Everyone here has such good points, but I think that Thunderwolf mounts hinge on the same idea as the rest of them: If bikes/small personnel transport is made available, then yes it would be good to look into thunderwolves as Space Wolves are one of the headlined factions. After all, there is a lovely attention to lore that I see. *drool*

For Space Wolves, a wolf is offered instead of a bike, because it's part of their lore, it's part of their chapter and one entire company devotes themselves to battling with wolves and thunderwolves.

Now, as much as the idea excites me, I would agree that yes, there is great potential for disaster; minions and npc's by your side can offer an unfair advantage when it is meant to be squad based. I agree that unless you are on your ship there is no need for thralls or Fenrisian wolves. If there were any servo skulls, they would likely be outside of player control, and mostly for ambiance. I agree it is meant to focus on the players and their squads.

I think it would be great for people to be geared for fast attack bikes/thunderwolves, entire builds being devoted to that or something of the sort. I'm pretty sure they still aren't tank or lasgun proof. And would it count for point capture? It may not. Oh look, a disadvantage to being on a bike/wolf. Can you dismount? And leave your build behind? Hm. Not good.

Again, I doubt that it will be implemented, I doubt that anything smaller than a land raider/rhino (I doubt even land speeders) will appear, at least definitely not at launch. So what I am saying is this: Let people get this dream off their chest, let us get stars in our eyes and drool over the idea of riding a massive larger-than-a-clydsdale-wolf into battle screaming the emperors name with chainsword raised high. We are all getting excited about this game, and so we will fantasize about things we love. My character may ride a thunderwolf into battle, but not everyone's does after all, bringing down the practicality factor.

Also, for your arguments about 'meeeeeeh! D: people will zerg and do nothing but zerg!' No matter what you do, people will find exploits. People will be jerks. People will mob and be cheap. People don't like to lose. (Not everyone is petty)
World vs World vs World in GW2 was supposed to have commanders leading units around the battlefield. Units. Plural. As in specialized 10-20 man squads capturing objectives and stopping supply flow. Guess what? It became Zerg wars, where the biggest army often won, meaning one giant ball of 80 people running around the same place. People made their entire guild take specific builds and classes, so that only 3/8 classes were in their guild just so that they could take advantage of class exploits and win. They become a ball of players, and if you don't have enough people to match up, you often lose.

This is the internet. I repeat: People will find a way to be dicks.

So for now, why not keep it lighthearted and dream and let the design team chose what they want to do or what not to do.

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I don't know how they would be able to implement Thunderwolves fairly. I would love to see them as well. But I doubt we will, as space wolves can ride bikes as well. Seems unnecessary. BUT, I will keep my fingers crossed anyways

My vision is that this will have vehicles/mounts that can spawned with in game resources. You could spawn your mount, ride to battlefield and if you leave it someone else could take it. This could encourage some players to act as transporters. They would get big ship/mount/vehicle to transport people into battle (ofc they need some reward from doing this [xp?]). I would not like to see people slacking at city acting fansy with their mounts (like WoW.. Disgusting.)

From what I can see, the concept of a mount in general isn't really feasible in this sort of games, they would only be a balance/gameplay issue in terms of AI(you cant just spawn and despawn a wolf like in WoW or any other MMORPG of the sort, and you would have to make mounts somewhat self aware when not used, which could lead to problems) , and it would only be serving a purpose that vehicles in general already fulfill, which is fast travel and transportation.
I understand that its a cool idea to ride wolves and other sorts of creatures in game, but gameplay wise its not worth the trouble nor a priority in EC trying to have mounts work.

Riding daemonic beasts or wolfs? or bikes for that matter? for solo transport on your own? why not?

hmmm i can always just spawn a juggernaut of khorne and he comes out of the warp, and for both sides you just do a call down for a bike.

As for wolfs how would they spawn is the question?

Exactly my thoughts. And getting to the battlefield should not be too easy. Dedicated transporter guys

So I read the thread then I Google wolves and I see there are in 40k big ass wolves which space marines can ride on?

I approve.

Well i have no idea if wolves are as fast or powerful as light Vehicles, but seeing as how people might get Butthurt from using wolves or other animals as mounts or as companions due to other online games like Wow, Rift and WAR using them, I suggest they be used as either special NPCs that can be used to defend outposts and strategic locations (you know like attack dogs) or if a space wolf is KIA then they should be given the chance to take control of a Thunder Wolf (if they have the resources) to enact vengeance on whoever slayed them in battle, instead of like a dreadnought or being healed/revived by an apothecary. This is just a couple of ideas that i wanted to throw out there. The same could be said of deamonic steeds for chaos, squigs or war boars for the orks and idk about eldar, as they normally don't have mounts or companions. Still you never know what people might come up with though in a universe like Warhammer 40k.

The thing is, bikes aren't living things, you can just leave them wherever you want to an the bike would just stand there, but actual creatures can't act like vehicles, so you gotta ask yourself: what would they do if you left them alone, would they just stand there waiting? Would they attack enemies if they saw one? Would that be fair? How dangerous would they be? How much damage would the inflict? How much HP would they have? Would they just despawn after a while? How would you get them in the first place? How different would they actually be to vehicles, like bikes?

As I said, having mounts would be cool, but the gameplay issues you would have to solve to actual implement such a thing would only affect the game in a negative way. And the fact that there is really no need to have mounts in the first place.

I spawn a juggernaut, i run wild with it, now i am not riding it, it goes back into the warp.

I call for a wolf with my horn, whistle or whatever, the wolf pops up from a distance, after done it runs of to somewhere else in the distance.

I think it covers most of the things, some bending and a slight belief in imagination is in order.