Riding a Dragon

[KisaCrescent]

Okay so I know that most of the time my friends and I come up with these rather interesting ideas we think would be neat to have added in istaria the Devs generally shoot it down, but we don’t care to let that stop us from coming up with ideas :].

This idea in particular is one that has probably been discussed a lot by the players and devs, and since it’s not in the game it’s obvious that we haven’t come up with some inventive way to yet convince them it could be added. However my friend Shashy Cain came up with a brilliant idea when we were talking about the topic of dragons giving rides to bipeds a few months back. Yes I know this topic again, but hear me out. I’m not sure if someone has come up with this idea or not but Shashy and a few others had some good pointers here.

She came up with the idea of having a saddle and reins item that could be added into the game. This item would be much like one of our scales and could require one or two slots for use, bipeds would also have to wear riding gear. (for the dragon, the back scale, or head scale, or both. For the biped the shirt, pants, or both. In other words this would mean if your hunting and the biped you are going to give a ride to is in a mob area the dragon and biped basically risk damage for a lift, so there’s the first repercussion of this addition.) There could be restrictions or benefits. Like the dragon only has control of where they go when the biped mounts, or the dragon could give the biped the option to take the reins and lead them to needed place.

As we talked my friend Cassidy, SleekWingX, and I believed it would be neat if with this new addition both bipeds and dragons could get a new class. (This obviously being named something along the lines of Dragon rider, or Riders which ever.) And the way you level it up is by going around and riding on a dragon/letting a biped ride you. However high your class is determines how long you can ride a dragon/be able to carry a biped. The lower the level the less time you can stay on vice versa. In other words once your times up the biped either drops off (no fall damage in istaria) or the dragon could become fatigued and be forced to land and have to have the biped get off.

I know it’s a lot to think of, but admit it was a rather intriguing proposal. Again we are aware that the devs probably wouldn’t consider adding this in. we knew this when we discussed it back in November (yes it’s taken one of us this long to say something about it but hey least we did lol) but we still thought it be something fun to put our 2 cents in about so I bid ado.

[Steelclaw]

The idea is interesting yes, though there's a critical piece missing on the tech side.

We don't have a way to take control of a player character in a manner that allows two player characters to move as one. Even if we had all of the animations and body states, the end result would be visually unappealing -- an observer would most often see the rider ahead of, behind of, or anywhere but on the dragon they were riding.

The idea as proposed has some design considerations to address, but the technological limitations make it a non-starter.

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas, though!

[Mimir]

What about follow? (real close) A dragon can follow a dragon in flight, granted there are some issues like trees!!! But I don't see why a biped couldn't use that same game mechanic. It may need to be tweaked a bit but...

And yes this seems like a dead horse discussion and is almost as old as the dragons in Istaria (Horizons) itself.

[Xanthia]

The idea is interesting yes, though there's a critical piece missing on the tech side.

We don't have a way to take control of a player character in a manner that allows two player characters to move as one. Even if we had all of the animations and body states, the end result would be visually unappealing -- an observer would most often see the rider ahead of, behind of, or anywhere but on the dragon they were riding.

The idea as proposed has some design considerations to address, but the technological limitations make it a non-starter.

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas, though!

Could just cheat and make the biped 's model invisible. Or change the dragon's model to include a static ped riding on it's back in riding gear that covers most of its body so that it is not obvious it is not your actual character. The point is to make it just 1 model instead of two seperate ones connected together. My understanding is you guys already use a similar method when wanting to connect a piece of armor on a biped that would alter its shape.

And when the dragon finally lets them "off", you can cheat again by using the command to have that biped teleport to the dragon's current location. So they'll reappear standing next to the dragon giving the illusion that they've flown along side the other player.

Any problems there technical wise?

[Mimir]

why bother with graphics? The point is to get a biped from point A to Point B. How about a quest that both dragon and the intended rider must do (together) to obtain a rider token. The biped must be within the same range that the dragon has for the flying disk.

When the token is activated the biped becomes the dragon's disk and can be flown everywhere that the disk can. And as a bonus when the dragon mines the biped will become filled up with whatever.

Not a lot of coding changes as far as I can see.

[awdz]

I love the idea of bipeds riding an invisible disk behind the dragon. I picture them in a forced sitting position for as long as they are floating behind the dragon; if they stand they are no longer riding & therefore fall.

Then the dragons would get to give a little safety speech every time they took on a rider: "Please keep your hands and legs inside the disk and remain seated at all times..."

[Astair]

I think the class idea is good... But I agree that this riding a dragon thing is really hard to develope.
Giving out the ideas is okay, but you should also think about how to do it, the game developers aren't machines.

[AmonGwareth]

Sorry, folks, but this discussion is as old as the game itself and I can assure you is NEVER going to happen. I am closing this thread.