A supersonic land mount
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 16th 2007 at 1:15PM
One of the most interesting (and most mysterious) things we heard at BlizzCon was that, when the next expansion comes around, Blizzard wants to do things to make the level 1-70 experience "faster." What that might mean is still anyone's guess right now (although my money's just on tweaks to XP numbers), but we know what it won't mean: literally making epic mounts faster.Bwah (nice name) of Undermine asks, since we've already heard that flying mounts in Azeroth is not a possibility, if epic mounts around, say, 300% speed are. If we were able to zoom that fast across the landscape, it'd be almost like flying, and it would definitely make the experience of leveling faster. But Neth says no-- Blizzard wants the world to "feel" big, and making travel even faster would reduce that epic size of the landscape.
Unfortunately, that's a bit of a cheat-- slowing players down just to make the land "feel" bigger isn't as good as actually crafting a big land itself. Which Blizzard did, I think, and I doubt 300% mounts would "shrink" the land that much.
Of course, saying 300% mounts would make leveling go faster is a cheat, too-- sure, they'd be fun, but do we really need them? A better solution would be to work on making the content so good that we don't want it to go by faster in the first place.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Leveling, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
khatia Aug 16th 2007 1:22PM
Don't see how a 300% land speed mount would make leveling faster if you couldn't get it until lvl 70 like the other fast (flying) mounts.
Rich Aug 16th 2007 1:24PM
The thing they need to do with mounts is drop normal mounts requirements to level 20 or 25.
I'd like to see 200% land mounts in Northrend if we can't fly.
FireStar Aug 16th 2007 1:28PM
Agree with post.
Or make flying a possibility. Nothing is impossible, they just don't feel that it's worth it.
John Aug 16th 2007 1:30PM
it's not that the content has to be "so good that we don't want it to go by faster in the first place" - it's just boring to go through it time and time again, no matter how good it was. law of diminishing returns.
Green Armadillo Aug 16th 2007 1:32PM
Yeah, the game could really use some extra content in the long run from 42-56 or so, but I think one of the things Blizzard learned from TBC was that putting extra content anywhere but the level cap or en route to the level cap (see: 2 zones and a city for each new race) means many of your players will never see it. That's a big part of why we're getting no new races and DK's starting no lower than 58 (at which point you've got the old level 60 stuff to tide you over into TBC, which is fine for 60-70)
hehe Aug 16th 2007 1:35PM
Fact of the matter is Blizzard painted themselves into a corner with the flying mounts...
They said flying mounts can't be used on Azeroth, yet clearly they'll be able to be used in Northrend (same world though, how do they explain not being able to use them in Stormwind then?)
They whine that people will use the flying mounts to bypass content in Northrend, so why the hell did you give them to us to begin with? Why did we spend some 5k gold to get our epic ones? Spend all that time getting the Netherdrake, etc. etc. etc.
Stop being dicks, Blizzard, you made your bed, you need to sleep in it...
rick gregory Aug 16th 2007 1:40PM
The problem isn't the epic mount speed. By that time you're 60 anyway - it wouldn't help you much.
The problem are things like I ran into last night levelling my Shadow Priest alt...
1) I needed to kill 8 Fen Creepers in Wetlands. It took almost an hour because the damn things are relatively rare (they clump every once in a while, not for us last night). That's silly.
2) Another quest started in Stonetalon... then took me to the Barrens. Mind you, i'm 23, so I haven't been through Duskwood and STV and hence don't have the Booty Bay FP. So the Booty > Ratchet boat was out of the question. What did I have to do? Hearth to Menethil... Boat to Theramore.... run thru Dustwallow, though the Barrens... to Ratchet. Yes, RUN. Oh and then? Back to Stonetalon. I get that some quests take you to the next zone for your level... btu quests like this that make you spend lots of time travelling are silly.
Mounts at 20 would be nice. 30 would be fine. But it might not make much difference... unless the price dropped, most 20 and 30 toons won't have the gold.
I'm not even sure that the /played is that bad... A SP in our guild moved from 1-70 in 11 days played. I'm close to 24 in 2 days played. There are some flat spots (50-55), but a few new quests, some XP adjustments and it should be all good.
braydn Aug 16th 2007 1:36PM
i agree, forget flying around azeroth, most stuff is covered up by trees in most of the lands, kinda boring from up in the sky, nothing to look at like in Outland.
anyway, they really need to make mounts start at lvl 20, not 40 like it is currently. then make epic mounts at 40, and flying mounts at 60.
they also need to double the xp gain rate for your account for all toons lvl 59 and lower. that would speed things up nicely and still make sure you can learn your class, only thing that would suffer would be professions and making money since you would lvl up twice as fast, so they would not only have to double xp earned, they would have to double the money dropped from mobs and given in quests too. no reason in the world they couldn't do that and it would have little if any impact on the currect game. it would make the game better and they would not have to change any visuals or game mechnics to do so.
Trunade Aug 16th 2007 1:40PM
I'm currently grinding a frost mage skipping 99% of the quests just because it's faster. I've already raised three lvl 70s, so on my 4th character I don't care about 1-60 content. The real game starts at max level anyhow. Even adding new content to pre-60, I would still skip it. Give me more XP for kills/quests!
hehe Aug 16th 2007 1:48PM
Mor'tak the Stable Master: Lok'tar, [your name]! How would you like to learn to ride a donkey?
