Getting Your Festival Mount - Some Important Changes

[Budgeford]

Just an FYI:

Some major changes were made to the Festival Mount exchange system, to reflect both changes to the festival and changes to how mounts are being handled now.

Formerly, horses and ponies could be bought at Hengstacer Farm and elsewhere in Middle-earth for around 4 gold, usable after the quest to gain the riding skill was completed (level 35 or above). All mounts purchased afterwards cost full price, unless you opted to trade them in. This could be done through a quest that provided a receipt for a mount, which could then be traded for another mount. Using this system, only one mount could be in your inventory at a time, but there was no additional cost. Another aspect of this was that all seasons’ festival mounts were available at all times.

The changes are as follows:

• A specific festival vendor, Will Peartree, has been moved to Hengstacer Farm to keep mount purchasing more localized.

• Each season’s festival mount is only available for the duration of the corresponding festival. This is for consistency reasons with other seasonal rewards in our game (other festival items, anniversary items, etc.) and also to keep vendor lists simple as more mount rewards start to come out. We want your new options to stand out!

• The cost of a mount:
-1 Festival Run token (from winning the horse race)
-12 festival barter tokens (These are given out as rewards for playing the festival content. This number may change someday as more content comes out, and tokens are easier to collect)
-1 “Document of Mount Ownership” – this is like a proof-of-purchase for owning a horse/pony, giving the discount to those who are eligible for it. This can be purchased from Will Peartree, the same vendor that sells the festival mounts.

• All festival mounts can now be collected at a discount by using the above system. If the festival mount is your first steed, it will cost the full price. If you already own a horse or pony, however, you will receive the discount, and the mount will only be 1.6 gold.

[TheOneRinger]

That's a nice discount! I am excited!

[Unique]

Question:

If we have a festival mount in our inventory but not a regular mount will the next regular mount we buy after the expansion cost us full price or will it "know" that we already bought one at full price and traded it in for the festival mount and only charge us 1.6 gold?

[Skigorn]

Originally Posted by Unique

Question:

If we have a festival mount in our inventory but not a regular mount will the next regular mount we buy after the expansion cost us full price or will it "know" that we already bought one at full price and traded it in for the festival mount and only charge us 1.6 gold?

Having purchased a mount at full price (and converting it to a festival mount) will give you a passive trait for the discount. I believe this occurs once a mount is converted to a skill in SoM.

[Ransroth]

Originally Posted by Unique

Question:

If we have a festival mount in our inventory but not a regular mount will the next regular mount we buy after the expansion cost us full price or will it "know" that we already bought one at full price and traded it in for the festival mount and only charge us 1.6 gold?

When you convert your first festival mount to a skill, you should automatically acquire the Mount Discount passive skill, and thus will get discounts on future horses.

[Unique]

Originally Posted by Ransroth

When you convert your first festival mount to a skill, you should automatically acquire the Mount Discount passive skill, and thus will get discounts on future horses.

Good deal, thank you

[Jadzi]

Originally Posted by Unique

Question:

If we have a festival mount in our inventory but not a regular mount will the next regular mount we buy after the expansion cost us full price or will it "know" that we already bought one at full price and traded it in for the festival mount and only charge us 1.6 gold?

What will happen is that on launch day, ALL mounts will become consumable items that grant the corresponding skill. The first time you use one, it will add a passive trait that grants a 60% discount on ALL purchased mounts, be they from Hengstacer or reputational.

To my knowledge (and from other's accounts), this will include festival mounts you currently have.

Edit: Ran fast. D:

[koifishkid]

Originally Posted by Budgeford

• The cost of a mount:
-1 Festival Run token (from winning the horse race)
-12 festival barter tokens (These are given out as rewards for playing the festival content. This number may change someday as more content comes out, and tokens are easier to collect)
-1 “Document of Mount Ownership” – this is like a proof-of-purchase for owning a horse/pony, giving the discount to those who are eligible for it. This can be purchased from Will Peartree, the same vendor that sells the festival mounts.

Previously the festival horses cost 6 festival barter tokens, not 12, plus the race token. Why the change?

[Budgeford]

Originally Posted by koifishkid

Previously the festival horses cost 6 festival barter tokens, not 12, plus the race token. Why the change?

There's more content for each festival with every book release, and theoretically you'll be able to get your tokens much faster now. That's the hope, at least! Prior to Vol. 2 Book 9, there were not many Yule-related quests, and they were on a daily timer. All of the old content is still there, but there's more to do now (and the new content goes much faster).

[JohnQPublic]

• The cost of a mount:
-1 Festival Run token (from winning the horse race)
-12 festival barter tokens (These are given out as rewards for playing the festival content. This number may change someday as more content comes out, and tokens are easier to collect)
-1 “Document of Mount Ownership” – this is like a proof-of-purchase for owning a horse/pony, giving the discount to those who are eligible for it. This can be purchased from Will Peartree, the same vendor that sells the festival mounts.

• All festival mounts can now be collected at a discount by using the above system. If the festival mount is your first steed, it will cost the full price. If you already own a horse or pony, however, you will receive the discount, and the mount will only be 1.6 gold.

So, we have to trade in all the items listed AND pay 1.6 gold to get the seasonal mount? Or am I reading that wrong?

[Budgeford]

Originally Posted by JohnQPublic

So, we have to trade in all the items listed AND pay 1.6 gold to get the seasonal mount? Or am I reading that wrong?

Correct -- but this has actually always been the case. The festival horse has never been free. The difference is that now there is a discount for each additional horse you want (with the new mount system).

[Ransroth]

Originally Posted by JohnQPublic

So, we have to trade in all the items listed AND pay 1.6 gold to get the seasonal mount? Or am I reading that wrong?

Assuming that you already have the mount discount, it will cost you the festival tokens, and 1.6 gold to buy the Document of Mount Ownership.

Previously it would have cost you the festival tokens and 4.2 gold

[GregJL]

Originally Posted by Budgeford

There's more content for each festival with every book release, and theoretically you'll be able to get your tokens much faster now. That's the hope, at least! Prior to Vol. 2 Book 9, there were not many Yule-related quests, and they were on a daily timer. All of the old content is still there, but there's more to do now (and the new content goes much faster).

Just to be sure about something...you can ONLY get the horse token by winning the race now? Or can we still build up 40 or so tokens and trade them in for a horse token?

[Budgeford]

Originally Posted by GregJL

Just to be sure about something...you can ONLY get the horse token by winning the race now? Or can we still build up 40 or so tokens and trade them in for a horse token?

Tokens will be coming only from the race, but the race has been totally revamped (it will be a very different race from the Festival Run in previous years). The token trade-in we did before was to give folks a way to get the festival horse/pony while the races were turned off.

[gildhur]

Originally Posted by GregJL

Just to be sure about something...you can ONLY get the horse token by winning the race now? Or can we still build up 40 or so tokens and trade them in for a horse token?

The big token barter was only while the race was broken. They're fixed (though implemented differently now), so yes, you have to do the race again.

EDIT: /shakefist Budgeford