Dev Blog – Mounts in Neverwinter
By TrailTurtle @ February 22, 2013 at 6:00am
When a peasant militia sets off for a fight, they’re stuck with sandals and shoes. When a hero of Neverwinter challenges an orc warband, though, she’s riding a giant armored spider. With the next Beta Weekend not too far away, we’d like to showcase what makes mounts so good in Neverwinter: all the ways to get them, some development stories, and a sneak peek at our mount plans.
The Basics & Getting Mounts
The mounts of Neverwinter are speed and status symbols combined, and we’re drawing on D&D lore for all kinds of spectacular mounts.
When Neverwinter launches, mounts are going to be one of the key midgame rewards, and we’re tentatively planning special mounts for dedicated PvPers and Foundry authors. When you hit Level 20, you’ll unlock the ability to get mounts. (Make sure to save up gold from quests, though, as mounts aren’t cheap.)
At high levels, zones are larger, so you’ll be riding to locations and hopping off for combat. These zones are every bit as epic as we could make them, so having a mount will save a ton of time in Icespire Peak and Mount Hotenow.
You’ll be able to get several mounts just with gold, but you can also pick up some mounts through the Founder’s Packs and the C-Store. We’re hoping to get horses, bears and wolves in the C-Store. Remember that you’ll be able to get C-Store currency with Astral Diamonds from events, so keep an eye on the in-game calendar.
It’s important to note that mounts are not limited by race or class. As long as your character’s unlocked a mount, you can use it. This might end up looking a little incongruous (say, the spider mount being ridden by a bite-sized halfling), but we want players to have the flexibility to define their own characters.
Dev’s-Eye View:
Mounts are a genre staple, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to program – especially for halflings. Because of the height difference, halflings sunk partway into the horse’s back, so they looked like centaurs. We eventually modified the animations to account for this, but it was a running joke for a while.
Speaking of running, before we had mounts or mount animations, you’d still get the speed bonus, but the mount was invisible. For a while there, every adventurer was a sprinter.
Looking Ahead:
Right now, the best way to get a snazzy mount is through the Founder’s Packs, both a warhorse and an armored spider, but there are going to be other ways as well: We’re looking at mounts as a major reward. If everything goes well, we’d like to have them in the Invocation system (rewards for staying online), PvP system, and even the user-driven Foundry system.
We’d love to have it so that if your quest in the Foundry is cool enough, you’ll get a mount. Star Trek Online has done Foundry spotlights, and the creativity we’re already seeing in Neverwinter’s Foundry is spectacular. We’d like to encourage that with mount rewards.
Speaking of which, yes, you can use mounts in Foundry maps. Foundry authors can tag maps as interior or exterior, so we’ll probably see some quests designed around chases or other mount-centric excitement.
We’ve also got a few mounts we’re hoping to have as PvP rewards, including bears and a Howler – dig through your D&D Monster Manual to see what those look like. These plans are all still tentative, so stay tuned for exact details.
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braxzana @ Feb 22nd, 2013 9:12AM
I feel pretty confident in saying that they won't have flying mounts OR spiders that climb walls. Mind you, a griffon or pegasus might be a cool mount but they would have to be quite rare (perhaps one of the Foundry-reward mounts they mention). But considering the extra coding they'd have to do to handle flying mounts, it seems unlikely. From screens of beta where the press inspected the mount vendors, though, it seems unlikely we'll be able to customize them since they actually had separate entries for apaloosa, pinto, etc so you pick the horse coloration you want when you buy it. I had hoped that my halfling would be riding a little pony (or, alternately, perched atop a GIANT, relative-size, steed) but it felt like the halfling "scaled up" in size to fit the regular sized horse... could have been my imagination as it's hard to line up side by side to see a small size difference.
noelynot
Cyptic already has the coding for the flying mechanic from Champions Online. Shouldn't be to difficult to translate it over, speaking as a software development person.
aescleal @ Feb 22nd, 2013 8:59AM
Spiders as mounts implies they can climb walls. Has anybody heard?
mok33
Highly doubtful.
noelynot
They do not climb. Just think of them as horses in spider costumes.
paulnorris84 @ Feb 22nd, 2013 8:38AM
Cryptic please don't do flying mounts, and it would be annoying to see dragon mounts all over the place when dragons are supposed to be terrifying and powerful.
sallee132
i agree
aescleal
I agree too. Dragons as mounts would be a very bad idea.
fazemladaiya
I agree that no flying mounts should be in the game, but for a different reason. The players do not need them to play the game. I do not believe dragons to ever be terrifying or powerful. That is a human misconception brought about by silly religious bouting. But indeed I do agree with the poster that flying mounts are a bad idea. If you HAVE to come out with a flying mount, though, bring something these players deserve . . . a my little pony with wings ;)
irjelly
Dragons as creatures in D
noelynot
I disagree. Flying mounts as a means of travel are not a bad idea. There is no combat or game play involved, just a quicker means of getting from point to point within the game. I don't want to spend ten or twenty minutes walking or riding if I could spend five minutes flying. It will have zero impact on actual game play. Now, if they have the means to teleport between points in the game, then flying mounts would be moot.
ch80 @ Feb 22nd, 2013 8:26AM
i want to make a halfling and force an orc that i whoop up on to carry me around on his shoulders as payment for sparring his life. either that or a dwarf with some kind of cool construct or golem type mount.
alsaroth
Epic! Beats my un-dead horse.
muzrub333
Hodor
villaboy94
Hodor! Go Back to westeros
sabatosh @ Feb 22nd, 2013 7:51AM
can't wait to see all of the cool mounts we can get after launch.;)
scottgillig @ Feb 22nd, 2013 7:42AM
This is cool but to make it awesome, let us color or enhance the look of our mounts. This game is promoted as customize your character, which we can do with equipment, let us also do it with our mounts, please.
timeras @ Feb 22nd, 2013 7:27AM
It doesn't have anything to do with mounts, but it's cool you still call it "C-Store" like me. I hate it people calling it ZEN-Store now. :)
mok33
Z-Store is a thing.
sansin1303 @ Feb 22nd, 2013 7:27AM
Awesome!!! (as usual)
hexaxe @ Feb 22nd, 2013 7:25AM
Howler sounds cool....even cooler would be a Pegasus!
bobcat1313 @ Feb 22nd, 2013 7:08AM
Cool I want a slug!!!!
nemesiswarlock @ Feb 22nd, 2013 7:07AM
Any chance on flying mounts?
jbharrop1
Play WOW if you want flying mounts. They don't belong in a D
sallee132
go to WOW forums,Fly mounts sux!
daytonamax
@jpharrop1 Really? They don't belong in D
shridez
Doesn't seem like i'd expect it since all the areas are zones even if are quiet large.. enough to have mounts. flying mounts work better.. for open world type games :S
inkedbear @ Feb 22nd, 2013 6:59AM
Spiders are scary! :)
shridez
I demand a option to turn all spiders into giant cute bunnies!! Nah but spiders are scary even in video games :(
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