[SPOILER ALERT} "The Prey", etc., When You Already Own a Horse

Gameplay
#1

I found this quite interesting.

EVERYTHING BELOW IS A SPOILER

Summary

So I wandered the world some after I woke up in Rattay, and managed to acquire enough loot to buy and pimp out a decent horse… Then I got on the Main Quest track. Pretty soon I was hunting rabbits with Sir Hans. And here’s where the game surprised me.

My 1st playthrough, I didn’t have a horse and and all the cut-scenes reflected that. I figured that was always what the cut-scenes would show. And so Sir Hans gallops off chasing a wounded boar and you have to track him down on foot. You find Sir Hars’ dead horse and dogs, and Sir Hans himself tied to a tree, prisoner of 2 Cumans. You thus have the option of sneaking in and freeing him without fighting, doing stealthy murder on the 2 Cumans, or fighting them straight up, whatever suits your fancy.

But if you have a horse, things are way different. First off, the cut-scenes show you keeping pace with Sir Hans on your horse during the chase of the boar. Then the cut-scenes show the chase running into the Cuman camp. Sir Hans’ horse is felled by an arrow and Sir Hans does a face-plant on a rock, KO-ing him. At which point the cut-scenes end with you fighting the 2 Cumans. After you kill them (which isn’t that hard), you go check on Sir Hans who wakes up just then and is quite impressed that you took out the Cumans. He gives you much less shit later as a result.

Thus endeth “The Prey”

Then, without so much as a by-your-leave, off you go to war as a response to the raid on the Neuhof stables. They’ll give you Pebbles but your own horse will certainly be better in all respects so ignore Pebbles. From here on, Pebbles is NOT “your” horse. It will not come when you whistle and will always respawn back at the Rattay upper bailey whenever you turn your back. Also, you inventory remains with your previous store-bought mount.

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#3

I wonder…was anybody at Neuhof pre-raid?

#4

Yup. Pre-raid, Neuhof is a fully functioning village pre-raid. It has a much larger selection of horses (because most get killed in the raid) and all the NPCs are alive as well, including Smil. Ginger’s there, too.

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#5

interesting. the cutscene certainly indicates the quest was made with horse option in mind, but the thing about the horse being taken away is a shame. hope they fix that as it does seem like a bug.

#6

Anyone that did the quest without a horse, most people, couldn’t have failed to notice the immediate failure of running down the boar quest. There was also the condescending way Hans talks to you because you don’t have a horse. So yes, they were actively encouraging you to go out and get one the next time you try it.

#7

No, the horse you bought remains your horse. It’s just that owning a horse already makes the gift of Pebbles useless to you.

If you already own a horse before they give you Pebbles, the horse you had first remains “your” horse. It comes when you whistle, it carries your gear, it remains where you dismount it even if you leave the area or sleep, and can be sold.

Pebbles, however, becomes an “ownerless” horse. “Ownerless” horses can be ridden without being considered stolen, but that’s all you can do with them. They don’t come when you whistle, they have no inventory, they teleport back to where you first found them when you turn your back, and you can’t sell them.

So, for instance, after I finished “Ginger in a Pickle”, I returned to Rattay and found Pebbles still standing there in the upper courtyard. So I rode my “owned” horse to the mill, parked him, walked back to town, and rode Pebbles back to the mill, too. But even when I was sitting on Pebbles, the only horse inventory I could access was on my “owned” horse, and only my “owned” horse would come when I whistled. I could not switch “ownership” between the 2 horses. After tiring of messing with this, I left both horses at Peshek’s front door, went inside, and slept all night. When I woke up the next morning, Pebbles was gone and “my” purchased horse was still there. So I went back to the upper courtyard and sure enough, Pebbles was back in the same stall as before.

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#8

Wow… any decent horses worth buying, i.e. better than the survivors?

1 Like
#9

Do you still take the -30 reputation hit with Rattay Soldiers? Mine dropped from 50 to 20 after rescuing Sir Hans and being given Pebbles (no horse beforehand). Everything I read said that’s supposed to happen because you’re a greenhorn and being gifted a horse and the soldiers don’t respond well to that. The same sources also claim that you regain that reputation after finishing “Ginger in a Pickle”, but alas, I never made it that far because they released the abomination that is v1.3 and I haven’t been able to play since v1.2.5.

#10

It depends on which qualities you’re more interested in.

I don’t know. I only rarely look at my rep so don’t know what it was before. But my overall rep in Rattay is like 70-80 and every demographic is quite favorably impressed, so if I did lose rep with the guards, it wasn’t enough to change their behavior towards me.

I find this rather surprising. EVERY citizen of Rattay hates Sir Hans when I ask them about him (and I ask alot, to farm Speech), so you’d think that they’d have lynched me for saving him when they had a chance to be rid of him :smiley:

#11

I did exactly the same today. I was half expecting a bug where my very expensive horse would disappear to make space for Pebbles, but everything went smoothly just as you describe.

It’s good that these quests consider an option where the player already has a horse since it can happen very naturally: You initiate the Mightier than the sword quest at the apothecary on your first (conscious) day in Rattay, decide to go to Uzhitz, pass two horse traders along the way and one thing leads to another. :slight_smile:

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#12

I went to Nohauf (however it’s spelled) late game after doing a quest to try and get Talmberg to try and buy their horses again and had to ride one of Smil’s horses, well his widow’s horse since he’s dead, in a race with the winning horse determining who Divish will buy horses from.

After winning that race and heading back, she had a very nice selection of horses. I bought my final horse, Al-Buraq, a tier five horse, from her and once I got it geared with noble horseshoes, saddlebags, and such, I was zooming across the countryside super fast.

Loved it.

#13

I personally think Warhorse Jenda from Merhojed is the best horse in the game (certainly the most expensive one) but it depends on what you consider important in a horse. In my second playline, I’ve decided to stay with Shemig from Neuhof. He’s tier 2, but surprisingly good. Plus the legend of of Horymír and Šemík is one of my favourites.

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