Ok folks... I've been wanting to interject my thoughts on this for sometime. If you know my post... they can be lengthy... and I can be wordy. So I've reserved making such a post. But here it goes nonetheless.
First off... I'm quite opposed to taking HA out of the game. What next... Cav all-together. Then Ranged all-together. CRPG needs as much diversity as it can get. Of course balance is always needed to keep the game competitive and fun.
With that... let me propose a few ways to balance these class and their current style of game play. Please view my 2nd suggestion. For me, it's more vital solution to this unbalance.
First solution (minor/basic solution), some of the physics for horses could be reduced. I personally don't see any issues with top speed or hitpoints. But horse acceleration, maneuverability, and ability to bump at such low speeds... I see these all as great unbalances. More so with maneuverability and the ability to bump at low speeds. Maybe horses could get hung up on people unless the horse reaches a higher speed than what's currently set. Maybe there's a way to make bumping folks greatly reduce the horses speed. After bumping 2 or 3 players... maybe the horse would be so slow, it would get hung up on the next person in line. Being able to knockdown so many folks in a row has to be a great unbalance. And being able to maneuver so easily doing so is kind of crazy.
With that said, I know the question still stands... well, 1-on-1 with a HA, what's to prevent him from bumping me, shooting while I'm on the ground, then circling around, getting close with bow drawn and repeating.
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Mallets Proposed Solution
Well here's my second suggestion... and the actual solution I want to present.
If possible, I think the physics of the game should be set wherein a HA (or HX) cannot turn his horse at all when drawing/aiming with his bow. Think about it. It takes two hands to draw a bow (and two hands to aim an xbow). With both hands occupied, the player cannot possible hold the reins. Even if he could hold the reins some how while drawing or aiming... there's no way he can precisely control his horse while trying to accurately aim his bow or xbow.
My suggestion is... as soon as the player hits left-click to draw/aim... he loses all ability to turn the horse left or right. Could even set it where he loses the ability to control the speed of the horse. Of course, a horse acceleration is likely controlled by spurring the horse. But slowing down is usually done by pulling back on the reins. Either way, you can't accurately aim while doing either one.
Reasoning behind this suggestion... how & why it will help?! Well, for one... I think it would go a long way to keeping HA from doing their bumping-shooting you on the ground routine. The HA's lack of maneuverability while bow is drawn should allow opponent to dance away from their horse. Not that an HA can't ever bump shot someone. All but brand new players should be able to side step a horse that has to go in a straight line.
This will allow for very skilled HAs to still play decently. If you are an elite HA, I personally think you should be at the top of the leader board... just the same as an elite 1-Hander or Polearmer or any class. But an HA's high score should come from his ability to accurately aim his bow and his use of mobility to quickly move around the battlefield. But this tweak would hopefully eliminate their ability to dominate any player with any class in a 1-on-1 situation. Currently, there's nothing to combat the bump-ground-shooting technique... no matter what class. And that's quite unfair.
I think this, along with the reduction in a horse's ability to bump and the reduction in the damage from bumps (my first suggestion)... I think all of this together, could greatly reduce the OP nature of HA.
Maybe a sore topic for some... but this could even be applied all Cavalry classes. Could be applied to Lancers and 2H & 1H Cav. Of course you could argue that someone mounted on a horse could hold reins in one hand and their lance or sword in the other... thus able to control the horse. To a degree, I think yes. But I think that control should be extremely limited. In cRPG, our melee Cav users are like ballerinas on the battlefield. They can easily & gracefully dance around the battlefield and strike opponents with pinpoint precision.
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I hope all this makes sense. And I'm not even sure it's possible to program such into cRPG. I'll admittedly say that I have no clue to what is required to program such. But if it's possible, I think this could greatly even the odds against HA... especially in a 1v1 situation.
Just my humble solution... which is absolutely 100% correct and the best idea ever!!!
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