Ridable Horses for NWN2

[Vendrin]

If this occurs, I hope we might get another skill re-assignment, for higher level characters to get a chance to put some points in riding.

[Castano]

Great news! People put a ton of effort into the nwn1 horse system...adding it into nwn2 would be a great bonus and would help keep the tons of people-hours spent on development in use.

[Veilan]

I'm not sure I follow your logic Vendrin. Riding was a feasibility in ALFA 1, and with the last huge skill reassignment, we did get the riding skill. If you want it to suddenly become IC for your character to be a horseman after... not being a horseman, then I can follow that economically - especially for high level character's, who can't simply readjust easily at levelups - but not from a roleplaying perspective. Riding never was a huge "might actually never happen" as in NWN 1.

Of course, AL might probably be able to adjust his scripts to allow some reassignment without much opportunity for exploitation. Still, it would seem a bit fishy if a character suddenly lost skills that he used... and that helped him succeed, if not survive... to now ride. In a sense, it's a bit like dropping the toughness feat for something that's more useful later. Sometimes, you just have to stick with the choices you made that define your character.

And finally, consider the people who did invest into the riding skill already - they'd be punished compared to those who didn't and can reassign, because they currently don't have a skill that is useful, they only get the fuzzy warm feeling of having played their character true to their image. And in an environment like ALFA, those willing to sacrifice immediate usefulness on account of RP coherence should not be punished.

[Vendrin]

Apologies, I wasn't aware ride as a skill had been added. ((shows how much I pay attention to anything)) Request withdrawn.

[Castano]

I have to say, I just like the idea of horses for those long journeys..after all most would not walk if they could take a horse. Makes the party look more real in a sense. Hopefully we can build a system where you can buy a horse and then sell it at the destination without a huge loss of value.

[danielmn]

Another thing to think on....how will the horsies ract to travel maps? Might require more scripting...I don't know...

[Audark]

Frankly I'd like to see tehm in game as soon as feasible even if in teh beginning its as a 'cloak' appearance for RP colour.

I too remember the nwn1 horse scripts fondly, and would love to see that in game, but in the interrim how difficult is it to add this 'as is'. As a cloak it would have no problems on a travel map, would be fun for RPs sake, and could have rolls associated with it if a DM got involved. Since it provides no actual benefit in combat, it can't be 'abused' except by fighting on it and looking silly for doing so without ranks or a DM.

I'd be inclined to trust the player's RP with this, to use a horse appearance for RPs sake and little else, at least until the tech side catches up with a full system.

I'd prefer that to waiting to see a system that, while amazing, is still mostly only utilized for RP.

This is in no way diminishing all your fine work AL and others, just my thoughts.

[danielmn]

As a cloak it would have no problems on a travel map.

I was thinking more along the lines of...

It will probably have to be scripted more to have the horses shrink down to an appropriate size on the travel map....

not anything to do with the cloaks them selves.

[Sandermann]

Another thing to think on....how will the horsies ract to travel maps? Might require more scripting...I don't know...

If the horse is a "cloak" then it's tied to the skeleton of the PC and so should scale along with the PC, no different to how clothing or weapons would. I cant even begin to imagine how it would work if the horses skeleton wasn't linked to the PC skeleton.

edit: would require some modification to movement speed maybe, though probably not really necessary. A horse moving at a walk isn't much faster than a man, and you can't ride a horse for any great distance faster than that. Horses dont really make long distance travel quicker, just a lot easier on the legs.

[hollyfant]

Unless it's a monk's horse.

[Brokenbone]

Horsies made scouting a much different experience in NWN1. Go ahead and send the guy with the high spot, listen and search ahead, but don't worry about stealth, the horse scripts applied a fair (but still crippling) penalty to that. Maybe worry about a decent ride skill and some armor and hitpoints in case a sentry takes potshots at you. An outrider who sees something dangerous should vamoose, get back to his party ASAP. Different behaviour than a guy crawling on his belly through a swamp, observing an enemy camp for a half hour, and sneaking back out of there.

[Sandermann]

I'd say getting close to encampment is something to be handled by a DM in a normal scale area, not something that, given how often it would occur, we should worry about scripting into a travel map system to include horses.

If anything, the only difference I'd be inclined to make to the world map system in regards to horses is the avbility for any PC mounted on a horse to out run/evade random encounters. Possibly with option of leaving the poor foot slogging suckers behind while you do a runner.

[danielmn]

[hollyfant]

the avbility for any PC mounted on a horse to out run/evade random encounters.

The wolf packs would like a word with you... and the horse you rode in on.