Post by kalbaern on Aug 1, 2019 14:26:15 GMT -5
Mounts have always been a tough call for me. There's several reasons which I shall explain.
1) Speed of travel: Often being mounted merely makes you travel faster. In many modules this makes sense as you often have to traverse through lots of empty of meaningless maps just to get from your starting point until you reach a dungeon or other destination. Here, it's different. Travel by ship (and at some point caravan/wagon travel ... it's lower on "The List" than other things still) or using the OOC Teleporter options enables you to quickly jump between regions.
Unlike other PWs, while adhering to well traveled roads does not mean you are entirely safe, it is still a lot safer than traveling off them or taking "short cuts" through wilderness areas. A personal "pet peeve" of mine has always been modules where you could "safely" travel between towns by adhering to the gravel paths, but risked instant death (especially at low levels) as soon as you miss a step and stray just off it's edge.
How fast one travels here can greatly impact survival. Most already know that "running" through most maps, even if not dungeons, makes it more likely that you'll get swamped by foes sooner or later. Adding mounts that increase base movement speeds will of course heighten the risks of traveling. Keep in mind that unlike many PWs, foes in pursuit of your character will often transition and keep pursuing you.
Also keep in mind that here, many NPCs that spawn as a group do so in a staggered fashion. IE, they spawn in with a slight delay between the first and last NPC in the group. We do this to make it smoother for folks with older computers that often suffer a video glitch when too many things render all at once, resulting in headless or sometimes invisible NPCs/Creatures.
2) Where would mounts be allowed if added to the module?: Riding a mount thru a town then into the merchant's business of your choice is just plain silly. So as I go through the module in coming months, I am setting "switches" on each area as simple HORSE_ALLOWED/HORSE_DISALLOWED checks.
Then, when a mount is not allowed, what do we do with it?
- If not allowed, will a hitching post keep your mount until you retrieve it?
- Will the characters have to find a stable or other suitable place to put up whatever type of stead they have?
- What happens when "we" ride out to a dungeon? Do we leave mounts outside of it? Is there a chance they get eaten by something if we do?
Currently, I'm leaning to a token to summon your mount that only works in areas a mount is allowed.
3) What happens if you happen to die while mounted?: Regardless of other questions still pending, this one is easy. No more mount. You'll have to replace it.
4) Would Paladins gain a free mount?: If mounts are added, then yes. Above 10th level (That means upon 11th level or higher), Paladins would receive a widget allowing them to call their steed.
- Should a paladin die while mounted or his steed be otherwise killed, a DM Quest will be required before the character can again summon their steed.
- The paladin could also gain a "normal" mount in the meantime.
- Similar rules and requirements would also apply if I decided to allow nightmares for Black Guards.
5) What type of mounts might be found?: In addition to horses and ponies, specialty mounts for certain races and classes would be added as well. Hins and Gnomes might find badgers or boars or other things they could ride. Maybe bears and boars for the dwarfs and even griffons (non flying - no flying mounts at all will be supported) for elven folk. A few options like lizards, dragons and dinosaurs will never be considered. Whine to the DM who runs your local tabletop campaign for one instead.
6) Could characters have more than one mount?: Probably, though only one called forth at a time.
7) Will the riding skills or other feats be required?: Not the default ones NWN currently uses. Penalties and limits to weapon use and spell casting will probably be in effect though.
- Points in Animal Empathy and Intimidate will likely add bonuses to any mounted checks made.
- One's ability to handle a mount when in combat or casting will be recorded and unseen by the player. Their "mounted" competency will slowly increase over time based on their saddle time while exploring, fighting mounted or casting from a mount.
- Simply "mounting up" and then going AFK while as a player you are doing something else while do nothing to increase your competency.
- Activities like foraging and fishing to name a few will not work when mounted either ... if mounts are added.
8) Will mounts be transferable?: Nope. To prevent "gifting" of mounts to characters not able to find or afford them on their own, all mounts will be non-transferable. This also prevents certain mounts that would have racial, class, alignment or even guild affiliations needed to gain them from being misused by others. IE, only a CG/NG aligned female elf will ever have a unicorn here. In the unicorn's case, falling out of alignment would cause the mount to flee and never return if summoned with the wrong alignment at the time.
None of the above is a promise that mounts are being added. Even if I decided definitively to do so today, there's months and months of work just to add them. What I am doing however is setting up a few things now while I review and complete older areas as well as any new areas added from here on to have the needed "switches" preset and ready if ever needed. I'm not just setting "switches" that control "mounts" as I go through the module either. I'm also setting "switches" that control things like the tribal names for humanoids (and giants and other creatures at times), regional weather (which is why if it Rains in Orlbar, it may well rain for most or all of your trip to fight goblins or just explore other nearby areas), wild magic, resting options and many other things most don't realize the complexity of when playing here. I'm also reviewing most areas and tweaking encounters and loot and also trying to take care of both reported and non-reported nitpicks (like placeables hovering when they shouldn't be.) so "flipping a few more switches" while in each area now only adds a few seconds where if I waited and had to go through the entire module at a later date just to set up mounts, those seconds now become several minutes per area.
