Enough with the WoW Mounts!

[Guy De Alsace]

Ahhh...imagine that in plate armour

[Shandael]

My favorite Clydesdale commercials;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4NLvcoN58E

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NXlv28HYOA

Clydesdales have always been special to me (ie; my previous post). As one response to the video's remarked (Clydesdales) "It is about pride, determination, resolve, UNENDING effort, and the rewards that it provides." A symbology of Clydesdales that is very fitting to the scope and theme of Everquest.

[Grumpy_Warrior_01]

covic wrote:

I am going to have to look into that, the clydesdale being gone.  I didnt know we had one allready.  I really want to do one, using the rhime horse as a base since its much beafier then the older horses.  I would also like to do a cat with a tail, more on the real side so we could replace some of the old cats in game that are looking a little dated. Well there are a lot of things I want to do, just have to get the expansion stuff done first.  Most of the things I hear players want are on my list of things I want also, just have to block in the time.

This perks up my ears, since one of the first things I fell in love with was the plain horse in the Qeynos stable.  It wasn't really a Clydesdale, but the shape of it was a lot more stout than what it got turned into.  I have never been so disappointed as when the new horse models came out with their spindly little legs.  Here I am on Feb. 11 2005 with my newly-minted companion.  I worked my butt off that first 3 months of the game to be able to buy this horse, it was either 5p or 9p, can't remember.  (Covic please bring us back something like this.  I would pay station cash for something this appropriate to the simple, austere life of a Barbarian fighter.)

[Supav]

I like the horses too but... they seem a lil... small, proportionately to my character, maybe its just me but I stil love the original evil flamey horse from Freeport but its kinda.... smallish lol. I feel like my toon is gonna squish it. If anything I'd like to see a nice big impressive flaming horse mount for my toon. One that looks like it eats other horses for breakfast. Call it over-compensating if you want lol.

The cat mounts tho look cool imo. And even if it WAS copied from WoW, u can't argue w/ over 1mil users that love the aesthetics in that game. There's nothing wrong w/ your toon's mount looking impressive and badass. Thats the kinda thing that makes the game fun. Not everyone wants plain horses lol.

[Malacha]

shaunfletcher wrote:

Despite some rather rose tinted memories, the original EQ2 horse models were not really very good, and werent up to the art standards of the game. They were, I believe, replaced with the current, anatomically accurate and more detailed, models  for that reason.

http://eq2vault.ign.com/screenshots...7&page=1&cat=11

..an old horse. Cant see them putting THAT back in.

I love that horse. Its big and beefy without being retardedly huge. So its not "anatomically correct" (LOL) but seriously, have you seen some of the mounts? Bears with gigantic bodies and tiny heads? Cats that are twice as long as they should be, with wide [Removed for Content] and bobble heads? And you're going to complain about a horse that is a bit beefier than in real life?

[Ristan]

I would love to see heavy horse as a mount option.  It would be kinda cool to have some without armor and maybe some with, barding colorful banners like the old knights.  I love clydesdales, but there are many other horses you could look at too.  Shires and my personal favorite the friesian:

Starseeker * Arendul * Ristan * Kyraine * Saewyn * Lyiana * Kicx * Elegi * Anomandaris My Houses: Starseeker's Suite--The Tinkerdome 1.0-- The Tinkerdome 2.0

[Supav]

Starseeker@Crushbone wrote:

I would love to see heavy horse as a mount option.  It would be kinda cool to have some without armor and maybe some with, barding colorful banners like the old knights.  I love clydesdales, but there are many other horses you could look at too.  Shires and my personal favorite the friesian:

Starseeker * Arendul * Ristan * Kyraine * Saewyn * Lyiana * Kicx * Elegi * Anomandaris My Houses: Starseeker's Suite--The Tinkerdome 1.0-- The Tinkerdome 2.0

yeeeeah now THATS more like it /rawr!!!

[Armawk]

Malachani wrote:

I love that horse. Its big and beefy without being retardedly huge. So its not "anatomically correct" (LOL) but seriously, have you seen some of the mounts? Bears with gigantic bodies and tiny heads? Cats that are twice as long as they should be, with wide [Removed for Content] and bobble heads? And you're going to complain about a horse that is a bit beefier than in real life?

No its just not a very good model.. it has no muscle definition and detail and animates badly.

Im totally for a big meaty warhorse in the game and think it should be the top level guild mount. Really.

Also Im not sure that pointing out how annoying the bears and cats are is a good reason to add more annoyingly bad things

[Gkar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_horse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clydesdale_(horse)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffolk_Punch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austra...an_Draught_Hors

[VengeanceX]

I always thought that the war-barded horses looked more solid than the other but that may just be an illusion caused by the extra armor.

They even made a spiritsteed version of the ward-barded mount but always wondered why they never made a nightmare version.  I think my Shadow Knight would love to have a war-barded nightmare!  I guess that is kind of what the Saryrn Deathcharger is but that is a little more over the top.

