Topic: Why Flying Mounts in an MMO are Awesome

Legendary_Lex

Hi everyone,

Today, I wanted to start a discussion about flying mounts in MMOs. Ever since I got my first flying mount in WoW, I've been absolutely thrilled. Here are a few reasons why I think flying mounts are a fantastic addition to any MMO:

Exploration from a New Perspective: Flying mounts open up entirely new possibilities for exploring the game world. You can admire stunning landscapes from above and reach places that were previously inaccessible. The feeling of soaring over mountains, rivers, and cities gives you a whole new perspective on the world.

Time-Saving: The ability to fly saves a lot of time when traveling. Instead of fighting through endless groups of enemies or difficult terrain, you can simply fly over everything and reach your destination directly. This is especially handy for quests or daily tasks that are located far apart.

Safe Travel: Flying offers a safe means of transportation, particularly in high-level areas. You can avoid dangerous regions and easily retreat to safe zones if the situation gets tough. This is a big advantage for solo players or when you just want to enjoy the world without constant fighting.

Freedom of Movement: Flying mounts give you a sense of freedom and independence. You are no longer bound to paths or roads and can fly wherever you want. This freedom of movement makes the gaming experience more dynamic and varied.

Spectacular Views and Screenshots: Who doesn't love taking impressive screenshots of the game world? With flying mounts, you can capture spectacular views and breathtaking photos to share with friends.

What do you think? Do you also enjoy using flying mounts, or do you prefer the classic ground mounts? I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions and experiences!

Best regards

Tandor

I have played a game with flying mounts, and didn't often use them outside of the established travel routes. They're of no particular interest to me, and totally irrelevant to ESO as the game wasn't designed with the means of implementing them.

Necrotech_Master

this has been brought up before and zos has said no, mainly for technical reasons

even if they were possible, they would have to be disabled in cyrodiil for quite obvious reasons

I_killed_Vivec

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

this has been brought up before and zos has said no, mainly for technical reasons

even if they were possible, they would have to be disabled in cyrodiil for quite obvious reasons

Not quite so obvious to the OP:

"Safe Travel: Flying offers a safe means of transportation, particularly in high-level areas. You can avoid dangerous regions and easily retreat to safe zones if the situation gets tough."

Gankers? In Bruma?! Get me my helicopter evac fast!

valenwood_vegan

I think they'd be kinda cool for a little while as a new thing to try, but the stuff that interests me in ESO is located down on the ground so I'm not sure how much I'd really use a flying mount once the novelty wore off. Regardless, it would likely require a new engine... keep in mind that things you see "flying" in the game, like dragons, are just following a scripted path.

Also a core part of the map design is that height is frequently used as a means of limiting access, and currently inaccessible areas of the maps were likely left empty, so it would also require a lot of development work. Rather than flying over lovely mountains, one might be flying over an ugly mess of textures that was never meant to be seen.

Reaching the edge of an existing map and flying "over" the mountains, or walls, or ocean full of slaughterfish that currently defines the map edge would NOT take you to the adjoining map... at best you would hit an invisible wall and at worst it might take you into an undeveloped void area with unpredictable results, such as your character getting stuck or the game crashing. (people have sometimes discovered such voids through gaps accidentally left in rocks / walls).

Imo such technical challenges coupled with apparently limited resources being put into further development of eso make highly unlikely that flying mounts as described could ever be added.

(But I think it's a cool idea for say, a future elder scrolls game that's developed from the ground up to support flying).

Syldras

Legendary_Lex wrote: »

Exploration from a New Perspective: Flying mounts open up entirely new possibilities for exploring the game world. You can admire stunning landscapes from above and reach places that were previously inaccessible. The feeling of soaring over mountains, rivers, and cities gives you a whole new perspective on the world.

This works if the map is designed for that. Which ESO's maps aren't.

And that's coming from someone who spent a lot of time floating around in TES3.

Necrotech_Master

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

this has been brought up before and zos has said no, mainly for technical reasons

even if they were possible, they would have to be disabled in cyrodiil for quite obvious reasons

Not quite so obvious to the OP:

"Safe Travel: Flying offers a safe means of transportation, particularly in high-level areas. You can avoid dangerous regions and easily retreat to safe zones if the situation gets tough."

