Horses food consuption

[Bisaar]

Correct me if Im wrong, but horses(and other pack animals) right now dont consume any food which allows you have almost infinite carrying capacity without any drawbacks( I think I havent sold any horses in all my play-thoughts). Introducing additional grain consumption for horsed and mounted troops would balance it out( and nerf predominantly mounted factions like Khuzait, who always steamroll empire in my games)
Any thoughts?

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Make them require feeding, and give us two options for handling it:

• Letting them graze for a few ingame hours on suitable terrain, which should sustain them for a few days.
• Feeding them with fodder from the inventory if the above effect runs out.

Else they die.

But what happens to cavalry when the horses die? Do they slow down the party and spawn dismounted in battles?

 

[Dabos37]

I agree with this as long as AI Lords will be able to manage it. I am seeing already Lords letting day their men due to food lacking.

 

[Bisaar]

Make them require feeding, and give us two options for handling it:

• Letting them graze for a few ingame hours on suitable terrain, which should sustain them for a few days.
• Feeding them with fodder from the inventory if the above effect runs out.

Else they die.

But what happens to cavalry when the horses die? Do they slow down the party and spawn dismounted in battles?

Great idea, however more complicated to implement. In general, parties shouldn't be able to travel uninterrupted for days(without sleep, letting horses graze etc. ) Adding such stops would increase immersion, but slower the game.
Asfor dead horses for cavalry,i would make them fight on foot, with the possibility to buy horses in the next city( at leat for the player)

 

[Shrugging Khan]

I for one would absolutely love parties stopping from time to time, ideally at nighttime. Then you could have various game mechanics revolving around making camp, possibly fortifications, foraging, forced marches, ambushes...

...but I also like my games with a lot of planning and strategy, so maybe this isn't mainstream enough.

 

[tostman]

I for one would absolutely love parties stopping from time to time, ideally at nighttime. Then you could have various game mechanics revolving around making camp, possibly fortifications, foraging, forced marches, ambushes...

...but I also like my games with a lot of planning and strategy, so maybe this isn't mainstream enough.

it could be disableable, like death

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Maintaining a bunch of game mechanics and then separating them into optional packages that don't unbalance the game is pretty damn hard and a lot of work. I don't think this is realistically doable with what manpower and timetable Taleworlds have to work with.

 

[Bisaar]

I for one would absolutely love parties stopping from time to time, ideally at nighttime. Then you could have various game mechanics revolving around making camp, possibly fortifications, foraging, forced marches, ambushes...

...but I also like my games with a lot of planning and strategy, so maybe this isn't mainstream enough.

Yes, and allow empire armies to build camps, like romans did

 

[LucyKisa]

You play this game a lot. With the amount of travelling you do. A time wasting mechanic like having to let your horses graze every few days would definitely lower immersion. Most except the most masochistic would not eventually get annoyed to **** by it

 

[Wolfsblut]

It sounds nice and maybe fun for a while, but on the long term it would be just an unnecessary annoyance.

 

[Bisaar]

You play this game a lot. With the amount of travelling you do. A time wasting mechanic like having to let your horses graze every few days would definitely lower immersion. Most except the most masochistic would not eventually get annoyed to **** by it

Grazing was suggested as an alternative to having a huge stock of grain with you. Right now there is no downside to having an entirely mounted army. Introducing logistical issues would balance it out

 

[Mr.Kebab]

I got more than 1k horses in my party and i definitely didnt like this idea

 

[missionAvs]

This sounds good in principle but I would not like it being added. I don't want to have to worry about feeding horses when I have to worry about feeding my troops.

 

[LucyKisa]

Grazing was suggested as an alternative to having a huge stock of grain with you. Right now there is no downside to having an entirely mounted army. Introducing logistical issues would balance it out

Logistical balancing just sounds like a pain in the ass for everyone involved. Be hard to balance with trading too. Standing still reduces all speed advantages and probably more. But theres other ways to balance it. Like combat balancing. Weaker shields. Weaker in sieges. After a tactics nerf ofcourse. Or have all mounted get a tactics disadvantage.

So many ways

 

[Bisaar]

Logistical balancing just sounds like a pain in the ass for everyone involved. Be hard to balance with trading too. Standing still reduces all speed advantages and probably more. But theres other ways to balance it. Like combat balancing. Weaker shields. Weaker in sieges. After a tactics nerf ofcourse. Or have all mounted get a tactics disadvantage.