[Iskandar]

The only problem I forsee with larger mounts is the scaling for smaller races -- often, the mounts remain much larger (in scale) to a small player than to a large player. This is a big reason why the rhinos and bears look so overly massive on some players, but just right with others. The same happens with the cat mounts, both the CE one and, sadly, the new ones.

If you look at the new cats from the side... with an elf or human-sized player, you see the feet hang just below the ring in the saddle straps... with a short race, such as a Fae or Gnome, the feet hang a ways above that ring. The same thing happens with the bears -- take the common Bear Whistle for example. A Kerran sits with his feet resting just between the two rings on the two saddle straps -- a Fae sits with their feet right about at the base of the saddle itself, FAR above those saddlestrap rings.

Now compare that to the Wargs -- looking at an armored warg, that same Kerran and Fae have their feet resting just above the studs on the rear saddle strap, even to the bottom of the cloth trim that hangs over the rear of the mount. The same is true of horses -- the feet rest at the same spot, regardless of the size of the character. As a result, the wargs and horses always seems to be in proportion to the rider.

Personally, I think the cats, bears, and rhinos should all be adjusted to scale the same way the wargs and horses do. I know the overly large size is the only reason I avoid these particular mounts, despite the nice appearance of the mount itself, as many of my toons are fairly short (Fae, Gnomes, Ratonga, Arasi).

[Chiyoiche]

shaunfletcher wrote:

Malachani wrote:

I love that horse. Its big and beefy without being retardedly huge. So its not "anatomically correct" (LOL) but seriously, have you seen some of the mounts? Bears with gigantic bodies and tiny heads? Cats that are twice as long as they should be, with wide [Removed for Content] and bobble heads? And you're going to complain about a horse that is a bit beefier than in real life?

No its just not a very good model.. it has no muscle definition and detail and animates badly.

Im totally for a big meaty warhorse in the game and think it should be the top level guild mount. Really.

Also Im not sure that pointing out how annoying the bears and cats are is a good reason to add more annoyingly bad things

i dont agree with top lvl guild only. lvl 90 guilds shouldnt be the only ones able to access good mounts. not everyone is in a lvl 90 guild. and lvl 90 guilds already got new lvl 90 mounts.

if the new horse (hopefully clyde!!), was even SC, id buy one. they could even make it questable. but catering new mounts to persons who are only in a lvl 90 guild? No.

[Chiyoiche]

replying again to add in a Clyde picture. i think this one is just STUNNING! id love to see it in game! ((sorry pic is so big!))

[covic]

Iskandar wrote:

covic wrote:

I am going to have to look into that, the clydesdale being gone.  I didnt know we had one allready.  I really want to do one, using the rhime horse as a base since its much beafier then the older horses.  I would also like to do a cat with a tail, more on the real side so we could replace some of the old cats in game that are looking a little dated. Well there are a lot of things I want to do, just have to get the expansion stuff done first.  Most of the things I hear players want are on my list of things I want also, just have to block in the time.

I've always wondered... how compatible are the models in EQ1 with the EQ2 engine? Would it be possible to import art resources from there (like the Snow Leopards, since you mention cats ) and polish it up a bit to work here? Or is it faster/easier to build it from scratch in EQ2? (And I'm kinda assuming that there's no licensing or other type restrictions keeping the two apart as well)

It usually easier to make a new mount.  With EQ1 they use 3d Max, while we use maya.  We could do OBJ. exports if you are familiar with the teams.  But the tech guide lines are different.  We can use a lot higher poly count then EQ1, because they have to be able to run on older machines.  Sometimes depending how the character is built that I wont even resuse some of our old stuff.  The mentality and technology has changed since EQ2 launched, and sometimes its faster just to start from scratch.

[covic]

Lethe568

I'm not saying that you took the idea from WoW but the art style is very reminiscent of WoW.  Ever since RoK we have had nothing but freakish looking mounts that glow and have odd proportions, not that I'm saying they are bad, but they are defiantly not the type of thing I like.  What we need is some relatively normal mounts.

Well I try to go back and forth with what I make, since the prowler was very colorful and glowy, I will probly go more realistic with the next one, unless designers have something specific in mind. 

Also I try to vary what is in our art folders of what exist allready.  We have more natural looking horses then any other mount as far as the art folders show me.  But I dont have a tally on how many are still being used in game.

[Taerius]

I love the look of the heavier type horses, like the Clydesdales. The broad chest and wide hooves make them look very stable and imposing. They're just really majestic looking. I'd love to see the Clydesdale introduced at some point!

With that being said, I'm all for the creative mounts such as cats, wargs and bears to mix things up a little. It would be a tad boring to see EVERYONE on the same horses all the time. I'd love to see a reptilian type mount introduced too! Not anything like a raptor or a lizard or anything, but maybe some kind of armored quadripedal dinosaur or something along those lines.

