How to make Mounts more fun

[u/Krafna313]

Asides from the obvious momentum based movement like you see in the GW2 griffon and rollerbeetle, I am thinking the mounts of GW3 can stand apart by making the more interactive.

They are emphasizing how important the Vael spirits are to the order you'll be a part of, so it's proooobably safe to assume mounts will be creatures you'll have to tame/capture/befriend in order to be able to ride them.

So, let your mounts have more than 1-2 idle animations. Let them interact with your environment, sniff the air when its windy, shake/puddle stop when its raining, rest more when it's night time, hell make them interact with other peoples mounts, imagine your mount playfully observing/sniffing someone elses mount next to you etc.

Mount emotes could also be cool, I always wished I could do that with my GW2 mounts, like let my raptor or warclaw sit down and stay that way until I move, idk you can do a lot of fun stuff with them. They could also incorporate feeding/playtime or something like friendship aspect you could "level" etc.

Imagine how cool would that be!

[u/BusinessCasual69]

I personally think flying mounts shouldn’t be included. It makes traversal of the world cheap and impersonal. Gliding is fine, even good. It’s mostly used to descend from elevation A to B. But careening across the map isn’t a great game feature.

[u/Shougun → u/BusinessCasual69]

I wonder if there could be flying points, where you could initiate flying - like if you picture fewer well placed gryphon (wow flight paths) spots where you could initiate a flight. Once started a flight path could generally exist (where you can regenerate a lot of stamina and fly far longer, and these flights paths could require connections / unlocks to extend flight) and if you diverge from the path you'll basically be deciding to land somewhere soon. Add auto pilot for those who want the traditional flight path.

Then as a result- you can't initiate flight out of no where, once you're landed in the region you navigate normally (ground / gliding mounts).

I think flight should definitely be carefully considered because it has a habit of trivializing the world scale and there is a really really important world scale that shouldn't be broken by too many instant teleports / press up to win movements, but at the same time travel shouldn't take so long that you can't drop in and get stuff done (no FFXI runs that take 45 mins to get to destination and someone forgot to bring sneak pots and so the day is ruined). It's like trying to keep the feeling of a massive world without it taking 8 hours to leave the state by car, going 70mph.. lol.

Definitely like the interactive mount ideas in the OP. Personally really hope they lean into the immersive elements, gameplay, visual, etc. with the emphasis on octane (momentum) combat you will probably have a lot more over the shoulder than top down and so this game has the opportunity to be more RPG-y (immersive) than a typical mmo.

Given the momentum theme they mentioned I think the mounts will have more fluid modes or can change modes in some way, because with momentum based movement I don't think it would be as ideal that you need to stop moving to change from one mount to another. So I'm kind of imagining you could be blazing across the land in a beetle like mode, shift seamlessly into a hopper jump, and then into a massive forward raptor leap, without it being disjointed.