Core Tyria Mounts: Fun, but Redundant?

[elsendor.3251]

So I've been playing gw2 almost since launch, and as one of the people who's been waiting on mounts since day one, I gotta say: while mounts are fantastic and fun in POF maps , they've proven to be a major disappointment in Core Tyria.

I wanna start out by saying I adore the xpac. I've been struggling with burnout for the past few months, and POF has sparked the old gw2 fire something fierce. The mechanics are amazingly fun, the masteries are way better paced than in HOT, the maps are overflowing with so much content I don't know where to start, hero points are better scaled for solo players, everything just feels amazing, smooth, and like Anet's really been thinking about how to improve on their past work for their second xpac. Even the story aspects I haven't liked personally, I've found I deeply respect and appreciate. Mounts, too, have been everything I've ever wanted--but only in the POF maps.

Remember when we used to campaign for mounts, ask about them every interview, and there was always a thread about them in the forums? Anet's answer has always been that, if they implemented mounts, they wanted them to be innovative, to bring something new to the table. They didn't want them to just be a redundant addition that served basically the same purpose as waypoints--getting places fast. In a game with waypoints, there was no need for mounts, unless they were unique and interesting. And they are, in the maps that were built alongside them.

In Core Tyria maps, though? They really bring absolutely nothing new to the table. I could be misremembering, but I could swear when mounts were confirmed for Core Tyria, we were told that they wouldn't be just fast travel, they'd be letting us explore the world in new ways, see it in a way we couldn't before. I took that to mean that we'd be able to get places we couldn't before. Climb higher mountains. Jump longer gaps. That sort of thing.

I've just been running around Lornar's Pass with all five mounts for a while now, and I've been honestly pretty crushed. The Durmand Priory, for example, is absolutely covered in terrain that looks completely climbable, if you could just jump high enough. Springer seemed like the perfect opportunity to get up there and really get a crazy view of the map, like people used to do from the top of the Priory before the map break spots were fixed. In reality, though? The whole area is completely surrounded by invisible walls. It's incredibly frustrating and disheartening, to see the places that seemed within reach now that we have fun mounts to change the way we move around, only to find that we really can't go anywhere we couldn't before.

Gliding got us to some fun new places. If you could jump up high, you could glide from there to places that were too steep to climb from the ground. It was amazing, it opened up a ton of new exploration, and for the most part, the limitations to it were completely realistic and rational. There were very few instances where you'd start gliding someplace and run into invisible walls that broke all sense of immersion and exploration. Maybe it was because anywhere below jumpable points was technically given realistic collision even if we couldn't get to it before gliding? That's definitely not the case with mounts.

Thus far, I've yet to find really anywhere of note I can get to with mounts that I couldn't with jumping and gliding, which to me seems to really contradict Anet's previous statements about their intention for mounts. Which is, of course, not something that we must have for the game to be good, but if mounts are really supposed to bring something new to the table? It'd be nice if those invisible walls could be fixed. I'm not talking the ones at the edge of the map, of course. I'm talking mountains far from the edge that should be climbable now but aren't. It'd be more consistent with Anet's stated desire to innovate with everything they add, not to just rehash old MMO standards.

Anyways, that's just my two cents. I'd really love to see Core Tyria get a little love and be brought up to speed so we can take full advantage of the amazing new mounts we've been given! They're really something, better than I ever could've imagined, so let's get that feeling everywhere, not just in the latest five maps!

[HyperLooser.2698]

mounts in core tyria is a huge gamechanger for me, not only faster movement, but even combat wise, the mount attacks are really good, especially raptor tail spin gathering ability and exploration wise, i can get to places, that even gliding couldn't get me. Lots shortcuts now for traveling.

Also mounts on some classes are very combat gamechangers, cuz we don't need movement speed signets and traits, instead we can have actual combat skills.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

I never had thea impression that mounts would let us access places we hadn't been able to get to, but that mounts will make already reachable areas accessible in new ways.

[Changer the Elder.2948]

It will sound weird, but I am actually happy mounts are a bit redundant in the old places. Because old places don't need them. In order to change that, you'd have to overhaul most topography and remove more than half the waypoints. Not to mention, core maps are supposed to be accessible to people who bought the core game, not update so it gets less accessible if you don't buy expansions.

I think it works just fine the way it is, because right now, there is no incentive to overuse and abuse the mount mechanic in the old maps. The thing that makes Guild Wars great is the interactivity of the world, instead of being a random assortment of players named "BIGDADDYBOSS0103872" zooming about on their blingy speed toy without a care in the world (I mean, we still have that, but in a lesser amount).

If you want to get places, mounts still help, and so does the very generous waypoint/fast travel system. If you just want to have fun riding your mount, it's still more than easy to do so just for fun. Sure, no expansive swaths of land, but that's what the desert is for.

[alceste.8712]

Invisible walls have always bothered me in games but I have learned to accept them. I have been really enjoying PoF so far. I really want the griffon but I need more gold. Using the PoF mounts in the old areas has been quite a bit of fun so far. I am fine with them not being absolutely necessary.