Mounts

[ScritchOwl]

In alot of survival games a mount is allowed for the character.  This should be the case for mid sized creatures. Some bugs would be to large to be used as a mount they could be a possible pack animal but riding would be difficult. The bugs cant be to small which would be a factor.

Aquatic mount

Boatman. While not a true mount it could be used like the seaglide from Subnautica. It shares it's bubble with you. Beware the koi as it will often kill this mount while targeting you.

 

Aerial mount

Firefly. It can walk and fly. You also can turn on the glow. Bonus points if when you walk up to it there is a brief light pulse like the unlocking of car via fob.

 

Land mounts

Soldier Ant. Has the ability to move faster. Front chop action for cutting lv2 red lv3 black. While riding you can enter respected mounds without hostility.

Larvae. Straight forward mount. You can order it to dig and hide to avoid it getting hurt. Front bite is level 1 chop

Bombardier. Has a lob of blister fluid it can shoot.  You can charge this to create a targeting reticle like mortar rounds.

Orb weaver Jr. Allows to shoot a web. Since they included the ability for them to climb we you can use this to climb vertically however there is a cool down of 1 in game hour before it's two rounds recharge. He is a baby after all.

 

 

That's it while I love the idea of a ladybug and a bee those are just to large compared to the player. They seem to be a better use as a caravan or wagon puller.

[dereavy]

I absolutely love the comparison to "unlocking of car via fob" XD

Mounts and the ability to fly seem to be a very end game goal to me since I just unlocked ziplines and am happy with that progression where a lot of the game is in going from A to B and exploring the world.

Fireflies would be the perfect tool to navigate the world in the dark, and definitely a progression tool to reach end game challenges and content. The ability to fly will render a lot of content obsolete. So it would be limiting if all future content of this game had to take flying into account. This would render challenges like "How do I get to the birdbath?" obsolete, just fly there, boom, hedge navigation challenges cheesed.  So I'm all for this being true end game content (Maybe can come in usefull to navigate the woods treetops?).

Land mounts seem very fun.

How would we get the creatures to become mounts?

I've thought of a few steps that could work into subduing the creatures to turn them into a mount.
Bringing their health all the way down, knoocking them out, trapping them or feeding them special food.

Edited February 7, 2022 by dereavy

[ScritchOwl]

There is one easy function to implement on the flying mount. That is include a max hover height.  The firefly has a max hover height of around those wooden post by the pond or just above the grass. Adding your weight to the mix and lorewise you could explain the lack of free flight while limiting access to certain areas of the map.

Not to mention mosquito/bee zones could turn deadly if a mosquito dismounts you forcibly.

 

Another thing would possibly agitation with the mount. I can't see you charging a wolfspider on the back of a soldier Ant like a pint sized don quixote. If a you take a mount to something it is afraid of or it takes to much damage (ride into the haze) it bucks you and runs to it's safe zone.

 

As far as taming goes I say stay to the omnitec story. Maybe there are collared bugs at certain points that the lab techs had hatched during the course of experiments. This would make the associated mob skittish but not hostile. You could get a quest line for each mount including healing damage (bandages) feeding and fixing it's shelter/making the saddle. This way it won't be to much on the toes of arc and would separate that these mobs are special

[Boneless pizza]

if this taming method was like ARK, it would be way too over powered. so being able to do it as part of the story sounds like a great idea.