Phoenix904 wrote:
When flying mounts were first announced in WoW I was excited, after playing that game for so long with them.. I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I think they diminish multiple facets of the game.
I couldn't imagine having flying mounts in FFXI, I think it would have done exactly what it did to WoW, making the world feel a whole lot smaller, and decreasing the difficulty and immersion of the game. Traveling to a far and dangerous place should feel like an epic journey, throw in flying mounts and it's just a hop, skip, and a jump away. I respect the opinions and views of those who would disagree with me but I don't think there's anyway I could be convinced that flying mounts are a good thing for a game like this. And they are even worse for a game like WoW with world pvp being completely ruined.
This argument could be made against any form of travel if it is faster in all cases. You could say teleporting ruins immersion and sense of scale. Yet, people still use it to get around faster, still use chocobos, and walk.
A few years ago there was a group of people who said jumping kills immersion. But freedom of travel is one of the joys of experiencing a world in different ways. EQN is taking the concept of jump and adding parkour functionality to it to add flair.
Just because it worked a certain way in X game doesn't mean it will be the same way in Y game. That is a fallacy. The assumption is that there would be no kind of limitation or way of implementing things differently. Nothing is the world is black and white, there are always shades of grey. It's perception that usually makes it black and white.
Let's tackle some ideas to combat assumptions we have:
1.First off we determine , what kind of assumptions do we have?
Assumption: Flying will be the fastest mount in the game.
Solution: It could be the slowest mount in the game in terms of speed. It could be a hot air balloon, a glider, or just a slower mount.
Assumption: Flying will allow us to bypass all danger.
Solution: The mount could be restricted in the places it can land. They could add flying enemies like espers, sky pirates, or weather to ground you in places you don't want to fly.
Assumption: Flying is the best way to travel to any destination.
Solution: This mount can be restricted about where it could land. There could be areas traversable only by other types of mounts such as underwater or underground mounts. Maybe even outer space mounts like the whale from FF4. Throw in geography like lava fields or snow fields. Maybe aquiring certain barding could grant heat resistance or cold resistance.That barding might be unavailable to flying mounts.
Assumption: If there is no restriction on flying, no will use chocobos or other mounts anymore.
Solution: Maybe a stamina or resource mechanic like fuel or mist could be added. This resource could be limited in quantities like only refillable once per real life day and grant you one hour of flying time per fill up.
Assumption: Why do we need flying, if there is no content or purpose for it besides travel.
Solution: They can make content to make it needed. Flying or floating cities or dungeons like XI sky, or a city like the Chrono Trigger game had. They can have PvP specified hotzones just like the ground game is getting in frontlines.
Assumption: I shouldn't be able to fly and skip over world design or artwork.
Solution: They could design it to be a high level perk. And design limitations to it like you can't fly to areas you haven't visited before.
I support flying, I support swimming, I support tunneling, I support space travel, I support time travel. If it is implemented the right way. And the right way can't be known until, it happens or is experienced. My perception might be different from yours and your perception might be different from mine. That's the way the world works. It's the perception that makes something true to each person.
Edited, Aug 15th 2013 11:49pm by sandpark