Gankers? In Bruma?! Get me my helicopter evac fast!

i was more thinking "people flying into the keeps and capping flags basically without sieging"

or imagine a whole ball group flying into a keep just to troll it

TaSheen

I was over flying mounts by the time I left WoW over a decade ago. Not interested in having them in ESO, they just don't fit TES.

LaintalAy

edited

Araneae6537

I don’t care for the idea of unlimited flying in a game as it would seem to me to trivialize so much. I do like the flying mounts in GW2, in part because all the mounts have different abilities and then newer maps are designs with these in mind.

I don’t feel that flying mounts would be an improvement to ESO and I don’t think I would like the way it felt even without acceleration, momentum, gliding, etc. and currently, all mounts have exactly the same movement abilities so it seems to late to introduce otherwise.

EdjeSwift

Let's break down why this is uncessary/not feasible.

Legendary_Lex wrote: »

Exploration from a New Perspective: Flying mounts open up entirely new possibilities for exploring the game world. You can admire stunning landscapes from above and reach places that were previously inaccessible. The feeling of soaring over mountains, rivers, and cities gives you a whole new perspective on the world.

ESO was not designed with this in mind, if you were up high you'd most likely be greeted with terrible perspectives and views. World of Warcraft was not designed with flying mounts in mind and much of the original game was empty masses of untextured land. Those magical flight routes were carefully designed to show you only designed and developed parts for that route, the rest of the game at the time was quite ugly. This is why in their original introduction to flying mounts it was cordoned off into the expansion zones and did not include the base game.

Legendary_Lex wrote: »

Time-Saving: The ability to fly saves a lot of time when traveling. Instead of fighting through endless groups of enemies or difficult terrain, you can simply fly over everything and reach your destination directly. This is especially handy for quests or daily tasks that are located far apart.

Wayshrines already exist and there are talents to make aggro range smaller whilst mounted. Furthermore, those groups of enemies were put there for a reason as was difficult/impassable terrain.

Legendary_Lex wrote: »

Safe Travel: Flying offers a safe means of transportation, particularly in high-level areas. You can avoid dangerous regions and easily retreat to safe zones if the situation gets tough. This is a big advantage for solo players or when you just want to enjoy the world without constant fighting.

You may not realize it, but there are no high level areas in ESO, that was done away with literally years ago. As for "safe zones" I've been playing this game for years, safe zones are easily found, most enemies have set paths and stay in their areas, so this is argument is moot.

Legendary_Lex wrote: »

Freedom of Movement: Flying mounts give you a sense of freedom and independence. You are no longer bound to paths or roads and can fly wherever you want. This freedom of movement makes the gaming experience more dynamic and varied.

See counterpoint #2. It was designed that way.

Legendary_Lex wrote: »

Spectacular Views and Screenshots: Who doesn't love taking impressive screenshots of the game world? With flying mounts, you can capture spectacular views and breathtaking photos to share with friends.

See counterpoint #1. It's highly likely what you're envisioning as magical screenshots don't exist.

Final points:
It has been stated countless times, ESO is not designed for this, the zones are tightly knit and cordoned off. You can't fly from Stormhaven to Rivenspire without load screens and when you zoned into Rivenspire and looked back I highly doubt it's designed to show anything special back in Stormhaven.

Terrain and paths were put into the game for a reason and after all this time flying mounts in most of the game are most likely a pipe dream. There's nothing stopping them from adding flying in an expansion but it will most likely be far from what you'd want.

Bradyfjord

I could see flight as a gimmick in a dungeon or other controlled environment. Like how we drop in Vaults of Madness, but instead we fly to the next fight. Of course the game has something like this in the form of the grappling hook.

twev

LaintalAy wrote: »

The original Morrowind had levitation spells and potions.
The reward for reaching the top of the mages guild was a levitation staff.

Flying magically was disabled in Mourhold, despite being told it was 'the city of light and magic'

That's what you get for building a city with no land mass around it.

