[SUGGESTION] Mounts.

[Gargoyle Girl]

This game is set in a huge world and despite the size, there isn't a lot to deal with directly (though there is plenty to do). This idea came to me as a way to travel around more smoothly, as well as adding another aspect to how the game is played.

Mounts would be created from animals in the wild. This would be a combination of alchemical and hunting, as you would need to capture an animal first, then use a potion on it to change it into a mount. The process would be as follows.

Once the Hunter and Alchemist have been rescued and set up in your home, you gain access to the idea of capturing animals to assist you in travelling out in the world. This may involve a quest or two to find the needed items or resources to make what is needed to create a mount.

The Net Gun This would be a device that would have 2 levels. It's basic form would be that of a crossbow-like weapon that would have a length of rope, a net, and a crank for retracting the net and reloading it. When fired, and hitting the target, the net would capture animal types: this included food type animals, like rabbits and goats, hostile animals such as wolves, and even Vukah, who are basically animals. For the hostile types, a bit of speed is required to subdue them, but non hostile animals are caught right away.

The second level of the net gun would have a weighted net and small needles or thorns in the netting that would administer the taming potion on capture, making the process a bit quicker.

Taming Potion The Taming Potion actually has two effects. The first is it acts as a growth potion, enlarging the creature you capture to be large enough to ride on (if it's not already large enough; most would gain some measure of size). The second effect is rendering them docile, so they no longer want to fight you or run, and instead help you. For example, using one on a rabbit would make it grow large enough to ride, and make it friendly towards you.

Riding Saddle Each type of mount would have its own saddle, designed to fit their specific physiology, and would need to be crafted in order to ride that animal. If a mount is killed (and they can be), they will drop their saddle to be taken and used on another mount of the same type, so you only need to craft one per mount type. Saddles can have saddlebags added to them that can hold some amount of resources or other items, but those items also get dropped if the mount dies, so being careful with your mount is important.

Vukah 'saddles' would be more of a back harness with a platform you could stand on while they run around for you. Since they would be enlarged, it would be easy for them to handle your additional weight.

Once you have tamed and saddled your mount, each one will carry you around the map. All mounts are faster than the character themselves by some amount; some moreso than others. Other mounts provide other benefits. Mounts would be divided roughly into three types:

- Movement mounts, which provide higher speed, jumping abilities and so on.
- Combat mounts, that can fight alongside the player (or can attack while they are mounted)
- Special mounts, who possess some ability that lets them do unique things as a mount. (An example is making a Vukah shaman a mount and having it buff or heal you during fights).

Ideas for abilities mounts would have would be (and this is just a rough list of the creatures I know):

- Rabbits: very fast, double jump skill
- Goats: fast, headbutt attack that can stun enemies and harvest resources
- Wolves: lunging bite and double bite attacks; can fight alongside you when not mounted
- Vukah: warriors will use their blades or slings; shaman will cast buffing or healing spells
- Wyverns: (as seen in videos; never encountered one) gliding ability; can function as a glider when leaping from cliffs. Flying; can traverse some dangerous ground without penalty, since they don't touch it.

It is my thought that no shroud creature can be tamed, but maybe something could be done in that direction as well. So far, have only seen the beetles as a potential mount.

This idea could also come with a separate skill tree for handling mounts, or, if the idea was used as a perpetual one instead of constantly replacing mounts, the mounts in question could gain levels depending on how much you use them.

Mounts would also be affected by shroud (unless it was some kind of shroud creature, like beetles), and would need clean air slightly less than the player does. This would allow for the player to focus more on their own shroud timer, and not have to watch two at once. The flying concept for wyverns would NOT negate the effects of red shroud, just things like mud, for example.

Mounts would want comfort and possibly food as well, though just like the character, they might not *need* food to function, it would just provide them with boosts. The 'Well Rested' affect for mounts would last slightly longer, and allow them to carry you further; the more care you take of them, the better they are at carrying you around, so making them a shelter and place to sleep would be wise.

Building items would be added for mount care, like hay piles for sleeping or feed and other stable related things, so those of us who enjoy building could have more to build. Making a barn or stable would be possible using these shapes.

It would be possible to capture a range of mounts for various uses as well, so having a group of mounts is also a possibility.

EDIT: I see a lot of people saying animals and other creatures shouldn't be able to enter the Shroud, and while this *is* true lore-wise, in game they do it all the time. If this were to be implemented, where creatures entering the Shroud other than the main player would die or become corrupted, turning into monsters, this would be yet another interesting idea for how to add content to the game. As it is, this was written with the observation of animals and others entering the Shroud with no ill effects. A workaround would be, again, Alchemy, where the potion would imbue the mount with similar flameborn abilities, which could further be expanded on by adding in quests for the right reagents and items to allow for this to happen, as being a flameborn means having a bit of the Ancients inside. Maybe a quest to find some Ancient's corpse, or the last living Ancient? It's all random conjecture and ideas. I'm happy some people are willing to engage with it.

[Halfalfasleep]

Mounts would be nice to get around faster, but it wouldn't help the world feeling pretty empty between "content nodes"/points of interest/whatever you'd call them.

Also, some of the animals you mentioned would have to get pretty big to ride on, I'm pretty sure the rabbits would die if we sat on them.

I could see the Vukah being used in some sort of companion system, but I don't see them as mounts. They're bipedal, it'd look weird IMO.

[Gargoyle Girl]

Originally posted by Halfalfasleep:

Mounts would be nice to get around faster, but it wouldn't help the world feeling pretty empty between "content nodes"/points of interest/whatever you'd call them.

Also, some of the animals you mentioned would have to get pretty big to ride on, I'm pretty sure the rabbits would die if we sat on them.

