years, so dont take as a small pup that got to the keyboard. ;)

Anyway thank you for reading! :)

Everybody does not need to be equal, if you want the things, buy the content/expansion.

Yeah, handing out the best features of your product for free surely is the best way to increase sales.BTW, you will kitten off every single player that actually bought the expansions... even better!

I even found a logical response to the question why Griffons can't actually fly: Show me the bird that can fly while being mounted by a Charr or Norn :pI bet without us, they fly wonderfully.

Flying mounts killed lots of games. Full flying griffin will kill all what's left of exploration in Tyria.Noone forces you to spend 250g on griff. It works amazing as it is.Mounts were one of main points of interest for PoE as Gliding was a selling mechanic for HoT. I personally know some pepole who bought HoT for gliders on that intetested on HoT content.

I admit personally, I don't want to touch a better griffon with a ten foot pole. If there's something I'd like it would be MAYBE that its inital jump and flaps go a bit higher, but other than that keep it as it is. I am too used to playing another certain super famous MMORPG (think you know which one), where you just fly super high, then can go literally AFK and alt tab while browsing the web, go back and then get annoyed that you've not arrived at your destination yet, it saps all the fun out of the game and interactivity of the world and created legitimate anti flying debates in that game. So yea.. no thanks.

And with the raptor, I can't say cause I'm a bit biased, I was so hyped when I got my little dino boy at first in PoF. :) Kinda like that there is that excitement available for people once they get the expansion.

No, you should not give away content for free which requires expansion, why not to give HoT and PoF elite specializations as well? The whole definition of expansion is to expand your game experience.

There is already free, temporary mounts you can use in events.

A griffon is not a humming bird.

At most they could put raptors for hire for 10 silver on maps that only stay till you dismount. It would be a decent gold sink and a way for people to see what they’re like. That’s at most. The raptor is too important to get people to buy the PoF expansion to hand out for free. Gliding is also too important for HoT to hand out for free.

And no, griffins shouldn't have extended gliding or hovering. Thats a feature of gliding,

I get where you're coming from, but I disagree.Griffin: As others have mentioned, fully flying mounts have caused massive controversy in other games and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the exact reason ANet didn't allow that for Griffins.Raptor and Gliding: While I agree that it's really nice to roll around on a Raptor, I like that it's something you have to buy. For core Tyria, it's just not a necessary thing; they designed the entire map before that was a possibility, so it isn't like there are things on the main map you can't reach without it. Gliding and Raptors are really only required for sections of the expansions, in core Tyria Raptors are just QoL additions. If you don't buy the expansions, then you really don't have an actual reason for a Raptor aside from taking slightly longer to run around, and I'm under the impression that gliding isn't even available in core Tyria so you don't need that either.

Technically speaking the only content that 'requires' the use of mounts is Path of Fire, where several mastery points, hearts and story quests are only accessible if you have the required mount. (might also apply to LW S4 - not sure)

But you don't need mounts in Core TyriaYou don't need mounts in Dry Top (they haz crystals)You don't need mounts in SWYou don't need mounts in any map of Heart of Thorns or LW S3 - just need gliding

So if you don't have Path of Fire expansion, you will never be in a situation where you actually 'need' a mount.

I didn't buy PoF, but from what I see the Griffin flies as any bird would. There's few birds that can hover successfully and it takes a lot of energy for them to do so. Usually birds glide through the air as it is the least intensive form of transportation.

All Griffon needs is to allow you to unmount in the air.Anet should create a super slow, not competitive but fun Dolyak mount for everyone. This will avoid breaking the current awesome balance the mounts have, and allow them to incite P4F people to buy the really useful mounts via the expas, or maybe even monetize them through skin sales.

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:At most they could put raptors for hire for 10 silver on maps that only stay till you dismount. It would be a decent gold sink and a way for people to see what they’re like. That’s at most. The raptor is too important to get people to buy the PoF expansion to hand out for free. Gliding is also too important for HoT to hand out for free.