In the real world, China is trialling a flying car.

In regards to the real world - It feels like half the IRL driving population can't drive, or won't drive with regard to orderly conduct on roads with other people as it is.
I damned sure don't want those kinds of people having access to flying over the roof I sleep under.

As far as in game is concerned, Necrotech_Master said it in post #7, it would ruin game play in Cyrodiil from the moment it was introduced worse than Cyrodiil already is.

VDoom1

Now this makes me nostalgic.

I remember the first time I purchased the gryphon mount in WoW, like years ago. I was SO over the moon to fly around for the first time! A friend who was there and already had their gryphon found me insufferable going "WEEEEEEEEEE".

You most definitely get a different perspective and feel of the world when you're flying.


Regarding ESO, I have my doubts ESO we will ever get flying mounts. The zones are made to be played from the ground. Much of the game would become very easy, from an exploration standpoint, if flying mounts came to ESO. There are even exploration challenges like, how to get to the top of some mountain for a skyshard.

Flying could perhaps become a thing for future zones, but I do not believe the implementation would be simple. TES V Skyrim did have flying, kinda. It was a tease really, sit on a dragon sure, but control it nope. Was like a fancy fast travel.

Pelanora

Spent ages and ages flying around hogwarts legacy game on my flying horse. Was absolutely fantastic.

What a bunch of boring party poopers in this thread.

We could fly on the gryphons, how is that not eso friendly. Just shove a book on a shelf somewhere talking about it, and there we go.

Of course the game design and engines etc can't handle it, but meh. What can the game handle these days.

barney2525

we can't even sail in a boat. I had a good laugh reading the guild ad with the Pirate theme, talking about sailing the high seas.

I don't see where there is much benefit to flying. Did plenty of it in Archeage, but it's a kind of take it or leave it mode of transport. we have enough wayshrines that I don't miss the flying option, especially since the mount speed can be increased through cyradil tutorial, in-game gold, and CPs, all of which stack.

And I am sure the 'Overland is too easy' group would declare simply flying from place to place to be heresy.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Legendary_Lex wrote: »

Time-Saving: The ability to fly saves a lot of time when traveling. Instead of fighting through endless groups of enemies or difficult terrain, you can simply fly over everything and reach your destination directly. This is especially handy for quests or daily tasks that are located far apart.

Safe Travel: Flying offers a safe means of transportation, particularly in high-level areas. You can avoid dangerous regions and easily retreat to safe zones if the situation gets tough. This is a big advantage for solo players or when you just want to enjoy the world without constant fighting.

@EdjeSwift mentioned this in passing but the passive you’re looking for is Shadow Rider. There are also some armor sets that decrease your agro radius while not mounted, to the point that you can basically bop a monster on the nose and walk away without them attacking you if you stack a few of them (Night Mother’s Embrace, Night Terror, Vesture of Darloc Brae…).

Devdarsh

Flying mounts ruined WoW exploration for me, so please - don't.

Drammanoth

How about NO.

Technical reasons aside, instead of flying mounts, ZOS could introduce other means of moving - grapple hooks, scaling walls, climbing ropes, etc. Something that does not involve flying, but which can make vanilla zones more entertaining.

A chest behind the tree? How boring... A sack on the tree branch that you have to climb, and to do that, you have to unlock a skill line? Apart from marketing and a feature for a DLC? YES.

But worry not, it will never happen. ZOS gets much money from us - they don't need to introduce something that would ensure player retention. Time and money invested keep us attached.
[EDIT] rephrasing of a clause in the post

pklemming

This game can not support flying mounts like GW2, or similar. The skybox is quite low on each zone, and it was never intended that a player would be able to go over a certain height. Modifying this for flying mounts would be a major task.

Since we can't get them to do minor stuff, I don't see flying in any kind of future in ESO.

the1andonlyskwex

This sounds like a gimmick that will go from "cool" to "silly" in about 10 minutes after trying it out.

No thanks.

