Guild Wars 2

… that dreaded word, “Mounts” ? :-)

You’ve got to admit that with gliding, there are some areas in the open world where you can cover substantial ground without setting foot on mother Earth. It does seem (to me) that this may just be ANET “testing the waters” so to speak.

Marketing strategy for HoT.
Not related to mounts at all.
Merge time…. again.

I doubt it. The main differences are that you can’t glide across a whole map and can’t glide on demand but must first make your way to a high spot.

Hexalot.8194:

… that dreaded word, “Mounts” ? :-)

You’ve got to admit that with gliding, there are some areas in the open world where you can cover substantial ground without setting foot on mother Earth. It does seem (to me) that this may just be ANET “testing the waters” so to speak.

Nope. Not even a little bit.

No matter how many times the mounts crowd bleets out “but I want it” the fact of the matter is speed has value. You can already have speed in this game, if you’re willing to sacrifice for it. Mounts are almost always presented as free speed and that breaks a bunch of balance points for traits, for weapons skill, for utilities, and for runes.

Nope.
(1k Quaggan coos)

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I doubt it. The main differences are that you can’t glide across a whole map and can’t glide on demand but must first make your way to a high spot.

It’s true you can’t glide across an entire map, but depending on where you’re approaching a certain part of the map from (an area with higher ground for instance), you’ll still be cutting down on your travel drastically, which means you’ll be essentially “skipping” portions of the map… which if I remember correctly is one of the main arguments against mounts and flyers in the first place. :-)

That clip of Ruby gliding in the open world (off a cliff ?) sure looks like she was capable of flying over much of that area without experiencing the open world first hand.

Fly off cliff with glider, land on dead horse and beat it with stick.

What is the balance argument if everyone has access to the same mounts, all that travel at the same speed? The closest thing I can think of is if a stock mount gives you, say, 40% extra speed but if you do something 99% of the game does not do you get 60% (cue ‘play the game’ cries from the 1%).

Qugi.2653:

Fly off cliff with glider, land on dead horse and beat it to death with stick.

Sorry… too busy flying past at prodigious speed to notice carcass on ground with weird (and slightly demented) individual abusing it. :-D

I don’t believe a word of what Nike is saying but I will agree that this isn’t about mounts. My belief is that even the devs have gone into central Tyria and jumped off of cliffs only to die horribly when they realized they can’t glide. What followed is a few meetings about feasibility, impact and balance for adding gliding everywhere. Personally I don’t see why they didn’t do it from the beginning. There is no better advertisement for buying the expansion than for the “haves” to literally soar over the “have nots.”

Hexalot.8194:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I doubt it. The main differences are that you can’t glide across a whole map and can’t glide on demand but must first make your way to a high spot.

It’s true you can’t glide across an entire map, but depending on where you’re approaching a certain part of the map from (an area with higher ground for instance), you’ll still be cutting down on your travel drastically, which means you’ll be essentially “skipping” portions of the map… which if I remember correctly is one of the main arguments against mounts and flyers in the first place. :-)

That clip of Ruby gliding in the open world (off a cliff ?) sure looks like she was capable of flying over much of that area without experiencing the open world first hand.

Aaannnd she still had to get there first. That spot she jumped from requires you to go up a staircase lined with risen (who don’t like you) then go past the temple (which may be full of mobs, who don’t like you) then go around and past air elementals on a narrow ledge (who don’t like you) before you can get to that spot to jump off. Once you’re on the ground, good luck in doing more gliding until you get to another high spot.

Not many people are going to take the long way around and make their way up a staircase and past a bunch of mobs just to skip part of a map somewhere else. It’s a lot faster and easier just to run past the mobs in the area that could be skipped.

We’re adding expanded functionality to the Gliding Mastery line! If you’ve trained the Glider Basics Mastery in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, your glider will let you glide a bit further…all the way back to Central Tyria. Your glider will work in any open-world map or city in Central Tyria once you’ve earned this Mastery ability.

Note that with the way it’s worded, it may very well be only the first level of gliding that works in central Tyria. If so, this will really help to limit how far one can go with it. Add in the need for a high start, and I’d call it less of a mount, and more of a limited alternate transportation system.