[Brown Donkey] Useable at Level 20. Increases Speed by 30%
Gatowag Aug 16th 2007 1:56PM
I love it how some people still haven't seemed to realize that Blizzard is building Northrend from the ground up and is on a completely different playing field as Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms...
They said flying mounts will eventually be usable in Northrend, and there have been numerous posts over the whole 'flight in Azeroth' issue. You can't fly in StormWind because it wasn't built with the flying ability in mind, having Blizz completely go back and redo Azeroth so you can fly isn't worth the lack of new content imho.
Strongmark on Arthas Aug 16th 2007 1:55PM
yeah, hunters already get that running thing "Aspect of the Cheetah" 30% increase at low levels... would be nice for everyone to have something just to speed things up (there are enchants for boots, but come on, thats such a minor increase)
I could have sworn Blizz said flying mounts will be in Northrend, just not in the rest of "Old Azeroth", but I may be mistaken. It would really suck if you spent 5k on a epic flying mount and you cant use it in the next expansion :P
Hank Aug 16th 2007 2:02PM
@6 My understanding of it, from the many previous posts on the subject, is the the design of the pre-expansion world, from a programming standpoint, prevents player controlled flying mounts without significant recoding. It's not that Blizzard won't, or can't, it's that it's not cost/time effective.
Big.Daddy Aug 16th 2007 2:04PM
In CoH, you get your travel power at level 14. Having that travel power doesn't make the designed spaces feel any smaller, even when you're at the capped run speed, the world still feels big. I'd like to think that this would happen in WoW as well.
I've long felt a need for a temporary mount, or a mount w/ a lowered speed for lower characters. Getting it at 20 would be perfect.
The XP you get when you hit outland is pretty significant compared to the quests between 45 to 60... I say take those same ratios of XP and apply to all quests probably starting at lvl 25 or so. Make the quests rewarding enough, you won't have as many complaints. Loot is good, but XP? Who doesn't like that?
Rich Aug 16th 2007 2:04PM
Blizzard did say flying mounts would be used in Northrend, but probably not at a first. They didn't want people skipping over content. So they will come up with a reason (probably a lame one) to keep flyers grounded until they met some arbitrary goal (some quest, a level requirement, whatever). Until we meet that goal, we will have to use land mounts.
The flying mounts are nice, but Blizzard did back themselves into a corner with them.
Coherent Aug 16th 2007 2:08PM
I think epic mounts (and other mounts) should have variable speed, perhaps governed by a certain amount of mount endurance. For example: Your mount has X endurance that he can use to walk, run, canter, or gallop (sprint). Your mount regenerates this at rate Y. Epic mounts simply have more endurance, they regenerate it faster, and they might have more gaits to effectively use their greater stamina output.
If you ran your mount too hard, they would respond for a while, but with an increasing risk of a catastrophic (perhaps lethal) tumble and fall.
Adding equestrian (and equestrian-equivalent) depth into the game would open up more play styles for enjoyment. Imagine if Shimmering Flats were actually the site of mad vehicle-versus-mount races and events. Sounds like fun to me.
Coherent Aug 16th 2007 2:12PM
For that matter, varying endurance, endurance regen, and the top speed of different racial mounts would provide a powerful incentive for players to acquire them. You could add on quite a bit of good content around that incentive.
Beaverius Aug 16th 2007 2:25PM
I think they said at Blizzcon that they would rather spend the time and resources on bringing new content to the game instead of recoding and re doing azeroth to make it flying mount friendly. Since they didn't design Azeroth with flying mounts in mind, there are large parts of the world that are barren since they couldn't be viewed or otherwise accessed, etc.
While I can totally understand that, it would definetly make Azeroth worth going to again aside from the auction house and trainers.
Candina@WH Aug 16th 2007 2:28PM
I don't know. A +30% mount at lvl 20 would make ghostwolf; 'Aspect of the Cheetah' and the +15% movement talent in cat form for Druids all less valuable.
I think that a 'donkey' of +30% would be grand, but how much should blizz charge for the training? The 100g is very steep for a level 20 non-alt. I think that making it available in Ratchet or Booty Bay with no training for 10g is about right. [And while they are at it - MAKE BOOTY BAY MOUNTABLE]
I think that the more logical solution will be the higher XP rewards for quests and/or faster spawn rates for certain 'kill X of these' mobs. To fix the leveling vs. prof skills, they just have to alter the skill 'pay out' per item created based on a similar algorithm.
I would like to see more quests per zone, but /shrug It ain't gonna happen. :) Blizz will invest in selling the next expansion which equals New Money while it's existing content and rewards become less and less relevant.
The purpose of Azeroth is to train up players so they can buy the expansions. Cynical? Yes. Am I wrong tho?
Kruncs of Cho'gall Aug 16th 2007 2:30PM
Here is what I remember from BlizzCon '07 FAQs, Q&As and video I saw:
1. Flying mounts will be allowed in next expansion, just not at the start of the release so a) they have time to add more content from that perspective and b) you have to pass through certain obstacles/mobs/areas without bypassing the content.
Personal note: if you had a 300% land mount, it'd bypass way too much of the content and you'd barely see it. The flight paths are there for a reason in the pre-BC lands. :P
2. Still no flying mounts in pre-BC areas.
3. Current mount speeds are considered fine as is, and they have no current intent to adjust them. Faster than 230% is just crazy.