Cavalry should be able to kill people with a full force, full speed attack. Since the game has realistic aspects to it (e.g. gravity and an attempt at physics), the force behind a charging steed and a soldier's swing combined should be able to kill an in-game player (keeping realistic wounds discussion out because this is a game).
However, meleers should be able to have effective counters against cavalry tactics. Things like polearm rearing help infantry out, but bIumpslashing really puts infantry down. There needs to be a bigger distinction between light and heavy cavalry play. Light cav should be fast, agile, and more susceptible attacks than warhorses, who are harder to turn, slower, and tankier. Bumpslashing needs to be toned down to a point where doing so won't get you an instant kill. If you play to deal damage and keep your horse alive (conservative cav play), you shouldn't be as big of a determining factor in the lives of other players as some badass motherfucker balls out always take the shot guy who risks it all to get a kill. I hope that this promotes a bigger gap in risks v. reward in the life of cavalry players. But for right now, Teeth is absolutely right in the "cavalry kills:skills" ratio.
That being said, I am going to list a few more things because it looks really douchey to just bash cav and not everything else:
- Melee shouldn't tank as hard, nerf fatties (come on, 13 hits?)
- my old friendchers run too fast, stop the kiting
- Ranged too accurate, nerf xbow snipers
- "You nerfed cav, we can't kill HAs!" Reduce the ammo an HA can carry, and make acceleration and deceleration on cav more apparent (i.e. take longer).
- Throwing lances. No.
You can reach 150-200(!!!) raw damage with 2h cav pretty easily, and ~130+ raw damage with 1h cav easily as well.
GF.
Edit: To help clarify my stance on light vs heavy cav, light cav shouldn't really be able to screw up and get away without their horse dying. I've seen quite a few coursers and hunters get hit 3-4 times and get out alive.
Also, does anyone have the number of players cav can knock over/bump in quick succession before coming to a halt?