i have no idea why they decided to change it in crpg.
Well, I'll explain. In the first iterations of crpg (before wipe), cavalry had:
- less HP then now (unarmoured horses were mostly at 75-80ish hp, now much better with heirlooming)
- effectively much less HP, because archers back in the day had more then double the damage than now with double the rate of fire, and sniper crossbows were 120 pierce, arrow speeds and accuracy of archers was much higher (it was archers, back in the day, owning any open battle with 35-1). Throwing was also much more effective.
- much smaller charge values (you would get slowed noticeably by bumping into infantrymen, at slower speed a infantryman could stop your horse by moving in front of it)
- virtually no bump damage
- less speed and maneuver
You can imagine there were few cavalrymen; some people (two people) on a sarranid horse, using a lance, did well. Normal, less agile horses were much harder to use, partially because outside of a clean backstab people could just jump into the horse to avoid being hit by your weapon.
Now the balance has swung a bit too much, imo; while the old days of "haha I oneshot your horse across the map" archery won't be missed, the current tankyness makes it all too easy. There are no "oh crap archers spotted me" moments in crpg, which was why in the old days few people did ride horses at all. There's no "oh crap crossbow tuuurn", because now a +3 courser has 40-50% left after an arbalest bolt in the flank. I have one.
Naturally, with their realistic (and gameplay) counter removed, horses are everywhere, because even someone with a great lance, shield and peasant gear, on a good horse, will find some busy infantryman or archer to kill.
Charge damage should stay, really. If a horse is running at you, you have no anti-horse weapons, you have no ranged weapons, you should not be able to just maneuver so you get hit by horse instead of weapon to avoid all damage. However, anti-horse weapons, which includes all ranged weapons and spears and all long weapons should kill horses much easier (which is both realistic and balanced). When you hit someone with a lance (esp. heirloomed) they die right off, it makes no sense whatsoever, from either realism or gameplay, that when you run into a spear, that your horse lives. An unarmoured horse should not ever be able to ride while looking like a pincushion, either, destrier or no.
Halve the HP and half the horsemen will go play some easier class.