I could see the Vukah being used in some sort of companion system, but I don't see them as mounts. They're bipedal, it'd look weird IMO.

The mounts would help with travel, which is a good part of the empty feeling of the maps. It wouldn't feel as empty if you could travel faster, since the spaces in between would essentially be smaller.

I did mention that the Taming potion would make mounts get large enough to ride on, this was why I said it would resort to alchemy. If it wasn't for that, I would have probably went with some other sort of taming concept, like feeding them their favorite foods to tame them. It would also drastically change the listing, or have had me adding in horses or other animals they could place in the world to be tamed as mounts.

And yeah, it *would* look a little odd to have you, a little man in a backpack riding around on an enlarged Vukah. xD That was part of the idea of making them into mounts. They get to be bigger and stronger (something they seem to like the idea of, since their champions are huge) and in return carry you around places and help you fight (something else they seem to enjoy, seeing as they have arenas where they just straight up kill each other for fun). I've played more than a few games where mystical creatures that were basically people were being used as mounts, so maybe for me the idea isn't as weird, and more amusing.

[Dreadstone]

I can get from one corner of the map to another in less than 5 minutes. So, travel isn't really an issue.

Now the "empty" feeling? Yeah, there's multiple story / lore reasons for that.

[iamfriendly2]

whe got a glider play the game you can tame animals however play the game

[Gargoyle Girl]

Originally posted by Dreadstone:

I can get from one corner of the map to another in less than 5 minutes. So, travel isn't really an issue.

Now the "empty" feeling? Yeah, there's multiple story / lore reasons for that.

First.
How do you get from one corner of the map to the other without teleporting?

Second.
Why do people keep bringing up the 'empty world' concept when I'm talking about mounts? This suggestion wasn't meant to address that issue?

[Gargoyle Girl]

Originally posted by iamfriendly2:

whe got a glider play the game you can tame animals however play the game

What do you mean? I *am* playing the game. How do you think I'm getting these ideas?

The idea spawned from playing the game and thinking of things that would make it more fun or interesting.

Are you suggesting I play the game and not think about anything while playing? Cause I don't think I could do that.

[WallaceTheSane]

While mounts would be interesting, I doubt they'll ever get added due to how the glider functions, and way the map is built.

It's already possible to basically fly almost endlessly, as long as you have a specific passive, the stamina to stay in the air, and enough mana regen, to keep "flying" higher. Even without the passive that gives you the boost necessary to do so, the games focus is exploration with the use of fast travel points and placing altars just about wherever you want to place them. This all but eliminates the need for mounts, as you can go to a specific fast travel spot, or to where you placed an altar and be there instantaneously.

[BearChow]

2 reasons why not. Makes glider useless and they shroud time becomes irelivant.

[Sgt.JESUS]

Not to mention we are the only thing that can survive inside the shroud, and not for a long time either, so lorewise it would be hard to explain why a wolf or boar is surviving inside when everything else doesnt.

[HOUSE_D]

I've seen other animals running around in the shroud that are not shroud creatures like goats and birds. They didn't die until a creature killed them. If you had a mount you could give them a shroud protection potion like we can use and it would give them the same amount of time in the shroud. Or have a special potion for mounts.

I would like to have one of the big cats in the Highlands as a mount. I think you would still have uses for the glider even if there were mounts each would have uses depending on the situation.

[Humpenstilzchen]

I´m not against mounts per se but I don´t see a need for them since I can get everywhere superfast with the glider. Once you have the ghost glider you get around so fast, I don´t need anything else tbh.

[Faruviel]

I think the idea of mounts is interesting, although I'm not sure if mounts are necessary in this game or how it could or should be implemented.
But for me personally the idea of a potion that enlarges animals does not fit this game at all.
In my opinion, the mounts could only be wolves, those cheetah-hyenas from the desert areas or flying phoenixes/dragons. In their normal, natural size.
Or maybe making animals into familiars can be an interesting plan. Not necessarily all animals, just some.
Even now, if you have purchased non-aggression and help from animals in the skill tree, you can, for example, tell a wild boar to follow you, so it's already close to having companions. I haven't checked for how long or at what distance it works yet.
Vukah in my opinion should be left alone in this regard. These are not ordinary animals, but more like humanoids, with their own culture and language. Even treating them as familiars somehow doesn't seem right. And their friendship ends when we have to fight their champions. I can't imagine them as mounts at all, it's absurd.
Besides, neither animals nor Vukah should be allowed to enter the shroud with us. Even the best potions don't make them the children of the flame that we are as characters or NPCs helping us. It's against the plot of the game, it would be a big plot hole.
Maybe if the game's plot was expanded a lot and we were taught how to turn others into flame childrens using these special devices, but I don't expect that.
Ordinary animals appear in the place where there was shroud only after cutting down the shroud root, clearing the elixir well, when the shroud in the area lifts. Otherwise, it's probably game's bug if someone sees a normal, healthy animal deep inside the shroud.

[WallaceTheSane]

I absolutely wouldn't expect mounts in this game, no matter how hard any of you wish and hope for it.

[Gargoyle Girl]

Originally posted by PakaNoHida:

Here we go again, and again, like the other thread, NO.

I'm sorry? I didn't realize this was your personal game and no one could ask for or want anything in it without your permission.

Care to explain your reasoning, like everyone else, or are you just being one of *those* people?

[Gargoyle Girl]

Originally posted by WallaceTheSane:

I absolutely wouldn't expect mounts in this game, no matter how hard any of you wish and hope for it.

This is just a suggestion, not an expectation. I don't 'expect' anything from games these days, but I don'tr see a problem with offering up ideas that might catch someone's interest. At the very least, it sparks some discussion about ideas for making the game more interesting.