Should Skyscale have unrestricted flight?

[Ayrilana.1396]

To clarify the question, should the Skyscale be able to freely fly everywhere on the map where mounts are allowed without the need to worry about the flight meter and canopy mechanics/restrictions? Before voting, think about the pros and cons of having it versus not having it and which would be healthier for the game; both currently and in the future.

[Xanadrine.4352]

I think it should have more flight freedom at least, do away with that terrible meter and just allow it to fly/glide for a decent distance. First off its so slow and restrictive its not really a flying mount, and you use up most of the flight time just getting the thing in the air. Honestly though true flight in the game isnt going to ruin it like some think. You will still have places mounts are not allowed, so really nothing will change but the wonderful feeling of flight.

[Fengzhou.9853]

I would love it's current 'restrictions' to be reduced by at least half of what it is, if not full flight.

[Blocki.4931]

The way it is right now is ideal. There shouldn't be any inconsistencies in usage of any mount.

[Rukario.1695]

I think it needs tweaked but free flight is asking too much given every map is based on navigating terrain that isn't airborn, minus Verdent Brink.

[AgentMoore.9453]

Either unrestricted flight or unrestricted ability to recharge flight while stuck to a wall. The effort to acquire this mount is superior to that of other mounts, so I'm fine with a similarly elevated level of ability.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I'll have to agree with what the Devs said when addressing this topic on Guild Chat.

[Zushada.6108]

I voted no but it isn't showing up. While I would appreciate slowing down the speed at which the Skyscale burns through the green energy bar, I have to agree with @Inculpatus cedo.9234 on this one. The Devs gave a very good overview of the functionality of the Skyscale on Guild Chat and essentially, this mount isn't necessarily for flying as much as it is wall jumping across a map.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@Zushada.6108 said:I voted no but it isn't showing up. While I would appreciate slowing down the speed at which the Skyscale burns through the green energy bar, I have to agree with @Inculpatus cedo.9234 on this one. The Devs gave a very good overview of the functionality of the Skyscale on Guild Chat and essentially, this mount isn't necessarily for flying as much as it is wall jumping across a map.

Just so you know, your vote shows up for me (above in the poll).

[Gop.8713]

Unrestricted anything is usually not as great as it sounds like it might be. Fun frequently happens in the margins and if there are no restrictions then there are no margins . . .

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

YES, but, only by a slowly recharging bar, so you have to stop for a while to rest. I don't want it to be able to just zoom clear into the sky and fly anywhere, but I think if you had to idle sometimes to regain your endurance, then continue flying, that would be good.

[Weindrasi.3805]

No. Guild Wars 2 is not designed for free flight. As it is, I often feel severely restricted on the griffon due to invisible walls and hitting the end of the map. On a free-flight mount, that feeling of restriction would be so much worse.Free flight only works in games like WoW, where all the maps are connected into a huge world with virtually no invisible walls and no loading screens between areas.

[YoukiNeko.6047]

Yes, cause I like unlimited flying.

[LucianDK.8615]

As said above, the game is not built for unrestricted flight. But the skyscale needs improvements.

[Danikat.8537]

I like the idea of unlimited flight, but I don't think it would work well for anything other than flying around looking at the map because the game isn't designed for it. If all the story steps, collections and things where you have to reach a specific point just consisted of getting on your skyscale, going up, flying in a straight line until you're above it and then dropping down the game would get very dull very quickly and people would burn through content even faster than they already do - whilst missing a lot of the stuff designed to be discovered on your way to something else.

I haven't unlocked the skyscale yet so I don't have all the masteries but I've been impressed with how long it can stay airborne, it seems to lose height slower than either the griffon or gliding. I also love the ability to hover so I can stop in the air and figure out where to go and how to get there. I'm looking forward to trying the wall jumping too. I know it's limited, but there's been so many times I've been flying/gliding and ended up just below the ledge I wanted to land on that I can see myself using it a lot.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I'll have to agree with what the Devs said when addressing this topic on Guild Chat.

