Forgive me for speaking for everyone but I’m pretty sure everyone wants a mount. The problem is incorporating them into the game. They simply don’t belong with the current set up. If anything they would just be a convenience at this point and just don’t add much other than something cool to ride on. However if vamped the right way I think they could add a new and dynamic feature to the game. I’ll go in depth to explain how my suggestion would function.
For every keep, garrison and castle add an upgrade feature “Stables”
For x supply your keep produces a stable and a stable master where they train mounts over time for the cost of additional supplies. Other upgrades are could also be purchased for the mounts to upgrade them armor, speed, power etc. (meaning you lose the keep you lose the stable.)
Each mount would act like a piece of siege equipment IE when you mount them you are bound to a certain skill set. They would have a set amount of hp etc. It would be like getting in a golem.
With a few differences you would have access to a class bound elite on the mount, your heal and a few utilities. As if you were under water. Skills on the horse would be bound by your class NOT your weapon set. So a guardian’s skill set for a horse would not be the same as a thief’s. This would essentially add 8 new classes to the game in a sort.
Lets talk about death and ownership mechanics
If you the horse hp runs out you go into a downed state where you can be stomped.
While mounted you are not prone to certain cc skills like cripple, daze, stun immobilize and barrier type skill that prevent movement. Chill will still apply as well as fear.
Debating skills or skill sets that could knock a player off mount or under x conditions met he could get knocked off. Tricky matter for fair and balanced gameplay. I won’t touch on that for now as I don’t have a decent solution for incorporating that mechanic if any.
Mounting: Mounting the horse begins with an ownership process Player 1 claims horse, horse becomes “So and so’s horse” Can also use rename function like in siege. Once dismounted no other player my claim that horse Unless a commander kicks them off. Then that horse becomes the commanders horse. Commanders may not own more than one horse, claiming a new horse sets the old one back to default. If a player dies while dismounted for whatever reason the horse is set back to default with no owner and returns to it’s spawn on foot. It can be claimed on the way back.
Horse’s regenerate health over time WHILE in the stable, not in the field by may be healed by the player PERSONAL heal only. They have no form of regeneration and are not affected by heal over time sigil of regeneration etc Flat heals only. because of the larger hp pool these flat heals will be multiplied to better compensate for the hp difference.
debating a steal mechanic to steal ownership from enemy team need a balancing mechanic for total mounts on map rule before moving forward. Possibly not implemented at all.
Control features
only x amount of mounts can be on the map at a certain time, bound or unbound (meaning have a rider.) Keeps, castles garrisons etc can only train x amount. The amount going up by the size of the structure. Stables can be “locked” by commanders meaning no one can take horses from the stable unless a commander unlocks it.
Now lets get into the fun stuff ability theory crafting!
Lets start with something basic the warrior mounted skill set
Weapons includes lance by default bow whatever(These weapon skins could be guild based or set personally in the wvw menu somewhere lots of ways to implement this.) Or they can simply be bought and the weapons could be owned etc and played in a new weapons bar, underneath the underwater bar. etc
Ability 1
Thrust
Warrior does large damage in a cone shape in front of him
2 etc so and so on
Hope you liked the idea and than at this point realized yeah right never gonna happen =P than left the thread with broken heart laters!