Flying Mounts finally arrived in LOTRO!

[Radhruin_EU]

And yet we have huorns, and - in the game - bog-lurkers, wood-trolls, earth-kin, giant insects of all kinds that must have "evolved" somewhat rather than all be just spewed out of Shelob's belly and other varieties of creatures larger than they should. That really wouldn't be such a problem, and who is to say there weren't more of such types of creatures specifically created by the Valars for some other purposes, initially.

If you just make stuff up regardless then you can do anything. Flying mounts were considered to be a no-no for lore reasons because the Eagles and flight generally were such a special thing, too much of a big deal to put in the hands of players because it'd make LOTR's story look silly and fly in the face of Tolkien's own conclusion that the Eagles were a 'dangerous' plot device (a deus ex machina) that needed to be used sparingly (and that he'd pushed that a bit far as it was). Flight's a pretty dangerous plot device in MMOs as well, as could be seen in WoW. Too useful for trivialising or avoiding content, unless they put artificial limitations on it.

But yeah, really, Scenario redoing all the terrible things invisible to players or just making sure they aren't popping up from random angles for players when higher above ground is a troublesome picture You know, like that giant Minecraft wall West of Rohan... but even just climbing atop Minas Gil in Mirkwood will give you a bit wider look into very distant less polished/undeveloped terrain in live game, but mount would have to fly even higher than that perhaps and there are lots of tricky elevation differences within the world anyway, thanks to SSG's great design and sense of realness, so like they're less focused on designing for the gamey world and more for the real world (which I guess is opposite for wow), not to mention a sense of some places like mountains would be vastly diminished and toyish and they can't make even higher mountains due to limitations

And I should have added that because the game relies on physical barriers so much, with flight there'd have to be invisible walls everywhere.

[Fealhach]

And if you read my post again - said nothing of common flying mounts all over the place nor fellowship being anywhere near where they can be found (nevermind having the time to successfully find/tame/use one). So really, nothing is invalidated, wouldn't be much different than that one player high elf wounded by a Nazgul. Anyway... flying mounts are not possible either way but yeah, disagree lore is a big issue with this one if it was done right

If every single player character had a flying mount I would say that IS commonplace. In which case why then would our members of the fellowship not have a flying mount? How would that be explained away? It makes no sense and has no basis in Lore (the Great Eagles and Fell Beasts were unique in that regard).

[Pontin_Finnberry]

I strongly disagree lore makes this impossible.

It does though, and I seen explained well enough in places on why the Eagles didn't just take the Ring to Mordor (and not just cause be a bad story), Eagles work under the command of the Valar in the west, the aren't just a free taxi service, they don't intervene within the world at all times or anytime they want, there are reasons as too why they don't, and therefore we shouldn't have flying mounts. other giant flying things are considered bad and none of our free people characters should be riding them.

[Elmagor]

The real problem though is that there'll be an awful lot of stuff in the game-world that's simply not designed to be viewed from a high angle or above and would look awful. When WoW introduced flying mounts to Azeroth they had to redo the whole place. Now imagine that applied to LOTRO as a whole. So not happening on that basis alone, even if it were otherwise achievable.

People hate warsteeds. Same people want to have lagging flying warsteeds bumping into invisible walls in every location. And ok, imagine if devs redo all locations and introduce flying mounts. Next natural and logical step will be flying mobs.

If every single player character had a flying mount I would say that IS commonplace. In which case why then would our members of the fellowship not have a flying mount? How would that be explained away? It makes no sense and has no basis in Lore (the Great Eagles and Fell Beasts were unique in that regard).

Not all players. I will bet it will be only players who pay for Ultimate Expansion

[TesalionLortus]

If every single player character had a flying mount I would say that IS commonplace

Not more commonplace than adventuring high elves or bearded females/dark skinned people in Bree (as of now). While technically, narratively there is only one of them, while the rest is due to mmo's crowded exposition filled with players.

Anyway, it's not technically possible soooo... when boats

[Fealhach]

Not more commonplace than adventuring high elves or bearded females/dark skinned people in Bree (as of now). While technically, narratively there is only one of them, while the rest is due to mmo's crowded exposition filled with players.

Anyway, it's not technically possible soooo... when boats

It's dumb reasoning and with that we would have all kinds of other dumb unrealistic nonsense in game (Which unfortunately is already happening).

