From what I've seen in the last months a lot of people in the forums and in game don't like the current state of mounted archery. These are the main reasons players give:
Points 1 and 2 are confirmed to be changed/fixed by devs but with no definite timeline.
Point 3 is supposed to be the build defining feature of MA so it's better to tune them in another area.
Point 4 is regarding PvE and current PvE requiers so much work to make it right even ignoring MA that it's unfeasable to get something workable in the near future.
Point 5 is directly related to horses being easy to kill in general, with the vague possibility that breeding will be added somewhere down the line and change stuff.
All of these points are tied to each other and to other in-game systems so I was thinking of a way to find the most common related issue and fix it in a way that wouldn't drastically change the existing PvP balance and other game systems. It would also be best if it wasn't a huge new system that takes a lot of dev time and is half-implemented again to make things worse. I think the way to go is to fix horses being so easy to lose in PvP.
The often proposed "Just give horses more HP!" won't be good for the game as that would make meaningful openworld PvP extremely tedious or downright impossible. Fatmages would ride around with 500 copper and just heal all way from town to town, any group will have to have someone with a good hammer to dismount opponents. Also don't forget that MAs will have access to those same tanky horses.
The similar "Give horses better armor" is a bit better since that promotes crafting and use of resources, but I think that this will end up changing nothing for those who can't make better armor and making the wealthy clans that can afford spending so much high end mats on horse just annoyed about their big PvP fights first phase being longer.
So I propose another solution - give horses special HP when they are in mercy mode (knocked out, 0 HP but still alive):
Any horse that get's in mercy mode in PvP gets special mercy HP so it takes the same amount of damage to finish it as it took to get it to 0 HP. Mercy HP slowly regens over time. Healing mercy HP is not possible or has much lower effect to avoid possible exploits like using the horse as a shield forever.
This allows the initial engagement to go the way it does now since horse HP is the same. But those who are attacked by the MA will have some time to attack back and get his horse to 0HP without a guaranteed loss of their horse. The MA can still win, the MA can still kill the opponents horse if he really wants, or if the build is really not good against a mounted archer. But now the MA has to risk his horse getting KO'd against builds that are prepared for him.
Other PvP scenarios benefit from this too since it will be enough to whack an opponents horse once or twice after it is KO'd to ensure he won't ride away. It removes the incentive to always kill all horses that makes a lot of PvP wins pointless atm as the winners horse is usually dead too and he can't transport the loot.
This shouldn't have a big impact on any other form of engagement except for fighting in tight spaces where a mercy'd horse physically blocks a melee attacker for twice as long as it does now. But I think that is acceptable since that is just a small change in terrain usage and tactics at this point. Maybe someone will make a horsewall and hide 100 mages behind so they can overheal the incoming damage, but that's more funny than a viable day-to-day tactic. In any case if heals are a problem they can be limited to just regen.
I've seen some variations of this system work well and not so well in other games but even in the worst cases it wasn't as bad as running half the map on foot or suiciding every time a passerby wants to have a lil fun at your expense.
This can also be expanded to all pets and will probably make tamer life much easier, and it makes sense since more pets will be mountable in the future. But I am afraid it will open way to some exploits that I can't see at the moment.
Note: All these changes take place only in PvP to avoid PvE and falldamage exploits.
Any ideas what can be added or if I missed some obvious flaw?
- Too accessible - 300 points is enough to fully spec into it, even less for builds that already use archery or controlled riding.
- Too easy to aim from horse - aim wobble while moving on foot is way more pronounced than on mount.
- Too easy to choose PvP fights - MA have the luxury to disengage from a lot of unfavorable PvP situations while still doing damage.
- Too easy to PvE in general - Riding circles trivialises most mobs. I've even seen people say it's "the only reasonable way to solo PvE".
- Annoying/No counterplay - Many say that it's easy to chase away an MA with longbows/magic or "ignore" them with high end armor but the point is that an ignored or chased away MA is often free to kill your horse and ride away. Or reengage after healing his horse. Essentially harrasing with no real benefit to himself, which is at least annoying. This is the part that has little or no counterplay depending on build.
Points 1 and 2 are confirmed to be changed/fixed by devs but with no definite timeline.
Point 3 is supposed to be the build defining feature of MA so it's better to tune them in another area.
Point 4 is regarding PvE and current PvE requiers so much work to make it right even ignoring MA that it's unfeasable to get something workable in the near future.
Point 5 is directly related to horses being easy to kill in general, with the vague possibility that breeding will be added somewhere down the line and change stuff.
All of these points are tied to each other and to other in-game systems so I was thinking of a way to find the most common related issue and fix it in a way that wouldn't drastically change the existing PvP balance and other game systems. It would also be best if it wasn't a huge new system that takes a lot of dev time and is half-implemented again to make things worse. I think the way to go is to fix horses being so easy to lose in PvP.
The often proposed "Just give horses more HP!" won't be good for the game as that would make meaningful openworld PvP extremely tedious or downright impossible. Fatmages would ride around with 500 copper and just heal all way from town to town, any group will have to have someone with a good hammer to dismount opponents. Also don't forget that MAs will have access to those same tanky horses.
The similar "Give horses better armor" is a bit better since that promotes crafting and use of resources, but I think that this will end up changing nothing for those who can't make better armor and making the wealthy clans that can afford spending so much high end mats on horse just annoyed about their big PvP fights first phase being longer.
So I propose another solution - give horses special HP when they are in mercy mode (knocked out, 0 HP but still alive):
Any horse that get's in mercy mode in PvP gets special mercy HP so it takes the same amount of damage to finish it as it took to get it to 0 HP. Mercy HP slowly regens over time. Healing mercy HP is not possible or has much lower effect to avoid possible exploits like using the horse as a shield forever.
This allows the initial engagement to go the way it does now since horse HP is the same. But those who are attacked by the MA will have some time to attack back and get his horse to 0HP without a guaranteed loss of their horse. The MA can still win, the MA can still kill the opponents horse if he really wants, or if the build is really not good against a mounted archer. But now the MA has to risk his horse getting KO'd against builds that are prepared for him.
Other PvP scenarios benefit from this too since it will be enough to whack an opponents horse once or twice after it is KO'd to ensure he won't ride away. It removes the incentive to always kill all horses that makes a lot of PvP wins pointless atm as the winners horse is usually dead too and he can't transport the loot.
This shouldn't have a big impact on any other form of engagement except for fighting in tight spaces where a mercy'd horse physically blocks a melee attacker for twice as long as it does now. But I think that is acceptable since that is just a small change in terrain usage and tactics at this point. Maybe someone will make a horsewall and hide 100 mages behind so they can overheal the incoming damage, but that's more funny than a viable day-to-day tactic. In any case if heals are a problem they can be limited to just regen.
I've seen some variations of this system work well and not so well in other games but even in the worst cases it wasn't as bad as running half the map on foot or suiciding every time a passerby wants to have a lil fun at your expense.
This can also be expanded to all pets and will probably make tamer life much easier, and it makes sense since more pets will be mountable in the future. But I am afraid it will open way to some exploits that I can't see at the moment.
Note: All these changes take place only in PvP to avoid PvE and falldamage exploits.
Any ideas what can be added or if I missed some obvious flaw?