I’m liking the mount system so far, some aspects of it more than others. This is all from a PVE(-C) point of view, since I don’t play PVP.
It took me some time to get used to mounted combat, but I found it fun, at least for weapons like swords, axes, spears and such. The difference between a light attack and a heavy attack adds an interesting choice I have to make.
I’m ambivalent about the lance. I haven’t tried it in an NPC camp yet, but I used it against bosses and it’s frustratingly hard to use. It really shouldn’t be that hard to hit something as big as King Rhino. And while the damage at full gallop is noticeable, it’s not really high enough to compensate for aiming frustration. I might revise my opinion after I try riding through an NPC camp with a lance, but so far it looks like I’ll be using it just for jousting with other players.
The controls can be physically painful for me. I type and use mouse all day and the fact that riding and mounting combat require so many things to be pressed and/or gripped at the same time is very uncomfortable. It would be awesome if we could have autorun binding for horses and if they would add a binding that would switch between “drive with keyboard and aim with mouse” (as it is now) and “drive with mouse and aim only forward” (as it works for running on foot).
As for the visuals – the model, the textures, the animations – I really suck at noticing details, but even I saw some weird things. For example, while wearing Yamatai Demon armor and riding on a horse with a noble saddle, the saddle kept clipping through the armor in such a way that even I had to notice it. Also, I wish we could dye the saddles.
Some aspects seem very, very rushed and half-baked. Light, heavy and medium saddles require different materials to craft but they perform exactly the same. The saddles in general have a little description saying if they’re for defense, movement or speed, but those differences are not big enough for me to notice. The armor value of all the saddles is exactly the same, which confused me to no end and brings me to the next point.
The way the armor works is weird. Apparently, the armor value a horse has is not derived from its armor (i.e. saddle), but from its agility stat?! Honestly, I would expect the armor value to come from the saddle/armor and the agility to influence other things, such as maneuverability.
Likewise, it’s not very intuitive how taking damage affects your health, the horse’s health and the horse’s stamina. It’s… weird. I can get used to it and even take advantage of it, but it confused the crap out of me.
That’s all I can think of right now.
Good news, there’s a workaround for that:
