This horse back riding is to me a real pain in the ****!!!
Stearing is a horror by using A & D. Why not set the mouse for stearing left and right and A & D to look around???
That would make all so much better.
Please change that in the next patch, or make it an option or so
Thanks!
I actually really like the riding controls. Other games use the same controls so it feel intuitive to me.
I actually love the horse riding in this game to bit…I only hate I can’t treat pebbles with a carrot every now an then, or give a pat on the neck.
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I just use the arrow keys. Simple.
If you’re on PC: your only option at this point is to use a PC game controller. Then switch back to keyboard once you dismount. You might also want to consider using the console command window and turning on the reticule directly. This will help you better align where Henry’s facing relative to his horse’s head direction. If you’re not comfortable entering dev console commands, then consider installing an enhanced reticule mod from Nexusmods. But it’s easier if you just do it by console. Takes less than 10 secs to do.
i find Pebbles controls similar to Roach, and it is awesome to look whereever you want during the trip
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Do you use the horse auto pathing? There’s no steering. Just point horse head in path and hold the button, the horse steers itself
yes and no.
In towns I ride manually to not bump into every single person on the road. Also when running long distances, I love to gallop
In either case, i find the roads to be easily wide and straight enough to succeed with very little actual input.
Other times i cruise along with the auto pathing, taking in the view.
The Area between Rattay and Neuhoff/Ushitz is my favourite horsie-path
I have no problems riding horses. It was tough in the beta, but I practiced and now I nail it… I suggest you do the same
At first never auto pathed (even when riding at night under torch). Now, I do it more, example galloping as you said. I find it to be a little mechanical… you pivot like you’re on some old roller coaster or amusement park ride
I agree I’m used to using the mouse to steer and the keys to side step but on horse back I should completely rework my muscle memory ? Makes no sense at all.
Also horses are not rigid, they are articulated from neck to tail and bend when they turn and can even make short turns. In KCD I feel like I’m on a boat not a horse .
Would be nice to have that mechanic, and mouse would make sense to determine how abrupt you want to make the turn, a bad horse and/or bad rider would have a harder time doing so.
And don’t get me started on colors, they’re completely unrealistic, genetically impossible for most of them. Grey horses be it the dapple grey like pebbles have black manes and tails. Black or very dark brown horses like Capon’s one also have black.
And I could continue but it would take ages.
Not a huge deal as it doesn’t break the game but it’s immersion breaking, I feel like looking at a toy horse or someone painted them.
Agreed. BUT, I don’t like that after a few seconds of looking away, if I don’t move the mouse, it auto-centers my view back to the center. Always comes as a jolt when I’m busy trying to enjoy the scenery.
PLEASE Warhorse, get rid of this. I can’t see any reason why my view should be forced back to the center.
Would be even nicer --and even more realistic-- if they built in a die roll chance your horse would unseat hal if he:
1.had a low riding skill. Or
2.was trying to ride a stolen mount like for one of the Millers. Picked the horse with the fastest sprint rating and stamina. Mount was clearly labeled as a WARHORSE btw. Henry was still able to mount and ride this horse with ease—despite fact he was still a level 1. LMAO. A war desrider like that should’ve immediately thrown Henry–likely maiming or even killing him. And it shouldn’t matter if this side quest is done after Henry gets the horse for Lady Stephanie or not. Realism is Henry’s skill set is insufficient to let him ride a high temperment war mount like that without adequate training. Or
3.was trying to ride any mount (owned or stolen) possessing a superior stat rating relative to Hal’s riding skill. Like Lady Stephanie’s spirited filly Hal learned to serenade the whole way back to Talberg. After learning that silly song (which grated the ear after hearing it everytime he mounted), the horse should’ve still acted unpredictably. Because the return trip to Talberg had to be the most boring event of that side quest. The 1 bandit wayfarer event didn’t do much to spice it up. Or
4.became gravely injured while on horseback. Just like the way Hal was officially LEVEL O–yet was able to mount an experienced horse, undertake and survive a LIFE CHALLENGING ARROW TO THE THIGH during his erratic flight from Skalitz—all without falling from his horse? Oh wait—MQ plot armor saves the realism of that moment in Henry’s day. Given the fact his horse was also likely being hit/injured by the horsemen archers (and/or any pikemen/soldiers whom Henry was unfortunate to be stuck by in the escape), his horse should’ve had a probability to rear in panic and thrown him off. But whatever…
Yes that’s true, riding a warhorse is not given to anyone,.
And the flight from Skalitz on horseback even with the adrenaline rush and even with an easy horse (Olena is no warhorse) is completely unrealistic. Well to be fair the saddles of that time were of some help, with an English saddle (the modern ones) no way Henry would have made it. But still even with those saddles that cradle you it’s an incredible feat that not many would have managed…if any.
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See this is EXACTLY my point. It’s where the realism of the MQ goes on vacation.
