Guild Wars 2

You know that feeling when you notice a very small detail in a big announcement that really bugs you and nobody else cares? Well, this post is largely me venting that feeling.

In the video showing off the mounts, I got excited just like everyone else — though not because of mounts for theirown sake, but rather because they looked different, felt different, and didn’t look nearly as stilted as other games tended to animate their riding animals. With that said though, there was something writhing in the back of my mind and that really didn’t sit right. Each time the raptor mount entered into a run, it would step forward with its right foot first.

There’s currently not a clear answer on whether dinosaurs had laterality (left-handedness or right-handedness) — at least according to my brief searches on Google — but I did remember, while watching the release stream showing off the mounts, something I’d heard from a nature documentary: that birds are predominantly left-side dominant. Most of them prefer grasping with their left foot, spotting prey with their left eye, and launching into the air with their left wing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterality#In_birds

Birds are the closest we have to knowing what living dinosaurs were like, so I think it’s fair — even if not 100% accurate — to use them as an analogue for creating a creature that is supposed to resemble a raptor from Earth. You put this on top of the fact that most models in Guild Wars 2 are right-handed, and I think even a small detail like this could add a lot to preventing the world from feeling like it’s cast from the same mold. But you guys already know that: this game has tons of little details in it that do just that, even if not intentionally.

Even if the raptor mobs that we fight are right-handed (I didn’t check), the mount will be far more present in a player’s field of vision for much more time that I think the change is worth it. Maybe the left-handed raptors are friendly and the right-handed ones are enemies? Like how good hylek are blue and bad ones are red; we can even make the neutral raptors ambidextrous <(^_^)>

Also, some people are speculating about mount skins, and I thought I’d put my two cents in at the end of this post here: I’d totally drop $5 on a feathered raptor. I don’t care what the creators of Jurassic World say — the twelve yearold boy in me thinks feathered dinosaurs are awesome. Not too bird-y, ya’know; a dinosaur, but with feathers. ESPECIALLY if it launches into a sprint with its left foot first: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LYns77bQLPs/maxresdefault.jpg

Side note about post location: I wasn’t sure where to put this because the Path of Fire sub-forum doesn’t exist yet, and I wanted to get this in as early as possible because it relates to how things are animated and portrayed so this idea would have as much chance as it can have to be seen before the expansion is released and everything is finalized. I decided lore would be the second-best place to put it because of how it relates to the creatures in the world and this idea won’t really impact gameplay regardless of if it’s looked at or ignored. Just how cool the raptor in this game can truly be when it isn’t dyed red.

I don’t have much to say about most of your post, but I am pretty curious about what they’re going to do for mount skins in the gem store.

I can definitely see them doing things like feathers for raptor and adding armor, but it will be interesting to see how far they push it.

I am highly disappointed they decided to scrap the spider mount they were considering though.

I kind of figured they were adding that as a future mastery at some point and Oakheart’s reach was kind of a predecessor for its mastery. Would certainly make for an interesting mount and something different than I’ve seen in any other mmo! Kind of wondering if it isn’t reversed and Oakheart is what we got from a scrapped idea for the spider mount.

Certainly curious at the very least what kind of other mounts they will potentially add with new masteries. I know they claimed they weren’t too keen on flying, but I can still see them potentially adding somekind of Gryphon mount or something at some point that at least has a temporary flying/gliding ability. And most likely an underwater mount at some point.

Isn’t the Skimmer supposed to glide? I know they talked about it hovering over water and obstacles, but it looked like — in the video where they introduced it — it was gliding like a player between two cliffs.

Wow, you’ve done your research!

Most people probably wouldn’t notice it, but it would be a nice touch. Then again, unless it’s really easy to do, it might not be worth it because, well, most people wouldn’t notice it.

Neya.6380:

Isn’t the Skimmer supposed to glide? I know they talked about it hovering over water and obstacles, but it looked like — in the video where they introduced it — it was gliding like a player between two cliffs.

That would make sense, actually. They’ve said in the FAQ that you won’t need HoT masteries to get anywhere in PoF, but there was always going to be an aspect that gliding can sometimes just make getting from one point to another so much easier. If they have a mount that essentially replicates gliding, though, then that box is checked. HoT players might have an advantage in that they don’t need to focus on the skimmer as much with their early masteries (and, with mounts seeming to have lower health pools, a gliding PC might be harder to shoot down), but a player who doesn’t have HoT can always have the option to train up the skimmer masteries and use that.

Flipping the model on whatever axis distinguishes right from left might be the start of the solution, followed by some work around the saddle to account for the fact that most (if not all?) characters are right-handed. As well as the animations if there’re any reigns involved.

Of course, I’m speculating at this point, and that probably won’t work if they ever plan on putting text on their skins, but I don’t see it taking more than an “easter egg”s worth of time? Maybe just flip the animation rigging instead, since nobody’s going to notice something like the right leg being slightly bigger than the left (I doubt they even put in that much detail).