Guild Wars 2

We all know Path of Fire is launching with four mounts, with a fifth probably coming in LW4.

This feature has huge potential, but will they harness it? With only four mounts, everybody will be running around with the the same exact mounts, with very limited visual customization.

In comparison, there are currently forty-six glider skins and counting. The very heart of gw2 IS customization, with hundreds of armor and weapon skins, YOUR character truly is YOUR character.

Each mount has a unique ability, while gliders are purely visual. How do they get around this development obstacle?

Each mount skin should fit inside one of the four skill archetypes: Horizontal leap (Raptor), float (Skimmer), vertical jump (Springer), and teleport (Jackal).

Example: A horse skin changes the look of your raptor, but it still keeps the same unique ability, the leap. You could customize your "skimmer’ archetype with a dragon skin, retaining the “hover” ability that corresponds to this class of mounts.

In this way, GW2 preserves its legacy for visual customization, while simultaneously making it significantly easier for the developer team to pump out new skins.

Want to ride a pony? You got it! Want to ride a jumping frog? Sure thing! Want to ride a lion? Let the developers know!

I kind of expect that this is the route they’ll go down. The major appeal of mounts relates to their value as collectibles. I was a little surprised that they tried to tie them to exciting gameplay since that undermines what people like most about them by hamstringing their ability to quickly expand them. So, like I said, I suspect they’ll realize this quickly and fit mounts into archetypes instead of trying to make them all super unique.

OP, that’s a well thought out and written post… but I’m afraid you’re a little late to the party. There’s another thread started days ago about the various skins people would like to see on the four archetypes. They’re already “letting the developers know”. This isn’t news.

Oh, here I thought you wanted the ability to change the colors of your mount (which ANet may allow us to do if mounts get dye channels).

Don’t know if ANet is ever planning on changing a raptor into a horse or a frog though.

Aveneo.2068:

Don’t know if ANet is ever planning on changing a raptor into a horse or a frog though.

The idea is the raptor is the “basic” skin for its archetype/family, in much the same way there is a “basic” skin for the glider in HoT.

It’s the skin you start off with when first unlocking that “class” of mounts.

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

Aveneo.2068:

Don’t know if ANet is ever planning on changing a raptor into a horse or a frog though.

The idea is the raptor is the “basic” skin for its archetype/family, in much the same way there is a “basic” skin for the glider in HoT.

It’s the skin you start off with when first unlocking that “class” of mounts.

Well, your idea certainly has merit and I wouldn’t mind more diversity.

Personally I fear ANet will just try to sell us different skins through the gemstore which would be limited innature and only affect the colors of the mount (so possibly not even any ability to change the colors ourselves).

We are already getting the ability to dye our Mounts. It’s shown in the various videos of early Demo gameplay out there.

Not that I’d truly care if they added mount skins like in the OP, but I’m going to have to disagree and hope they stick to the current skins. But just because i think a raptor mount should stay a raptor mount doesnt mean there isn’t room for custom mounts. Some examples:

Raptor

• base raptor has 1 dye channel so introduce raptors with 2, 3 and 4 dye channels
• armored raptors with metal plated breasts, barbed tails and protective sattle for the rider.
• google raptor and look at the different types of raptors you’ll find. Feathered, frilled, pointed snout, broad snout, varied scale patterns.

Hopper

• along with some of the above, have varying mixes of the rabbit and kangaroo hybrid with some looking more like kangaroos than rabbits.
• varied ear shapes and sizes with accessories like collars, earrings, ankle bands and the like.
• one word: jackalope.

Skimmer

• most easily the most varied. Add more or larger trentacles or even vary the trail they leave behind when hovering over water. Even make them look more stingray like.
• similar to octopi, you can make them light up and flash different patterns.

Jackal

• the most liberties i feel can be taken here. With their power to teleport, the are open to more mystic variations like a shadow jackal, one made of water or fire, or uses a mist like teleport that resembles a Revanant’s abilities.
• straight up mistfire wolf version.

But my opinion is, a raptor should be a raptor, a skimmer a skimmer, a jackal some kind of quadriped predator, ect.

I agree, and have no doubt that more skins will follow. For me the bigger question is how they are introduced. Like the glider skins, so buying and basically without story or any additional content, or can you craft them, catch them in wild, earn them in a dungeon (even one of the old existing ones), can a mob drop himself as mount, can you even breed them?

I just made another topic about this.

