How do you choose your mount?

[Saraphima 34]

Do you choose your mount based on what they do or based on color?

 

I choose mine based on color and design more then what they do.

[lujate 578]

Always based on Aspect, never for the color.

[SX255 630]

As much as I would love to use another "color", whats the point if it gives you a CA bonus you are not even using.

[Gilberticus 374]

Function over form for me. I understand choosing form over function though, depending on how you use mounts. Maybe you don't want something to ride into battle with, maybe you're just looking for a mode of transportation, a faster way to move from point A to B in the areas that don't have gates nearby. Form over function's not MY way of playing, but I can dig it.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Gilberticus

[Flix 5,116]

I choose everything based on what it does.

[Aegis 256]

Also with the function over form group. Either I need regeneration based on aspect or added resistance while mounted (I typically choose regeneration). Appearance of the mount is furthest from my mind, otherwise I would not bother with a mount at all (especially with the shadow warrior; can't take the hellhound seriously).

[Flix 5,116]

I should add that, being a modder, if I don't like the look I just change it.

[SX255 630]

What about randomizing the look when purchasing the epic mount? Is it possible? Some of us would love to have that as an optional small mod

Edited April 29, 2014 by SX255

[Saraphima 34]

Great idea SX255! Shouldn't be to hard to do from the sounds of it. Sounds to me something from the creatures section and a few other files.

[Silver_fox 397]

I always choose items and mounts based on the stats. If the look turns out to be too silly, I make a small texture mod that I turn on when I play this particular character. Of course, I don't make new textures for all chars, only for those that I like for some reason and play for a lot of time.

 

As for making the mod that would enable mounts to have random color, it's possible, but not as simple as you think. Unlike the items, mounts have one-to-one correspondence between looks and stats. If you know a bit about the scripts, I'll explain more: The looks of everything in game are defined in itemtype.txt. Every item, creature, building or decoration has one or more itemtypes. Items have one itemtype each. Mounts generally have three per head. Now the stats - for the items they are defined in blueprint.txt, and blueprints support multiple itemtypes. That is how item look is randomized: several itemtypes are added to the blueprint that holds the stats. For the mounts it's different: they have bueprints, but those are just placeholders to ensure correct population of the trader's stock. Mount stats are described in creature.txt and creatureinfo.txt. Neither creature nor creatureinfo entries support multiple itemtypes. To make mount look randomized, it won't be enough to just add the look description to some list. To have particular mount stats appear with four different textures, we'd have to implement four different mounts with exactly the same stats but different looks and then randomize the trader's stock so that only one of them was sold at the time. It's quite a lot of work that requires a lot of free ID numbers (which are possibly limited). Also, such mod would have to be enabled all the time, as you would lose the mounts created with it if you turn it off. I'm not sure if it's worth it to go through the motions of adding new mounts just for the sake of different color variations - in this case it would make more sense to come up with some new and interesting stats too.

 

Generally, without editing the scripts and actually creating a mount-randomizing mechanism, swapping a look of one mount variation with another amounts to swapping the texture files by extracting and renaming them. For example, to exchange the look of the tigers, you need only to open graphics02.zip, find the folder named "mq\maps\npc\ridingcreatures\Frosttiger" and extract the files "i_tiger-varX_d.dds" into a folder of the same name in the "pak" folder of the game. Exchanging the X numbers would effectively exchange the look of the tigers in game, for as long as you don't change the numbers again or don't delete the extracted files.

 

So I'm not sure if creating a big mod that does about the same as 5 minute work with the textures is worth it. Though it is possible to do if you want to.

 

By the way, I checked, and that is exactly how the horses are scripted - each look is implemented as a separate creature, and then the trader sells a random amount of random creatures, that all have similar stats.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Silver_fox

[Flix 5,116]

So I'm not sure if creating a big mod that does about the same as 5 minute work with the textures is worth it.

 

It's not. Please don't get sidetracked trying to do that. It's just too much work for too little payoff.

[Silver_fox 397]

Don't worry, I'm not going to add this idea to my list. I have quite an amount of other things I want to work with - starting with Elite Mounts and new items that are already in process, and ending with new quests. Just wanted to post a little explanation and warning for anybody who wants to try something with the mounts.

[SX255 630]

Yeah, if its that much work to randomize the scripts, the personal GR2 file swap will be a lot more effective.

[KJnewBEE 18]

for me its all about the color, cuz I don't really use the mount for combat, its just for transportation, so why not ride with style?..

[gogoblender 3,070]

for me its all about the color, cuz I don't really use the mount for combat, its just for transportation, so why not ride with style?..

 

Agree with the style pick...

I think the tattooed Lizard for the dryad is Boss!

 

 

 

 

gogo