However, this DOES mean that they’ll see decent sales on new glider skins. If any of them come with animation changes, then it may indeed look like a flying mount is in use. I’d expect the magic carpet and broomstick to happen before any creatures, though.

Crossplay.2067:

I don’t believe a word of what Nike is saying but I will agree that this isn’t about mounts. My belief is that even the devs have gone into central Tyria and jumped off of cliffs only to die horribly when they realized they can’t glide. What followed is a few meetings about feasibility, impact and balance for adding gliding everywhere. Personally I don’t see why they didn’t do it from the beginning. There is no better advertisement for buying the expansion than for the “haves” to literally soar over the “have nots.”

For your information in many MMOs that’s what Mounts and Flyers are indeed all about… the “haves” and “have nots”.

Get where you want to go MUCH faster than that lowly pleb with fast run speed ? check

Be able to Lord it over everyone else with your new cash shop wings ? check

Heck… I’d like to change the topic. Come Jan the 26th… we’ll (well HoT buyers anyway) ALL have “Mounts”.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Hexalot.8194:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I doubt it. The main differences are that you can’t glide across a whole map and can’t glide on demand but must first make your way to a high spot.

It’s true you can’t glide across an entire map, but depending on where you’re approaching a certain part of the map from (an area with higher ground for instance), you’ll still be cutting down on your travel drastically, which means you’ll be essentially “skipping” portions of the map… which if I remember correctly is one of the main arguments against mounts and flyers in the first place. :-)

That clip of Ruby gliding in the open world (off a cliff ?) sure looks like she was capable of flying over much of that area without experiencing the open world first hand.

Aaannnd she still had to get there. That spot she jumped from requires you to go up a staircase lined with risen (who don’t like you) then go past the temple (which may be full of mobs, who don’t like you) then go around and past air elementals on a narrow ledge (who don’t like you) before you can get to that spot to jump off. Once you’re on the ground, good luck in doing more gliding until you get to another high spot.

“She still has to get there” only counts if the cliff per say is out of the way. but what about many areas with naturally occurring slopes or small hills ?

Sure you won’t be able to glide very far. But you’ll be constantly moving in a straight line from A to B, while the runner has to deal with navigating obstacles on the ground and such. Come the 26th, I’ll gladly challenge anyone to a race, glider vs running. and we’ll see who wins on most open maps, outside of the really flat ones…

Thanks alot Palador- that dang Alladin song “Whole new world” is now firmly jammed in my head. ><

Hexalot.8194:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Hexalot.8194:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I doubt it. The main differences are that you can’t glide across a whole map and can’t glide on demand but must first make your way to a high spot.

It’s true you can’t glide across an entire map, but depending on where you’re approaching a certain part of the map from (an area with higher ground for instance), you’ll still be cutting down on your travel drastically, which means you’ll be essentially “skipping” portions of the map… which if I remember correctly is one of the main arguments against mounts and flyers in the first place. :-)

That clip of Ruby gliding in the open world (off a cliff ?) sure looks like she was capable of flying over much of that area without experiencing the open world first hand.

Aaannnd she still had to get there. That spot she jumped from requires you to go up a staircase lined with risen (who don’t like you) then go past the temple (which may be full of mobs, who don’t like you) then go around and past air elementals on a narrow ledge (who don’t like you) before you can get to that spot to jump off. Once you’re on the ground, good luck in doing more gliding until you get to another high spot.

“She still has to get there” only counts if the cliff per say is out of the way. but what about many areas with naturally occurring slopes or small hills ?

Sure you won’t be able to glide very far. But you’ll be constantly moving in a straight line from A to B, while the runner has to deal with navigating obstacles on the ground and such. Come the 26th, I’ll gladly challenge anyone to a race, glider vs running. and we’ll see who wins on most open maps, outside of the really flat ones…

You’ll need to count in the time of the person detouring to a high points in order to jump off and skip an area. I bet if you factor in that time, the person running is faster. Even if the gliding person is faster, it won’t be by a large amount. It’s trivial.