So many ways

Doesn't solve the problem with just having lots of horses in the party without any drawbacks. While I agree that such change may cause problems, especially for AI, I think it would add more depths to the game if introduced properly, for example by adding more meaning to grain producing villages and forcing large armies to forage for food more.

 

[John Shepard]

A colleague and I were discussing this just last night:
First, we can all agree it is unbalanced. However, the AI simply isn't ready for that for even in games like Europa Universalis where its suppose to factor, the AI still has issues.
Second, a simple fix with already established modifiers found in the game would be less time consuming and stable.
There are 4 terrains recognized by skills in the skill tree, so my suggestion will be based on that. Those terrains are, forest, marsh (no idea where you even see them), desert , hills and snow).

Suggestion:
-As always I am a proponent of choice, as such have a slider where the effects only apply to the player and another that it applies to both the player and the AI.
-Rather than have horses consume food, simply add more consumption of food to the army overall as a means to simulate the horses eating.
-In any terrain not recognized by the former, there is no penalty. Which simulates the horses grazing. And yes this would be forever, again a simple fix isn't the most indepth but bare with me.
-Forest also cause no penalty.
-Hills, deserts and marshes induce a +X% food consumption penalty. This could also be set up in a slider, starting a 0% to 100% double. This would simulate the army having to tap into its own baggage train to feed its horses.
-Sieges cause an army's food consumption to raise by 0-100% set up by a slider as well, simulating a stationary army where at some point the horses would graze the ground bare.

Please share your thoughts and/or disagreements.

 

[LucyKisa]

Doesn't solve the problem with just having lots of horses in the party without any drawbacks. While I agree that such change may cause problems, especially for AI, I think it would add more depths to the game if introduced properly, for example by adding more meaning to grain producing villages and forcing large armies to forage for food more.

The distinction between horses and mounted troops is an important one
If you mean horses in your inventory for capacity being too overpowered. You could separately balance that with an increasing speed penalty after a certain threshold.Mounted troops I told you before. Combat balancing which shall happen in early access regardless. Bannerlords development is super promising.
They could hard cap inventory capacity or hardcap the amount of mules and carrying horses you can have with you at any one time under the banner of; ''More horses your character cannot manage. Some horses would run away.''
More foraging for food for the AI seems somewhat disastrous due to increased scarcity of produce happening as a result.
I like the idea but we already have slowdowns on the worldmap during travel

 

[mr_nifty]

I for one would absolutely love parties stopping from time to time, ideally at nighttime. Then you could have various game mechanics revolving around making camp, possibly fortifications, foraging, forced marches, ambushes...

...but I also like my games with a lot of planning and strategy, so maybe this isn't mainstream enough.

I like all of this as well as the having horses having to be fed. I think the game would be more fun in general, and units and everything would feel much more valuable, indispensable almost.

 

[Bisaar]

The distinction between horses and mounted troops is an important one
If you mean horses in your inventory for capacity being too overpowered. You could separately balance that with an increasing speed penalty after a certain threshold.Mounted troops I told you before. Combat balancing which shall happen in early access regardless. Bannerlords development is super promising.
They could hard cap inventory capacity or hardcap the amount of mules and carrying horses you can have with you at any one time under the banner of; ''More horses your character cannot manage. Some horses would run away.''
More foraging for food for the AI seems somewhat disastrous due to increased scarcity of produce happening as a result.
I like the idea but we already have slowdowns on the worldmap during travel

I dont think there should be a distinction. A horse is a horse It needs food. And my proposal tackles both problems.
And I understand that the current state of AI probably wouldn't cope with this.
But just imagine how cool it would be if you could stop(or severely slow down)and invading Khuzaid army by simply looting every grain producing village in their way

 

[LucyKisa]

I dont think there should be a distinction. A horse is a horse It needs food. And my proposal tackles both problems.
And I understand that the current state of AI probably wouldn't cope with this.
But just imagine how cool it would be if you could stop(or severely slow down)and invading Khuzaid army by simply looting every grain producing village in their way

The distinction is there so you can balance it in multiple ways. Quite important. You cant balance combat troops the same as inventory mules. Horse troops already cost food. Having them just use a bit more would tackle some balancing maybe but most things like having them graze just further reduces game flow