P.S. - War Elephants perhaps? lol

[Mysstie]

I was always surprised that there wasn't a camel mount merchant in Sinking Sands.

[Kyaaadaa]

Guy De Alsace wrote:

I find myself agreeing with the OP. Not that the mounts are bad its just that there are too many freakish ones around. Burning Rhinos, Giger-esque horses, enormous over the top armoured wargs etc...

I'd love to see something more sublime like a Clydesdale Warhorse with shiny plate barding. Camels, Elephants with Houda's and so on. At least a couple at any rate - and not on SC please, or not for the mad amounts of money!

Something cheap for little or no SC, no LoN card, and/or little in game money = a mount speed of 40% or lower. The mounts that give greater speed are harder to get (50k faction with Rime, completing a questline, spending your hard earned money, in game or IRL), or finding that LoN card. Normal looking mounts like a simple horse or ox or w/e would be cool, would add a bit of reality to an unreal universe, and breathe a breath of fresh air back into the game. I know its fantasy, and fantasy has odd and sometimes completely rediculous or spectacular things in them, but even the most outlandish and far fetched fantasy/science fiction has a basis of reality in them. I write fantasy literature, and everything I put into my stories has a ring of reality to it. Sometimes hard to find, but its there.

[ZerkerDwarf]

I just wonder wheather anybody out there is willing to spend 25 realmoney for those UGLY cats.

Edit:

This is not meant to offend the designers, since the same people (?) also produce good looking creatures.

There are already many mountable (seen from some kind of "logical" point of view, not the coding necessarily) animals throughout Norrath: lions, tigers, raptors, ostriches any many more.

All they need is a saddle...

[Krishti]

I personally LOVE the blue mount!  I would be buying one but in the past 2 months ran myself up a bunch of medical bills so I can't afford it   Hopefully they will be around for more then a month giving me a chance to pay off the bills so I can justify buying one  

If they must go away...can I put in a vote for a pink pegasus/unicorn with sparkiling pink cloud hoofs...maybe dripping hearts or flower petals? A girl can dream hehe

[Taerius]

Krishti wrote:

If they must go away...can I put in a vote for a pink pegasus/unicorn with sparkiling pink cloud hoofs...maybe dripping hearts or flower petals? A girl can dream hehe

Yeah. I can definitely see my troll zerk riding around on one of those. lol

[Sar]

Can these be turned into house mounts? 

[covic]

ZerkerDwarf wrote:

I just wonder wheather anybody out there is willing to spend 25 realmoney for those UGLY cats.

Edit:

This is not meant to offend the designers, since the same people (?) also produce good looking creatures.

There are already many mountable (seen from some kind of "logical" point of view, not the coding necessarily) animals throughout Norrath: lions, tigers, raptors, ostriches any many more.

All they need is a saddle...

ya Unfortunately none of those are ready to be used as a mount.  The mount code is different then an npc code.  Npc that are not all ready set up to be a mount will take several mounts to get ready, because they will require all new animations along with player animations to match.  We can do some reskinns, like adding a lion model onto the lynx skeleton if the lynx had a tail animation.  Once we get a working cat animations with a tail we will probably put in some real looking cats at that time.

[lollipop]

can we get that cat mount from avatar the girl was riding!

[Malacha]

covic wrote:

ZerkerDwarf wrote:

I just wonder wheather anybody out there is willing to spend 25 realmoney for those UGLY cats.

Edit:

This is not meant to offend the designers, since the same people (?) also produce good looking creatures.

There are already many mountable (seen from some kind of "logical" point of view, not the coding necessarily) animals throughout Norrath: lions, tigers, raptors, ostriches any many more.

All they need is a saddle...

ya Unfortunately none of those are ready to be used as a mount.  The mount code is different then an npc code.  Npc that are not all ready set up to be a mount will take several mounts to get ready, because they will require all new animations along with player animations to match.  We can do some reskinns, like adding a lion model onto the lynx skeleton if the lynx had a tail animation.  Once we get a working cat animations with a tail we will probably put in some real looking cats at that time.

But those mounts are still HUGE! I would kill for the GM cat mount from DOF... its small, more natural, and not gigantic.

[Anastasie]

yeah - the collectors edition lynx mount looks deformed with the overly exaggerated head and the bulbous behind.

[Liyle]

If you want to cop something, how about the flying mounts in Avatar? Granted it may be a computational nightmare, but OMG... imagine a raid of 24 players swooping down from the cliffs for an aerial assault. Too cool, esp in the cloud zones.

[Iskandar]

Malachani wrote:

But those mounts are still HUGE! I would kill for the GM cat mount from DOF... its small, more natural, and not gigantic.

If the scaling were balanced, like I mentioned earlier in the thread, the size wouldn't be a big problem (i iz punny! &nbsp

[KniteShayd]

A lil off topic, but I really hope you guys (Art Dept) are working on Dragmoor mounts!

[Flipitsmi]

I want a donkey mount, whos with me?