Expanding the Mount system

[loras]

As the title says i've been thinking about an expansion for the mount system, as in how to do more with our mounts in the way we can do more with our collectible pets, and how to make its use a bit more interesting (in an entirely optional fashion analogous to the way battle pets work, or to introduceva switch mode like warmode specifically for mounted combat).

The reason for this is that, as is, mounts are pretty much just skins for a fairly boring speedboost, and as such they work mildly jarring to the point that complete hatedoms have arisen for flying mounts and to the point that the drudgery of the Maw was initially implemented. Additionally it seems like a criminal underusage of so many interesting models, and their (admittedly mediocre) attempts at vehicle combat shows they have seriously toyed with this idea too.

So, first off let's face off with flying, what i propose as baseline is as follows:
- Retain the flying speed of 310% (+class bonusses) as baseline minimum speed at max level for legacy reasons
- Introduce gravity during flight; going down speeds you up cumulatively to a point, going up slows you down
- Introduce momentum, gathering speed would allow you to keep speed for a short while in the fashion of "divebombing", to name one example
- Introduce winds to speed you up or slow you down
- Impact damage if your momentum meets terrain wrong

Now if you turn on "warmountmode" (working name) i propose the following added effects:
- Your mount becomes subject to passive movement, i.e. for every 100 meter you travel you lose 1 meter altitude if fly in a straight line, winds can move you passively, idling in the sky will also cause you to slowly lose altitude unless counteracted
- Your mount's passive in-flight handling is modified by various stats it can have, such as in example:
* Weight: This will modify the rate at which you can gain or lose speed and are subject to passive movement from different sources, it will also partially determine the punch your mounted attacks can deliver and how much punishment affects them
* Their stamina / flight efficiency; how long can they keep accelerating actively, how long can they keep attacking before they need to slow down and catch their breath
* Their base speed, also affecting how well they can retain speed after diving in example
* Their base strength, affecting both acceleration and attacks
- You gain access to 3 or so mountskill buttons, at least one of which affects your movement positively

The subject of combat in 3D spaces in WoW is not without controversy either, so let's zoom in on the targetting of those skills for a bit:
- Common targetting for attacks would be to have the player focus on navigating the 3D space while pressing the attack button causes the mount to automatically target the nearest valid target akin to an auto attack. The range, damage, cooldown, missile speed (thus time alotted for countering) could be varied as with common attacks
- Another common form of attack would be self-targeted, i.e. "set off flares at your location, activating 0,5 sec later, damaging enemies in range"
- Less common would be "select a spatial plane" (i.e. by aiming your mount, but some abilities might also allow for selecting planes independently from mount orientation), then define a vector to modify the range and speed of a projectile. For targeting purposes these would have to pretty much target like flak, as otherwise it'd be hell to ever get them to work. Vectors could also be negative when appropriate, i.e. in case you'd, i dunno, cause your magical flying horse to launch a particularly nasty horsepoop backwards
- Ground targetting skills, either targetted like common aoe skills, or as bombardment, i.e. a projectile with a weight falls straight down as influenced by gravity, momentum, wind, etcetera

In regards to the nature of these abilities i propose to identify their potential desirable roles as "movement/positioning", "offensive/control" and "defensive/countercontrol", as healing would take away from the nature of aerial combat in my opinion.

To make it more managable i'll provide a theoretical example of a dogfight between a dragonrider and a gyrocopter pilot (do not mind the actual numbers, they're just semi random placeholders):

The dragon is statted as following:
Weighs 100, maxspeed 110, strength 105, stamina 60
It has the following abilities:
- Bite: Deal high damage to the nearest target within its short range
- Dragonblast: Aim, then fire a blast dealing moderate damage when it reaches its defined explosion point. Cannot accelerate up while aiming.
- Stormwings: Dramatically accelerate to max speed, rapidly depleting stamina, spawning tirbulent lightning clouds behind it that damage and disturb anyone passing through

The gyrocopter as following:
Weighs 80, maxspeed 90, strength 110, stamina 100
- Autocannons: Deal low damage to the nearest target, long range
- Gyrobomb: Drop a bomb with a large blast radius and high damage. Targets hit are stunned, leaving their trajectory to their momenting for a short while.
- Stealthmode: Drops a cloud of obscuring smoke, disrupts in-flight auto targetted attacks, disables upwards speed and all acceleration for a short while and launches the gyrocopter in the direction it is facing at max speed max speed for X seconds

Let's imagine a common ganking scenario; the gyrocopter is looking for something close to the ground, and the dragonrider spots him from up high and starts diving down, gaining speed. He opens up with a dragon blast as he has plenty of time to aim while he's undetected. The dragonblast hits and shortly after he bites down on the surprised Gyrocopter.

The gyrocopter, heavily damaged already, immediately tries to flee, but the full speed dragon is hard to shake, so he draws the dragon close to ground, times the dragon's approach, drops his bomb, pivots himself upwards and launches upwards into stealthmode, causing the dragon's bite to miss.

The dragon is hit by the blast, and, close to ground his momentum carries him into the terrain, robbing him of his momentum and causing some damage. Meanwhile the gyrocopter is coming in hot, whittling away with his autocanons while using his now superior speed.

The dragon activates stormwings though and is rapidly catches up, while forcing the gyrocopter to evade his thunderclouds, but carefully preserving some stamina for one last bite.

Regardless of who wins i hope you can see the exciting potential for such an expansion of mounts as a concept in WoW.

I'll add groundmounts at a later moment, as they are more intuitive in that they are more like WoW as we know already, and my insomnia seems to be wearing off.

[Sylv_]

Lovely idea, but too complicated.

[Forteofgray]

GW2 nailed mounts

[Rendark]

Mounts are fine the way they are.

[Daedius]

Mounts are fine the way they are.

No they're not, I'm still waiting for a flying mount with vendors on it!

[Thestrawman]

How about, all mounts can fly. Then I can use my cool ground mounts everywhere.

[Relapses]

No they're not, I'm still waiting for a flying mount with vendors on it!

Blizzard: "We have heard your feedback and are proud to introduce a vendor mount that sells flyers."

[Electric Lighter]

I just want to fly to my instances faster.

[loras]

I'm feeling a bit lazy, might add the groundmount bit later still, but not sure.

I just want to fly to my instances faster.

Well, given that minimum speed is preserved to current speeds you'd definitely be able to get there faster by using winds and gravity to your advantage (certainly no slower at least).

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Mounts are fine the way they are.

I would agree, but i've seen much complaining on the matter of zone topography and flying being restricted too little / too much, and as flying is disabled for current content i personally consider the latter view to be accurate. Thus it can be said that even Blizzard does not think things are okay the way they are.

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Lovely idea, but too complicated.

Fair enough.
If you were to strip it down to pieces, what pieces would you keep and which would you discard or alter?

- - - Updated - - -

GW2 nailed mounts

How do they do it, and in what way do you think they nailed it?

[Snufflupagus]

There is nothing good about flying in WoW.

The only POTENTIAL good thing is flying-access-only zones such as elemental plateau, and that could be achieved without introducing cancer like flying to the game.

This is a good suggestion to make the best of the terrible idea that is flying, but flying is inherently bad and there is no way to make it anything but bad. All this would achieve is making flying least-bad, which is still pretty bad. I would bring back titanforging, AP grinding and single difficulty 40-man raids if we could remove flying cancer from WoW in exchange.

[loras]

There is nothing good about flying in WoW.

The only POTENTIAL good thing is flying-access-only zones such as elemental plateau, and that could be achieved without introducing cancer like flying to the game.

This is a good suggestion to make the best of the terrible idea that is flying, but flying is inherently bad and there is no way to make it anything but bad. All this would achieve is making flying least-bad, which is still pretty bad. I would bring back titanforging, AP grinding and single difficulty 40-man raids if we could remove flying cancer from WoW in exchange.

I'll take that as a compliment.

Also gib 40 man poo-lvl raids for shits and giggles.

[bloodkin]

GW2 nailed mounts

agreed to a certain point, all the ground mounts are good/great. The flying mounts are kind of iffy, the griffon is fine as a glider mount, it can gain altitude if you know how to climb, but it's not much of a flying mount if you can't go up on the map. The drake is almost a flying mount, but still has issues with staying in the air/gaining altitude.

blizz could certainly learn from GW2 in the mounts department but there are also some issues with the mount system. No true flight and the potential for exploits are some of the grievances that can come of this. Unlike a very vocal minority, I actually like how flying and movement functions in wow. Sure, it might be a bit oldskool now but it works well and gets you were you need to go within a reasonable amount of time.

I still vehemently disagree with the anti-flyer crowd, not a single argument they have ever brought up is something I would consider a problem in current (or past) WoW. It's just nonsensical hate for the sake of hating something popular. If you really dislike it so much, stick to the ground mounts, and let the rest of us fly.

[lozza]

I like it, specifically the winds, gravity and momentum aspects. That would certainly make flying in wow much more interesting

[Lynkeus]

too complicate for wow

[Lochton]

Love the mounting system in ArcheAge, having it be able to level up on the side, or put armor on, name it, etc.

[8bithamster]

GW2 nailed mounts

to bad that's the only thing they nailed

[kranur]

How about, all mounts can fly. Then I can use my cool ground mounts everywhere.

Don't see why not at this point. There are already flying everything ... horses, cats, pigs ,oxes .. whatever

[Snufflupagus]

If you really dislike it so much, stick to the ground mounts, and let the rest of us fly.

You clearly don’t understand the problems that people have with flying if you think that’s a solution.

[Danuel]

to bad that's the only thing they nailed

oh man pwned!

[bloodkin]

You clearly don’t understand the problems that people have with flying if you think that’s a solution.

what problem do people actually have with the flying system then? what actual harm is there in letting people use flying mounts instead of the ground mounts?