Breakfast Topic: Make up your own mounts
by David Bowers 
Sep 23rd 2007 at 8:01AM
A poster on the forums asked about whether people would like to see spider mounts in the game. It's true he was just asking out of boredom, but to me this actually an interesting question. We have the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal, of course (pictured here, courtesy of Wowhead), but that's more or less impossible to get now, and it's not exactly a spider in any case. What sorts of new mounts will there be then? Nethaera responded: "I couldn't tell you what possible new mounts there will be. :( Perhaps a little further along we'll have information on more of the fun features that are getting added in with Wrath of the Lich King."
What mounts would you ask Blizzard to put in the new expansion? Flying machines are already going in at some point, and bats and hippogryphs have already been mentioned. How about rideable owls? For land mounts, maybe you could ride on the shoulders of your very own yeti! Better yet, what if we could pilot our own slow, yet moveable siege weapons?
Filed under: Items, Breakfast Topics, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Krishan Sep 23rd 2007 8:07AM
The new expansion will determine my future with WoW, the new level cap already makes me ready to quit, but the new content and little things like world pvp sieges make me curious enough to stay with the game for now :)
I would like to have some cool mounts, I would like to have the ability to use those kaliri as mounts, ATTACKING mounts lol!
Omacron Sep 23rd 2007 8:19AM
LANDSQUID MOUNTS!
Oh man, that'd be uber boss.
springz Sep 23rd 2007 8:20AM
I'd like to see a boar mount :)
zarende Sep 23rd 2007 8:38AM
Azerothian dragons.
Hyrican Sep 23rd 2007 8:48AM
The Stalkers from Zangarmarsh are cool landmounts :)
Rizel Sep 23rd 2007 8:49AM
Gnome as mounts
ErsatzPotato Sep 23rd 2007 9:06AM
Moths, hummingbirds, dragonflies, boars, twinks.
Shane Sep 23rd 2007 9:05AM
What I'd like to see is slightly different. I'd like to see "Rental Mounts".
This would primarily be for lower level characters (sub 40), although could be used for flying mounts too (possibly with zone limits set to ensure people don't "miss the story" - ie rent a flying mount in Hellfire Peninsula and thats the only place you can fly it).
The idea is that at certain townships you can go to a stable and "rent" a mount for a period of time. The cost should be enough so that people don't use them all the time, but affordable enough so that you use them when you need to (in a real world example: more expensive than the bus, but less expensive than owning a car).
The period of time you have the mount should be for an amount of rideable time, so for example you rent a mount for 1 hour, this means it stays in your bag for say 168 hours (7 days), or until you have ridden it for an hour. Once you have ridden it for an hour you can't rent another one for a 3 hour cooldown (to protect against misuse by twinks).
The speed of the rental mount should be as fast as a standard mount (60%), however actual time to mount should be 20-30% slower than an "owned" mount. The first time you rent a mount there should also be a training fee, but nowhere near the cost of the full mount training fee (and should be differentiated for that reason, ie rental training vs mount training - & you can't use rental training to buy a mount).
As there is a cost to using it, a cooldown between use, a set maximum amount of riding time as well as the limitations of mounts (ie can't mount in battle), it shouldn't negatively effect things like aspect of the cheetah, blinking or druid travel form.
What do you think?
Regards,
Shane.
ErsatzPotato Sep 23rd 2007 9:12AM
The rental mount idea is at least interesting.
What gameplay purpose would adding such a system serve? What balance issues do you see it causing? How expensive would it be to impliment?
(Obviously us players can't answer the third question.)
Shane Sep 23rd 2007 9:23AM
RE: Rental Mounts:
1. What gameplay purpose would adding such a system serve?
I know from personal experience, as well as the feedback from many people starting to play WoW or who are casual gamers, the sheer amount of time it takes to get from one part of the world to another can be a drain and de-motivator. As Blizzard are already talking about implementing faster XP gain in an upcoming patch, rental mounts would allow the lower level characters to see more of the world faster, and with less frustration.
2. What balance issues do you see it causing?
I think I covered that as best I could in the last paragraph - as it is a service that costs money, has cooldowns and limitations etc, it shouldn't negatively impact or unbalance much if anything. The worst we'd face is veteran players looking down their noses at the new guard saying "Hah! Look at those upstart n00bs. We did it the hard way - it build character is say" or similar :)
Regards,
Shane.
Sielanas Sep 23rd 2007 9:30AM
2 words. Bare cavalry.
dekulink Sep 23rd 2007 9:41AM
Rental mounts I wouldn't like, it would ruin the experience for when you hit 70.
As for a mount I would like to see? Normal dragons. Neherdrakes are more awesome than a normal dragon, but just the option would OWN.
Derek Sep 23rd 2007 9:53AM
Well lets see here, we have Griffins and the Lion/scropion thingie as mounts... both of which were designed to look good with people riding them... and we have a nether ray... which doesn't. Why oh why did blizzard ignore the bat mounts from the undead? The time has already been spent making them look good while mounted... they would be perfect! Same goes for the Hyppogryphs.
It would also pwn if I could use my Red qiraji crystal outside of AQ40... I waited a month for that stupid thing to drop and he no longer gets to see the light of day... makes me very sad.
As for my own wish, prob... a giant hellhound.
shkss Sep 23rd 2007 10:05AM
How about class specific flying mounts? Warlocks could get a demon ones, and rogues could get ones that are transparent like stealth.
Mel Sep 23rd 2007 10:48AM
@ 14: Not transparent but camouflaged: chameleon mounts. :P
What about donkeys for priests? I have seen a donkey model somewhere in the game already, so it wouldn't be that much effort to implement that.
And shouldn't hunters be able to train anything they can tame to be a mount?
And I want my very own and exclusive white warpstalker mount. Nyah!
Fluffylongbottom Sep 23rd 2007 10:38AM
I agree, class specific mounts would be great. Variety and choice is nearly always a good thing.
Benor Sep 23rd 2007 11:00AM
I want an ox. And I want the character models to sit sideways on the ox mounts.
Mostly, I want to set the mount to "walk" and spout nonsensical aphorisms like I was Lao Tzu.
kunukia Sep 23rd 2007 11:16AM
@17 Haha, that would be awesome!
RogueJedi86 Sep 23rd 2007 11:51AM
Boar mounts. I'm surprised the Orcs don't ride them anyways, since they had pig farms in WC2.
Cremean Sep 23rd 2007 12:12PM
Two words : Barrens Girraffe