Mounts getting a boost.

Greetings fellow Hyborian Adventurers!

There has been a lot of activity lately, both on these boards and
in-game, due to the way Mounts are currently performing in Age of
Conan. While there has been little-to-none official feedback on the
subject so far, I am happy to finally be a part of this community and
able to shed some light on what I perceive as the most pressing
concerns.

1) Mounting up doesn't increase my speed at all!

Without going into complex and, quite possibly, boring details it's
worth mentioning that we've tracked down the bug that caused this, and
that it has been fixed internally. Basically what happens is that, when
you mount up, your new movement-speed isn't being read correctly;
resulting in your speed being exactly the same regardless of whether or
not you are mounted. Unfortunately I can't promise an exact date when
the fix to this issue will be applied on the Live servers, but I can
offer you a functional work-around; after having mounted up simply
draw, or sheathe, your weapon. By doing this the game will once again
attempt to read your movement-speed, and it will be applied correctly.

2) My Horse is too slow (even after the work-around)

If this is one of your concerns, you will be happy to know that I am
personally feeding our stock of proud hyborian steeds some extra
vitamins this week; which should result in an overall speed increase
for all types of Horses. The increase won't, by any means, be massive;
but it should go a long way towards making these mounts more useful and
desired.

3) My Rhino/Mammoth is too slow

Yes, they are both very slow creatures in-game. I know that this has
been, and most likely will continue to be, a topic that is being
discussed to great length; but a decision was made shortly after new
year that, for the sake of balancing things out, we needed them both to
have the same movement-speed. The War Mammoth is still slightly harder
to kill, and the Killer Rhino is still a bit easier to maneuver, but
when it comes to moving forward they will both run at the same speed.
With that being said, I am happy to say that they're also being fed
vitamins, albeit a smaller dose than the horses, and will as a
consequence move slightly faster.

4) My Rhino/Mammoth is useless outside of certain scenarios

If, by useless, you mean ineffective in PvE combat scenarios or as
traveling mounts, then yes; you are indeed correct. These mounts were,
from the start, designed to be a fearsome weapon in siege warfare and
not something you would climb to the top of just to either ride from A
to B or slaughter a group of unsuspecting picts. When it comes to their
usability in siege warfare we would like to put off any further
balancing until guilds around the world have started par-taking in this
activity on a more or less regular basis. Tweaking something "just
right" is never easy, and making something "overpowered" is equally bad
to making something "nerfed".

5) I need to purchase Basic Riding in order to get my Mammoths/Rhinos special abilities

If you don't plan on purchasing Basic Riding for any other purposes, I
would advise you to save your money. You were meant to get these skills
automatically when claiming your pre-order mount, and just as intended
this will be the case once the respective bug-fix goes Live.
Consequently, players whom have purchased Basic Riding already will
have to do another /claim after the patch introducing these changes in
order to get the respective abilities back on their Ability page; and
players who aren't meant to have access to these skills (i.e. players
without pre-order mounts) will find them removed from their Ability
page.


Allow me to end this, my very first post on the official forums, by
saying that I am thrilled to see the amount of feedback coming in
already, and that I try to read through as much of it every day as my
free time allows. I might not always reply, even in the future, but I
do my best to listen to what the players say and take it with me into
our design meetings as suggestions for what to implement something new
or how to implement something already existing. Naturally, I cannot
accommodate every wish of every player, but I will at least endeavor to
make the community feel that it is being listened to.

Thank you all for reading!




__________________
Svein Erik "Sharum" Jenset
Funcom Oslo AS

Mounts

• The Killer Rhino and War Mammoth have received a
  minor increase to their trot and gallop speeds. The trot (default
  movement speed) should now be slightly faster than a jogging player,
  while the sprint should only be slightly slower than a sprinting player.
  
• The Standard Horse has received a moderate increase to it's canter
  and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be
  equal to a sprinting player, while the gallop should be slightly faster
  than twice the speed of a jogging player.
  
• The Armored Horse has received a moderate increase to its canter
  and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be a
  slightly faster than a sprinting player, while the gallop should be
  moderately faster than twice the speed of a jogging player.
  
• The Swift Horse has received a substantial increase to its canter
  and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be
  equal to twice the speed of a jogging player, while the gallop should
  be only slightly slower than three times the speed of a jogging player.