Mounts Required, why.

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

I'll probably get a fair amount of hate for this based on other player interactions I've already had, but I think it's worth saying regardless. Mounts should not be required for story quest progress. I have no problem working towards mounts, achievements, crafting, with the only exception being timegated stuff like Skyscale. The work for Skyscale, fine. The forced wait times, not fine. That's a whole different issue though.

Going through Path of Fire, and needing to level the raptor to get to certain places alone would be meh, but not intolerable. Needing to level the raptor to Mastery 3, just to get a completely different mount or I can't continue story though? That's too much, not too much as in impossible to do, but it's one of numerous timegates in the game. Though a smaller one in comparison to others I mentioned. I don't like to rush to endgame, I do my best to 100% a map if I can before moving on to the next, but even for me this is ridiculous. Mounts and what they add to a map should just be that. Adding. Not required to experience, especially for the story itself. It's an unnecessary gate no matter how you reason it. If it was just blocking off some collectibles, like Vista's or something I'd find that completely fine.

Apologies if I come off defensive, I do not mean to and certainly do not wish to start any arguments, but having raised this opinion in the past with other players in game usually gets a response of "Stop being entitled and wanting everything handed to you" or "Quit whining, you have to actually play the game." I just want to play through the story in one go, then go back and do completion if I didn't get 100% the first time through.

[Sunchaser.9854]

The raptor long jump is required to get the bunny since they want you to lurk a while and use the raptor for a bit before you get bunny. Just wait, even though people love the skyscale grind, the raptor lvl 3 is a hinderance, you can wiki for the mastery points if you run out (there's a underwater mastery point like west of one of the big ammoon cities or something), but leveling the raptor to level 3 is one of the shortest things in the game for the mount journey.

Just kill random things for 1-3 hours and hunt for mastery points and you'll have it. 

[Ashen.2907]

I disagree.

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

Like I said. It's not that I'm against the work for leveling mounts to get new places and abilities. I just don't think it should be required for the main story/dlc story. Side content, sure.

[yoni.7015]

1 minute ago, Yvelta De Forlee.1690 said:

Like I said. It's not that I'm against the work for leveling mounts to get new places and abilities. I just don't think it should be required for the main story/dlc story. Side content, sure.

Mounts were the main feature of PoF. Of course you should have to level them in order to progress the story of PoF, it doesn’t even take that long to level them. 
 

[Rasimir.6239]

Leveling masteries to certain key levels to progress story has been a thing in this game since the introduction of masteries. In HoT you have to go level your gliding mastery right out of the first story instance, and several other masteries throughout the course of that story. The requirements were lowered sometime after the release of that expansion, but there are still several masteries required to play through the whole thing.

 

PoF only has mount masteries, so needing certain of them to continue the story sounds like the natural thing to do for me. We can discuss whether there are enough mastery points available before you get to the story step that requires the raptor jump (there are, but you could argue that it would need more "in your face" options since that is the hurdle most players new to PoF get stuck at), but I see no problem with requiring certain base masteries for story progress.

 

If you argue against needing expansion masteries to progress the expansion story, then I would take it a step further and say that level gating of the personal story is in the same boat. Expansion masteries in GW2 are not much different to level gating in more traditional games (and our basegame). I'd even argue they are less strict since they're account bound, not character bound. Making the full story available without requiring any (account or character) progression does feel weird to me in an RPG game.

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

Just now, yoni.7015 said:

Mounts were the main feature of PoF. Of course you should have to level them in order to progress the story of PoF, it doesn’t even take that long to level them. 
 

I see it as a hindrance to the story, regardless of it not being easy to do or not.

[yoni.7015]

3 minutes ago, Yvelta De Forlee.1690 said:

I see it as a hindrance to the story, regardless of it not being easy to do or not.

Well it’s not. 

Edited August 15, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

Just now, yoni.7015 said:

Well it’s not. 

That's your opinion, which is fine that we have differing opinions, but I disagree.

[yoni.7015]

1 minute ago, Yvelta De Forlee.1690 said:

That's your opinion, which is fine that we have differing opinions, but I disagree.

In HoT you have to level masteries to progress the story, even in core game you have to level up to continue the story. But you are complaining about mounts? 

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

2 minutes ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

Leveling masteries to certain key levels to progress story has been a thing in this game since the introduction of masteries. In HoT you have to go level your gliding mastery right out of the first story instance, and several other masteries throughout the course of that story. The requirements were lowered sometime after the release of that expansion, but there are still several masteries required to play through the whole thing.

 

PoF only has mount masteries, so needing certain of them to continue the story sounds like the natural thing to do for me. We can discuss whether there are enough mastery points available before you get to the story step that requires the raptor jump (there are, but you could argue that it would need more "in your face" options since that is the hurdle most players new to PoF get stuck at), but I see no problem with requiring certain base masteries for story progress.

