Bookwyrm wrote: »

Let's look at it this way:
* All mounts are now placed in the Collections tab, making them accessible to all characters on your account/server.

Is this true? So if I buy a horse, in game, for 42k, I only need to buy it once, as it then goes to my "collections" tab and is then available for all characters?

I've never tested this and don't want to spend the gold to do so, but I might actually buy an in-game horse IF I only had to buy it once ...

Bookwyrm wrote: »

So while mounts are account-based, skills are character-based. If mounts had individual skill boosts on them, that would directly conflict the character-based riding skill mechanic. Also, if someone bought all mounts with "boosts" (like I have), then all my characters would have that extra advantage. I can attest that this is not true--upon creating a new character, for instance, I did not have an extra 10 bag slots from owning the "Draft Horse" (I don't believe its named that anymore). My other characters created pre-patch also do not have an extra 10 bag slots, not even the character upon which the horse was purchased. The same is true for the other two horses and riding skills--I have received no bonus on any character.

And if it were true that the character that purchased the horse would receive the skill increase, it would be extremely frustrating, since all of your characters are locked out of purchasing a mount once its been purchased and unlocked in your Collections tab (to prevent you from wasting your hard-earned gold).

Actually, this isn't necessarily how it has to work. If Horse A had one stat group and Horse B had a different stat group, those could be the base stats for that particular type of horse. The riding skills, associated with the player, would then add on to that stat base (buff it if you will) as these skills would still be associated with the player's character, not the horse. The horses base stats wouldn't change in any way.

It would be like putting a health buff on a piece of armor.

So no, it really, really doesn't have to be this way.

(Edited for clarity.)

Bookwyrm wrote: »

If mounts had individual skill boosts on them, that would directly conflict the character-based riding skill mechanic.

"If weapons had individual skill boosts on them, that would directly conflict the character-based combat skill mechanic." Skill buffs from items is pretty normal in the gaming industry.

This is why I emphasized the word empirical. I'm uninterested in subjective arguments about how people feel it ought to operate, if they were designing it. I'm only interested in objective answers of how it actually does work under testing.

Bookwyrm wrote: »

the "Draft Horse" (I don't believe its named that anymore).

Yup, it's the "Brown Paint Horse", now. The name has changed, but the traits that their descriptions are about are still the same three that are trained. This is in fact the basis for my question. The descriptions still imply (without giving numbers or explicitly stating) that the horses differ in speed, carrying capacity, and endurance.

Bay Dun Horse: This energetic mount was bred for speed and agility and is well-liked by battlefield scouts.
Brown Paint Horse: Favored by farmers and traders, this muscular horse is strong and patient.
Midnight Steed: Capable of keeping an even pace over long distances, this beast's spirit never flags.
Sorrel Horse: A hardy, well-rounded beast. Unremarkable, and dependable.

From a UX point of view, this seems a strange thing for them to have left unchanged, even for color, if these things are now completely untrue. It's one thing to describe the traits for which the horses were bred; that's fine. It's quite another to have three of them perfectly match the three training traits, and be more expensive than a fourth which is described as not excelling in those three traits. A deceptive UI is not intuitive or new-user-friendly.

As I understand your post, you addressed some slightly different (but still useful!) questions than the one I asked: whether the owning character (or any other) got a permanent training bonus from a horse being transferred from pre-patch; and extrapolated that theoretically to whether purchasing a mount might grant a permanent bonus. Impressively thorough that you considered so many other variables (who's the owner, whether you bought it pre- or post-patch, etc), even if to a different question.

What I asked was I think much simpler: if anyone had empirically tested switching mounts to see if they granted a buff. Simple objective question, doesn't need any theoretical or subjective what-ifs and there's only one variable (which mount) which I sought to control by specifying the draft horse (brown paint horse).

I was hoping for an answer more like...

UrQuan wrote: »

I can tell you for sure that on my main, with every riding skill maxed out to 60, switching between mounts makes exactly zero difference to any of those stats.

Excellent, thank you: exactly what I was hoping someone had tested As you were careful to point out, that does leave the very minor possibility of it still giving a buff but the skill being capped at 60. To eliminate that, you could check inventory capacity on a non-maxed mule while switching, but probably not worth it.

UrQuan wrote: »

Um, I could except that all 8 of my characters on my main account have that maxed out... Sorry.

*shakes an envious fist*
If I'd only fed all my alts' horses up while I had the chance, I coulda done it in 50 days instead of 150... ah, well. I'll be caught up in another 150 days or so.

I agree with your doubts, but I think I'll go buy one anyway, just to categorically lay this to rest.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Just wanted to pop in and clear up some confusion. While the Palomino horse is no longer sold on our website, we do have plans to sell the Palomino in the Crown Store at some point in the near future (though we can say it won't be this month as we've already revealed what those items will be).

IrishGirlGamer wrote: »

This feels like the appropriate time to ask: Are all the items in the Crown Store limited time only? And how can we tell when the time is about to run out?

Not all items, though we may sell limited-availability items in the future. If that's the case, we'll let you know ahead of time so you have time to plan for a purchase.

So as of now, Crown Store New Releases are only going to be 1x per month?