One of my loyals got attacked last month, and the wakabi sprung to its defense....for some reason

In FFXI, the Beastmaster's pet only took 30% experience from the beastmaster, unless the beast's level was higher than someone else in the party (in which case, it acted as another member). It's just a bit of mis-information that ruined partying for Beastmasters.

On the topic of mounts, I think they should certainly get abilities and level up with you (as long as they can be revived... to loose all that work leveling them up would be a royal pain).
A horse might learn Stomp and Mule Kick as useful combat abilities (with the ability to break bones)
A squid mount underwater might be able to entangle and constrict enemies, and take nice big bites out of them with those nasty beaks they've got... and could shoot a cloud of ink to get away.
The more exotic the mount, the more interesting their potential abilities... though, I don't know if I'd use a mount or not... playing a Trill, able to fly and all... maybe a pet that I can't ride, but that's another topic.

If feeding mounts is required, some mounts would eat plants, so you don't have to worry about feeding them if they can just graze on basic grass (not herbs) in most terrains. (some might be carnivours, so feed them beast corpses to keep them full)

In addition, there should be a skillset devoted to mounted attacks (like with polearms/lances, maybe even bows/crossbows, and patas)
*pokenudgeStyrtapokenudge*
That's enough for now

well, it would depend on the type of mount. for thing slike horses, they couldnt be ordered to kill things. Doesnt seem feasable. However, if you have something carnivourous, or highly aggressive, say a giant eagle or lion, than ordering it to kill something seems plausible, in my mind. Herbavorious and passive animals would defend if attacked, but they wouldnt attack unless bothered.

A properly trained warhorse can be extremely dangerous, herbivore or not.

1. Make mounts able to defend themselves. At least from newbies. I don't need xp for my mount killing the kid, but when they go after mounts to either be jerks, get easy xp cause they don't fight back, or don't know any better, you lose a big big investment. At the least, grant cities stables that can store the mounts or keep them in a safe room equivalent...I don't want people to be able to hide there though...just the mounts safe. Let the city charge people, even different rates for citizens and non, or by guild, etc. Force cities to pay upkeep fee (so they have to charge something or pay from another income source).

2. Make gallop better then sprint. In a world where many many people can already teleport, summon, etc etc movement is already cheap. There never was a good reason in my mind that gallop and sprint were equivalent. I suggest giving gallop one more move before it gets the 'hasty' message, a la armband of celerity in achaea (I think?). Not a HUGE difference, but enough to make it a worthwhile skill.

3. Add a pacing type skill (above gallop) that would allow a rider with the skill to follow another rider or sprinter even when they gallop/sprint. Coordinated cavalry movements would be way cool.

4. Make it useful for everyone in some way. I spent 300 credits transing riding in achaea, only to have (MANY years later) my racial ability suddenly stop working while mounted. Chalk it up to realism or balance as you might, but it sucks to have that much investment become totally worthless, as nothing in riding COMPARED to levels of health and mana regen.

5. Mounts with special abilities would make it VERY cool. Something that can transverse planes (not instantly...even as slow as teleport nexus, which was made appropriately slow (thank you!) would be enough) would be highly interesting. Especially for those of us who can't travel via our nexus and have to travel to Glomdoring or find a rift to go anywhere. Flight would be handy. Burrowing would be cool. Can flying mounts 'gallop' in the air? I've never tried.

6. Some implementation of mount training would be neat. Maybe you can buy a relatively untrained mount for cheaper, but they'd be slower to recover balance, slower to gallop, might disobey your command (!!!), run away from home, suck at trample, etc. And give us ways to train them that aren't just 'follow me while I gain xp so you won't suck ass.' Something that takes time, dedication, and effort. Maybe even something like fishing, where you play games with the creature. Depending on the games you choose, you have a better chance to increase particular 'stat' of the mount (damage, speed, balance recovery, damage resistance, attack vs. newbies damage, whatever).

7. Personalization and accessorization (is that a word?). The more we can name, add saddle bags to, armor or robes or blankets to pets, the more we will like them. Mounts in achaea were big for a while, until people realized it wasn't THAT cool to have 50 things following you around unless you were an occie. Then...they just sat there, drooled, got in the way, and served as objects for the persistant snuggling. Oh, and got killed by newbies because apparently a wooley mammoth (who in reality took an entire TRIBE to take down) can't kill a newbie who just died to a young rat :ph34r: Congratulations, you just waisted 125,000 which you could have used to buy like, 4 credits!