Would you (or someone else who saw it) be willing to summarise what they said about free flight for those of us who didn't watch it?

[wrathmagik.3518]

No.

Look what free flight did to wow.

[Tails.9372]

OW PvE is (along with the story mode) the most casual part of the game meaning that there is no point in being overly restrictive here. I'm fine with free flight as long as it doesn't mitigate special challenges but these are usually alredy restricting this kind of stuff and it's not like as if you can kill a metaboss by simply circleing above their head. So if you want to get anything done you would have to engage with the content anyways.

.

@"Danikat.8537" said:Would you (or someone else who saw it) be willing to summarise what they said about free flight for those of us who didn't watch it?

• if the skyscale had free flight then what's the point in using the other mounts

Which is quite a nonsensical argument to make because going by this logic one could just at well say "there's no point in having the raptor cause the griffon exists" which completely ignores their strengths and weaknesses. The devs are completely ignoring what a skyscale with unlimited flight would actually be used for because they only focus on what it could be used for regardless of whether or not this would be a practical aplication for it.

• unlimited flight, what fun is that?

Another quite nonsensical argument cause fun is subjective and no one would be forced to use it.

[Teratus.2859]

As I already mentioned in another thread the current restrictions on the Skyscale are not actually restricting anything but rather just making the Skyscale more annoying to use.All the "Restrictions"are very easily worked around with the Skyscale and other mounts.Hell even the no mount restriction on jumping puzzles is only effective on a few of them tops and there's always mesmers porting people to the ends of them for dailies so those restrictions are again.. pointless.

What Anet should do is set a hard hight cap on every map that the Skyscale cannot pass and allow it to fly freely anywhere under that limit but make it so that the Skyscale takes significant damage from ranged attackes and players can easily be dismounted if they're careless.For example, Mordrem snipers in the Magumma Jungle would pose a serious threat in this case.Or have it so that being hit while riding the Skyscale inflicts you with a full Red Bar effect and your Skyscale is forced to rapidly descend until you either hit the ground and recover or grab a wall and recover.

At this point any argument about the Skyscale would make traversing the terrain far to easy and risk free if it had free flying is completely irrlevent considering literally every mount in this game makes traversing Tyria significantly faster and safer.The Griffon and Beetle can cover the distance of entire maps in seconds and both are significantly faster than Skyscale will ever be, map exploration with the Raptor and Springer is 2-5 times faster than it used to be due to the mobility they provide, again both are faster traversing their focused direction than the Skyscale will ever be.(Used to take me a full day to complete a map back in the day running at default speed, Now I can complete 2-5 maps in a day thanks to mounts depending on how persistant, and efficient I am)Giving Skyscale more flight freedom wouldn't make it superior or inferior to any of the other mounts much in the same way having the Beetle doesn't make the Raptor or Griffon useless.

There are few restrictions on mounts and terrain that are justified considering how easily they can be worked around.The Skyscales restrictions serve only as an annoyance, they don't actually restrict anything tbh and if I want to skip to the end of that JP or get on top of something the devs don't want me to, the restrictions are not going to stop me unless there is an invisble wall in the way or the terrain isn't solid.Aside from those two restrictions I can get just about anywhere with mounts no matter how far the devs go out of their way to prevent it.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

I'm against any form of powercreeping that makes older content obsolete (other mounts in this case). And that's what this would be, unerestricted flight would make it the default mount for almost everything. At least elite specs have the xpac sales excuse going for them.

Skyscale is fine as it is. It combines griffon and rabbit functionality in one mount but it's not better in their respective fields than any of the two.

[Ruadan.9301]

I think free flight would quickly become standard, and then, slowly, quite boring. Being airborne is so much better in GW2 because you know you can't have it anytime and anyplace you want. There is a gravity to it. GW2's hallmark is their amazing map design and the terrain of maps is so useful for so many mounts. Once you give players free flight, they skip all that terrain and it becomes quite meaningless. Flying on the griffon is great because you have to be creative with the terrain and you always have to be active in order to stay in the air. This is the best implementation of flying that an MMO has ever done.

