Mount Genders

[Yannir.4132]

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@"Yannir.4132" said:You could say that all of the commanders mounts are also combat mounts.Ofc there is also the fact that horse psychology can't be directly applied to raptors, griffins, etc.

There's also the fact that most of the mounts that the Commander gets aren't from army trainers, but farmers. They're not war raptors, but riding raptors, etc. The exceptions here being the four "exotic" mounts - griffon, rollerbeetle, warclaw, and skyscale.

What you mention would hold greater sway over the Cavalier's raptors, or the Awakened's wurms and Beastmarshal's mounted troops. But not necessarily for the Commander's mounts.

There's kind of a disparity here between the mounts origin and how they behave. Sure you get them from a farmer but they also have an attack right from the get-go which doesn't seem right to me if they are only meant for transportation. For the raptor it actually kinda makes sense considering it's a natural predator but it doesn't make much sense when you consider something like a Springer which eats carrots and is essentially an animal of prey, or a Skimmer that doesn't exactly seem like a predator either.

[Blue.1207]

My skyscale identifies as an attack helicopter.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:You could say that all of the commanders mounts are also combat mounts.Ofc there is also the fact that horse psychology can't be directly applied to raptors, griffins, etc.

There's also the fact that most of the mounts that the Commander gets aren't from army trainers, but farmers. They're not war raptors, but riding raptors, etc. The exceptions here being the four "exotic" mounts - griffon, rollerbeetle, warclaw, and skyscale.

What you mention would hold greater sway over the Cavalier's raptors, or the Awakened's wurms and Beastmarshal's mounted troops. But not necessarily for the Commander's mounts.

There's kind of a disparity here between the mounts origin and how they behave. Sure you get them from a farmer but they also have an attack right from the get-go which doesn't seem right to me if they are only meant for transportation. For the raptor it actually kinda makes sense considering it's a natural predator but it doesn't make much sense when you consider something like a Springer which eats carrots and is essentially an animal of prey, or a Skimmer that doesn't exactly seem like a predator either.

Even riding horses know how to kick at attackers.... Thinking that only predatory animals or those trained to do so can strike at another is downright silly.

[Yannir.4132]

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Even riding horses know how to kick at attackers.... Thinking that only predatory animals or those trained to do so can strike at another is downright silly.

Attacking things actively and defending yourself are 2 very different things. None of the engage skills are defensive in nature, they are active attacks.

[Nikolai.3648]

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Even riding horses know how to kick at attackers.... Thinking that only predatory animals or those trained to do so can strike at another is downright silly.

Attacking things actively and defending yourself are 2 very different things. None of the engage skills are defensive in nature, they are active attacks.

You do realize the engage skills only do damage to prevent an instant remount, right? While some like raptor and griffon are most definitely an offensive technique to kill prey, Jackals blind and cripple their enemy, also fitting into a plan to escape, not even including the defensive barrier they dash out. And skimmers only heal and revive allies. If this is not defensive in nature, I don’t know what is.

[Kalavier.1097]

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:You could say that all of the commanders mounts are also combat mounts.Ofc there is also the fact that horse psychology can't be directly applied to raptors, griffins, etc.

There's also the fact that most of the mounts that the Commander gets aren't from army trainers, but farmers. They're not war raptors, but riding raptors, etc. The exceptions here being the four "exotic" mounts - griffon, rollerbeetle, warclaw, and skyscale.

What you mention would hold greater sway over the Cavalier's raptors, or the Awakened's wurms and Beastmarshal's mounted troops. But not necessarily for the Commander's mounts.

There's kind of a disparity here between the mounts origin and how they behave. Sure you get them from a farmer but they also have an attack right from the get-go which doesn't seem right to me if they are only meant for transportation. For the raptor it actually kinda makes sense considering it's a natural predator but it doesn't make much sense when you consider something like a Springer which eats carrots and is essentially an animal of prey, or a Skimmer that doesn't exactly seem like a predator either.

"Attack" is kinda misleading. Sure it's an "attack" skill, or engage skill, but look at what the creature does.

