Horses

[Ceyllynn]

okay, siggy started this idea so blame him!

let's get a list going of exactly what changes we would like to see to the diplo horse:

colour- choices like grey would be lovely(in horse terms grey means a white horse) or a pure black.. solid colours to make them distinctive from the colour choices you can buy... me i would be drooling over a pure black!

different tack/gear/barding- i would love for people to see mine and say "hey where did you buy that horse/gear?!" and then i can turn to them and say all cool and suave like of course "i didn't, i earned it through diplomacy"

speed- we're couriers and diplomats! the best horseflesh available should be ours! not the slowest.. yes i saw the post so i have hopes!

most important of all- huge saddlebags(like the crafting pouches would be nice) for all those blasted clothing/gear changes required for parleys...ones tied to the Diplomacy horse and no-trade.(my hubby wum is constantly commenting on how many shirts etc he has.. literally a bank full!)

[Sigurd]

OK... I'll bite...


My Demands, although...I've always wanted to claim a 'Manifesto'...those were very 'IN' in the '70s...


1. Base Diplo horse being ...slower is only OK if there is another benefit. The 'freeness' is not a benefit. Any adult (and the devs are all adults... no matter if any wish to deny it ;P) knows time is not free. Of course, some in many MMORPGs have ruined economies because "it cost me nothing to gather the components so I can sell it for much less than that other crafter"...but I digress (wouldn't be one of my posts without that and parentheses)

2. Such benefits need not be unbalancing in even the slightest way. Often all you have to do is appeal to the vanity of the virtual toon and "stuff" (as George so eloquantly puts it) - Make there be a Diplo-HorseTrader that has the ability to 'swap' your horse for another color. Having the SAME color choices people who invest no effort in BUYING a horse has merely moves us out of 'very shafted' into 'slightly shafter 'cos we still expended more effort and spent more time' category. I'd hope something like mottled or rarer 'solid' colors were available. Perhaps, if you got the ghost and decided to make diplomats FEEL special (and warm-fuzzies) you could offer special Diplo-ONLY mounts along the lines of Hellhounds/Unicorns etc at the same or slightly LOWER ;P levels as 'regular' non-diplomats.

3. Another benefit is that our 'tack' (or is it tact ? ;0) could be 'special'...the problem is unfortunately that the basic tack is invisible. If it is not a bug and it is MEANT to be non-visible - then it is easy, make a simple 'blanket/cloth' horse tack visible on starter diplo horses but not 'regular' ones - you get the drift - it doesn't HAVE to be faster...

4. Create ASAP a quest or what have you to get your horse upgraded to 40 (and keep it in synch with bought horses if you up them again... or lower it if you lower them)

5. Work on the quests you already alluded to These could add more speed than the standard horses, and/or other benefits that I haven't thought of, but the amazing creators of Vanguard have (no sarcasm - I WUB dis game ;P)

6. Let me know if the gnome Gloop who destroyed the Beta world was invented by Gebron or whether Gebron saw my best friend logging off 2 minutes before he finally used the name of the gnome with the doomsday Llama device and was inspired by my friend Gloop. (History: Gloop was born on Cazic-Thule, in '99, a Gnome Magician. He is slightly eviler now as a Necro since there is no other 'good' pet caster atm.)

7. I'd like the letter 'M' stricken from the English Language.

[Sigurd]

Oh and someone mentioned horse diplo bag...

Since I saw the CE crafter cloak I got has a multitude of pockets (of which really are of no use to me - wish had the adv cloak so could at least use it for decoration... not like the little sack we are given doesn't hold all I need...) maybe you can add a right click 'bag' to diplo horse that accepts only diplo gear? All gear would work but would be more than we need. Figure any diplo items and writs/rumors etc we collect maybe?

[LaurnaRose]

My 2c:

1. Novice Diplo-horse should be 5% speed bonus to bought horse, not 5% penilty. Money is much easier to come by.
2. Adventurers should be able to do a quest that gives them a free horse that is at a 5% speed penilty to a bought horse but gets additional bonus to KD (stackable to purchased barding).
3. Crafters should be able to do a quest that gives them a free horse with a 5% penilty but gives a second saddlebag slot or maybe (if the designers are so willing) a cart. Basically a work horse for hauling equipment.
4. Each specific sphere's horse should be aquireable at level 10 (40 for dip) and upgradeable in relitive increments thereafter.
5. Each of the "earned" horses should be better than store bought in their respective area (Diplomacy for speed, Adventuring for sturdiness, Crafting for storage).
6. Each horse, store bought or earned, should allow you some sort of customization option. When you purchase a horse, you should have the option of a "Young brown/white/black/black&white (ect.) horse", and when you "earn" your horse, you should be given the option to choose among the stock.
7. Horses should have equiptable slots for shoes, barding, reins, saddle bags, and cover. Wouldnt it be cool to see an adventurer atop their steed fully plated or a diplomat astride a racing stallion, or how about a crafter strutting down the road with a fully loaded cart being hauled by a muscular quarterhorse?

Even if the appearance customizations are not possible, their should be horses aquireable through effort on the players part no matter which sphere they choose that is meant to benefit them in their sphere of choice. And yes, a player should be allowed to aquire all three types of horses if they wish to invest the time and effort to do so.

[Ysharros]

This is going to make me sound like a purist, but I'd like to see some of the horse colours made more realistic. Yeah yeah, it's fantasy, /= realism, blah blah. My opinion differs - and if you're going to have horses, get the colours right.

Dark grey horses aren't common in any case, but to give them brown manes and tails and socks... ugh. Black, if you have to, which is actually remotely possible.

My Google-fu turned up this interesting site on equine color genetics. (Yeah, I'm that retentive. )

This one isn't bad either.

Saddlebag graphics would be nice, as a cherry on top rather than a requirement.

Many of the ideas above are sterling too!