Why not a new mount for a new function?

[BlaqueFyre.5678]

20 hours ago, Chronardis.4028 said:

We have enough mounts. What they should focus on is upgrading all mounts over time, like they're doing with the skyscale and to an extent with the gryphon. 

The gryphon is op if you get good with it you can legit fly and at stupid fast speeds, I am half tempted to grind it out, but I like Skyscale for the hover ability while I afk 

[Batalix.2873]

19 hours ago, Cameryn.5310 said:

As poignant and insightful as your detailed response is (ahem), you never answered the question.  Why do you need a new mount?  To do what, exactly?  

We have two flying mounts (one coasting, one climbing), two combat mounts (PVP and siege), two short distance mounts (one leaping, one blinking), one vertical mount, one high-speed mount, and one water skimming/underwater mount.

What mount need is not yet being served in Guild Wars 2?  I'm genuinely curious. 

I mean, a game like WoW has hundreds of mounts but they all do the same thing.  So perhaps you're just looking for a new mount skin?  In that case there are plenty available on the gem store.

High speed underwater mount for sure. I still think Kraken would have been the perfect mount to end mounts on, with a combination of underwater jetting, wall/ceiling climbing, and stealth (and yes I know we have the IBS mount stealth mastery but the IBS masteries were mostly badly designed).

Also someone proposed a "final expansion" on reddit where you retire on a farm (instanced housing) and get a Devourer mount that can harvest nodes faster and for free. Definitely an "end of life cycle" addition, and I couldn't care less about instanced housing, but a farming mount would definitely be a useful niche to fill.

I also wouldn't say no to a grapplehooking kind of mount, like a more accessible oakheart's reach. But really they should just make that feature more common instead. Really I'm just vibing in a Bulbasaur fantasy after we got Charizard and Blastoise.

I'm not saying the design space is particularly large or needed, but there definitely were still a few directions they could have pushed systems out more. And it's not even really which or how far or even at all; it's that they decided to do nothing at all and just re-release Skyscale. That's really the disappointment: the overall refusal to develop anything new.

[leila.7962]

Making a new mount takes time from the development - concept, arts, movement, not to mention it is just a bad idea in general to have another flying mount .. IMO, skyscale features should have always been part of the griffon.. to fly off the ground, to be able to hold onto walls etc. The griffon was a pretty expensive mount that its hard to find uses apart from a few areas/metas and griffon adventures. It's way better if they just upgrade existing ones, there will still be a sense of progression while it saves development time that could be used on something else.

[Batalix.2873]

25 minutes ago, leila.7962 said:

Making a new mount takes time from the development - concept, arts, movement, not to mention it is just a bad idea in general to have another flying mount .. IMO, skyscale features should have always been part of the griffon.. to fly off the ground, to be able to hold onto walls etc. The griffon was a pretty expensive mount that its hard to find uses apart from a few areas/metas and griffon adventures. It's way better if they just upgrade existing ones, there will still be a sense of progression while it saves development time that could be used on something else.

To be clear, I didn't need a new mount. Mounts were PoF's thing. If the developers had decides on more jade tech, or more arcane magic masteries to develop new subsystems, I couldn't really care whether we got more mounts.

But recycling Skyscale, (a) marketing it as new content and (b) undermining PoF's systems, is worse than having no mount. It is still some piddling degree of active development that is wasted on additions that range from inconsequential to quite damaging to past content.

[BlaqueFyre.5678]

Just now, Batalix.2873 said:

To be clear, I didn't need a new mount. Mounts were PoF's thing. If the developers had decides on more jade tech, or more arcane magic masteries to develop new subsystems, I couldn't really care whether we got more mounts.

But recycling Skyscale, (a) marketing it as new content and (b) undermining PoF's systems, is worse than having no mount. It is still some piddling degree of active development that is wasted on additions that range from inconsequential to quite damaging to past content.

How is it undermining PoF’s system?

[Cameryn.5310]

2 hours ago, Batalix.2873 said:

High speed underwater mount for sure.

I really don't think they'd do something like this unless they devote a significant amount of time to underwater content, beyond what exists already... and honestly, do any of us see that happening any time in the near future?  I certainly don't.  

13 minutes ago, Batalix.2873 said:

But recycling Skyscale, (a) marketing it as new content and (b) undermining PoF's systems, is worse than having no mount.

