Request: More realistic/detailed horses! (Future $ DLC?)

Gameplay
#1

This started as a post in the “add realism” thread. But I thought it deserved a post of it’s own.

Horses are so critical to medieval life. Having more realistic horses would add hugely to this game. And would also be unique in video games.

I’d be more than happy to pay for such big feature changes in future DLCs.

  • A trained war-horse charging into battle should be brutally effective.. I’ll just leave one of the most bad-ass horse charge scenes in cinema to make this point for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tgi-j56ueU :slight_smile: So damn cool. I never get tired of watching that scene.

  • Build a relationship with your horse. You can’t just jump on and off random horses and have them all act the same. The longer you have stuck with one horse, the more co-operative it becomes and the more it responds to your commands. A trusted companion dying or being stolen or whatver should be a really big deal in the game. A good horse should be invaluable (and worth a lot $$$).

  • Horses are very nervous animals. They should be freaking out (tossing you off their back and bolting) if they are attacked, or something “scary” happens. Especially untrained horses.

  • Horses can be trained and progress in skills and perks like the player character. At the start of the game a simple farm-horse can act as a pack-animal, and speed your travel from A-to-B, but would be a liability in battle (because it would freak out and toss you off), but useful for running away. Conversely, owning a well-trained war-horse capable of charging into battle should be a late-game, huge-perk and hugely increase your character’s status and conspicuousness.

  • Horses need care. Food, water, shoes, and basic washing (like you do). Leaving them on a long lead to eat grass and drink next to a river should suffice. Paying a stables in a city to take care of your horse for periods of time (hours to weeks) is also an option.

I’m not asking for a horse-simulator here, just a nod that they are actually alive and have a mind of their own. Horses are not cars.

2 Likes
#2

Horses are nervous and bolt currently. Bad weather, fights etc. Dunno if this is different for each horse but many horses I had previously were afraid of bad weather etc. Now I play with Jenda with perks and I see those kind of events more rarely but can still happen.

#3

I haven’t experienced that yet. But then, I haven’t been playing it very long either.

What I was getting at is having a mechanic … the horse could have a “panicked” meter, or something like that, that can spike easily, and goes down slowly. The higher it is, the more it will heed it’s own instincts instead of what you want it to do. If it’s really high, the horse will basically bolt (randomly) if there is some escape, or if cornered/surrounded, it would rear-up, buck around and kick, and probably throw it’s rider off in the process.

#4

Did the reek of jenda makes you harder to get reputation or debuff your charisma?

#5

Haven’t seen a horse trample yet

#6

It would be awesome if you could get a war-horse with a “trample” perk that just smashed over the top/through enemies. A band of bandits on a road wouldn’t have a hope.

That much said, a non-war-horse will go pretty much anywhere but over a person. Which is why I suggested they rear-up and buck around if cornered. Horses are just not naturally attack animals. They’re prey, not predators. They’re flight animals. They have to be trained to charge into people, it’s against all their instincts.

#7

I have Warhorse Jenda. Besides that, thinking police mounts. They will run over pedestrians

#8

Yeah it would be pretty sick. :slight_smile: Like the clip I posted in the OP. Savage. :muscle::racehorse:

#9

Not as I can recall. I think it’s just for roleplay purposes the fact that this horse is supposed to smell. Beyond that there’s no stat reduction. That’s probably because your horse is not connected with your stats directly.

#10

I know this is an older thread, but I still wanted to put in my two groshen.

I agree with everything the original poster said. Horses need more care and mechanics associated with that, as well as more dynamic animations and instincts. Though the current standing ones (non-riding) are borderline passable (I mean…they don’t even blink), the riding ones are not. Walk, trot, and canter look absolutely ridiculous, like the horse suddenly turns into a robot giraffe. As much effort as they put into historical accuracy also needs to be put into the horses.

Same with coat colours and appearances. Why do mares, geldings, and stallions all have the same model? Why are they all the same size and have the same appearances i.e. Al-Buraq is an Arabian stallion, but looks the same as all the other horses and looks nothing like an Arabian horse. Base models all have the same regurgitation of coat and tail colours, which make for hilariously inaccurate coats and just comes off as lazy. Why did it have to take a few modders to fix coat colours, offer us beautiful coats like paints and duns and blue/red roans, and do what the devs couldn’t (or wouldn’t)?

I do hope the devs see the consensus among the community that the horses need some major overhauls. We are not happy with the way they are now, and it breaks the immersion they tried so hard to create. Horses aren’t an afterthought in this game, they are symbols of prestige, important modes of transportation, and critical partners in battle. We should be able to form those relationships with our horses, and they should have more personality to them.

We’re not asking for something crazy like motion-capturing a horse. We just want a better, more dynamic care system and improved animations and appearances. We’ve been wanting this for years, and we hope the devs will take this into account.

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