Horses & Mounts:worth the dev time? (Poll)

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Where isn't a "filling time project" because the "animator" has nothing better to do.

Then give suggestions, what an animator, who has been trained to be nothing but an animator, could do instead.

I mean, come on, you really do want a car mechanic not to build new cars but instead baking bread ?

[apocaladle]

This is kind of cool like cloaks, but I think the community is getting short changed in the quality of life department. The last content patch still has a lot of bugs that make several quests difficult to complete. In addition it feels like the KoTC revamp keeps getting deprioritized. The other divines received their revamps in 2017.

I dont know if you are aware but the people doing animation and texturing, ie the 3d artists are not the same people doing new class development like kotc or alchemist.

Its like complaining that the wood framers for a house have not done brick work. Different skills.

[apocaladle]

I'll probably use them once they're in the game, but I'm completely apathetic to their existence and feel the developer's time would be much better spent elsewhere.

Where do you feel an animator could spend their time that would generate as much income as mounts in roughly the same amount if hours put in?

[Aelonwy]

This is kind of cool like cloaks, but I think the community is getting short changed in the quality of life department. The last content patch still has a lot of bugs that make several quests difficult to complete. In addition it feels like the KoTC revamp keeps getting deprioritized. The other divines received their revamps in 2017.

Lynn did link the Public Preview coming this week:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-1-10-29-10-31

There's more there than just mounts, including some very interesting quality of life UI changes. Why are we not celebrating the UI changes more? And of course it mentions bug fixes, but there will always be bugs and continuous bug fixes. What annoys me about the bugs are the ones that get fixed... and then somehow get rebroken with the next patch or update.

[apocaladle]

I will probably get a horse just to help with the Underdark run. Though for animation dev time I would have preferred in order: polearms added to the game (tough to get $ for the work though), more cool monsters added, another druid form, another alternative race such as duergar/talenta halfling, more emotes, raptor mounts, and then horses. Though maybe horses paves the way for raptor or iron defender mounts - though still pretty limited usefulness.

Polearms only take a little bit of animation work and a lot of class work to make them viable which the class work devs are working on kotc and alchemist.

More monsters, druid forms and emotes dont directly generate income.

Races take a ton of work from a bunch if departments and generate less income per hour spent developing.

Raptor mounts: Fair, thats pretty cool.

[apocaladle]

What annoys me about the bugs are the ones that get fixed... and then somehow get rebroken with the next patch or update.

Thats what happens when devs work on 12 year old mmo code.

As they rebuild entire systems they are easy to maintain but expensive to invest in the first place, especially as there is no direct payback.

Thats one reason why the current devs have not touched the TR cache.

[Lynnabel]

Polearms only take a little bit of animation work

I wish this were true :P

There's more there than just mounts, including some very interesting quality of life UI changes. Why are we not celebrating the UI changes more?

Oh, they will. You'll see... you'll all see... bwahahahahaha

[LightBear]

With all due respect, but... You guys (from SSG) don't get it!

Just give us 80% more movement speed. Some of us (if not all) already understood that there is someone being paid exclusively to work on the mounts. Most of us just think there would be someone being paid to FIX or at least address some the issues WE AS PLAYERS ARE ASKING FOR... instead of have to swallow the mount pill that you're forcing our throats down.

- Bug fix
- Lag works
- In game population decrease
- Rework old content/itens
- Get rid of outdated crafting mechanics
- Simple QoL improvements
- Less grind walls

But OK, the game isn't for some of us... better give up hopes on this game and move on definitively

Well, to be honest I think you have a to narrow point of view of the playerbase. There are a fast amount of players that have been asking for mounts, and have it on their wishlist for a long long time.
Its not that people aren't asking for what you are listing down as well, don't get me wrong om that.
And seeing how things iterate of what gets delivered I'm sure some of the things on that shortlist of yours will eventually make it on the devs shortlist as well.

[LightBear]

I keep asking for Rocket Skates with appropriate vfx and people keep telling me no.

Closest thing we have in game to that.

[Andu_Indorin]

The news that mounts may be coming to Xen'drik makes me think that perhaps I should head out to the Calm Lands to brush up on my Chocobo riding skills.

I might have voted yes had this poll occurred three plus years ago. In my opinion, mounts are the ultimate cosmetic. And had they been introduced way back when, then DDO might have brought in enough hard cash to slow DDO's decline into the dustbin of gaming history. (Mounts also would have come in handy in Barovia!)

But now, too late I'm afraid. And so I voted no. At this point in time, more time should be invested in quality control (say, for customer service?).

[Amundir]

I don't really care that much. The only thing I can say is I hope they get a little more skin love. Going off of the start of https://www.twitch.tv/videos/498505830 the skin texture on the horse body and face is rather....... shiny? Dunno. You can't tell if the horse has brown hair or just brown skin.

[Potatofasf]

Then give suggestions, what an animator, who has been trained to be nothing but an animator, could do instead.

I mean, come on, you really do want a car mechanic not to build new cars but instead baking bread ?

As I said in other thread... I don't pay to give suggestion, I pay to have solutions. But, their solutions are way off what some of us ask, for the contrary, their solutions causes more annoyances than joy and they want force it down our throat. As the old says "make it, till they like it, even forced to like it".