It’s extremely hard to believe that Henry–the privileged son of the town’s upstanding (and only) blacksmith–would’ve learned to ride a horse in his sheltered 15-16 or so teenage years in Skalitz. Henry’s riding skill in the Run quest is exactly ZERO. Yet he was still able to successfully mount and flee the town–while bleeding out from a lethal arrow strike–all the way to the neighboring castle hold in Talberg? Without even falling off once?? Lmao.
Especially since his father clearly discouraged him from practicing the martial arts. In that final cut scene he clearly admonished Henry against secretly sword training with the sword master. He also explicitly advised him to use his wits and charm (not the way of the warrior) in life. And he also encourages him to follow in his footsteps and become a smith, a safe and lucrative profession that would keep him in the top of the peasantry aka middle class Villen. Henry would’ve been familiar with horses, but NOT enough skill to have ridden them. Riding horses to deliver them to the smith and/or customer is the job of a Stable hand, NOT a smith. Henry’s father would’ve made and shoed horses and most likely not directed his son to ride. Besides, the risk of falling from a horse was enough to maim/cripple a smith. This would introduce a life altering risk that could jeopardize a master smith’s livelyhood–never mind that of his n00b apprentice son.
What they SHOULD have done in that long pre-tutorial, was exactly just that. Have Henry’s father teach him how to shoe a horse aka OLENA. Then send him to ride the mount to Teresa’s at the mill. That way, the player would’ve had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the ride controls. And have how to read a horse’s stats. And --to appease the difficulty purists–NOT have Henry be told HOW to escape other than RUN!
As a part of the difficulty challenge, the player would have to remember an potential escape route could be using the horses (OLENA) which he’d left near the miller in the flight attempt. Introducing the riding skill that way would’ve been far more realistic IMO. May have also encouraged the player to help Theresa out more by using the horse whistle. That would’ve distracted the Cumans attacking Theresa and redirected them towards Henry (and earn you a related achievement in the process). This would’ve made his initial horseback mount significantly harder though. I accidentally ended up stealing one of the Cuman’s horses (which was much faster than Olena). This gave me a sprinting advantage over the slower Cuman archer mounts. So Henry didn’t bleed out as much in the long run.
Off topic:
It’s also clear that his father was much more than a smith based on his fighting skill as Skalitz was being sacked. His father seemed very familiar with Radzig, who suggested Henry be given sword training. But Henry’s father immediately interrupted that conversation and said no. So IMO, this suggests Henry’s father was a former soldier/merc or even Knight?? who served with Radzig for the King? And at some point, made the life altering decision to lay down his arms, and turn to smithing in Skalitz under Radzig’s employment. His former experiences as a Knight/fighter may have been so negative, that it inspired him to discourage Henry from following that path.
Completely agree with you. I even suggested something similar to you on stem forums even thought the point was not exactly the same.
I was pointing out that it’s pretty bad to have a tutorial where you cannot take the time to read and understand instructions and have the time to try and fail a few times before getting the very basics right.
But a big chunk of the tutorial is under heavy stress, like run. After dying 4 times just to be able to reach the horse I was too stressed out and frustrated to be in the right state of mind for the riding tutorial.
Would ahve been better to be able to ride even at a slow pace (no sprint) earlier when things were peaceful.
But your point is very valid also about realism.
Makes the idea even better, shame it’s too late to change the scene.
Riding controls are perfect just have to ride like a son of a bitch till ya get used to it like everything else in this game. When riding skills go up its a lot easier like lockpicking that everyone seems to be whining about but gets easier. Big hint here is to practice. Try looking around accurately with wasd, that would be a damn pain in the ass while riding around with your mouse and how would you go forward? Push mouse forward and the horse walks, move forward a bit more it trots, back and forth it canters then to open her up bang ya mouse up and down tha faster you do that the faster she goes 
Horse controls as they are are perfect.
Whether or not Henry should be able to ride is a separate issue from horse controls.
WASD is how you move Henry. Why this should be a problem when translated to the horse is unclear. The only chnage is that the mouse is not used to chnage direction of travel, rather it is the direction the player’s head is pointing.
This same protocol has been used for literally over a decade in PC games when in a vehicle. Not only isn’t it hard, it’s nothing new.
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I found the horse quite easy to control to be honest. Also in regards to the realism of it, honestly the realism isn’t bad. As someone who has ridden many horses in my life (not just occasionally, as a sport and in competitions) you really don’t fall off as often as you would think. (Most of the time you would only fall off if the horse straight up threw you or the horse stumbled or whatever other freak accident could happen) I maybe only had 1 or 2 falls a year, maybe 5 in the first year or so. In a pinch a completely unskilled person could, feasibly hold onto a horse if they were really desperate, unless they had never seen a horse before or someone riding one, they’d a least have a vague idea of how it would go, if not being skilled. It wouldn’t look graceful or great and maybe they’d fall off once, but it is completely possible. My first time riding a horse was on a friends farm, they had a pretty nasty tempered horse that decided to start galloping the moment I got on him. It was a short distance and I managed to hold on and I was only 7 or 8 at the time.
Mouse riding? Hell no.
You control the horse how you control the player. Mouse is made to look, not steer.