Discussion: Cosmetic horses and stable

I have a meta steed. He has 250 health and +68% runspeed. He is better than all my other mounts in every way except, I don't like the looks of him. When I am ridding a horse I love to ride the mathom horse or the cremello steed or the painted skeleton horse I won. But all of those steeds are inferior to my meta steed either in health or run speed or both. In places like the moors those really matter. So I suggest making a option to allow us to choose which horse skin we want to go along with the best stats we have. This would go into how the speed and health are related to riding ability of the person.

How to implement this? We could have a horsing stable like the wardrobe were we can put horse skins into and get out a better horse. This could also be a way to make a horse wardrobe where we can share horse skins with our other characters. This could be bought for TP and give the option for all your character to use that skin. This could also introduce horse riding skills that could be bought for TP. The skills would be 250 health and +68%, so if your new character doesn't have a meta deed steed they can buy the skill to allow them to ride as fast as a meta deed steed. This could also be done for goats. This would also be a way to increase revenue for horses that were once in the store. I bought the Steed of Minas Ithil a while back. This horse is no longer is stores and is no longer generating any revenue. By making me pay TP to share it with another character on my account I made after the steed was removed from stores you can gain some money for a steed that is no longer generating revenue.

There have also been a number of complaints about gold in the game. Frankly we have way too much of it and no real place to spend it. All gold is passed back and forth from people and not spent to game vendors. One solution would be to give the stable a pricey upkeep cost relative to the number of horses being kept there. You could then allow us to bypass paying for a month of stable upkeep by spending some TP.

Another thought, maybe we could buy even high stats for the horse in store. We already have tomes that increase your mount speed for X hours. If you made the speed a factor of rider ability you could sell boost like a permanent +75% mount speed. I know I would probably buy that on every character. A 300 moral buff would also be tempting.

I completely agree. Turbine, please add a cosmetic system for mounts. I would gladly pay TP for this option.

Implementation - Other MMO's (like EQ2) already have systems in place for cosmetic mounts. It acts almost exactly like the cosmetic outfit system functions in this game. You have a slot for what mount you truly have equipped, and a cosmetic slot for what mount appearance you are using. This seems like it would be the simplest way to add the functionality, though extra functionality (like a horse "stable"/wardrobe) would be nice too.

There are so many beautiful faction mounts in this game that I would love to use, if only I didn't have to lose 6% speed to use them. Please reward the designers of those mounts by letting us show off their creations in-game, without suffering a penalty for it.

I would also like to see a cosmetic mount option in the game.

This would be a great feature that doesn't have a downside. I imagine that there are quite a few players that are using horses only on account of their stats. It could also result in players seeing other players riding a wider variety of mounts in the game.

I would like the tack on horses to be cosmetic outfits that can be changed and dyed. I'd pay Turbine Points for that!

I've been wanting to dye my horse for a while...please let us!!!! It makes me sad that my fall steed doesn't match my fall outfit anymore since I dyed the outfit and the horse is stuck as is.

And I love the idea of a horse skin so that when we buy a fast horse it can still be pretty.

I would be willing to pay for both of these options!

/Signed

Currently we see only some certain types of horses around because these are the only ones people use because of their high speed and morale. With the implemetation of a cosmetic horse system many players will once more be able to use their old mounts again without loosing any stats on their mount performance. This is also a good idea to implement on stable mounts since the ones currently used are a bit ugly compared to our "shinny" ones.

I agree. Why have so many detailed and varied horse models if only two non-purchased models are the 'best' mount? Everyone riding around on the same horses gets visually dull.

Making portions of the horse tack (blanket? flag, if present?) dye-able would be an excellent step, even as a 'cosmetic option' or a special 'mount tack dye' (although would strongly prefer an in-game dye or at least 'mount tack dyes' that matched the in-game dye colors) that was bought from the Store. This could even be extended to a 'mount dye' if feasible. Of course, while this sounds so simple to we players, I suspect there may be a real issue about those minor details of doing it.

Imagine that - a Store item that is actually being requested!

I think they are making some cosmetic options or at least different mount armour for our war steeds with the next expansion