[Feature Request] Allow us to buy mounts for mercenaries

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by citizen256, Feb 27, 2022.

  1. citizen256 Member

    Please consider implementing the ability to buy mounts for mercenaries, the same mounts we buy from the vendor / marketplace for our characters.

    (edit) Ideally this would be for cosmetic purposes only and should be useable by all mercs, even the veteran ones that can't normally use appearance items.

    • From an immersion perspective, this seems obvious. It would simply look better to have your mercenary on a mount when you're on a mount. Allowing mercenaries to have their own mount rather than a copy of the player's mount gives the impression of a true "band of adventurers"
    • From a game-economy perspective, this also seems obvious. It would give players something to spend their plat. on, removing some of it from the economy.
    • From a DBG marketplace perspective, you might find players buying special mounts from the marketplace so their mercenary looks truly heroic.
    I realize editing the mercenary paperdoll to add a mount slot might prove difficult because people might have all the adorns filled in but here's a suggestion on implementing that:

    • Add a "Mercenary Mount" tab and equip slot to the player's mount page
      • This would have the restriction that you cannot equip the same mount for the player and mercenary at the same time. It would require players to have at least two mounts.
    • Add a separate "summon mercenary mount" ability
      • This would allow the player to decide when the mercenary is mounted.
    • Add a "mounted" flag to the mercenary's code
      • This would simply be used by the game engine to make sure the mercenary is summoned in a mounted state if it was dismissed in such a state
    As for mount stats and how they would effect the mercenary, well I'll leave that up to you :)
    Sturmlocke and Hartay like this.
  2. DENSER Well-Known Member

    they already solved the problem by adding a centaur mercenary!;)

    Tbh, another pay to win item is not what i'm looking for.
    Because with this kind of addition one can wonder if it will be purely aesthetic or if it will be necessary to upgrade it as we do for our toons.
    the idea is nice but i have mixed feelings
    Siren and Lysia like this.
  3. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    No, just no
    AOE1, Twyla, Siren and 2 others like this.
  4. Lysia Active Member

    no please, please --- NO !!
    we have too much to do already .....
    AOE1, Twyla, Siren and 1 other person like this.
  5. citizen256 Member

    The nice thing about optional features is you don't have to do it.

    I would be fine with this being cosmetic. In fact it would probably be easier if it were so they wouldn't have to do any rebalancing. The implementation of a new "merc mount" slot would be necessary though because veteran reward mercs can't use any cosmetic items (you can't rename them either).
    Sturmlocke likes this.
  6. Lysia Active Member

    just don't make us train the mounts -- we already train the mercs and our mounts -- enough is enough already
  7. citizen256 Member

    Right, I think this would be better as a simple cosmetic change. Players can choose to buy a cheap 1p mount or an expensive one with DBC but I don't necessarily think they need to be a required part of the merc.

    I have updated the OP accordingly.
    Sturmlocke likes this.
  8. MightyMeaghan Well-Known Member

    How about a mount appearance wardobe. Any mount the player has collected can be applied to the merc, assuming that the merc has the proper animations. If you suggest going back and giving all mercs the proper animations for riding mounts, Ttobey might try and kill you.
    Sturmlocke likes this.
  9. Sturmlocke Linux enthusiast playing EQ2 via Proton.

    Tbh, I like this idea. In fact, I just took this idea and added a little bit of this imagination to my request right here. Now in what shape or form this gets implemented, or even monetized for that matter, that's a different subject, but the idea in and itself is good!
  10. citizen256 Member

    The problem with using the merc's appearance tab is that gets disabled for certain mercenaries. For example, I have the veteran merc Lady Liae Croae and she can't use any appearance items nor can she be renamed.

    As for the animation question, it's an interseting one but I think the mercenaries use the same character models that players use, my mercenary looks exactly like my character except with different colored hair. In other words, in code my merc is essentially the same object as my character except it has an AI attached instead of a player controller.

    Also, the Tunarian Horse Sentries from the tutorial island say "hi".
    Sturmlocke likes this.
  11. MightyMeaghan Well-Known Member

    Only the mercs based on a player skeleton will have the animations. A lot of the mercs are NPC models and they wouldn't have the riding animations.
  12. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    I would rather see changes like removing the heirloom tag on holiday loot items than have something that adds even more pets and other things like familiars added to one persons character.
    Seems like they are trying to make it seem like there are more playing than actually are, if anything I would like to have the ability to not only hide my familiar but others as well. A merc hide feature would be nice, but I can see how that may result in a problem with people thinking their merc is up when it aint, still would be nice.
  13. citizen256 Member

    It's likely they all use the same skeleton, creating separate resources is very time consuming and expensive. It's been a while since I've unpacked the EQ2 archives but given my experience with smaller scale projects, it's not uncommon to purchase pre-built models/rigs.

    Typically in a large scale project like an MMO, they use something like Blender or 3DS Max to build a model and attach a rig (skeleton). Then the animators create the animation. Once that's brought into the game, it is reused for several NPC / player instances and the code determines when and if the animation should play. Also, depending on how the model was made, the code can resize it to make it taller, shorter, fat or thin (which is how the creation sliders work).

    So that NPC Ratonga crying about his lost love in the Commonlands is probably using the same model/skeleton as the Ratonga player complaining about lag in "/2 [General]". The difference is the Commonlands Ratonga never has his mounted animation activated.
  14. citizen256 Member

    /pet hide will hide the familiar, though it also hides the action / health bar of the Defiler pet and other regular pets. Maybe try this without them summoned.

    You can also right-click choose "pet options" and click the little hooded man. But I never got that to work.
  15. Aethos Well-Known Member

    Let us apply our mount to our mercenary, bam done. Stats included. No additional annoying training needed. :D
  16. That guy. Well-Known Member

    I have a better idea. Let us mount our mercenaries.
  17. citizen256 Member

    I'm not sure why everyone keeps talking about training, I didn't mention that in the OP. But I think the problem with allowing stats is it would make content even more trivial than it is.

    The way I think this should work is:

    1. You get some plat (or DBC)
    2. You go to the mount vendor in your favorite city (or the marketplace)
    3. You buy a mount
    4. You open your paperdoll, choose the "mercenary mount" tab and apply it
    5. You drag the mount to the "summon mercenary mount" slot
    6. You click the button to summon the mercenary mount


    The mount would be purely cosmetic, the stats are disabled. But the idea was to make this separate
    from the player so you couldn't just buy a single 1p mount and use it for both the player and the merc. You would
    need to buy a separate mount, even if it is the same style as the one used for the player.

    This helps get some plat moving through the economy and also allows DBG another opportunity to make some
    extra money to support the game, for those who want a slightly better looking model from the marketplace.
  18. That guy. Well-Known Member

    And a sea of mercenary mounts to further block vendors, quest givers, etc.
    Twyla likes this.
  19. citizen256 Member

    But if it's already blocked, surely "further blocked" is irrelevant?

    Anyway, a couple solutions for this problem:

    1. Add a GUI option that limits the number of mounts visible on the screen
    2. Put these essential NPCs on elevated platforms
  20. Aethos Well-Known Member

    For the most part, I don't disagree, but mercenaries are fairly underpowered. Giving them a stat boost seems fine to me, even makes them more relevant. And it's stats that the player themselves already have, so it wouldn't be inflating player stats :)