Lets save the horses, since they cant save themselves; we have to make these jackasses realize that its all messed up! this is why donkeys aren't allowed to code
Jest aside, horses are crap right now, and we need to fix it so that everyone is happy; i got some pre-baked solutions for everyone based on the assumption that this is true:
-horses are underpowered for various reasons, like cost, health, armor, and the ratio of that on horses.
-infantry don't like horses plowing into them, and are vehemently against a buff
-archers like 1-2 shotting horses as it is halfway across the map
-the time of the knight has almost drawn to a close
1.) decrease speed/maneuverability, add health.
the reasoning behind this is that if you take away speed of horses, they are somewhat easier to predict and deal with, but at the same time that in this case it should not be an easy 1 or 2 hit kill, and that it should take 2 or 3 people to take down a determined horseman; not a lone ninja with a longbow and a spiked mace.
take 2-5 speed and 2-5 maneuver, and add 30-60 health depending on how many points are taken.
2.) decrease armor, decrease cost/ balance to armored horse cost
if there are going to be 1-2 hit archer potshots for balance sake, at least make it so we dont have to pay out the wazoo for a practically naked, low health horse.
horses are expensive, and so here is what i propose; decrease the amount of armor that all unarmored horses have to 0 (logic), and decrease their cost by half.
horses that have armor keep their armor, but cost 10,000 gold less.
3.) +20 charge damage, half speed reduction for charge.
as it is, unless you have a plated charger, you will not see much results, and even then you may hit 3 people in a group. logically, if you were charging through a disorganized mob, you would not only do more damage, but crash through many more people
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11962905 - plainclothes british students know the fear of being trampled, and disperse accordingly.
4.) make a suggestion
5.) Marathon's idea
I've thought a lot about re-working horses, and testing in some mods how they play in single player, etc.
And I've also noticed that speed can stay the same if maneuverability is lowered greatly. It forces cavalry to take more prominent lines, and to slow down if they want to turn sharp corners like in towns. It fixes every stupid issue complaint that people have.
So, I figured something like this works really really well and gives cav a stronger actual cav roll, but has no stupid shit happen.
*leave speed mostly untouched
*Greatly reduce maneuverability
*add more charge damage
*Add more health and armor
*leave their attack/animations/etc alone. The maneuverability will fix any of the stupid issues involving lancemen just sitting outside someone's reach until they are engaged by somebody.
So, This will make horses more resilient, more capable of doing cavalry charges like cavalry actually did. They would take a couple more hits to go down. They would fill their cavalry roll better. Cav would enjoy it, infantry would enjoy it. Archers Won't care either way, it may take them 2 more arrows to bring down a horse, but they won't get circle-lanced, bump lanced, etc, all day.
This is coming from a mostly infantry player, although I've played cav quite a bit as well. You can't judge something you haven't played!
6.) Its fine
congratulations for not participating in a thread designed to come up with ideas and solutions to make everyone happy, instead you are going to argue that horses are fine, or counter poll. go ahead then.
Poll