Diplomatic Mount

[Sigurd]

Twice now I received a 'psych' ;P when viewing my Diplo mount.

Two or three days back I was gladdened to see they raised it to 30 speed from 25. I said about TIME the damn horse which takes a couple hours of >effort< goes as fast (really it needs to have other benefits - if not physical - at least allowing it to have a visible tack or some customization, selectable color etc...) as the one you got with no effort at 10.

Now, I was in beta and on all my guys I was able to afford a horse between 7-9. Usually about the time I dinged 8 I'd buy a horse. Except my Varanjar which seemed to earn alot less cash and took till a bubble or 3 into 10.

Now, my first char was a Varathi in beta. I got the regular horse at 7 and then did the horse quest at 10. I then enjoyed my horse for a bit, understanding that it was free, just had a nominal quest attached and that is why it was slower (25 vs 30) I then sold my old bought horse for like 10s. By the time I was 11/12 I bought another in Khal so I could travel faster and used the 'light colored one' (doesn' t LOOK like a Vara horse...) when just messing around. In beta the Varanjar had a similar quest, although this one actually had difficulty because not many of us knew where this Veskal's was hehe and it was a long trip. I kept that horse because cash was hard to come by in beta for Varanjar. Not so now, seems similar to the rest.

Now, I have done the Diplo quest for Varanjar and Dark Elf. Both were difficult (the DE one I had more trouble on one of the final NPCs) and very very time consuming. So much so others leveled a few times while I completed this.

I got a horse of 25speed. I was underwhelmed, nothing special other than a 'reddish' tinge.

Even knowing this I did it again because I like doing quests and the storyline was interesting for another race.

My suggestion is that you split the horse from the newbiew Diplo line and make it a similar or harder set of quests again and give us a horse to be proud of - or leave it as IS and give us the same speed/stats. Really, by the time I finished the quest on my Varanjar shaman I had 35s... the Risk(time in this case with some death chances) v Reward balance on storebought vs quested horses is ridiculous.

PLEASE give visible (customizable) perks to Diplo horse, or give it better stability to offset the speed issues (if I recall Varathi horse was slower but more stable?) or make it the SAME or... make it an offshoot quest and make it considerably BETTER.

I'd be willing to hand in my horse to the quest NPC to do this new diplo quest.




Anyone else think we get the short end of the stick on this series? I mean - as it is now, I buy a horse and do the quest when I can...for feces and giggles, then the horse sits in bank.

[sorkvir]

I'm actually ok with it.

I've heard the plan is to be able to 'upgrade' your mount with Diplo specific quests. Therefore, bringing it equal to or better than store bought mounts.

Also, it saved me 12.5s which I can spend on barding and horseshoes.

I recommend waiting. I'm sure they have plans for this (the tooltip hints at it).

[Ceyllynn]

i think diplo horses should be able to get the first barding.. considering we have to go into dangerous areas with it and a lot of travel across country...

something to make it unique, besides the fact it doesn't have white legs/mane/tail red instead...

basically you do a not very easy series of quests.. and up with a horse that only looks a little different and is slower than one you can just buy.

i'm in total agreement with siggy...

if they're going to allow upgrade quests... then do it sooner than 20, cause right now, i am serious tempted to by just the regualr horse for the speed factor alone with all the running around myself and my hubby does.

[Aruspex - SOE]

We are featuring the rank 2 and 3 horse upgrade quests fairly soon. These quests will allow you to upgrade your existing rank 1 horse to rank 2 and finally 3 (when you reach appropriate Diplomacy levels. There is no further Adventuring or Crafting level requirements).

o
A

[Sigurd]

EDIT:

Thanks for the reply! -- I replied to the post before yours acually (below) but the question still remains... do those horses always remain subpar to the PURCHASED horses?

I expect I won't be keeping up with the diplo horses due to the immense time involved if it is by tier (so 200 = lvl 20 = tier 2?) but I am glad to see it in for those Diplomatic specialists - they deserve it a friend of mine is at like 170ish and he does nothign but Dip practically since 2nd day playing hehe.

Thanks again,
Sig

Originally Posted by sorkvir

I'm actually ok with it.

I've heard the plan is to be able to 'upgrade' your mount with Diplo specific quests. Therefore, bringing it equal to or better than store bought mounts.

Also, it saved me 12.5s which I can spend on barding and horseshoes.

I recommend waiting. I'm sure they have plans for this (the tooltip hints at it).

An 'upgradeable' Diplo horse (as long as this is different than 'bought' horses) is great. I am fine with that too - I don't care that you get a 'base' lower model but it should be able to through quests be made at LEAST as good as the storebought and seriously, it should be somewhat better either in fact or in looks because we spend alot more effort to get it.

Maybe if cash was 'hard' to get but if u level regularly, you end up between 20-38s at 10 (I got 38 on a char that did all his quests to 10 (Varanjar) and did the neighboring Vulmane quests that were offered in the Vul city as well.

