I'm sorry, but I've been trampled by a horse. It freaking hurts, and I'm not talking about a horse stepping on my foot. I'm talking about being knocked down by a stallion and then getting my slow self trampled. It's a thousand plus lbs animal, something that heavy running into you around 20 to 30 mph is gonna hurt.
And I think your wording is dishonest, because it is fun to bump people to death, really fun. I think you're refering to being bumped to death.
Again, thousand plus lbs animal. It's more than likely gonna knock you down. In my opinion I think they ought to INCREASE knock-down, at least when at speed. Also, being airborne shouldn't make you more resistant, it should make you less. When you're on the ground, you have balance. When you're airborne, you're at the mercy of momentum. And the momentum of a speeding horse is going to radically alter your trajectory and make landing on all two feet more difficult. This suggestion is silly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NAMVmcwDXMo#t=98s Alright. This is a fantastic video that should demonstrate that hills don't affect horses like they do in Mount & Blade. Keep watching for an epic cliff descent. This is all real footage. This video also demonstrates that 'rider should die when horse dies is nonsense'. See that horse rolling over the rider? Yep, I've had that happen to me too, granted on flat ground but similar speed. Scraped some skin off my elbow as the horse went down and over me but was otherwise was uninjured.
Alot of these suggestions I'm seeing seem to be coming from infantry types. Also from people with no equestrian background. To be honest, I find the horses in CRPG to already be clumsy and sluggish. And frustrating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwrel&NR=1&v=XZ8d9ByD5L4 I think this is an ultimate demonstration of equine ability. Horses have a pretty damn decent from nothing to ZOOM speed burst. The reason I use a steppe or desert horse as much is because I think the manueverability on the other horses is absurdly sluggish. It even demonstrates some lancing. Bear in mind that these horses that I'm posting descend from old style warhorses. In war, you didn't use the same broke down nag you'd put your five year old on while on vacation. You used an animal trained throughout it's life for battle. You know one thing lacking in CRPG/Warband? Horse's kicking, striking, and biting the enemy. Warhorses were trained to do that. Not gonna happen, but think about how lacking horses already are before considering nerfing.
In my opinion?