It's technically new content for some people, with an easy path to get it.  It's definitely new content for EVERYONE insofar as that they are obviously designing the new expansion around using it.

It doesn't undermine anything if you already have one.  If you already have it, you've had it for a while, using it throughout the game for, what, up to maybe 4 years now?  Plus you get increased functionality over the "new" version.

This skyscale complaint stuff is a really bizarre hill to die upon.

[Batalix.2873]

23 minutes ago, BlaqueFyre.5678 said:

How is it undermining PoF’s system?

A major selling point of GW2 for a while now has been how well-crafted the entire mount system is. That each mount has different feels, different functions to create a system of meaningful choice and interaction.

Some people complained when skyscale was released that it kind of obviates the mount system by being a really good generalist mount. And it really kind of does. Outside of skimmer and mayyyyybe beetle/griffon for very long distances, most people with a skyscale default to that for short to mid range distances because it can generally cover more horizontal and vertical space with more maneuverability and ability to pivot than the core PoF mounts.

Up until now Skyscale justified itself because it was a) a capstone on the PoF mount system, so appropriately would be the most powerful mount, but b) was locked behind a fairly lengthy collection side quest so that players who wanted that convenience had to work for it. While sufficient argument could be made as to whether it does too much, players still had to engage with the core mount system before obtaining it, and thanks to the high investment many players never bother to get it, thus preserving some use space for the other mounts. Also you needed to own PoF/LWS4 to obtain it so it encouraged further participation/investment in the same expansion maps and content as came with the original mounts.

Giving players effectively PoF's "endgame" mount for no effort in a totally separate expansion heavily decentivizes purchase and participation in PoF/LWS4 across two axes. The first being that participating in the natural mount progression system and enjoying a lot of their unique features is largely skipped over by the '"convenience" mount that outperforms most of them. And the second being that having one of the Crystal Desert's main achievements essentially accomplished already just reduces the motivation for players to spend time in those maps doing hearts/events/metas/achievements, which is kind of a fundamental pillar of the event/meta system to work in the first place: active player populations.

And, on top of that, ANet is basically gambling one of their most appealing aspects--the mount system--on the hope that Skyscale alone can somehow pull a lot of that weight by itself.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[trunks.5249]

On 7/1/2023 at 11:40 AM, Gharuda.7805 said:

We don't need new mount.

But we need an air ship. 

just like skiff but can fly, and have 4 seat with unique skill

i could see people trying to land their skyscale and griffon on a players air ship would be interesting

[Batalix.2873]

1 hour ago, Cameryn.5310 said:

I really don't think they'd do something like this unless they devote a significant amount of time to underwater content, beyond what exists already... and honestly, do any of us see that happening any time in the near future?  I certainly don't.  

It's technically new content for some people, with an easy path to get it.  It's definitely new content for EVERYONE insofar as that they are obviously designing the new expansion around using it.

It doesn't undermine anything if you already have one.  If you already have it, you've had it for a while, using it throughout the game for, what, up to maybe 4 years now?  Plus you get increased functionality over the "new" version.

This skyscale complaint stuff is a really bizarre hill to die upon.

It really isn't when you acknowledge how much these horizontally compartmentalized achievements keep large swathes of the game alive.

It's definitely not the most irritating thing to me in the expansion and for my personal purposes falls into "meh, really doesn't. affect me but sure would have loved better" territory. But from a design/marketing standpoint, it seems extremely reckless to gamble away entire old systems and acclaim on "accessibility".

Using a very reductive raw numbers representation, this move is basically risking the development resources spent on the already established success and consistent playtime investment of some four to six PoF masteries, and six to eleven PoF/LWS4 maps...on the hopes that the sales generated by a single mastery and two to three maps will counterbalance.

Either these devs think they have a REALLY cool novel use for Skyscale. Or they are making an extremely dumb move.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[Esparado.9305]

Underwater mount (that can tackle deep ocean pressure and is very mobile but can't be used on land)  in a underwater expansion and a airship mechanical mount (slower ascend then Skyscale, but as fast as Roller Beetle going forward in air for maybe Space/mist expansion.

Otherwise...not really?

Maybe a wall/roof walking mount with weird fun powers?

[Derktarlms.6213]

I only see that they wanted as soon as possible to be on summer vacation🤣

Edited July 11, 2023 by Derktarlms.6213

[Dante.1508]

On 6/28/2023 at 5:54 AM, Barraind.7324 said:

The main idea behind GW2 mounts is that each one of them does something different.   

