Decent mounted combat in a commercial game (possibly)

[Andrei]

There's been a lot of debate on these forums trying to figure out just which games are similar to M&B, and where M&B does things that we've never seen before.  Two areas come up again and again as unique (or almost unique) to Mount & Blade: leading your army, and the mounted combat.

It looks like a commercial game could finally be getting to grips with mounted combat.

Looking at GameSpot's coverage of Age of Conan, the mounted combat is coming along nicely.  They don't have lances - or at least I haven't seen them - but they do have decently-animated and controllable horses, and you can fight from horseback.  Watching them do that looked amusingly similar to M&B; the designer held his sword back as he rode up to his opponent, and then swung it, using the momentum of the mount to smash through the target.

Naturally, there are still a lot of things M&B does better than Age of Conan.  From what I can see, they don't have much in the way of a blocking system, for example.  Still, it could bear watching, if only to see what else they do with their horse combat.

So, not suggesting you stop playing M&B, but just that those horse enthusiasts could keep an eye on this one...

It's due out at the end of the year, for those with good computers.

 

[Archonsod]

M&B isn't the first game to feature mounted combat when it comes to it.

Isn't Age of Conan supposed to be an MMORPG? Hope its better than the last Conan games anyway....

 

[Volkier]

There are plenty of munted combat games, that don't even come close to M&B, mainly because of their simplicity and lack of common sense, made for 10 year olds who never went to school.. Most of these games are a normally high in button mashing techniques, but low in playability, since if its a tad "hard" for your average child who has a low IQ, then the game would not sell as well... Joan of Arc was a good example (no offence, its a great game, and I enjoyed a few hours of it, but it would really have helped if it required some skill to play, and was a bit more detailed physically).. There are also very few games that horses act as separate objects as well - (unfortunately which is worse now than it used to be in M&B because of the joined hit-boxes of horse and rider), and those games, once again try to compare mounted and un-mounted soldier in a 1v1 basis, so that once again, an average 10 year old will not complain that he is slaughtered by 4 mounted enemies when he is on foot, and its not fair.. Hence pretty much why M&B excells in that field :

There are plenty of other things that M&B excells in, just too many to post about :

(Age of Conan MMO? Interesting to see 500 half-naked barbarians running around a zone at the same time :)

 

[Sir Saladin]

The DrunkenMoron made a topic about this  on the off-topic page too and it might be good. It would have to be real special for me to try one of those monthly fee type games again but maybe I'll have a new system by then and have money to burn just to try it for awhile.

 

[Volkier]

I have yet to come across an MMO which is as good as EverQuest 1.... EQ2 was pathetic, WoW was constantly trying to be worse than EQ2, (eventually succeeding) and everything else is just too darn linear.. Only problem with EQ1, is that at the end it became an EXP + Item grind, loosing all form of roleplayability it had :

Anyway personally don't have time for an MMO at the moment.. perhaps later in life, but definately not now :

 

[Archonsod]

Completely off topic, but I'm rather looking forward to Warhammer Online. Looks like they're following the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rules, so grinding will be completely pointless anyway.

Back on topic: There have been a few games that took mounts seriously, though none that were up to the same standard as M&B. Certainly none which managed such a great combat system alongside it.

 

[Volkier]

Anything less than M&B is not serious about horses at all in my oppinion : (Since M&B is already very relaxed with mounts :)
The ironic part is that its designed by 2 people, and pwns every other game that took years to design, by 500+ people working with a mutli-million dollar budget etc.

 

[Titanx3]

I have yet to come across an MMO which is as good as EverQuest 1.... EQ2 was pathetic, WoW was constantly trying to be worse than EQ2, (eventually succeeding) and everything else is just too darn linear.. Only problem with EQ1, is that at the end it became an EXP + Item grind, loosing all form of roleplayability it had :

Anyway personally don't have time for an MMO at the moment.. perhaps later in life, but definately not now :

Very very off topic, but i enjoy Eve Online, and Planetside. not that i pay a penny for planetside, made by SOE and all, reserves account ftw

 

[Volkier]

yeah eve is very interesting as well, but in a completely different genere.. I just found that it would be more enjoyable if you where allowed to actually control the aircraft (ie. every engine etc.) rather than selecting whether you want to orbit etc.

Anyway enough off-topic input from me for today - going to work on some vet reports ::\

 

[Sir Prince]

Yes, the Wars & Warriors: Joan of Arc game was good but could have been better. Good idea but they abandoned it

 

[CrazyEyes]

If you're looking for roleplayability, NWN is the ****, as I've said many times before. Not an MMO... but it's very interesting and quite unique, as it allows the players to host their OWN servers! Even more interesting, almost every server is modified, making the game an endless truckload of variety. There are server filters; just click "Roleplay" and you'll see a bunch of servers where roleplaying is enforced as a rule. A lot of servers have it to where the players suck at it... but one particularly good server is called "Dragon Coast EM", running a module called "Erithorn's Might". Exquisite, it is. Be advised if you are going to play NWN, you will need the Community Expansion Pack, or CEP. Just search google for "neverwinter nights CEP" or something.

Okay, I'm done being off-topic.

LOL I TINK ES4 HAS TEH BETS MONTeD OCMBAT!!1

EDIT: almost forgot, the most populated RP servers will have around 60 people... but it's enough, trust me. It's kind of like an MMO, but you get room to breathe, and you don't constantly hear LFP shouts.

 

[Flask]

Looking at GameSpot's coverage of Age of Conan, the mounted combat is coming along nicely.  They don't have lances - or at least I haven't seen them - but they do have decently-animated and controllable horses, and you can fight from horseback.  Watching them do that looked amusingly similar to M&B; the designer held his sword back as he rode up to his opponent, and then swung it, using the momentum of the mount to smash through the target.

Actually, they do  have lances in Age of Conan, as well as mounted horse archery, etc. On a side note, the galloping, cantering, etc. animations you see in the E3 footage were motion-capped from a live horse.

Here is a link to candid E3 footage of Age of Conan mounted combat with a lance (you'll need to fast forward to the middle of the video) --

http://snowhawk.clans.net/e3/E32006_AoC_Hicks64.avi

 

[Volkier]

I can always provide footage of cantering / galloping from live horses - if Armagan asks for them :
(And if you check the texture files of M&B, you will notice that the horses implimented are aquired from a photo) :

 

[Janus]

This entire topic is actually off-topic as it doesn't directly have to do with M&B. Moving it to Off Topic.

 

[LetterAfterZ]

There are plenty of munted combat games, that don't even come close to M&B, mainly because of their simplicity and lack of common sense, made for 10 year olds who never went to school.. Most of these games are a normally high in button mashing techniques, but low in playability, since if its a tad "hard" for your average child who has a low IQ, then the game would not sell as well...

How does the average child have a low IQ. That makes no sence. The average child has an average IQ.

 

[calandale]

No. Every child is above average.

 

[Sir Prince]

It really doesn't matter as to their intelligence, unless it's the difference to having the meat spoiled by some poison the stupid kid ate, that brat gave me indigestion for a week. I now get all my young human meat from an organic free range farm in India.

 

[calandale]

Is that the one near the Bhopal chemical plant that had that huge leak? India is a bad place to get meat.

 

[Sir Prince]

No, it's in an underground facility. Most of the livestock are imported breeds.

 

[thesneakster]

There's onyl one MMO for me, and it's still two years out.

As for the 'avergae child' has a low IQ, or at least don't realize their full potentioal.

Too much fast food, and tv with fast food adds.