No it very much is a bad thing because we currently don't know how much interactivity it requires to get from point A to B.
Take the comparison to web-slinging in Spiderman, you can't auto-cruise along. It requires regular user input which means you can't be doing something else while you're web-slinging along.
So to translate, let's say you are in ZM heading to the North Easter part because there's a WQ or rare up there. Because of the inputs required for Dragon Riding, you won't be able to say open up your map to see if there are any other rares or POI that you want to also check out.
Anti-hovering can also be an issue. You can't just hover around above a rare to wait for other people. You would need to either find a close enough place to land (without aggroing other mobs) or do some sort of looping around as you wait.
Sure the idea is nice on paper. Look it's an interactive way you can "fly" from point A to point B... until you realize that it's always on. Which is a big difference from current flight where you can set auto-cruise control or auto-hover while you wait or look up something.
Heck I would even settle for traditional flight in parallel with dragon flying... so that traditional flight still gives you the option to auto-cruise/auto-hover at a generally slower movement (say 300% movement speed) while dragon flying at full potential can boost players up to 600% or higher movement speed provided they are playing the mini-game.
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The only thing I trust Blizz to do is take a idea like this and turn it into the most miserable, repetitive, time gated, horrible experience possible to ensure that not a microgram of fun is had from it.
Actually, that would be fucking BAD ASS! 10-20 people on their dragons circling a world boss or elite world rare waiting for the fight to start. Just circling around our prey, what a sight to behold. That would be so cool, actually.
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Man just imagining it now, everyone circling the boss and then when the fight starts you get all these bad ass dragons swooping down on the boss and BOOM! CHAOS! BLOOD LUST! WOOOOOOOOOOO nelly I'm excited
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Missing the point there. From what we currently know, you can't "hover" in mid-air. You need to be doing the mini-game of angling your mount down then up, maybe hitting the spacebar every now and then for a wing flap.
And more the point, how easy is it to open up group finder while doing those movement actions?
Yeah you could land somewhere then open up a map or a menu but you can't do that IN-FLIGHT which is something you can do right now.
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They mentioned unlocks for the mount. Maybe they wont just be cosmetic, maybe you can also unlock abilities like the barrel roll/corkscrew shown in the demo. Maybe one of those abilities is a "holding pattern" where your mount just flies in a steady circle without losing altitude.
No where in the linked interview does it say there won’t be regular flying. They have also said in interviews that dragon riding you will be able to reach areas that normal flying cannot. They also said that flying will be available from day one.
I have a suspicion that the "unlock abilities" is more likely things like top speed, acceleration to top speed, extra launch height, etc. etc.
And that for some places (where treasures/rares are) will require that you have those kinds of upgrades before you can reach them.
And then there's the question on how you gain the "points/xp" to unlock these abilities. Is it a farming currency like Cyphers of First Ones? Or is it gated by renown level? Or worse, do you need to complete "challenges" to unlock?
Get a silver (or better) medal in this waypoint race (of which there are many scattered around the Dragon Isles) to collect enough points/xp to unlock XYZ ability. Oh and it's per toon unlock so if you want your alts to be able to have those abilities, then they too have to complete the "challenges".
There's a lot of ways this "feature" of DF can go wrong... and given Blizzard's history in implementing bad systems at xpac launch....
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Why does this feels like blizzard making dungeons with m+ in mind? Whenever blizzard takes a perfectly working feature, something insanely simple as flying and tries to make up some unique system out of it, I can seriously only be worried because they dont have the track record for this kind of stuff.
People don't care wether the flying is fun or not, they want instant gratification because the game is a chore to them. Why would you wanna spend more time than you have to in the game where all you wanna do is your dailies and log off?
I mean look at how OP is acting in this thread. Just repeating the same exact thing at every post they quote.
Welcome to how a lot of bosses in GW2 start... Minus the awesome circling thing. There is something incredibly awesome about pulling a boss, then as you're fighting it, seeing several more people dive down on their various mounts, blasting the area with fire from their Skyscale, or diving down off their Griffons, or leaping into action with their Raptors...Or hell even doing a butt slam with their Hopper Mounts.
If the Dragon Mount system in Dragonflight is even half as cool as the Griffon mount is in GW2, I'm never going to want to go back to my old mounts again, and I would imagine that a lot of people will probably feel the same once they feel a feel for it. It's also worth noting too that GW2 has zones that are *significantly* larger than anything in WoW, and has no true flying mount. The closest to that is the Skyscale, but it's altitude increases are limited, and at best it can simply glide a few dozen yards over the ground without aggroing enemies. Yet despite this, I can still look at my map while flying, see where Dynamic Events are spawning, course correct as needed, and skip ground encounters en route to my destination.
I've been wishing for years if Blizzard is going to copy one thing from another MMO, it's GW2's mount system, and I am so glad they finally are.
Just want to jump in with my 2 cents for what it's worth. First, we don't have enough information to be saying how bad it sucks. I, personally think it sounds great. Anyway, as far as regular flying mounts....I believe either it was said in the reveal or an interview that the lands are so vertical, you can see stuff at the top but can't reach it yet until your dragon has been taught whatever skill or talent...thing stuff. Now.....if you have to teach dragons, why wouldn't you have to teach other mounts? I have one of the pig mounts (and love him) but what says it's fair/right for me to take his little pig ass and just hold down the space bar till he gets to the top, but dragons have to learn to get that high? I mean sure....I'd love to nose dive him, then do a barrel roll before shooting up into the clouds, but I think it's a dragon thing. It would look strange to see horses, pigs, cats ect doing something they specifically designed for dragons. But who knows? I'll be happy either way.
It's literally taken straight from Guild wars 2 which is fine because they did it right to begin with. Cannot stay in the air forever it is a skill based type of flying and if you're bad at it you're gonna have to get good just like in every other aspect of wow. They need more skill based things like this in a wow personally
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Until i have seen how it actually works i cant really judge it, but so far i think its terrible. Flying is often the most efficient way to get were i want to be to do the thing i want to do. Making it some sort of minigame will get old real quick, no matter how much fun it might be in the start. It will be either be more time consuming and/or less efficient than current flying. As long we get normal flying after a pathfinder achievement or something similair it is fine to have this fall with style kind of flying in the meanwhile.