Yes, i do have to agree with all of that. And yes, a properly trained warhors eis dangerous, but im saying that by nature, a hors eisnt inclined or has the desire to attack a living thing as a tiger or lion would.

As a transed rider and a frequenter of the Unicorn, a legendary steed (still hoping for a flying wild one or tame to appear), reading over this post I had some ideas.

Gallop - Temperary Celerity, which means no delay message for a certain amount of rooms.

Jousting - Add a proficiency for lance or what not. (If already in, sorry I haven't checked, stuck at work)

Training and Raising your mounts - Good idea for RP and coded purposes. Perhaps your flying steed (higher than legendary) starts of as a giant roc baby, still able to hold you but only you and cannot fly for long periods. Eventually the distance and weight capacity increases and at peak condition a type of TRACK and SWOOP skill from old IREs comes into play. Also with training would come loyalty, whistling becoming more effective, etc, etc, but not making it into some knights falcon or something.

More later, boss is comin.

I was thinking something along those lines - city stables, where they'd keep your mounts in a safe room (either each player boarding a mount would receive a key, or there'd be some sort of system where you 'check in' and 'check out' your mount), possibly feed them, and perhaps sell food/equipment. For an annual fee, you could board your mount there as long as you wanted.

And as for the food thing, has anyone found anything normal for their mount to eat? I'm not sure what wakabis eat in the wild, but I'm assuming it's not fishcakes..I'd love to see some (edible) hay appear, etc.

Oh, and I'm not sure if this is a bug, but Acquisitio doesn't work when you're mounted. I've got the ability to scoop items up from horseback, so I thought I'd be able to use it.

Sprinting in athletics is already completely without delay message, I imagine gallop would work the same here.

now that im thinking of it, up up to pony in riding. what other mounts are available?

Most of the villages now have one kind of mount or another. Keep an eye out, because legendary steeds/winged and several other mount types will be popping up shortly.

Yay Fain.

I think I'll still stick with a cuddly wakabi, though.

I remember saying that the Wakabi looked an awful lot like Chocobos in closed beta and a Divine telling me to Shhh!!! Wonder who that was? *evilgrin* I never really got into riding as I didn't see much of the point, I can walk fine with my own two feet to spend exorbitant amounts of gold on these mounts just to have a novice kill them.

yeah..I really think mounts should be able to defend themselves properly. There should also be a forced dismount skill somewhere out there, sinc eit would eb lgoical that a person can break both legs of a mounted rider, and they could still get away due to the mount.

i have an idea.........if you buy a mount on a certain plane, and take it to anothe rplane, i think it should be warped by the sudden change in envrionment. for example, let's say i bought a horse from nil. Then i come into the prime material. It suddenly turns into a horrific, half-rotten beast!

Some skills I think need to be added:

Flee:
------
SET <> FLEE HERE, UNSET <> FLEE
When your mount feels threatened, it will attempt to make its way to this location. It will cut your mount's current fatigue level by half.

(It might take some time for your mount to get here, it won't be instantaneous. So if the attacker is adamant, they might be able to pursue it and kill it. You will get a message saying, "Your mount was attacked, and ran to A steep slope" or something.)

Steedally:
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STEEDALLY <> <>
Bestow your allies with the trust of your steed. If you steedally a friend, they will be able to order your mount to follow them, and will be able to ride your mount.

Carry
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PUT SADDLEBAG ON <>
PUT <> IN SADDLEBAG
If your steed is at least a light horse, it will be capable of transporting goods inside saddlebags, which can be bought from the various villages. The fatigue drain of your mount will be a little higher than usual when carrying.

Doubleride
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Your mount will now be able to carry two people at a time, providing they are at least a medium horse, and the second person is considered a SteedAlly.

Kick
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Your mount will now be able to defend itself with a heavy kick.

Herbs
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FILL <> FEEDBAG WITH <>
Your mount will now benefit from the various herbs you put in its saddlebag. These aids range from regaining fatigue or health faster, and being able to carry more weight than usual.

I agree with those. however, fo rthe carrying and stuff, why note a mule, sinc emules are extremely strong? And i think the mule skill should be replaced by donkey, then mule, and take out pony. i mean, come on, if yuou have your pony icly for 20 years, it's not a pony asnymore, ya know?

Actually, a 'pony' isn't necessarily a young horse. It's just a term used for horses under a certain size. As long as the horse doesn't grow bigger than however many hands a pony is, it'll be considered a pony forever.

hmm you said more to come, and more never came

Wakabis who are able to carry tae'daes around must be extremely strong, too, so they should be able to carry a lot of things.
But each time I see Cronus riding around on his wakabi I pity the poor animal.