This is mostly aimed specifically at PvP, but the change is to simply increase the endurance damage that horses take when taking damage to allow at least some degree of counterplay by those on foot.
Horses are blatantly OP for the many reasons other threads and PvPers have stated, such as superior mobility, increased damage, 100% stagger resistance… The idea that horses are meant to be “superior” from both a realistic and gameplay perspective is perfectly fine given the cost of not only training a horse, but also with outfitting it. The issue comes when those on the ground have zero way of countering said horses.
1. Drastically increase horse stamina damage from hits; 1-2 hits depending on saddle
*A single well placed attack from a player should be enough to dismount a player from horseback, two if they use the Heavy saddle. This adds much more risk to engaging players on foot via horseback as even a single attack could dismount.
*Bow attacks might require a few shots (light) as it is a ranged weapon, maybe one fully charged heavy.
*It’s already hard enough to hit cavalry and any significant damage can simply be healed back up as they ride away for a few seconds with ZERO options for the ground player. This would fix that.
2. When a player is force dismounted, they should be knocked down, AKA stunned, for 2-3 seconds
*This is where the real risk comes in when fighting on horseback. If a player on ground is able to successfully dismount a player on horseback, it could spell death.
*Players currently only lose full stamina, which isn’t enough of a penalty for being dismounted.
Basically, this would give ground players at least somewhat of a fighting chance against horse riders. Dismounting players would be far more feesible as well as deadly. If a ground player is able to successfully survive and dismount the horse rider, it will more than likely = death, as it should. Horses should be used mostly as a means of transportation and a new way to fight, not THE ONLY way to fight. They should be used as superior mobility with hit and run tactics, NOT as a massive buff able to tank.
This would hardly effect Horse v Horse combat as a single hit can dismount other players anyways.
For PvE: This might make PvE much more dangerous, but then again, horse riders are basically immortal right now in PvE, so this brings back that bit of danger again 