EQ2 Gets Serious About Mount Options — Leapers & Gliders
Two years ago, if you asked me my top 10 list of things that are missing from EQ2, a decent selection of mounts would have been nearly at the top of said list. We’ve seen the expansion of cat mounts, horse mounts, and all variations in between, with floating discs, and more recently the flying mounts which have been restricted to level 85. What comes in between?
Well, we’ve kept an eye on smarmy silly tantalising comments from Tom Tobey (ttobey) and Dave “Covic” Brown suggesting that they’ve been working hard on something to do with more mount options, but we had no idea just what they were planning. If you saw the screenshots of Hua Mein pandas mounted on T-Rexes, you probably thought it was a joke with no intention of seeing the light of the day. Turns out that’s exactly what was planned. Tom has been working hard to modularize characters and mounts so that when a new mount is created, all races of all sexes just “fit” on the mount without weeks of hard-coding locations, and now we know why.
From EverQuest2.com:
Later this month, we’ll be debuting two new types of mounts in EverQuest II.
Leaper mounts can jump up and forward in tremendous bounds before falling, moving at speeds similar to flying mounts. You can control how high you jump, and you can steer while jumping using the movement keys. Obviously, you don’t take falling damage when landing. Leapers require Level 30 to ride.
Gliders are similar to Leapers, but at any point in your jump, you can snap out your mount’s wings and begin gliding, using the movement keys to control direction, even being able to tip up and climb for a while before descending again. You can also fold your wings in to start plummeting downward, and snap them out again at a different altitude. Gliders require level 60.
And then, of course, Fliers become available at level 85 allowing you to climb/dive at will for maximum freedom.
As with Fliers, every character can earn a Leaper or Glider by doing quests within the game. The quest for the Mountain Saliraptor leaper is located in Butcherblock, and the quest for the Wind Komodo glider is located in Tenebrous Tangle.
The following is a list of what mounts are available to you at each level of the game:
- 1-29 : Walking and Ground mounts (horses, wargs, rhinos, etc.)
- 30-59 : Now also able to use Leapers!
- 60-84 : Now also able to use Gliders!
- 85+ : Able to use everything, including Fliers!
Additional Leapers, Gliders, and Fliers will also be available in the marketplace. Those mounts will still be level-locked (e.g., must be level 60 to use a purchased glider), but the player does not have to complete the in-game quests to use the marketplace mounts.
Tags: flying mounts
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Comments (19)
Steve
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Neato.
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Silzin
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I wander if we can use them as appearance for the flying mounts.
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MackGee
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I hope this isn’t the “Very Cool Feature” that’s supposed to be announced today.
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Feldon
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MackGee,
Pretty sure it is.
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Zharxian
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I wonder if these quests will be made available before the actual “debut” if they are going to require you to do a daily quest before you can get the mount (like the flyers do.)
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Luminaire
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Sigh, just give flying mounts to lower levels. It’s already easy to level to 90 and flying mounts won’t make it that much easier. Just make them slower 90% increase in the air / 65% on the ground etc. I like to play the lower levels and this would make it so much more fun. It made my 90’s more fun but I enjoy lower level stuff more than I like 90’s stuff.
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CrisuKomie
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Yeah if this is the “very cool” feature they were talking about, I just lost all respect for SOE.
Garbage company.
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Lathain
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Woot more marketplace fluffy items… what about the game ?
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Cristamir
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Oh yay…more fluff. I’m trying to curb my enthusiasm.
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Twisted_Mentat
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I find this a suprisingly inspired idea.
Flying mounts for lower levels would screw the little risk there is in soloing an alt up the levels (Not everyone powerlevels alts with a boxed and maxed out tank/main then complains about it being to easy).
This is a solid workaround while keeping options interesting. Not to mention they they look great.
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Anaogi
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“As with Fliers, every character can earn a Leaper or Glider by doing quests within the game.”
RTFA, Lathain. RTFA.
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Zharxian
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Yeah, it pretty much spells it out that these mounts will initially be offered through quests. My problem is, is it worth the same kind of effort to go through 5 days worth of questing to get a mount that can jump higher as it is to get one that can fly?
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Harvy
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I think this is great. If your leveling up without PLing doing these quests to get the mounts as you progress and explore I think will increase the level of immersion. Your going to be cleaving and questing anyways – you might as well be doing it for quested mounts! If your PLing your going to skip that stuff and go for the flyers anyways the day you hit 85.
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Steve
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I am beginning to think that Lathain is just a spam bot.
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Hammerhorn
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Bring on the mounts that give you a CA that has a special like a AoE fire spell , or bites the heads off orcs while you ride it.
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Lathain
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The only mount that could be usefull is a mount that allow to bypass giant stair and small obstacle. Most of mount beside carpet/disk are nightmare to use in stair.
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Lathain
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(yes i m spam bot)
i m bot since i played way too much to everquest
and i spam lfg pug everyday…
and ?
It’s clear it was for add standars mount ugly available from quest (only one), and sell from marketplace the lovely version (several, could add more with time).
I know i know they neeeeeed more cash, but i wonder why. Since ten years they have never be so gready, and in same time deliver a game with so many trouble.
If the game was working well i couldnt say much, but it’s not.
Despite i hate soe and marketplace (for what they have done) i keep positive and i love eq. If i was thinking it’s hopeless i wouldnt wast time posting.
I hate plat seller, but at last they are respectable, they sell something you can get ingame, while you cant get what marketplace sell from ingame effort.
Still a mount able to walk through kael stair would be a huge +, with option for have 2 or 3 mount hotkey instead of one.
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Killusall
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i’ll take a leaper over a flying mount 95% of the time, thank you.
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Seliri
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I definitely think the Wind Komodo shouldve had leg/body connected glide wings, & not these random, gross, goop-like protrusions.
In my opinion though, the cool new feature they unveiled was the fact that cross-server grouping will be possible sometime “soon”. =]
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