An animator could rework the combat designes that are the same as the 13 years ago.
The Warlock first blast is so slow and awkward that looks it is always lagging.
Casters has to jump to use a spell and not lose speed.
All have to jump to use pots, wands or scrolls without lose speed.
Monks animation as disgraceful to a class knowingly to be swift and agile.
All dual-wielding looks like the same. A Fighter, a Barbarian, a Paladin using dual weapons looks like the same. Using dual dagger, dual club, dual sword, dual pickaxe, dual bastard sword, dual kukri and so on, look likes the same. Come on, there is balance issues for each weapon and classes and races, why not put the animator working on different fighting styles and put it as cosmetics/race/classe aesthetics for sale, for favor or achievements???

No, they choose dumb mounts, that would be just applying X% movement speed without all the animation and bug plagued fuss.
And we have to accept it because the "animator is already paid and has nothing better to do". For a 13 years old game, the animation work has a lot of refining to be done!

[GeneralDiomedes]

I come back after 5 years and the threads around developer resources haven’t changed a bit

Anyhow, this doesn’t sound like a huge investment of resources, if the models can be adapted from LOTRO (although that is not the only development work involved by any stretch). In neverwinter they get a lot of use from me although there is more running around there and character speed options are limited.

DDO still has enough wilderness areas and public spaces I’m sure I will get one.

I guess some questions would be
- is foot speed being nerfed in any way?
- what is the maximum speed possible mounted?

[Lynnabel]

I guess some questions would be
- is foot speed being nerfed in any way?

Of course not, no :P Goodness gracious.

Apologies, I don't remember the speed % off the top of my head, but it'll be very clear what these mounts will do numerically when you look at them in-game.

[Kinerd]

Then give suggestions, what an animator, who has been trained to be nothing but an animator, could do instead.

I mean, come on, you really do want a car mechanic not to build new cars but instead baking bread ?

refine existing animations so they look better and use less resources

game looks less clunky, game runs less clunky, it's a win-win-win

[losian2]

As I said in other thread... I don't pay to give suggestion, I pay to have solutions. But, their solutions are way off what some of us ask, for the contrary, their solutions causes more annoyances than joy and they want force it down our throat. As the old says "make it, till they like it, even forced to like it".

An animator could rework the combat designes that are the same as the 13 years ago.
The Warlock first blast is so slow and awkward that looks it is always lagging.
Casters has to jump to use a spell and not lose speed.
All have to jump to use pots, wands or scrolls without lose speed.
Monks animation as disgraceful to a class knowingly to be swift and agile.
All dual-wielding looks like the same. A Fighter, a Barbarian, a Paladin using dual weapons looks like the same. Using dual dagger, dual club, dual sword, dual pickaxe, dual bastard sword, dual kukri and so on, look likes the same. Come on, there is balance issues for each weapon and classes and races, why not put the animator working on different fighting styles and put it as cosmetics/race/classe aesthetics for sale, for favor or achievements???

No, they choose dumb mounts, that would be just applying X% movement speed without all the animation and bug plagued fuss.
And we have to accept it because the "animator is already paid and has nothing better to do". For a 13 years old game, the animation work has a lot of refining to be done!

Most of that probably isn't animation-based but is code-based around animation.

Also, I have a feeling if there's a "fix" to "jumping to avoid built-in drawbacks to using items" then it will be to remove the ability to do it, because it's likely not intended. I don't recall any part of D&D in any version where it says "players may not move at full speed while reading scrolls and drinking potions unless they leap into the air at which point it's totally okay and confers no penalty."

Do duel wielding patterns NEED to be any different?

[Sam-u-r-eye]

No.
Never understood why we have these huge, beautiful, handcrafted wilderness areas. That serve no purpose except super boring slayers xp once per epic life for those insane enough to endure it.

There is no pvp, no world bosses, no resource collection, nothing to do really.

Maybe fix all the cosmetic issues like clipping or texturing issues for basically every new armour, maybe new casting or swinging animation, new monster death animation, new spell, another variation of wings, colour palettes for amours and cloaks, I don't know.

Anything really, what you gonna do use the horsey for ? Run to Unquiet Graves or Chains once per life ?

I heartily agree

[Kaboom2112]

Maybe add side games, like Horse Hockey.

I just wanted to say it.

Meh, if it adds revenue and no power creep I'm for it.

[Noir]

Yay to mounts,
Obviously this will inject cash into the SSG coffers which is a good thing.
Also it opens up another avenue for seasonal festival acquisitions as in LOTRO.
And the D&D world is rife with many interesting mount possibilities.

YES! Give me my NIGHTMARE. Better yet. Give me my "Obsidian Steed" Figurine of Wonderous Power
I had in PNP back in the early 80's (But with unlimited daily uses)

[Vyrzain]

Worth noting there is a 0% overlap between the bulk of the effort spent on mounts and these features.
I can guarantee you that FreeShrugs (the animator), while talented beyond belief, is much better spent on horses than rewriting s/s/s.
...........

Maybe then FreeShrugs is able to work on...

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...53#post6255253

BUG report 88301 filed 05-16-2019.

For me having this animation bug addressed would be better then Mounts : )