Funny to see the game is still alive, and it appears so is the forum and the same topics as well. I mean, how old is this HA discussion?
It is true, playing a HA is fun, but fighting one is horrible. I don't think it's needed to point out the obvious concerning the fact that it has the advantages of archers combined with the advantages of cav, and in the process negating the disadvantages of both.
You could always make all bows and arrows "not usable on horseback" and implement another set of ranged gear which are basically the same items but weaker. That way you nerf the class without nerfing archery in general. And you don't even need to program another feature into the game or something like that. Just copy pasta the already existing items, tweak their stats and flags and voila.
It's still a bad solution, because it doesn't really solve the problem. If two infantry players would beat each other, and one needs four hits with the axe to kill the other, whereas the other only needs to hit once with the dildo to kill the first one, while the dildo is comparable in all other regards to the axe (speed, length, etc.) then a nerf would actually solve the problem.
But if the problem is that someone can harm you while he is actually moving away from you faster than you are moving to him, you couldn't care less about the damage. And also limiting the ammo doesn't help a lot, because you don't care if it was his last three arrows which struck you down. (It's the same retarded balance the devs apparently deemed okay after implementing the upkeep system. "You can still ride around on a plated charger, wearing black plate armour!" some people said, and the devs answered "Yes, but only for a limited amount of time". Well yeah folks, enjoy your evening on the server when I unlock my annual minigun to rape your sorry asses... this brackets in short: time limitation is NO FUCKING BALANCING factor.)
I will repeat my mantra over and over again: if the whole game had revolved around capturing a number of flags (right from the beginning of a round, stick your MOTF where the sun don't shine), the horse archers wouldn't even had an impact on the game, people wouldn't be annoyed by them any more because they wouldn't have to fight them in order to win, and everything would be fine.
I ask myself when the devs will stop trying to fine tune the mechanics on the bycicle before they notice the little girl who is supposed to drive it has no legs. You can't fix a gameplay problem by changing the balance.