new mount suggestion

[BlueIce.6951]

I would absolutely love a Lizard based type of mount that would add in the movement ability of being able to walk on walls.  It could also have an attack and/or movement option using its tongue like the Oakheart's Essence.  Depending on the target it would either pull you to it or pull it to you.

This could add in areas where you need to move horizontally on a wall than pull yourself/stick to new sections like a floating maze or obstacle course.

The skin options would be amazing - whole slew of reptiles and amphibians, squirrels, chipmunks, goats, crabs, spiders (I personally would hate this though), ants, etc.

I would really like to know what others think would be good mount possibilities based around the function of movement.

[Randulf.7614]

If memory serves (it may not), a wall climbing one was concepted as a spider early on. In the end they chose to do vertical travel via jumps and flight instead.

[Sobx.1758]

Ability to walk on the walls was proposed in the past and I still don't like it. And skyscale exists.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[kharmin.7683]

Yep.  Above is correct.  Spiders were considered and dropped, partially due to so many people having phobias of spiders.

[Super Hayes.6890]

It would be fun. I just don't see an advantage to it. Seems like the other vertical mounts would far out perform it. I could be wrong. Anet has surprised me before 🤷‍♂️ You are right about the skins though. Lots of potential there!

[Batalix.2873]

If we aren't going to get more uses of Oakheart's Reach, I would be all for a mount like this.

Would also work really well in an expac with maps designed heavily around caverns, lots of walls and ceilings. As it stands I don't think this idea would break much of the current maps, and only increase mobility options on very vertical maps like VB, BF, and NKC.

I'm for it.

[BlueIce.6951]

I had no idea until I was searching for the concept spider/climbing mount and found that this topic was already posted in the forum with almost the same initial idea for a mount concept.  Apologies to Pyriel.4370; your thread didn't come up in my search before creating this one.
 

 

[Danikat.8537]

On 7/24/2023 at 12:44 AM, kharmin.7683 said:

Yep.  Above is correct.  Spiders were considered and dropped, partially due to so many people having phobias of spiders.

If arachnophobia was a concern (which makes sense) then making it a lizard could be a solution. I know there are people who are afraid of lizards too (my sister for one) but it seems like it's less common and, at least among people I've known, less severe.

I like the idea of a lizard mount that can run on walls (mainly because I want a varactyl - the thing Obi-wan rides in Revenge of the Sith) but I agree with the people who said it would be redundant with the mounts we have now. Unless Anet specifically designed maps for it (which would just make it a very niche mount) I think it would be difficult to compete with the spider and skyscale. If they ever get to the point where they can add more mounts just for variety without needing each one to have a clear purpose that could be an option, but that seems unlikely.

[ilMasa.2546]

On 7/24/2023 at 1:44 AM, kharmin.7683 said:

Yep.  Above is correct.  Spiders were considered and dropped, partially due to so many people having phobias of spiders.

I dont understand: why people with aracnophobia play a fantasy mmorpg where they are very likely to encounter spiders.
If they can play with the spiders the game currently have,they could deal with a spider mount or if they cannot just dont use it 😛

But mostly: why can't people have an interesting mount because it's disgusting to a small portion of the playerbase?

Edited July 25, 2023 by ilMasa.2546

[Danikat.8537]

44 minutes ago, ilMasa.2546 said:

I dont understand: why people with aracnophobia play a fantasy mmorpg where they are very likely to encounter spiders.
If they can play with the spiders the game currently have,they could deal with a spider mount or if they cannot just dont use it 😛

But mostly: why can't people have an interesting mount because it's disgusting to a small portion of the playerbase?

Lack of choice. There's very, very few fantasy games available without giant spiders.

But also the current spiders are relatively small compared to a mount and fairly easy to avoid. Spider enemies only appear in certain places so players with arachnophobia can avoid those areas when they don't want to deal with it and mentally prepare themselves (and maybe prepare in practical ways as well, like zooming the camera out further) before going there. The ranger pets can appear in town and in groups at any time but it's easy to avoid using them yourself and to move away from rangers who are using them.

None of that works with mounts. They'd have to be much bigger than the player character (especially since they'd presumably only be sitting on the thorax or abdomen and the legs would be much bigger in proportion). Like ranger pets they could turn up anywhere and given the size they'd be harder to avoid. (Now I'm wondering if that was a factor in Anet scrapping the idea - they could also be too big to be practical in a lot of spaces. Real spiders can squeeze themselves into very small spaces, but that would require a lot of clever animation work to recreate in-game.)

But most importantly they were considering this back when PoF was being developed, meaning they'd be one of the core mounts which you need to use to get around the maps. That would require players to control a spider for extended periods of time, having it right in the middle of their screen with their character (aka them) on top of it. That's pretty much a worst case scenario for arachnophobes and very different to just needing to kill the odd spider (which you can do from a distance).

But even so from what I've heard that wasn't the only reason they didn't do it, I suspect if it had otherwise been an ideal mount they'd have gone ahead with the idea.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

5 hours ago, ilMasa.2546 said:

I dont understand: why people with aracnophobia play a fantasy mmorpg where they are very likely to encounter spiders.
If they can play with the spiders the game currently have,they could deal with a spider mount or if they cannot just dont use it 😛

But mostly: why can't people have an interesting mount because it's disgusting to a small portion of the playerbase?

Really? 😐

 

[ilMasa.2546]

3 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Really? 😐

 

Yea really.
If hypothetically I had Leporiphobia and I opened a discussion asking Anet to remove the springer, because I'm afraid of rabbits, most players would just tell me not to use that mount or use a different skin. (which is fine)

And since there are skins that can drastically change the look of mounts, I don't see why a mount can't be released to the majority of the playerbase for the problem of a small portion of the comunity.

If the fear of spiders was the main reason a spider mount was not implemented, then all ranger's arachnid companions should also be removed. But this is not the case because if a person is afraid of spiders they may very well choose to use another pet.

Mind you, I know that phobias are serious situations, but in a fantasy context like that of an mmorpg it is almost mathematical to have spiders. In GW2 you have spiders as pets, you have spiders as mobbs, you have tonics that transform you into spiders, so it seems absurd that there can't be a spider mount for the fear of spiders.

Edited July 25, 2023 by ilMasa.2546

[Funky.4861]

I'd settle for spider skins for the bunny, much like they gave us birds.

[Lanfear De Noir.9127]

I have arachnophobia (I live in Australia with many spiders) and I have absolutely NO problem with a wall-crawling spider. If the mount could be a lizard or a cute fluffy squirrel (through a skin)then I would do ANYTHING to get this mount.  I don't think it would be game-breaking, or negate the reason for other mounts especially if future expansions had a vertical, dungeon/cave crawling experience. (I also have a phobia of caves... lol) But I would play it...

I think it is a super idea and ArenaNet should consider it again... after all, we are all adults and we could use the game as some kind of therapy against our phobias.

😁