Necrotech_Master

TaSheen wrote: »

I was over flying mounts by the time I left WoW over a decade ago. Not interested in having them in ESO, they just don't fit TES.

i would agree it doesnt really fit in the theme of this game much

now when i played city of heroes/villains, flight is kind of a basic superpower (of which you didnt need a ******* mount to do it either), but it also made a lot more sense in the theme of that game lol

TaSheen

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

I was over flying mounts by the time I left WoW over a decade ago. Not interested in having them in ESO, they just don't fit TES.

i would agree it doesnt really fit in the theme of this game much

now when i played city of heroes/villains, flight is kind of a basic superpower (of which you didnt need a ******* mount to do it either), but it also made a lot more sense in the theme of that game lol

I never got into CoH.... but my sister did, and was really thrilled with the flight thing there. Then again, unlike me, she'll play anything. I only play TES/ESO.... my home universe....

ArchangelIsraphel

I'd love to see flying implemented in a zone designed to accommodate it. I've always modded Skyrim for flight. Although I enjoy flying mounts, my preference has always been for wings on a characters back, or some method of magical flying/floating that is powered by a character. (Don't get me wrong, though, I'd shell out quite a bit of money for an actual griffon mount for my Welkynar roleplay, lol. Hint, Hint ZOS)

I'd honestly like a mount that at least has a gliding animation or some kind of floating animation- like a broomstick, a cloud you can stand on, a magic carpet, or a griffon that "flies" at ground level.

(Don't feel too discouraged by those who are resistant to the idea. This happens every time someone mentions flight, capes, and various other topics which tend to roll around once every few months. You'll get a lot of virulent responses, but that doesn't make the concept a bad one, nor are the forums representative of the player base as a whole. I'm sure there's plenty of other people playing who'd like your idea.)

RaddlemanNumber7

Imagine a very big, fancy, winged mount that "takes off" when the rider teleports (and only then).

Now, imagine it for sale with 25 crown crates.

That's flying, ESO style.

zaria

Tandor wrote: »

I have played a game with flying mounts, and didn't often use them outside of the established travel routes. They're of no particular interest to me, and totally irrelevant to ESO as the game wasn't designed with the means of implementing them.

They was nice in WOW, but it did not have wayshrines every 500 meters. Unless I'm mistaken it had no fast travel portals at all, you had the flight cervices, the ships and airship and the "subway" from the dwarf capital.
Later on they got more portals.

In ESO do the dark brotherhood quest line to get the shadow rider.

Pelanora

If all you've been is to eso and wow, you need to get out more.

Hvíthákarl

The formatting in this post is so suspicious I ran it through AI content detectors and basically all of them turned out positive. What's more, OP's only activity is exactly the same post, same format, same everything but in German. All things considered I'm 90% confident this is just low effort baiting, OP literally asked ChatGPT [title] and posted whatever its best result was.
The major sign is dividing it in sections like this

Whatever: Blah Blah Blah

Whatever 2: Bleh Bleh Bleh

Whatever 3: (You get the drill)

tsaescishoeshiner

I agree they can be cool, but playing games with flying mounts can make like 80% of the map pointless. Mounts in ESO already make it all pretty trivial.

Instead, I'd prefer navigation tools like expanding grappling hooks and portals around the world that you can unlock. That could make exploration and content feel more impactful and fun.

EdjeSwift

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Instead, I'd prefer navigation tools like expanding grappling hooks

I like this idea, it can be controlled and put in proper places so that it can't be exploited/manipulated.

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

and portals around the world that you can unlock.

Don't we already have these in the form of wayshrines?

Bucky_13

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

this has been brought up before and zos has said no, mainly for technical reasons

even if they were possible, they would have to be disabled in cyrodiil for quite obvious reasons

I'm generally against flying mounts, but I would love to see them in Cyrodiil if a few rules were put in place to make it dangerous to fly:

Any ability with a range of 28+ meters can hit a flying player as long as they can be seen by the player.
Damage against flying players is doubled.
Add a new siege that is basically an anti air siege. Automatically targets one flying player and on hit dismounts them while doing some damage to the player.
Guards can also hit flying players with double or triple damage compared to non flying players.

I just want to see players fall to their deaths since it would look glorious.