Underwater Mounts and New Ways to Utilize Them

1. Underwater MountsI wonder if we will get these mounts in game. The Beetle was a surprise to many. We got a new mount so soon and it seemed just for fun purposes mostly. This leads me to believe they are developing more mounts and not only skins for mounts. Unlike the beetle an underwater mount seems much more useful and from glimpses in trailers that anet has released, underwater content seems possible. The degree of how much UC would be used is debatable. Is it limited to fractals and instances where mounts can’t be used or is it also open-world maps?

2. Underwater Exploration
This would add tons of content to the game for maps. It has been rather limited outside of Core Tyria and mostly used as back drop scenery (recent 4winds festival great example of wasted space). Orr, Bloodtide Coast, Frostgorge Sound come to mind for fun underwater combat and exploration in game. But I’m talking about something more secluded, a bigger content fill, even endgame worthy status.

3. Endgame ContentUnderwater exploration or even high up into the mountains (Bitterfrost mountain ledge) could be used with a treasure hunt type of endgame content accessed by talking to an npc. Think Laura croft meets Indian jones meets searching for Kralkatite Ore in Istan meets Archeology from World of War craft with a little bit of lore and puzzles mixed in. This would be a totally optional game mode, just like how some never leave PvP. Now I realize some of you would hate this but the reality is we’ve already seen this in game. Let’s just use it more! I am that kind of player that loves, LOVES to explore and try and find the edges of the map (void jumping for instance) or just new places not many have reached, that’s me. It would be another way to get players involved more with lore and provide new ways of acquiring unique gear. In story i want to Fast Forward through it and get to the combat. Here you'd be forced to think more about the lore and where on the maps these things might be hidden. These areas could be hidden entirely on maps until you found them. You could have 100% map completion but these areas would still be hidden. Swimming around the deep oceans in the game I’ve been wishing for a hidden cave entrance leading to another big explorable area, something like Shark maw but with many more places around the Tyrian world.

The trick would be to make the locations or the rewards for them rotate and still mix with lore. So guides (like Dulfy’s) would not be as easy to create. But then again there are no guides where to dig exactly for Kralkatite Ore, but more of a how to manual about it.

4. Need for Swim SpeedI’d assume there’s a reason for the swim speed coming up in future releases and not just being able to swim a little faster on one toon. Underwater mount seem like it would replace this but I’ve thought of a way both could be used together.If there were champ mobs guarding these hidden locations and the champ mob you either had to fight or swim away, then those swim speed things would come in handy if you were in combat and couldn’t mount(if we had UW mounts). The champ mobs could be mini bosses and have supped up swim speeds themselves making it near impossible to get away without the extra speed. (So looking for these things might be easier in group play, but still allow solo play too.)

Another fun thing with the champ bosses – what if they attacked you from below and behind. They could be kind of stealthy so you wouldn’t see them when entering the area like normal mobs and if they were recently killed the area might be rather quiet because all other mobs left the area when this thing entered it. (idk fun balancing for devs here) Or maybe it’s rather quiet because this boss is lurking BEHIND YOU! :D

5. Utilizing Old Maps in a New XpacI know anet won’t add new content in old maps, but what if you had to have the xpac in order to see the new content. It could be instanced like WvW some little portal by a new wp specifically tied to this, (just an idea) or not.

Basically you’d be adding new hidden areas to old maps or the new instance open world version of the old map. Like a dungeon but NOT a dungeon and open world to anyone else that goes treasure hunting. (Don’t focus too much on this instanced thing it’s just an idea, I’m sure others can come up with better ones.)

Actually having it not be instanced would give new life to old maps around the world and this would bring people back to them while still being more of an end game thing because let’s assume lowbies wouldn’t have all the skills and gear necessary for these fights. (scaling fun for devs – ooh look, another issue to be worked out. I’m brainstorming here.)

To avoid all this it could just be in the new maps that come out with the xpac. (but imo it’d be fun to re-explore old areas too.)

What do you think? How could things be different?

Too many mounts as is. It is starting to get silly. I think it’d be better if the Skimmer had a dive function.