DEVs, Let the ExBirds "fly"!

[Jynx]

The model is far too large otherwise they probably would have done that.

[Welsper59]

Well, OP specifically mentioned flight would only be at top speed.

Well yeah, but that's not exactly "fast" by comparison to flight speed. At least not fast enough to justify gliding. Don't we Sprint at ground mount speed or around it? I guess they could get rid of the gliding animation for ground use, but this is also ignoring the wingspan length issue lol. Gotta make them hover a lot higher than normal mounts, which makes going from moving to stopping extremely unusual and choppy due to model height difference with that and standing neutral lol. I don't think any mounts have actual deceleration animation, so that's probably not going to be a thing.

Not saying it shouldn't or can't be done, but just that if looks are the problem, it'd look arguably more ridiculous than the actual running with its legs.

[White_Devil]

God no, the walking is fine as it is, if it was "flying" then it would just look stupid and it would feel incredibly slow, do any of you groan when you get the manacutter in your mount roulettes in ARR areas?

[Niqote]

I see the size of the wingspan being a real problem.
They are huge, I'm not sure anyone wants to see Idyllshire filled with glowing wings clipping all over the place.
Also, I like the resting animation for the Bird, It means I can see the unique mounting pose my character has as its too hard to see in flight, with the bobbing up and down.

[hobostew]

I think they should make them hop when on the ground. It would still look ridiculous but at least then it would be pretty entertaining to watch!

[Jandor]

I would support banning most flying mounts altogether in non flying areas. Because 'muh immurshun'

(seriously though most of them look stupid on the ground)

[AegisKiddo]

Ok this is not a "open flying in 2.x areas" post, let me get that right out of the way.

As you know most ground mounts have 3 animations; standing, walking, and running. So lets do this. In standing the Lanner stands as it does now. In the walk, let it again walk as it does now. At run though, let that bird spread its wings and use its flight animation. Like the Ahriman it would simply use the animation not actually fly. I think it would just be nice.

If you like the idea like the post, the DEVs lately have been saying they watch that. So help me out. And to any DEVs or mods out there, let me know if this is doable.

This I'm okay with, but we all know SE doesn't have the technology

[Alestorm]

I have the Ashes of Al'ar in WoW and it does what the OP wants the Exbirds to do. In all honesty it looks kind of dumb when it can't fly.

[DracotheDragon]

to be honest if they do this i would love it if they did it for twintania as well, the boss in t5 hovers off the ground and looks amazing i remember having a severe giggle fit over twintanias goofy ass waddle run when i first got her.

[Kurogaea]

You think being stuck to "flying" just a few inches off the ground wouldn't look just as ridiculous?

You mean like the ahriman mount was for months? Nope. :/