Maybe slight adjustments could be made, I don't have the Skyscale mount yet; but I don't want unrestricted flight.

[Teratus.2859]

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:I'm against any form of powercreeping that makes older content obsolete (other mounts in this case). And that's what this would be, unerestricted flight would make it the default mount for almost everything. At least elite specs have the xpac sales excuse going for them.

Skyscale is fine as it is. It combines griffon and rabbit functionality in one mount but it's not better in their respective fields than any of the two.

By that logic gliding and mounts should be banned and unusable in all content that existed before they were implemented.

Giving Skyscale more flight freedom would be nowhere near as damaging to old content as it was to allow mounts to be used in them in the first place.Which was something I was actually against in the first place after PoF was announced but Anet did it anyway so all the maps pre PoF are already broken and ruined because of mounts, having free flying on Skyscale would in no way diminish them further, if anything it'll make them more fun and allow us to enjoy those maps from an aerial point of view.. because flying around is fun ^^

Skyscale will never be able to replace the Springer or Griffon as both of them are able to do their jobs faster and better than the Skyscale can.Griffons can fly significantly faster and dive bomb..And Springer can ascend and decent much faster than a Skyscale not to mention has the ability to launch you shooting up in the air with Bond of Faith.. the Skyscale maybe able to fly you to the vista on the top of the mountain but the Springer will always be able to get you there faster.

Have you tried landing the Skyscale on a small tip of a structure or mountain?It's a little tricky and Skyscale will often grab the wall instead unless you decend directly on top of it.

[Teratus.2859]

@Ruadan.9301 said:I think free flight would quickly become standard, and then, slowly, quite boring. Being airborne is so much better in GW2 because you know you can't have it anytime and anyplace you want. There is a gravity to it. GW2's hallmark is their amazing map design and the terrain of maps is so useful for so many mounts. Once you give players free flight, they skip all that terrain and it becomes quite meaningless. Flying on the griffon is great because you have to be creative with the terrain and you always have to be active in order to stay in the air. This is the best implementation of flying that an MMO has ever done.

Maybe slight adjustments could be made, I don't have the Skyscale mount yet; but I don't want unrestricted flight.

I find I can have that airborne experience anytime I want, considering I can land take off land take off over and over anytime I like.If I want to fly across a whole map without landing I just start from a high point thus negating the entire point of the hight cap.

Exploring maps from the air is actually a fun new perspective on the Skyscale because unlike the Griffon you can actually take 5 and admire the view.I'm actually finding myself enjoying old maps more now because I can admire them from above which wasn't possible with the Griffon due to it's speed and inability to hover.

[Echostorm.9143]

Nothing brings the Doom and Gloom squad and Fun Police together like the prospect of unrestricted flight. It will ruin the game. Like mounts and gliding did before them. It will make the game boring. Because all activities, can be done in the air and no-one will ever tread on solid ground again. It will make other mounts obsolete! Even though it wouldn't and didn't the griffon and beetle kinda do that already and even if it did, which it won't, would it matter?

More than anything, I don't want to allow something other people would love even though I wouldn't have to engage in it if I didn't want to. I'll tell you how to have fun and you'll like it. I mean, who ever dreams of flying?

Also I am blessed by the awesome power of foresight and know that it will bring doom upon us all like it did to wow and ff.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

So, the Devs create maps to accommodate each of the 'Joy of Movement' implementations available.So, should there be unlimited flight, what would all future maps created be like?
Does this unlimited flight have no height restrictions? If so, what could the Devs create that would necessitate (or, at least, optimize) the use of other Mounts?

Perhaps, the Devs are trying to look to the future, and create the kind of game they feel would be fun, and just a bit different than what is found elsewhere. Who knows?

[Samnang.1879]

i would buy a 2000 gemstore item that allows unlimited flight for skyscale and/or unlimited vigor for my beetle xD + griffons that can go through branches