Once upon a time I created a thread in the suggestions forum. In it, I bitched about cavalry, stating that while balanced, the means of achieving that balance was fucked up. I pointed out the the only horses being used with great frequency were the extremely fast and maneuverable ones, with bundle of sticks lancers astride them. I proposed that horses get their speed and maneuver nerfed, but their HP buffed. More survivability, less ninja pussies.
Fuck that, its a dumb suggestion.
We already have horses with high HP and armor, but low speed and maneuver. There is no need to fuck with the stats of the most popular horses (the unarmored ones). I was right when I said that cavalry was balanced, because it is: their horses are fast but killable, and are easily raped by projectile weapons and long pointy shit. The problem is, cavalry itself is unbalanced; there is no Yin to the Yang, for the Yang is too fucking expensive to realistically consider using.
The current pricing of horses is flawed. Instead of making the best horses the most expensive--as one might expect--the horses are priced regarding style. Tank horses are really expensive, but nimble horses are affordable. This doesn't make any fucking sense. Neither horse is better than the other, they're just different sides of the same coin. Different paths to the same destination. Yin and Yang. Superman and Batman. Penises and helicopters. You get the idea.
Here are the horses listed by price. I seperated the tough ones from the fast ones with pretty colors:
Sumpter, Rouncey, Palfrey, Steppe Horse, Desert Horse, Courser, Arabian Warhorse, Destrier, War Horse, Large Warhorse, Cataphract Horse, Charger, Mamluk Horse, Plated Charger
When one looks at the list of horses, arranged by price, there is a clear line drawn between the fast horses and the survivable horses, and thats wrong, for survivable horses are not BETTER than fast horses, merely conducive to a different style of play. I'm not saying the Destrier should be as cheap as the sumpter, or that the Courser is the exact equal of the Mamluk Horse. I am, however, saying that horse prices should be altered so that they reflect the relative best-ness of each horse, rather than the percentage of the horse's body which is covered in shiny metal.
Maybe if the manly horses were affordable, we'd see more manly cavalry players, and less naked lance cavalry bundle of sticksry.
Don't try to refute my arguement by harkening back to "THE DARK DAYS OF THE TANK HORSES". Upkeep exists now, and I'm not suggesting the charger should cost 5 gold to repair. Don't say "heavy cav does the OP because they big", they're slow, vulnerable, can't turn on a dime, can be stopped by a polearm thrust, and their riders are still soft and squishy. Don't bring up an innacurate historical/realism arguement like "horses had wings during the middle ages (1800-1674), and there was grass (pre-industrial grass), therefore gold."
PS: Don't ask me to come up with exact prices for heavy cav. I have no idea how the upkeep system works exactly, nor am I appropriatly skilled at attaching amazingly specific (random?) numbers to items based on their quality. I hate numbers.