And no, griffins shouldn't have extended gliding or hovering. Thats a feature of gliding,

Yup, this.

I agree that basic mouth & basic gliding should be in core game. Rest only with expacs. Here is why. New player should be able to touch things, to feel what game has to offer. Let alone it would be big help in leveling. But this is only my opinion

I like that mounts are tied to PATH OF FIREThat being said I still want them to be an important feature for the next expansion. I don't want them only to be useful there. Maybe with the upcoming expansion they are going to have to give the other two away for free. That is my only concern as of now.

I do see how it might be a good idea to have "appetite whetters" for HoT and PoF in the form of gliders and raptors, but it needs to be very restrictive or people might settle for what they get for free and not buy the expansions.

How about a single area where you can hire a glider, Silverwastes for example, as it is the portal area into HoT. Also, one area where you can hire a raptor. Harder to pick that area because there isn't a clear transitional area between Central Tyria and Elona, but perhaps a place like Southsun Cove could be used for it, with the justification that the Consortium brought the raptors there as a tourist attraction. Like renting a pony on the beach. (Is that still a thing, anywhere?)

Real birds don't hover in place, they need to move forward to stay airborne.

Neither do helicopters for that matter, the pilot is actually making tiny circles with the stick, and it just appears to be hovering in place.

@Arden.7480 said:we all should be equal, no matter if somebody just doesnt have the money or just want to 'touch' something before buying it.

So you want F2P accounts to have no limitations so that we can all be equal?

Only thing I agree with there is that the Griffon doesn't have a hover mode..It's certainly a feature i'd like to have (as well as Griffons being able to use updrafts) but I understand it would probably be a pain to add to the game let alone finding a way to add it without breaking things.

As for availability points.. I completely disagree.Gliding and Mounts are not only expansion content they're also tied into the story of that content as well.If people want those abilities then they should have to buy the expansions just like everyone else did.

@Arden.7480 said:There is totally something missing in Griffon and I wonder if the Mount Team took this matter into consideration.

Yes, they took this into consideration.

I know this may just be an offhand comment, but it's a bit condescending to imply that they didn't. Not only because I'm sure the flapping mechanic is more complicated to implement than just 720 degrees freedom of movement, but also they were always resistant to mounts because they didn't want to just give people free speed boosts to zip through maps, which is why each one has some particular way to interact with the environment. And a free flying griffon would negate all other mounts.

A different mount that could hover might be interesting, but it would seem odd on the griffon. As to whether they can actually really fly, they probably CAN when they aren't hauling around a big pile of armored meat in the saddle. (Or veggies, not to discriminate against Sylvari.)

My biggest wish for a griffon improvement is different.

If you are floating over water in your glider, and drop down, the momentum takes you underwater. The higher you drop from, I believe, the deeper you plunge. But if you are racing your griffon downward in a screaming dive and hit the water, you end up floating on the surface like a daisy petal. That is just WRONG.

After that OP im just thinking that penguins would be jealous of such floating and the comparison to a penguin doesnt make any sense.

It's a mistake to think that things in Tyria have exact analogues to Real Life™. Even if it were the case that all birds can hover (most cannot), there are no Griffons, no mountable birds, no gliding in the way w can do it in Tyria, and so on. Mechanics in games will often resemble RL because it's simply easier for us to understand how it works and because that's kind of fun. But they won't be identical: that would be less fun in a fantasy game and it could often be imbalanced.

And people have already explained why ANet won't just gift people with one of the things that makes PoF worth purchasing, unless they, you know, purchase PoF.

@Its Nerfing Time.1495 said:Everybody does not need to be equal, if you want the things, buy the content/expansion.

@Maikimaik.1974 said:

@Arden.7480 said:we all should be equal, no matter if somebody just doesnt have the money or just want to 'touch' something before buying it.

^I hope that soon you will make one of the mount and gliding available for every player, but with some restriction like no access to the masteries.

Good thing there is no 'downvote' in this forum anymore. ;D