Scout Archive

I posted this on the main forums, but was interested in what my fellow scouts thought as well...

So, according to the dev-chat, mounts will have no terrian negotiation and will not be able to use their riders negotiation either. Not only this, but they count against, rather then in addition to, the number of pets you can have. Have I forgotten that they can be attacked yet can't defend themselves like regular pets?

That being the case, why would anyone with any degree of terrain negotiation bother having a mount? What purpose does it serve to have one when you can move across varied terrain quicker then your own mount can? Are we expected to only use mounts when running across the plain of Corellia and the flats of Naboo, then store them to move everywhere else?

Mounts are supposed to enable players to move father, faster. Preventing mounts from using, or at least being aided, by their owner's terrian negotiation prevents them from being much of an asset. After all, if you can move across Dathomoor's mountains faster on your own due to terrian negotiation, why bother having a mount at all? It can't fight, can be killed and counts against your pet storage numbers. What is the benefit again?

Having looked forward to mounts for a long time, I see this a pretty huge blow to them being even a remotely viable option for many players, and once the 'cool' factor wears off, they will just be something else in the game that is eyecandy but serves little purpose.

If what you say is true, then I am relieved. I was thinking that mounts will effectively be a nerf of our terrain negotiation skill. I'm glad to hear that mounts will have to crawl up hills like noobs.

I read somewhere that mounts will travel at somewhere around burst run speed. That's still a benefit. Even if they slow down going up hills, they'll still be plenty fast.

I also believethey should count against your pet limit, and they shouldn't be able to be used in combat. Nothing is free. Having the benefit of a fast-moving mount should "cost" something. Losing a pet slot and facing some risk in combat seems a fair trade-off.

I'm pretty much in agreement with the way these are being implemented. I'll reserve final judgement for after the patch goes live, but so far it looks good to me.

Sustained burst run speed across flat terrain is going to make mounts well worth the tradeoffs. They shouldn't get your terrain negotiation mods because, frankly, all you're doing is sitting on their backs. Just because I can run up a hill with a fair amount of speed and surefootedness doesn't mean that my kaadu mount should be able to. Maybe this will end up being a positive in favor of vehicles when they're implemented.

I have no problem with these counting against your pet slots - ifpeople want to spend more time with pets that have attack abilities, they should invest some skill points in the CH skilltrees and have a few extra datapad slots. There are plenty of people of the opinion that non-CH shouldn't have pets at all (I'm not one of them by the way). I am a CH, and I will devote one of my slots to a mount. That's my choice. When droids are fixed, there may be another tank option thattakes away some of the popularity of pets.

I'm still a bit unsure about the attack issue, but if mounts are as fast as they seem to be, getting them away from a fight won't be much of a problem. Or you can always stop, dismount, and take up the fight yourself.

The mount training commands, as I understand it, have gone into the least used CH trees,bringing somevalue to thatskill tree (Empathy). You can't run out at novice and tame/train a mount for yourself. This is good for the higher level CH characters. BEs can make some of these as well - good for the BEs that haveworked hard with little reward.

Frankly, I don't see much of a downside to the way these are planned to be implemented.

"I was thinking that mounts will effectively be a nerf of our terrain negotiation skill."

I am not sure how mounts benefiting from a scouts terrain negotiation is a nerf to us. And I do not think it's unreasonable that mounts benefit from our terrain negotiation.

Keep in mind, negotiating terrain isn't just about 'running up a hill', it's about finding the best, most reliable path over hill and through dale. And while the 'best' path might not be possible due to riding a dewback, a scout wouldn't suddenly lose the ability to pick a better path because he's riding an animal.

What I would have liked to see is perhaps a terrain negotiating impact, but not a complete removal, i.e. your negotiation ability is a combination of the scout's terrain modifier plus a 'handling' modifier based upon the CH empathy skill. This would enable high level scouts and rangers to see see their terrain negotiation prove worthwhile and likewise enable scout's who are CH's to also better ride their own animals.

In regards to combat, the fact that your mount can be targeted, but not fight back is a major issue since you also cannot store pets while in combat. Even if you dismount to engage in the fight, your mount may very well die due to the fact that it not only doesn't fight back, but can't be stored while you are fighting.

You are pretty much misunderstanding the issue. The terrain negociation of a mount is not AFFECTED by that of the player (why would it be?). However mounts (as any creature) have their own levels already. I don't know what they are but I can assure you mounts won't crawl up hills being essentially slower than master scouts. Rather it will make scout terrain negociation less important for the average mounted player.

As for the comment on mounts being attackable but not being able to attack in return - this is true WHEN YOU ARE MOUNTED. If you dismount, the pet can attack as usual. This is also why mounts counts towards max pets and max pet levels.

Of course, you could probably outrun most enemies while mounted as well, granted the mount survives long enough (and this is a reason to use the larger but slower pets - they have more HAM and also work better as attack pets when you dismount).

Read the test center boards. My mount on the test center can climb hills about as well as my ranger can. At least it didn't feel any different when I was playing. Also mounts as they currently stand have major downsides:

1) they slow down when you are attacked. They slow down to normal speed. This is deadly on the higher level planets, since you can't burst run away. I wish they would simply not allow combat on mounts and keep the speed. (or allow you to fight back).

2) You can't heal yourself or anyone else when you are on a mount. Often the only reason I survive is that I can heal myself as I am burst running away.

3) You can perform any other function on a mount (survey skills, etc). This makes it near useless for surveying out new resources as it is faster and more convient just to run rather than dismount.. scan.. mount.. dismount.. scan.. mount.. etc.

my kingdom for an edit button. That should have read (or NOT allow you to fight back).

"can you use mask scent on them?"

At the moment, you can not apply /maskscent while riding (they seem to have disabled every command under the sun )

• But, you can apply /maskscent before mounting, and the effect will remain.

lol, yeah. With all the updates and such you think they'd put one in, an edit button I mean. I was wondering, on the concept of mounts, can you use mask scent on them? That would be a great way to get somewhere, just mount /maskscent and no interuptions for the remainder of the trip, enjoy your flight.