130447-mounts-moving-forward

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I finally collected the last mount. With the Protostar Contractually Obligated Settlement finally spewing out a Dreg Trask, my mount collection is complete, with the exception of the Data Drifter of course...The problem is, looking back, I'm not all that proud of my collection.
 
Let me back up and set the stage a bit. Now I could wax poetic about my past experience with mount collecting, and I want to, I really do believe me. But most of you out there probably wouldn't even read it. So here's the short version.  
 
I collect mounts, its a passion of mine. Used to do it in a past MMO, the acronym of which is also an expression of amazement. I would like to see more of the difficult but achievable type of mounts from that game, while avoiding some of the missteps that caused me to fall out of love with mount collecting. The shades of which I can already see in the F2P transition.
 
Talking points:
 
Meaningful pursuits: Perhaps my most favorite mount in any game, has to be my Onyx Netherdrake.  This mount came from WOW's first expansion, The Burning Crusade.  Some of you might be taken aback by this because well, it's classified as a reputation reward. But how you got it, combined with how it looked made it a very impressionable mount for me.  The daily zone itself had a story running through it, it changed as you leveled up your reputation, and while it wasn't part of the game itself, I always imagined the pet baby Netherwing that followed you around on the island grew up to become your mount. Kind of like another of Wow mount, the Venomhide Ravasaur, which took 20 days to mature. 
 
The point of all this is meaningful pursuits.  I knew what I wanted, I knew what I had to do to get it, and I put my nose to the grindstone and achieved it.  But most of all I had fun while doing it.  The only comparable experience I have in Wildstar is the Strain Hoverboard from Blighthaven. Both of them are reputation rewards, but those of you who remember Blighhaven rep when it released will know that grinding that reputation wasn't fun...it was painful. 
 
Random Drops:  One of the mounts I was never able to achieve, also from Wow's Burning Crusade, was Attunmen the Huntsmen's Fiery Warhorse. It had a ridiculously low drop rate from one of Karazhan's first bosses. And this relates back to a big part of Wildstar's reward system, which is basically RNG. 
 
The drop rate of an item can be tough to get right. Too high and the item is too common place, too low the item is too rare and therefore frustrating. We've already seen some random mount drops added to Wildstar.  From shiphands, we got the Alien Velocirex/War Woolie and from Contracts we have the Marauder Orbitron and the aforementioned Dreg Trask mounts.  Now the mounts from shiphands I was very happy with. It was pretty much the first time I could hunt for a mount in game and I was thankful for it. However, I would have liked to see the drop rates lowered just a bit.  I see multiples of the mounts on the AH on any given day. Makes them feel less special.  Which brings me to the contract reward mounts.  While very cool looking, I really didn't need to do anything to get them.  They just appear randomly in my inventory with all the pomp and circumstance of a wet noodle. 
 
Exclusive Mounts:  This is a very sore topic for me; And mainly the purpose of this extravagant post.  In short this is where my craving for collecting mounts goes to die.  As soon as there is mounts put up behind pay-walls, or special event codes, or other tom-foolery, my collection is now incomplete.  There are multiple instances of this in the last few years of World of Warcraft. Exclusive Blizzcon mounts, pvp reward mounts, Trading card mounts, mounts for playing other games in their library, and worst of all is mounts from the store.  It in essence takes something I like to do in a game, and drags it out into the open to be exploited.  
 
Now Wildstar hasn't made many of these mistakes...Yet.  They've come close to be sure. The mystery box promotion, I thought that was the end for me. Luckily, they made all those items trade-able in-game. So I wasn't forced to make real-world purchases just to finish my collection. And I'm sure many of the mounts available on the Store will be available for omni-bits and its already been said the Fortune coin rewards will be trade-able as well. So while I'm excited that I won't have to spend money to get mounts I'm a little bummed that they won't be as special as mounts loot-able in-game. 
 
The one exception to all this is the Ikthain Crawler mount. It's taken weeks of irrationally rationalizing the situation into something that's tolerable for me, but I still get a nervous tick in my neck when I think of that empty slot that will soon be in my collectibles UI. I understand some things I'm not going to get, but it doesn't mean I have to be happy about it either. 
 
Moving Forward:  When I log into my character, the first thing I do is open up my collectibles UI and pick out a mount for the day.  I see my eldan hoverboard which I got for free, I see about a dozen or so mounts that I've purchased with plat, a few for Elder gems, one each from renown and glory, a couple from random rewards I was going to do anyway, and two I actually went out and searched for. In the end I just pick the one that matches my costume best and set out to the contract board. 
 
If anything comes out of this relaunch of the game, I hope you guys/gals put some resources into putting real, tangible rewards that are meaningful pursuits into the game going forward. Its something I've been craving ever since that 'other' game lost me as a player forever. Give me a Lopp chain quest that gives out dynamic dailies in search for shineys, enough so I can eventually be trusted to ride a Kurg. Give me a rare spawn boss that can appear on any of the three continents that has a chance to drop a mount. Give me the mount flairs that are locked on the Pvp vendor, no reason just give them to me. *wink wink*. What about a baby Girrok that follows you around like a pet till it grows up to become a mount. Even better, mounts for collecting mounts...
 
Now I've got myself worked up in a frenzy...
 
In Conclusion, I'm very worried about the F2P transition but CRB has worked very hard to put many worries, including my own, to rest. It seems they know what they are doing and are moving in the right direction.  I just hope that moving forward with the game I can see more mounts with better incentives, so I can have even more fun doing something I enjoy in a game I enjoy. 
 
Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I have a tendency to get a bit long winded sometimes. If you have any thoughts, or meaningful responses, inflammatory comments or the number to a mount addiction support group, I'll be keeping watch in the replies. 	
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I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HATES EXCLUSIVE ITEMS!
 
THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!
 
Though I'm more of a costume guy....	
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			So far all the mounts I've seen in the F2P beta are things that at first blush you're going to hate, but I think you'll end up being ok with.All the mounts from Fortune Coins are RNG and you pay for the coins, BUT they're also freely tradeable and auctionable.There's one direct buy mount, but I think this is also giftable, so someone who doesn't mind buying one could arrange a trade ingame to gift it to you who doesn't. I'm hoping they put in a way to secure exchanges like that so there's not a burden of trust on the buyer, but at least the gifting option is there from the start.The new treasure system though is where I find my solace. No mounts that I recall, just costumes and pets, but I choose to see them as an indicator of future plans. While as far as we know the conversion itself won't come with a raft of PvE content, at least they're not being stingy with putting all the new shinies behind the paywall, and I think this healthy mix will continue going forward. I'm looking forward to the Shade's Eve testing coming soon, though I don't expect a mount there I wouldn't be surprised to see one.My point ultimately is, while they may be providing access to mounts in some of the same ways those other games do, they're modifying their systems so someone who wants to purely play for it can still get them. You get to choose what you do to earn you ingame money then spend it on this, which isn't that far removed from doing something special to get a mount.While I agree with you those Burning Crusade mounts you loved so much had a certain cachet to them, I think you're looking at it through rose colored glasses, because doing the multiple grinds and competitive daily areas to get them was not much fun. Yes there was a semblance of a story and some fun bits to it, but it wasn't anything approaching an engaging experience. I'd prefer Wildstar focus on getting their core systems right, getting their interesting content done right, and then leaving players free to choose what they get with those rewards. To me, a paywall isn't any more onerous than a 2 month grind of the same dozen or so daily quests, and there's nothing that's going to make that kind of content wall engaging, especially when considering multiple playthroughs.	
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Eh... wasn't the
 
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...  eldan hoverboard  ...
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My vision of the past may be a bit rose tinted, I'm not denying that. But even a semblance of a story, and a few fun bits are miles better than Blighthaven was when it launched.  Remember, we had 3 quest dailies...Three! Which if done every day meant you were grinding for at least 3 weeks straight to get to max if I remember right. Plus they were all group quests. 
 
@Elo'naa You're right the Eldan Hoverboard is an exclusive mount from the Deluxe Edition.  For a bit of clarification, when I bought into Wildstar, the Deluxe edition was on sale for the price of the Standard Edition, which I rationalize as a pseudo-free upgrade. However, I think they are adding the Deluxe rewards onto the cash shop. If I'm wrong feel free to correct me. Which removes the exclusivity of the mount, and if it has a omni-bit price, the monetary restriction as well.
 
I am glad to hear all the cosmetic stuff isn't simply being funneled into the Cash shop, and like I said at the end of my OP. CRB seems to know what they are doing, and many of my worries seem to be unfounded. However, my point still stand that I have a yearning for meaningful pursuits in this game that isn't being satisfied. 
 
I currently need an incentive to play my main character.  Right now, I use him exclusively for raiding. My reputations are maxed, I have all the contract rewards I want, and time spent in Pvp is time spent respawning. For me, adding the types of hard to get items, especially mounts cause I'm weird like that, would scratch that itch. 
 
My original post was a, perhaps overly long, inquiry into the possibility of the creation of a specific type of content that would excite me as a player; and further increase my enjoyment of a game that in recent weeks has grown static. It wasn't meant to achieve anything more that that.
 
Thank you for the feedback so far.	
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