I can't see boats happening either as there's no benefit to having them, you can already wade/swim across water and there is no jeopardy to being in the water. There isn't enough open/connected water space either. The landscape/map would need to be fully mapped out/opened up before it would be even worth considering. All we will end up seeing is everyone paddling their canoes all over the town. Another unrealistic idea.

We need to stick to suggesting sensible ideas grounded in the lore otherwise they just come up with stuff like ladybeards again.

[TesalionLortus]

I can't see boats happening either as there's no benefit to having them, you can already wade/swim across water and there is no jeopardy to being in the water. There isn't enough open/connected water space either. The landscape/map would need to be fully mapped out/opened up before it would be even worth considering.

Well, boats are actually a good idea and plenty of rivers and lakes already. Not to mention the entire coast in Gondor and the Anduin (which can be connected via teleport too, to cross over to Rohan at Beacon Hills, for example, and then in Rohan a lot of river space too). Plus all of upcoming lands and content design, if they handle it right. Boats in most games don't serve any real purpose - from gameplay/systems standpoint - other than immersion and to be able to get into some spots or islands/objects placed on waters (=world/quest design possibilities). Plus, simply for ease of quicker travel as opposed to manual swim. PS: Though it would have yet another, additional benefit in LOTRO - taking good shots of the coasts. Bad camera clipping in water and no dedicated camera mode make it impossible currently.

[Ethuilir]

Y'all, we need carriages, carts, and boats.

If such player vehicles can't be a thing, I'll settle for a few filler NPCs travelling between regions on them, or even just walking. Actually, NPCs traveling long distances is probably more technologically impossible than player horse-drawn vehicles.

Speaking of NPCs, I want static NPCs to cycle through different but still appropriate idle animations, like maybe reading, looking at a list, hands on waist, arms folded, etc. I personally want to see them walking around a bit too, but that's probably too much an ask.

One last thing on this tangent: I want prey animals to run away from you, especially if it's an area that will involve player combat. Maybe not all the time, but having them react would be nice.

- - -

Back on the topic of flying mounts, I've had this idea for a while:

Instead of flying mounts, introduce a hobby or just a general mechanic for Birdkeeping/Birdwatching/Birding/Bird-speech(?) which will, among other features, allow us to take the form of a 'flying' bird and move around with a higher camera angle. For tech considerations, it's not real flying but it's like Session Play or Bear-form but instead we're birds, and landscape will still block us, but fences, walls, and whatnot do not. Or they'll still block us but we'll have the ability to raise or lower our model vertically, up to a limit, though the model's not 'physically' there.

Or just have us as birds on the ground but give us a high jump with less gravity, so we can glide. Or, if possible, allow us to multi-jump in the air. This way, we're just Bird-formed player characters still bound by normal physics and whathaveyou.

It is a lot of work tech-wise, but that's the dream, haha.

[gildhur]

I would not put high hopes on flying mounts in LOTRO for a variety of different reasons (lore and implementation are two of the largest challenges - plus the entirety of the game not being built to support them). There are other modes of transportation that would be more viable and more topical to things we are working on, should we decide to introduce new modes of travel.

ISWYDT

[Arnenna]

Players shouldn't be flying around in Middle-earth, not on any kind of animal.

The closest we'll ever come to flying is if a GM decides to build a picnic table ladder and punts us off the top of it (those that manage the climb that is) You'll still die before reaching the ground, but it gives a little glide time.

No to flying mounts. They don't, and never can fit in with Middle-earth, unless we're a wizard with some Valar help, and we'd better hope we never get to play one of those.

[Pharone]

God, I like the new flying mounts in LOTRO






All joking aside... There is a bug with the warsteed with human man race with hard braking.

This made me laugh way more than it should have LOL... and I am at work, so people probably think I am crazy now.

[DoRonRon]

This made me laugh way more than it should have LOL... and I am at work, so people probably think I am crazy now.

Being a "still" photo you don't get the additional motion that a video would show in extremis. Rhythmic motion as if held in a sling and increased frequency with side to side movement of your mouse. If you can imagine...

That kind of video might be sourced in the same store basement that such a sling might be sourced.

Could be just on the Beorning though.