Mounting Concerns

Hiking across the planets on foot was not just the preferred way to explore the galaxy, but the only way.

There were a few shuttleports run by the planetary governments, but the wait times and locations were not always conducive to getting one to the desired location.

Until the day cam when certain creatures could be equipped with a saddle and turned into a mount. Master Creature Handlers would be given this ability. The professions very brief day in the twin suns was about to begin!

Vincer had a few pets that would qualify for mounting. One was Cu, a shortened version of his species called Cu-pa.

And the second was Deuce, a so named because it took Vincer two very comprehensive scouting trips across almost the entire planet of Tatooine to locate a dewback baby for taming. The second time was the charm when the ornery dewback was brought home to meet the squad and the other pets.

Deuce was considered "ornery" because of one incident he would never be able to live down.

While the squad was hunting on Dantooine, it suddenly became apparent during the middle of a wild fracas that Deuce was no longer standing amongst the group and chomping on whatever everyone was shooting at. Vincer triggered his pet command for Deuce to return to him, and waited.

Moments later, Deuce crested a hill - and came barrelling at us all... with two very angry giant pikets on his tail! We all remember that doofy Dewback grin on his face as he ran for his life straight for us. We ran. We fired. We laughed when the dust settled.

Deuce was just a Dewback in a game not unlike any other Dewback I'm sure. But he earned his own unique personality that day. Putting a saddle on him was not going to be easy.

To complicate the matter of mounting, Vincer wasn't a master Creature Handler yet. On the day that the mounts were going live, he had to finish his final box to earn the mastery. Figuring that there would be more babies to be found on Tatooine then any other world that was prudent to be solo on, Vincer dropped in and went into a creature taming zone that is now almost a blur.

V would tame a pet and use it to earn experience until the next baby was found. Rinse and repeat until he finally earned his stripes and was recognized as a Master Creature Handler. Always casual when it came to the business of his own skills, Vincer had put on an experience grind for the ages.

The first order of business was to saddle up the pets, starting with that naughty Deuce. He was agreeable to the idea and went with Vincer around Tatooine to explore the world as if it was new again.

That was the correct phrasing, because exploring the worlds from atop a creature mount made everything seem fresh and new. Others in the squad were gifted mounts. Vincer's profession was opened up to new opportunities that did not exist before. In a little more then a week, his bank account grew to over a million credits.

But the money meant little in the long run. There was great satisfaction in being able to contribute to the galaxy by providing happiness by way of mounted pets to others. SWG always worked best when everyone had an important role to play; a balance of 'give' and 'take'.

It would not last for Creature Handlers, who would be knocked down by the arrival of vehicles, and permanently when they would be removed from the game.

But for this short time, they enjoyed a special time in SWG's history, when the game was added to, not taken from. When things looked up, and never back. When there were goals to work towards for the sake of others first, and satisfaction achieved was achieved second.

When mounts reduced travel times, it did not make the galaxy smaller. It made the galaxy closer.

These were good times.