1) Speed of travel: Often being mounted merely makes you travel faster. In many modules this makes sense as you often have to traverse through lots of empty of meaningless maps just to get from your starting point until you reach a dungeon or other destination. Here, it's different. Travel by ship (and at some point caravan/wagon travel ... it's lower on "The List" than other things still) or using the OOC Teleporter options enables you to quickly jump between regions.
Unlike other PWs, while adhering to well traveled roads does not mean you are entirely safe, it is still a lot safer than traveling off them or taking "short cuts" through wilderness areas. A personal "pet peeve" of mine has always been modules where you could "safely" travel between towns by adhering to the gravel paths, but risked instant death (especially at low levels) as soon as you miss a step and stray just off it's edge.
How fast one travels here can greatly impact survival. Most already know that "running" through most maps, even if not dungeons, makes it more likely that you'll get swamped by foes sooner or later. Adding mounts that increase base movement speeds will of course heighten the risks of traveling. Keep in mind that unlike many PWs, foes in pursuit of your character will often transition and keep pursuing you.
Also keep in mind that here, many NPCs that spawn as a group do so in a staggered fashion. IE, they spawn in with a slight delay between the first and last NPC in the group. We do this to make it smoother for folks with older computers that often suffer a video glitch when too many things render all at once, resulting in headless or sometimes invisible NPCs/Creatures.
2) Where would mounts be allowed if added to the module?: Riding a mount thru a town then into the merchant's business of your choice is just plain silly. So as I go through the module in coming months, I am setting "switches" on each area as simple HORSE_ALLOWED/HORSE_DISALLOWED checks.
Then, when a mount is not allowed, what do we do with it?
- If not allowed, will a hitching post keep your mount until you retrieve it?
- Will the characters have to find a stable or other suitable place to put up whatever type of stead they have?
- What happens when "we" ride out to a dungeon? Do we leave mounts outside of it? Is there a chance they get eaten by something if we do?
Currently, I'm leaning to a token to summon your mount that only works in areas a mount is allowed.
3) What happens if you happen to die while mounted?: Regardless of other questions still pending, this one is easy. No more mount. You'll have to replace it.
4) Would Paladins gain a free mount?: If mounts are added, then yes. Above 10th level (That means upon 11th level or higher), Paladins would receive a widget allowing them to call their steed.
- Should a paladin die while mounted or his steed be otherwise killed, a DM Quest will be required before the character can again summon their steed.
- The paladin could also gain a "normal" mount in the meantime.
- Similar rules and requirements would also apply if I decided to allow nightmares for Black Guards.
5) What type of mounts might be found?: In addition to horses and ponies, specialty mounts for certain races and classes would be added as well. Hins and Gnomes might find badgers or boars or other things they could ride. Maybe bears and boars for the dwarfs and even griffons (non flying - no flying mounts at all will be supported) for elven folk. A few options like lizards, dragons and dinosaurs will never be considered. Whine to the DM who runs your local tabletop campaign for one instead.
6) Could characters have more than one mount?: Probably, though only one called forth at a time.
7) Will the riding skills or other feats be required?: Not the default ones NWN currently uses. Penalties and limits to weapon use and spell casting will probably be in effect though.
- Points in Animal Empathy and Intimidate will likely add bonuses to any mounted checks made.
- One's ability to handle a mount when in combat or casting will be recorded and unseen by the player. Their "mounted" competency will slowly increase over time based on their saddle time while exploring, fighting mounted or casting from a mount.
- Simply "mounting up" and then going AFK while as a player you are doing something else while do nothing to increase your competency.
- Activities like foraging and fishing to name a few will not work when mounted either ... if mounts are added.
8) Will mounts be transferable?: Nope. To prevent "gifting" of mounts to characters not able to find or afford them on their own, all mounts will be non-transferable. This also prevents certain mounts that would have racial, class, alignment or even guild affiliations needed to gain them from being misused by others. IE, only a CG/NG aligned female elf will ever have a unicorn here. In the unicorn's case, falling out of alignment would cause the mount to flee and never return if summoned with the wrong alignment at the time.
None of the above is a promise that mounts are being added. Even if I decided definitively to do so today, there's months and months of work just to add them. What I am doing however is setting up a few things now while I review and complete older areas as well as any new areas added from here on to have the needed "switches" preset and ready if ever needed. I'm not just setting "switches" that control "mounts" as I go through the module either. I'm also setting "switches" that control things like the tribal names for humanoids (and giants and other creatures at times), regional weather (which is why if it Rains in Orlbar, it may well rain for most or all of your trip to fight goblins or just explore other nearby areas), wild magic, resting options and many other things most don't realize the complexity of when playing here. I'm also reviewing most areas and tweaking encounters and loot and also trying to take care of both reported and non-reported nitpicks (like placeables hovering when they shouldn't be.) so "flipping a few more switches" while in each area now only adds a few seconds where if I waited and had to go through the entire module at a later date just to set up mounts, those seconds now become several minutes per area.