Mounts in MMOs

I'm not even going to apologise for this, yet another post about MMOs rather than P&P.

So mounts in MMOs.

My issue here - in the typical way mounts are handled is sixfold.

1. Mounts should be more than a mere speed-boost for your journeying around.
2. You should be able to store equipment on your mount (granted the tragically flawed Fallen Earth allows you to do this).
3. You should be able to fight from your mount. ...this also gives rise to the notion of your mount being damaged or killed... and;
4. Your mount should have skills and abilities.
5. You should be able to modify the look of your mount, in terms of appearance.
6. And you should be able to equip your mount (different from storing equipment, as I will explain....

Okay so point 1. above is really my overall gripe, and the other five points how you get over it. So I'll begin with 2.

2. Noting my earlier post on how to handle backpacks, mounts should come with a certain amount of storage - modifiable by upgrading the saddlebags.  This is not on realistic, but would also prove very useful and may provoke a choice in what sort of steed a player goes for.  Do they opt for a slower pack style animal with lots of storage, thus reducing the need to go back to a town and unload so frequently?  Or do they go for a fast mount, or perhaps a tough mount with some combat skills?

On usability, one shouldn't have to transfer equipment from your mount in order to sell it.  I would simply handle this by, if your mount is nearby, when you open your bags you get one window with your combined personal storage, sortable in all the ways my previous post about backpacks suggests.  And you get another window - sortable in a similar way, for your mounts storage.

3. Mounted combat should be a skill.  Or at least there should be modifiers on certain combat skills which can be used in the saddle.  This would allow for the player to go galloping into battle swinging a long sword, and perform hit and runs - i.e. gallop past an enemy, striking them once and racing past severely limiting the chance for them to retaliate.  This will serve to make combat far more interesting, which it really needs to be, as lets face it the vast majority of MMO combat is merely a series of number keys getting mashed in sequence.

Imagine the scenario where a friendly is engaged in combat at some distance as you ride up... you go into a charge (probably a mount skills in its own right) you bear down on the enemy, strike them with a powerful mounted blow, which should probably stun them too, and before they have time to react, your past, out of range and turning your steed for another go.  This would make certain combat situations far more exciting / realistic / engaging.

But you also need to cater for the downside.  i.e. getting unseated in mounted combat needs to be handled effectively. I'd suggest here you need an animation for tumbling into the dirt and landing stunned on your ass.  Getting unseated should leave a player stunned, damaged and prone to attack, hence providing a risk to the advantage of mounted combat.

But if you allow for mounted combat, then you must also cater for the mount being targeted, and thus damaged or killed.  This simplest way to handle this I'd suggest is to think of the mount being a bit like a hunter's pet.  They can be healed, they can be killed, they can be resummoned if killed, and in some cases they can attack....

4. In most MMOs in the fantasy genre the gameworld presents the players with a variety of mounts, of varying speeds, and that is all.  But once we have considered the notion that perhaps a mount can fight back, i.e. its a 'war'mount of some kind, then we can really put to use some of the fearsome appearances of those fantasy beast-steeds.  Take the Namjok from Rift for example.  Surely an animal like that would be capable of doing a little bit of damage to a target?  And once we start thinking of mounts in a similar way to pets, its natural to start applying some beast-specific abilities, like ram, gouge, trample etc. which your mount could use almost independently in combat, giving it a style and life of its own.

5. and 6.  Considering all of the above it then only seems natural that a world which provides such beasts for transport and combat also makes equipment for them.  Some of which, in its simplest form will merely change the appearance of your mount in some way, but ultimately you should be able to equip a mount with enchanted, barbed armour, increasing its defensive ratings, providing a little auto damage to melee attackers etc, consumable and permanent speed boosts, the options are numerous, varied and pretty much write themselves at this juncture.

Caveat: I do appreciate that delivering mounted combat will necessarily force a change in what has become the established, pedestrian, vein of typical MMO combat.  But then I'm a huge advocate for this change anyway.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, MMO combat really needs to change, to become more sophisticated, and mounted combat is just one way in which this could be achieved.