What I fear though is that this 'upgrade' merely means at level 20, you can do a very hard quest to get an upgrade to the speed of the lvl 20 horse... minus 5 or 10 ;P NOT to upgrade your horse at each tier. It's to 'keep up with tiers' bah... I'll buy the next one then.

[Mako]

At leat your diplomatic mount quest worked. I completed the Kojan mount quest but received no mount. I petitioned it and the GM indicated that it was a known bug. I'm just hoping that I'll have some recourse available someday so that I can receive the diplomatic mount that I deserve.

[Aruspex - SOE]

We have a system set up in which you will receive the rank 1 horse again if you ditched it somehow when you go for your rank 2. After that, however, we won't give you a freebie.

Also, I should add that we have quests going in in the future that gives out mount upgrades so you can have a faster horse than the storebought.

o
A

[spicie]

Originally Posted by Aruspex - SGO

We are featuring the rank 2 and 3 horse upgrade quests fairly soon. These quests will allow you to upgrade your existing rank 1 horse to rank 2 and finally 3 (when you reach appropriate Diplomacy levels. There is no further Adventuring or Crafting level requirements).

o
A

that no further adventuring and crafting level requirements is fantastic That's the entire reason I'm level 10, is b/c I had to level from 6 to 10 just to go on the horse diplomacy quest.

(right now I still feel diplomacy is one of the best parts of the game, atleast for me even with alot of the quests missing)

[Sigurd]

Originally Posted by Aruspex - SGO

We have a system set up in which you will receive the rank 1 horse again if you ditched it somehow when you go for your rank 2. After that, however, we won't give you a freebie.

Also, I should add that we have quests going in in the future that gives out mount upgrades so you can have a faster horse than the storebought.

o
A

Aruspex,

Thanks - that was what I was hoping to hear. It just didn't make sense from an effort vs reward calculation and I expected the answer is "it just hasn't been addressed YET due to priorities" - and that's a fine answer by me.

I am not sure I will be one of those people benefitting from the later diplo horses due to the fact that I LOVE PVE this is why I am here, I trust the developers involved in this to give me a content-filled and ever expanding game, I fell in love with EQ1 not cos it was my 'first' but because of the dynamic nature of it and the constant attempts to tweak and balance / expand it while holding onto a 'plan' (I avoided the oft-used word ;P) in spite of the myriad of complaints and people wanting an 'easier XXX' I believe these games are made to be enjoyed of course, but I find that when a company tries to 'balance' classes or other things based on complaints from the field or to statify squeaky wheels - we end up homogeonizing (I'm not gonna look up how to spell that ;P) classes or whatever is being worked on (ex: DAoC early days as the various 'realms' became one...with diff graphics)

I'm willing to trust that you guys will make us look back at the road and say it was a great trip even if sometimes the road ahead looks dubious. So don't mind me when I bitch, sometimes I am gonna be right other times I'll be wrong and I hope I call attention on things that I am concerned about but I want to stress that I am so far (since Feb or so) really loving my time here.

Keep making Diplo interesting! You may drag me along, I have a 45 and a 52 so far and I don't even really care for the card game thing. It is not a 'dis' - it's really a matter of taste, my good friend Draygin is LOVING this and he was a hardcore EQ Cleric of old... fast leveler and all that, he is still 12 and working Diplo instead (with much less time than in his younger days tho)

I gotta say I do not for a moment regret the time 'wasted' (from a leveling perspective) on my DE, that storyline was rip-roaring fun hehe - you really got to feel e-ville. (Kudos also on the Kojani intro...) Please grats to the mind behind that line.

I figure I will do the intro once for all races I make (which is many since I have 2 accouts) so I can enjoy the work put into those storylines. I prob won't get too far after b/c doing those card decks constantly losing until I find the 'trick' for a particular (cheater!) npc is too frustrating to me (and prob bad for my faction now that I am up to Civic lol) but that is just me...I can't seem to get into analyzing it and enjoying that aspect.

Prob why I felt the horse should have been better, 'cos I pulled my hair more than once on it

BTW - for my 2nd horse (DE)... I made it with only! 11 secs to spare... thought my first(Varanjar) to 3 rivers was bad (3mins left) ... took a screenie and nearly lost it cos of the pause LOL...

[Sigurd]

I see many of these:
http://www.vanguardspheres.com/forum...-question.html

seems most people think CURRENTLY the horse 'sucks'

I had an alt in Khal (who has his dip horse) and was gonna buy one for my guy in Hal (cos less choices there, 1 ;P and he is crafting and didn't want to go looking atm) and did... BOOM... 40 speed horse, no effort... any alt I have 7+ has 12sp+ ... but also found out it was soulbound lol - DOH should have read the thing first - no big tho, sold it back for only 2.5sp loss... you see... NO issues... 2.5sp isn't much either to lose...

ie: Bought horse is not 'dear' and yet...better?!?

A temp boost or a choice of colors for your dip horse would be a good way to comfort us in the meanwhile like a dip char with a horsetrading side job