By adding it like that you do not only add many more skins but it also comes with content that can keep people busy until the next expansion. It’s a more efficient and for some more fun way to keep people busy then additional stories (like the seasons) are.

You can bet there will be skins for mounts,in the ingameshop for diamonds. Its the same as with the gliderskins.

Lyndina.7984:

You can bet there will be skins for mounts,in the ingameshop for diamonds. Its the same as with the gliderskins.

That is a likely scenario, but that would mean buying or grinding what is both not fun, does not add any true new content and might also burn people out.

It’s not what this game needs but what this game has already too much of.

They can keep selling the gliders if they like. Then they add mount skins in a good way to the game.

Leo G.4501:

Not that I’d truly care if they added mount skins like in the OP, but I’m going to have to disagree and hope they stick to the current skins. But just because i think a raptor mount should stay a raptor mount doesnt mean there isn’t room for custom mounts. Some examples:

Raptor

• base raptor has 1 dye channel so introduce raptors with 2, 3 and 4 dye channels
• armored raptors with metal plated breasts, barbed tails and protective sattle for the rider.
• google raptor and look at the different types of raptors you’ll find. Feathered, frilled, pointed snout, broad snout, varied scale patterns.

Hopper

• along with some of the above, have varying mixes of the rabbit and kangaroo hybrid with some looking more like kangaroos than rabbits.
• varied ear shapes and sizes with accessories like collars, earrings, ankle bands and the like.
• one word: jackalope.

Skimmer

• most easily the most varied. Add more or larger trentacles or even vary the trail they leave behind when hovering over water. Even make them look more stingray like.
• similar to octopi, you can make them light up and flash different patterns.

Jackal

• the most liberties i feel can be taken here. With their power to teleport, the are open to more mystic variations like a shadow jackal, one made of water or fire, or uses a mist like teleport that resembles a Revanant’s abilities.
• straight up mistfire wolf version.

But my opinion is, a raptor should be a raptor, a skimmer a skimmer, a jackal some kind of quadriped predator, ect.

Yeah, that’s definitely one way to go about mount customization. When you say a quadriped predator, do you mean potentially a lion or jaguar?

A kangaroo “hopper”? Sounds cool!

That’s what I’m trying to get at, enough variation so your not just running around with the same four animal genus, but still easy enough for the developer team to expand on.

A change from bunny to kangaroo allows for greater visual tailoring compared to simply a different looking species of bunny or jackal.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

We are already getting the ability to dye our Mounts. It’s shown in the various videos of early Demo gameplay out there.

Oh, they already showed that the colors of the mounts can be changed? Must have missed that.

Hope I can change my Jackal to look more like the Mistfire Wolf. And I’d even be willing to pay some gems on the Gem Store for an actual Mistfire Wolf skin.

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

Yeah, that’s definitely one way to go about mount customization. When you say a quadriped predator, do you mean potentially a lion or jaguar?

A kangaroo “hopper”? Sounds cool!

That’s what I’m trying to get at, enough variation so your not just running around with the same four animal genus, but still easy enough for the developer team to expand on.

A change from bunny to kangaroo allows for greater visual tailoring compared to simply a different looking species of bunny or jackal.

I’m not specifically saying add a kangaroo skin, I’m saying the Hopper (or the Springer) already looks like a hybrid of a rabbit and a kangaroo so when making variants of it, you can play with those levels of hybridization to get different looks. Because AFAIK, Kangaroos don’t exist in Tyria so it’d make no sense to make a kangaroo mount skin.

But looking at the page for the Springer, it actually already looks more like a kangaroo than a rabbit except in the face and kinda the ears.

As for the Jackal skin, I can’t really say since we’ve seen very little of it so don’t really have any sort of feel for its presence or capabilities, but even if we are talking about swapping it with a Jaguar or Lion skin, it likely wouldn’t be a regular Jag/Lion because neither of those teleport. It’d have to be some kind of ethereal or magic creature that looks the part just like the Jackal does.

I’d be excited if we could customise mounts the way we customise characters. I’d make the biggest, fattest mount….

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

I’d be excited if we could customise mounts the way we customise characters. I’d make the biggest, fattest mount….

You can, sort of, customize the size of your Mount. It scales based on the height size you choose for your character. Thus, creating a character at max height will give that character the largest size of Mount selected. Or, conversely, creating a character at minimum height will give that character the smallest size Mount selected.

(Info from WP videos.)

Hey, I just found a GW2 picture of a Griffon mount. Did Anet decide to exclude that one? It looks pretty cool.