Anyway. Your op was about being able to cover substantial amount of ground without touching the earth, not which was faster. That’s what my post was addressing. In order to skip substantial amounts, you first have to detour to make your way to a high enough point. And it’s faster to just run past the mobs than do that. Small slopes and hills won’t let you skip substantial amounts of areas,

trub.1657:

Thanks alot Palador- that dang Alladin song “Whole new world” is now firmly jammed in my head. ><

Not my fault, but here. Maybe that will help.

And people have been asking for those two things as gilder skins for a while, now. I just wish they’d change the animation on the carpet to the one CoH used for the Flying Carpet power. You stood on the carpet sideways, with head turned to face forward, and arms crossed. As you went forward, you leaned into the wind. It looked so much more bad-kittened.

Please just give these people mounts outright for free, and be sure that they can only travel at base speed and that it can’t be increased.

Theres quite a difference between immersion breaking,, screen cluttering, no physics laws cliche mounts and Masteries.

We already have mounts in this game. Flying carpet, broomstick. Even in WvW you can drive around in a dune roller.

Gliding is just a fun pasttime and to experience the world from a birds eye view.

Nike.2631:

Hexalot.8194:

… that dreaded word, “Mounts” ? :-)

You’ve got to admit that with gliding, there are some areas in the open world where you can cover substantial ground without setting foot on mother Earth. It does seem (to me) that this may just be ANET “testing the waters” so to speak.

Nope. Not even a little bit.

No matter how many times the mounts crowd bleets out “but I want it” the fact of the matter is speed has value. You can already have speed in this game, if you’re willing to sacrifice for it. Mounts are almost always presented as free speed and that breaks a bunch of balance points for traits, for weapons skill, for utilities, and for runes.

This and the fact that you can easily swap swiftness giving traits/weapons around easily in the open world. Coupled with waypoints, mounts would actually be somewhat redundant unless you’re doing map complete on a completely new toon.

Palador.2170:

However, this DOES mean that they’ll see decent sales on new glider skins. If any of them come with animation changes, then it may indeed look like a flying mount is in use. I’d expect the magic carpet and broomstick to happen before any creatures, though.

To quote a certain NPC, “this won’t end well”.

That said, it would be awesome.

The problem, though, is every glider skin still attaches to you doing the same fundamental gliding pose. The carpet and broom would not use that pose. Sure, poses already exist for them, but I have no idea how easy they would be to transfer to gliding mechanics.

Regarding mounts: I’m going to go with “no”. Gliding isn’t riding. And this game’s “riding” breaks if you enter combat. Or gather from a node. Or pick up an ambient object. Pretty much anything. Gliding is limited (and even if they allow Lean and Advanced, there are still some fundamental limitations, such as huge varieties of obstacles and the inevitable altitude loss gliding confers).

It will be a safety net for unsafe falls. It will be a mark of prestige for the “haves”, as much as that very concept annoys me (It’s nice to show off nice things, but I don’t like the implications of inherent “betterness” the comparison draws). It can be useful to assist travel, yes, but only in certain ways.

If they can implement it without breaking things, I’m all for it. Even though I still believe, as I did before Rubi’s teaser, that it’s not necessary.

Raziel.4216:

Marketing strategy for HoT.
Not related to mounts at all.
Merge time…. again.

This!

I suspect Anet have looked at the stats and seen just what a small % of players have actually bothered to unlock this skill as they [the players] have little or no interest in HOT at all.

Kraggy.4169:

Raziel.4216:

Marketing strategy for HoT.
Not related to mounts at all.
Merge time…. again.

This!

I suspect Anet have looked at the stats and seen just what a small % of players have actually bothered to unlock this skill as they [the players] have little or no interest in HOT at all.

Anyone who bought HoT will have unlocked Gliding in the first hour or so. It’s the very first Mastery in HoT.

Hexalot.8194:

… that dreaded word, “Mounts” ? :-)

You’ve got to admit that with gliding, there are some areas in the open world where you can cover substantial ground without setting foot on mother Earth. It does seem (to me) that this may just be ANET “testing the waters” so to speak.

It’s actually mother ‘Tyria’!!!!! That is all.