I'm among those that find cavalry hopelessly screwed up in cRPG.
They have laughable charges, their horses can't take a beating etc, but they are also way too controllable.
My suggestion is simple:
Boost:
Charge damage
Horse hitpoints
Speed
Lance length (not as much as the LoC though)
Nerf:
Maneuverability. A lot. (enough so they can't stop or avoid a correctly timed and drawn pike when at near full speed.)
Reasoning is simple.
* The pro-cav in cRPG moves their horses around with millimeter precision. This is not realistic for anyone who ever rode a horse. They turn around on a dime, hitting you in the back about 3 seconds after you missed them. (Steppe horse at least) They can insta-stop..
* They get shot down from 2-3 hits from an archer or thrower. (But mysteriously survives a pike to the head..)
* They dodge arrows like a Ninja.. (This is the worst part, but vital for them of course, so I understand they have to do it)
* They run around in towns and mountains and rooftops and whatnot. Places where a horse would never be preferred.
Pikes would be MORE dangerous to cav, but cav would be MORE dangerous to non-pikemen. This could lead to more teamwork among cav players. (As the benefit is bigger, and 1 pikeman can only deal with 1 horse. Cav in general would be as powerful as it is now, except they wouldn't be super ninja accurate, and if you had awareness, you would be safer. This would reward awareness among infantry players, as well as make cav more of a "use your brains" thing. Been playing as cav on my alt, and there is a lot of power in the mere overview over the battlefield. (Splitting groups, kiting etc..)
If the maneuverability get nerfed enough, they might get equal back in power, and we may see the dawn of the horse charge once again. (Except against a group of prepared pikemen, of course, and as it should be.)
A practical example of a situation with my suggested changes. (Including fine tuning lance length)
* Horseman is riding with lance couched towards a pikeman. Both are really nervous because there is a microsecond for both to decide between life and death. (Should be slightly easier for the pikeman, because Horsemen get way more training in lancing than the average pikeman, I think that it is currently to easy for the pikeman though.)
* The horseman knows he has no chance of turning away last minute. It's hit or die (horse die at least)
* The side-thrust becomes really tricky because of the more straight path of the horse. It becomes only for the expert. Correctly judging the speed of the footman and the horse.
* 4 cav vs a group of infantry with 2 pikemen in them. They charge simultaneously, but knows that 2 of them will most likely be dehorsed, but it's hard to tell who. They will surely kill, or destroy shields, as well as trample damage the whole group.
What do you think?
(Also: a lot of horsemen will try to compensate by adding more riding skill, which is good because they'll have to sacrifice their footman skills for it, becoming more specialized. My toon can 1 shot lots of enemies with a couched lance.. That's with 0PS and 1 Polearm prof.. (HA)
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
login