 

If you argue against needing expansion masteries to progress the expansion story, then I would take it a step further and say that level gating of the personal story is in the same boat. Expansion masteries in GW2 are not much different to level gating in more traditional games (and our basegame). I'd even argue they are less strict since they're account bound, not character bound. Making the full story available without requiring any (account or character) progression does feel weird to me in an RPG game.

I'm aware it's been a thing, especially in HoT. I just feel a different approach could be done. Such as linking things to quest chains or perhaps something else. Do I expect it to change? No. I just personally dislike the system as it is.

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

2 minutes ago, yoni.7015 said:

In HoT you have to level masteries to progress the story, even in core game you have to level up to continue the story. But you are complaining about mounts? 

Leveling up to continue is something as old as rpgs. I'm more complaining about needing a mount, to get a mount, to continue the story. Again, I'm not saying it's hard. It's just more of an annoyance.

[yoni.7015]

4 minutes ago, Yvelta De Forlee.1690 said:

Leveling up to continue is something as old as rpgs. I'm more complaining about needing a mount, to get a mount, to continue the story. Again, I'm not saying it's hard. It's just more of an annoyance.

Like I wrote before, mounts were the main feature of PoF. It just makes sense to combine them with the story. What’s so annoying about that? I mean you get the mounts while you play the story and the PoF maps. 
I got the mounts nearly five years ago and can’t remember that I found it annoying or that people complained about it. 

Edited August 15, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

1 minute ago, yoni.7015 said:

Like I wrote before, mounts were the main feature of PoF. It just makes sense to combine them with the story. What’s so annoying about that? I mean you get the mounts while you play the story and the PoF maps. 

It feels tacked on to me, main feature or not, it feels more like a side thing that they make necessary in it's current implementation rather than a fluid part of story progress.

[Infinity.2876]

Why are mounts required:

To make you start arguments with random people.

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

1 minute ago, Infinity.2876 said:

Why are mounts required:

To make you start arguments with random people.

Lol
I don't think you're being serious, but who knows. I don't want to argue, just calmly discuss.

[Sarius.9285]

12 minutes ago, Yvelta De Forlee.1690 said:

Leveling up to continue is something as old as rpgs. I'm more complaining about needing a mount, to get a mount, to continue the story. Again, I'm not saying it's hard. It's just more of an annoyance.

unlocking the mount masteries is literally just leveling up....you get exp and increase your mastery level....

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

1 minute ago, Sarius.9285 said:

unlocking the mount masteries is literally just leveling up....you get exp and increase your mastery level....

As I've said, I am aware. I know it's not hard. Just feels unnecessary to need a mount to get a mount to continue story. Feels very redundant.

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

It's fine others do not share my opinion, this thing isn't going to stop me from enjoying the game as a whole. Just wanted to share my opinion in a hopefully less hostile environment, which this was. Thank you to all who replied, even though we disagree you were still constructive and respectful. I hope I came off respectful as well. o>

[mindcircus.1506]

47 minutes ago, Yvelta De Forlee.1690 said:

Needing to level the raptor to Mastery 3, just to get a completely different mount or I can't continue story though? That's too much, not too much as in impossible to do, but it's one of numerous timegates in the game. Though a smaller one in comparison to others I mentioned. I don't like to rush to endgame, I do my best to 100% a map if I can before moving on to the next, but even for me this is ridiculous. 

Mastery advancement is not a Time Gate.
Time Gates are barriers that are imposed by the game to impede your progress by not allowing advancement until an arbitrary amount of time have passed.
Daily Ascended crafting is a Time Gate.
There is a Time Gate in the Skyscale quest.
Levelling up a raptor however is not impeded by a time gate.

[Freya.9075]

Look at it this way. Leveling the mounts are part of the story when you play it for the first time. 

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

1 minute ago, Freya.9075 said:

Look at it this way. Leveling the mounts are part of the story when you play it for the first time. 

I mean, you are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

[Farohna.6247]

Interesting view point OP, the opposite of what most players want for maps, with having mounts at the start.  I can see your point in wanting to take time and not be required to level up a mastery to proceed.  That can be frustrating.  

If you have teleport to a friend available, you could use it to get to a waypoint past the point where you're barred, and then back track.  

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

removed cause website didn't do the quote

Edited August 15, 2022 by Yvelta De Forlee.1690
website didn't do the quote?

[Yvelta De Forlee.1690]

 

12 minutes ago, Farohna.6247 said:

Interesting view point OP, the opposite of what most players want for maps, with having mounts at the start.  I can see your point in wanting to take time and not be required to level up a mastery to proceed.  That can be frustrating.  

If you have teleport to a friend available, you could use it to get to a waypoint past the point where you're barred, and then back track.  

I unfortunately do not have anymore teleport to friend items at the moment because I tried that. We learned that if you get there without raptor mastery 3 you cannot do the heart for the npc to unlock bunny.

I just am used to and prefer Mounts being the harder/last thing to earn (with bosses, dungeons, raids, etc. Not timegates though, Looking at you Skyscale), not up front and required.