Instead of "skyscale does more stuff now yay", why not a Ley-Feeder? A floaty, wispy-like creature bred by space wizards to navigate air currents and ley-energy, and so used to escaping dangerous situations involving its predators (giant flappy demonic birdragons or whatever that breed of skyscale is) that its cool with being summoned it in combat, because it can outmaneuver the crap out of anything in the air?  On land, it just kinda pbbbts around, but in the air, it can zip and zap and zop around as long as you have updrafts / ley-lines it can feed off of. 

 

You know, a unique mount to do things the other mounts cant, that isnt the default mount pick for most every situation. 

What would a new mount bring to the table better than the ones we've already got.. Turtle is useless, Griffon is overshadowed by Skyscale, Raptor over shadows Doggo and Catto.

I suppose we could have a Jetpack that work like a Skyscale?

Edited July 11, 2023 by Dante.1508

[Esparado.9305]

7 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

What would a new mount bring to the table better than the ones we've already got.. Turtle is useless, Griffon is overshadowed by Skyscale, Raptor over shadows Doggo and Catto.

I suppose we could have a Jetpack that work like a Skyscale?

Gliders with Jade Bot = Jetpack.

Legion Jetpack Glider - Gallery of gliders - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)

[HonesltlyX.7164]

On 6/27/2023 at 3:54 PM, Barraind.7324 said:

The main idea behind GW2 mounts is that each one of them does something different.   

Instead of "skyscale does more stuff now yay", why not a Ley-Feeder? A floaty, wispy-like creature bred by space wizards to navigate air currents and ley-energy, and so used to escaping dangerous situations involving its predators (giant flappy demonic birdragons or whatever that breed of skyscale is) that its cool with being summoned it in combat, because it can outmaneuver the crap out of anything in the air?  On land, it just kinda pbbbts around, but in the air, it can zip and zap and zop around as long as you have updrafts / ley-lines it can feed off of. 

 

You know, a unique mount to do things the other mounts cant, that isnt the default mount pick for most every situation. 

I think we have more than enough mounts now that covers most of what we need from flight to swimming. When turtle mount was released I wasn't too excited about it because I already have all of the other mounts that does everything the turtle does and better. (other than passenger which is meh to begin with). I think adding to existing mounts is better than getting yet another mount for something niche that we probably will never use.

[Linken.6345]

16 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

What would a new mount bring to the table better than the ones we've already got.. Turtle is useless, Griffon is overshadowed by Skyscale, Raptor over shadows Doggo and Catto.

I suppose we could have a Jetpack that work like a Skyscale?

What mount do we have that can tunnel underground so we can explore beneth the crust?

[idpersona.3810]

1 hour ago, Linken.6345 said:

What mount do we have that can tunnel underground so we can explore beneth the crust?

I don't know but some players in WvW must've gotten it early. I've seen a couple of people under some of the camps and keeps. 🙃

[Batalix.2873]

18 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

What mount do we have that can tunnel underground so we can explore beneth the crust?

As cool as this is you would need a game designed for this like TotK. For any other game you're just going out of bounds and get to look at a bunch of empty space and half-assets. Otherwise I would be all for it.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Batalix.2873 said:

As cool as this is you would need a game designed for this like TotK. For any other game you're just going out of bounds and get to look at a bunch of empty space and half-assets. Otherwise I would be all for it.

Or a  mini expansion that go down instead of up like SotO?

[Batalix.2873]

14 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Or a  mini expansion that go down instead of up like SotO?

That is more likely, entire underground maps like EotN.

[GEGEZZ.7563]

A creative mount idea to me would have been to get several animals carry you at once, like a little tribe. Think of the baby skyscales glider idea but on the ground while running or with special attacks. Would there be a need for it ? Don't think so, but movement is already pretty well covered so far. Only thing i can think of for now that would feel different is a hit and run multiple animal combat mount doing fun and unusual things. But i'm sure there would be many better things to do with the studio's resources. Maybe a skritt caravan with the skritt holding the carriage and the tribe escorting ? I could think about something like that but that would be very nichey.

 

Or maybe a land vehicle in the vein of the WvW tactic.

Edited July 12, 2023 by GEGEZZ.7563