Vehicle mounts to work more like mounts than vehicles
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 17th 2008 at 4:00PM
Here's an interesting mount change -- it probably won't change the way you actually use your mounts, but it is a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how vehicles are working out at Blizzard. Zarhym says that in a future patch (maybe as soon as 3.1), all "vehicle" mounts will be changed back into regular mounts. Right now, when you "summon" a flying carpet, it actually shows up as a vehicle to the game, unlike a normal mount, which is basically just an extension of your character. But after the change comes down (whenever that is), summonable vehicle mounts (which may or may not include the Chopper?) will work just like regular mounts.This won't mean much in the actual UI (though it may change where your mount is saved -- I haven't picked up a vehicle mount yet, so I'm not sure if they appear on the mounts screen or not), but what it does mean is that Blizzard is stepping back from the vehicle interface. It's been buggy from the beginning, since beta and even after release, and while it's unlikely Blizzard will remove vehicles from the game, at least for the mount/vehicles, they're planning to go with the old mount code rather than have everyone using the vehicle code for that.
Interesting change. Hopefully Blizzard is also still working on tightening up the vehicle code -- it's never fun to jump into a siege tank and then discover that none of the abilities work. But for these mounts at least, they're backing off and going back to the old way.
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Brien Dec 17th 2008 4:05PM
You don't think its just because they don't want people using the vehicle mounts as free elevators and whatnot?
I figured they were just changing it because vehicles are giving people an extra HP pool. which makes them better than ordinary mounts.
William Sagemire Dec 17th 2008 4:34PM
I've also heard of it letting players cheat a bit by allowing them to pick up objects off the ground without dismounting. I hope this gets fixed as well, I'm tired of people swooping in on their carpets to ninja wolvar pups while I have to spend the extra seconds casting my mount summons.
Colin Dec 17th 2008 5:45PM
You haven't seen me in my Swift Flight Form, them. Makes for excellent childnapping.
Warlock Dec 17th 2008 5:46PM
Right, there were a number of problems with vehicle mounts. The main problem is that they are targetable, which in PvP makes the person riding it very hard to target seperate from his mount.
Tonio Dec 17th 2008 4:05PM
I hope this means less problems with my mammuth! Anybody know?
Taytayflan Dec 17th 2008 4:05PM
So no more jumping off cliffs on a motorcycle? Aww, that's one benefit of Engineering.
Kakistocracy Dec 17th 2008 5:08PM
Or rather one benefit of being able to afford the item, given that it has not engineer requirement and is BoE.
onetrueping Dec 18th 2008 7:10AM
Or rather, being able to afford the item AND knowing an engineer that shelled out the gold for the recipe. The mats are expensive enough that I doubt engineers are going to be trying to make a ton of money off them.
Vendrill Dec 17th 2008 4:07PM
Oh, thank god.
Altor Dec 17th 2008 4:09PM
I just learned how to craft and created my Chopper this morning and it does show up on your mounts page, just like all the other "normal" mounts in the game.
One thing I did notice and I can't say I'm terribly happy about is that /dismount does not work for exiting the vehicle, nor does the dismount key binding. There is a separate key binding and slash command required for leaving vehicles, which will necessitate a rewording of my mount macro and associated bindings.
Epiphanize Dec 17th 2008 4:10PM
This also means you won't be able to boost their speed with things like aspect of the cheetah as they won't be "members" of the party anymore.
jrb Dec 17th 2008 7:17PM
which also means if you have the max speed land / air mounts there is absolutely no point in saving up for a mammoth, for example, other than for aesthetics.
for me, someone who's main hit 70 just a few months before wrath, and hasn't spent a year farming dailies, and other gold-rich content i see no point in forking out 16K gold on a pet which offers no real value over my racial epic mount.
tis a shame blizzard, sir. with all the continued hating on huntards like me i thought you might spare us this ultimi-cool feature of vehicle/mounts. alas, you'r nerf-stick reaches far and wide.
Popesicle Dec 17th 2008 4:12PM
As a tailor, I can confirm that the Flying Carpet at least is learned to your Mounts tabs.
Because of they way they are mounted and dismounted, I still have my normal macro setup to chose my Drake when flyable and Raptor when not, and just click on the Carpet when I want to use it.
So, I am delighted at this change.
Zippy Dec 17th 2008 9:18PM
Please share the macro? I would like to do the same thing (have one button to summon my flyer and kodo when flyer isn't available)
Zub Dec 18th 2008 12:45AM
@Zippy
Here's 1 button mount macro I use with my chopper.
/run if IsMounted()or CanExitVehicle()then Dismount() VehicleExit()return end local m,z=23,GetZoneText()local f=IsFlyableArea()and z~="Wintergrasp"and (z~="Dalaran"or GetSubZoneText()=="Krasus' Landing")if f then m=1 end CallCompanion("MOUNT",m)
23 is numerical position of the chopper in my mounts tab, and 1 is the flying mount. Just change the numbers to match the locations of your two mounts. I run out of characters in the macro when I try to add in a randomizer, so you may still like to use two buttons for that reason.
Hope that helped. Credit to Meltdown from Wowhead for the macro.
Uchi Dec 17th 2008 4:13PM
The reason I'm glad about this is that it takes 3 seconds + 1 second animation to get on my flying carpet, and it has a 1 second animation to get off. In addition, normally I can fly in, land, and cast to dismount myself, whereas on my carpet, I have to click a leave vehicle button, which can be annoying. If I just cast, I get "Can't do that now" or something similar.
I do like the animation, but it would be nice if the animation started 2 seconds into the cast so I don't have to wait longer.
Warli Dec 17th 2008 4:15PM
I just finished crafting my flying carpet and when swooping down upon a mob to crush for a quest, I was put off for the pause, hop off the carpet animation before i could do anything.
Sounds like switching these back to regular mounts will fix this. Until then, i'm back to my boring bird.
Warli
Warli Dec 17th 2008 4:17PM
Ah, what Uchi said.
Lol
Warli
kenney Dec 17th 2008 4:16PM
Pro: Less annoying mount/dismount times, hopefully less getting turned backwards by dismounting. I won't have to use my general purpose dismount macro anymore.
Con: No more free elevators. No more pvp buffer in wintergrasp (thx for using your cooldowns on my mount!), no more daze-free movement through crowds of critters.
The Cons outweigh the Pros for me, but it's debatable whether they really should have existed at all. I personally felt that those features were fine considering the exhorbitant cost of vehicles, but I doubt everyone would agree (especially the people that feel that they won't ever afford one).
Tumleren Dec 17th 2008 5:16PM
"Con: No more free elevators. No more pvp buffer in wintergrasp (thx for using your cooldowns on my mount!), no more daze-free movement through crowds of critters."
These are all pros, since none of this was intended to begin with and was just lame bugs (or whatever you want to call them)