Four Ideas and Tweaks

[Thucydides]

1. Experience for killing horses. I want something for the ammo I spent. They're big, anyway--I wouldn't want to try fighting one in real life.

2. Guarding with your bow--it uses a durability counter similar to a mid-range shield, and only works for weapon-guard style, so it's better than nothing, but not by much. Even so, the catch is that if the counter reaches zero, there's not just a chance, but a guarantee that it'll get one of the negative modifiers. Better combat balance when using the bow; same goes for crossbow.

3. In response to another idea I remember from here, the possibility of a counter for the number of enemies killed, I have a way to implement it that's fair and realistic. If they did it in The Seven Samurai, you can definitely do it here, but with one condition--you have to have a certain level, perhaps 5, in the Tactics skill. It's both logical and something to look forward to between even levels for combat advantage points.

4. Farriers. If you don't want this option, then I insist that you're a speciesist who wants to keep the horses down by denying them proper protection in battle. Just think--imposing armor, possibly even in specific pieces as on your own character, affecting movement speed and charging ability. It'd be a lot of work, but that would make the "mount" part of the game infinitely more "personal", I suppose, for lack of a better word, since your horse would actually be a sort of character in its own right. On that note, I'm not sure whether training stats for horses could be done without being too terribly broken, but it'd be cool to see.

 

[DaLagga]

1. Armagan already said no to this one. Something to the effect of "you shouldn't get exp for killing such a magnificent animal". I agree, but i think you should still get points toward your weapon proficiency.
2. The bow has now been balanced when dueling in the arena, since its actually possible to hit something with a low archery skill now(under .632). If 2 knights charge you, and you have a bow, you should be dead...thats the tradeoff for range. Also, if you could block, you'd never be able to actually get an attack off since it takes longer than with melee weapons, so you'd be doomed anyway. It would just take longer.
3. I like this one alot. It would be really cool to have a status sheet for your character giving all kinds of information.
4. I'm not entirely sure of what you're talking about here. Being able to equip your horse and making it more of a playable character in a way? If so, i suppose this would be a cool addition. So long as its not taken too far...i really don't like the idea of my horse leveling and such.

 

[Ancientwanker]

1 & 2 im not so keen on.

3 is ok but not a high priority for me.

4 I really dont understand. If you mean being able to modify your horse with upgrades, then I agree. You should be able to upgrade your horse the way Pirates! lets you upgrade your ship. Small things like fine saddle, fine barding, fine bit and tackle, etc.

 

[Shellcaster]

4 I really dont understand. If you mean being able to modify your horse with upgrades, then I agree. You should be able to upgrade your horse the way Pirates! lets you upgrade your ship. Small things like fine saddle, fine barding, fine bit and tackle, etc.

Yes. I ike the idea of upgrading your horse beyond the "spirited" modifier. A fine bit and tackle could perhaps increase your control over the horse and if being knocked from your mount was introduced a fine saddle could improve you ability to stay on the horse.

I would also make losing a battle more interesting if your hard to find excellent saddle was stolen while yo were unconsious.