The Raptor does a large tail swipe, as opposed to lashing out with it's jaws. The springer leaps high in the air and slams down, where it could've landed a massive kick. The skimmer doesn't even really attack, instead doing a spin forward while doing a burst of water/healing magic. The Jackal does a pounce, but it provides a barrier to allies.

Another thing is, the main mount we see npcs use is a raptor (the beastmarshal does ride a jackal IIRC). Raptors would actually come from breeders, the only difference between a "war raptor" and a "riding raptor" would be how aggressive it is, and perhaps training to make it less likely to avoid danger. I'm sure the various farms have both combat trained and general use groups for each mount.

Like how a horse won't charge into a formation of people typically, but a trained warhorse would follow it's rider's command and plow through them.

[Yannir.4132]

@Nikolai.3648 said:You do realize the engage skills only do damage to prevent an instant remount, right? While some like raptor and griffon are most definitely an offensive technique to kill prey, Jackals blind and cripple their enemy, also fitting into a plan to escape, not even including the defensive barrier they dash out. And skimmers only heal and revive allies. If this is not defensive in nature, I don’t know what is.

Do you realize it doesn't matter what kind of attack they do? A horse will kick as a last resort defense but it will try to run away first if it senses a danger coming. Their natural Fight or Flight-reaction leans heavily on the Flight-side simply because they can outrun most things.So simply the fact that your mount doesn't run away the other direction in panic when you come across a Hydra is favorable for the assumption that these are war mounts, not simple transportation. But like I said in my earlier comment, I don't think horse psychology is directly applicable to any mounts in this game. Closest comparison would be the Springer which as a herbivore could be close enough behaviorally.

Anyway, enough about this topic, thread's getting derailed. The topic was supposed to be gender.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Even riding horses know how to kick at attackers.... Thinking that only predatory animals or those trained to do so can strike at another is downright silly.

Attacking things actively and defending yourself are 2 very different things. None of the engage skills are defensive in nature, they are active attacks.

Defending oneself with an attack is still attacking things.

Besides, the skimmer engage is hardly an attack. So your argument solely goes for the springer, which is an action trained to help destroy burrows on farms (it's something used in so many hearts it's almost silly).

[Regh.8649]

All my mounts are female except Petey… that's why we keep a safe zone between us.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@Regh.8649 said:All my mounts are female except Petey… that's why we keep a safe zone between us.

Same

[Samnang.1879]

they dont have any private parts so all are female

[derd.6413]

@Samnang.1879 said:they dont have any private parts so all are female

they're retractable

[Samnang.1879]

@derd.6413 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:they dont have any private parts so all are female

they're retractable

is this in the official lore statement? if not im going to go with the scientific explanation... i.e. dinosaurs (raptors) dont have retractable thingies

[derd.6413]

@Samnang.1879 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:they dont have any private parts so all are female

they're retractable

is this in the official lore statement? if not im going to go with the scientific explanation... i.e. dinosaurs (raptors) dont have retractable thingies

it's retractable because anet doesn't want to have the game's age rating increased

[Vancho.8750]

@derd.6413 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:they dont have any private parts so all are female

they're retractable

is this in the official lore statement? if not im going to go with the scientific explanation... i.e. dinosaurs (raptors) dont have retractable thingies

it's retractable because anet doesn't want to have the game's age rating increasedAnd i don't believe that Arenanet has the tech for horse balls shrinking in cold weather like Red dead redemption.

[Dawdler.8521]

@Vancho.8750 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:they dont have any private parts so all are female

they're retractable

is this in the official lore statement? if not im going to go with the scientific explanation... i.e. dinosaurs (raptors) dont have retractable thingies

it's retractable because anet doesn't want to have the game's age rating increasedAnd i don't believe that Arenanet has the tech for horse balls shrinking in cold weather like Red dead redemption.

They have the tech, but Havok physics came before the era of ball shrinkage as a selling point so I dont think it was a consideration.

[Psientist.6437]

If the mount species reproduces sexually, then the Commander's mount could be male or female. Unless it is impossible for the Commander to get a different mount than the original unlocked mount, then any references to mount gender in game are irrelevant. I would consider gem store mounts as canonically different mounts.

The raptor, skimmer, springer and griffon reproduce sexually. I am not sure about the roller beetle and am still working on the skyscale. Do we save the skyscale species and do we know how they reproduce?

If the raptor is a reptile then it has internal sex organs. If it is related to birds it also would have internal sex organs. Same with skimmer and beetle. The springer, a mammal, would have external male sex organs but they would be well hidden under fur. The griffon is a magical hybrid of mammal and bird biology, it could have mammalian sex organs or a cloaca, external or internal sex organs. If external, they could be hidden under fur and feathers.

The jackal could have qualities associated with gender. I think it would depend on the magi-physics of their creation.

Ultimately, the player gets to decide what gender they ride.

[Psientist.6437]

Most mount species come from Elona, where Joko enforced a closed economy. We opened the mount economy to the rest of Tyria and many of the species could be raised in other locations in Tyria. The jackal may be the only location unique mount. However, if Djinn could make their home elsewhere, perhaps Djinn of different magic type could breed a new jackal varieties. Imo, it would be easy to consider gem store mounts as conical.

Imo, content based on the spread of mount husbandry and economy through Tyria would be amazing fun and grokingly monetizable. The reward meta could span: full models, dye channels, mount gear such as reins and saddles, saddle bags with expendables such as fireworks and food.

[Cynder.2509]

The answer is simply, they're all an apache attack helicopter :lol:

No, but seriously. I'm solving this problem by assigning their sexes myself (gender is an entirely different thing and there can be more than female and male as far as I've heard. I don't know, this whole "gender theory" is so confusing for me) on each of my characters. For example some have a male Raptor while other characters have a female raptor. I tend to give each mount a name for each character so that for example i namedthe Skyscale of one character Aurellia while another one's name is Aureus. The Jackal however seems to be either both or neutral. In the real world there are some types of species known to be both female and male and can reproduce themselves without the need of another individual (almost all kinds of plants for example) while there are some who possess both but become either female or male depending on cetain situations (like for example clownfish do as I've heard). So I'm assuming the Jackal might work like that too allthough it clearly doesn't need another individual to reproduce as they're magical beings and therefore might reproduce in some way like you'd craft or enchant an item. My idea for this is that the djinn use some special kinds of runestones to infuse with magic and bind the sands of the Desolation with a spell to these runestones. So these mounts are rather created than born.However if there's no official statement about this interesting topic from the devs yet I can say it's safe to make it up for your own. Some things regarding assigning whether they're male or female may be helpful like looking at how fauna on earth does it. (most animals have special behaviours or appearances to distinguish themselves like for example male lions and their manes or that the female of some lizard types is usually the largest)

[NanoEliteSixSixSix.8935]

@Cynder.2509 said:The answer is simply, they're all an apache attack helicopter :lol:

Mine are all Super Cobras and a Hind D, thank you very much. Apaches aren't the only cool choppers out there, you know.

For real though, if you wanted to get technical about it the only mounts that a known sex/gender could be assigned to would be the very first raptor, beetle, and skyscale you get. Because you only unlock them once for your account, any copies of those mounts your other characters use can be whatever you want. Of course, you can also headcanon the known ones however you want as well and nobody can stop you.

[Kulvar.1239]

They don't have any gender because it's beyond irrelevant. They're not NPC like Taimi, Canach, ...You won't be releasing any mount so it can care of its offsprings, they'll never lay eggs, be in heat, or anything.

My mount skins are made of fire, stars, sand, ... anyway. Magical constructs, not organic beings.

[InsaneQR.7412]

Well skyscale could also be hermaphrodite and fertilize itself.Eitherway it's irrelevant.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

The rollerbeetle is called Petey, so he's likely a male.
The skyscale seems to be an all-female species that reproduces via parthenogenesis and has slight variations due to different magics absorbed while they grow in place of mutations through generations.

I haven't heard about the other mounts.