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Inertia for Mounts
Solmyr
Member
I've noticed that mounts can stop on a dime and instantly snap to face any direction, regardless of their size or speed. IMO mounts tend to feel much better when there's some inertia behind them, so stopping from a full gallop would make your horse skid briefly, and turning 180 degrees requires a short animation.
Besides feeling more believable, it also offers an opportunity to make mounts feel more distinctive by adjusting the values. Maybe a giant rabbit can get to its top speed faster than a horse, but can't turn quite as fast. Or maybe a floating mount could do things like strafe and move backward at full speed, at the cost of being more sluggish to stop and start.
Of course, this does mean you'd sacrifice some of the fine control you have while on foot, which I could see making some people dislike it. Jumping puzzles on horseback would probably be out of the question, and maneuvering in cities might become a chore with player collision factored in - though that would depend on how exactly it was tuned.
Besides feeling more believable, it also offers an opportunity to make mounts feel more distinctive by adjusting the values. Maybe a giant rabbit can get to its top speed faster than a horse, but can't turn quite as fast. Or maybe a floating mount could do things like strafe and move backward at full speed, at the cost of being more sluggish to stop and start.
Of course, this does mean you'd sacrifice some of the fine control you have while on foot, which I could see making some people dislike it. Jumping puzzles on horseback would probably be out of the question, and maneuvering in cities might become a chore with player collision factored in - though that would depend on how exactly it was tuned.
14
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Some of the bigger mounts like for example elephant can have for example half the max speed of a horse, and accelerate slower, but once at full speed it may crush enemies by its charge.
I love the idea of adding inertia to mounts in Ashes of Creation! It could be supported by a few systems:
- Mount Physics: Realistic physics for acceleration, deceleration, and turning.
- Mount Traits: Unique characteristics like weight and speed influencing inertia.
- Terrain Interaction: Different terrains affecting mount behavior.
- Combat Dynamics: Inertia adding strategic elements to mounted combat, such as momentum-based attacks and evasions.
These would add depth and realism to the game, enhancing the overall experience.
The higher the weight, the more the inertia. When trampling/ramming another player, the higher the weight then the higher the damage.
So, a large animal like an elephant will have a slower speed, longer stopping range but higher damage when running into another player. A small house may run faster but does less damage running over someone. Turning radius might also be impacted.
Perhaps the genetics system could also be relevant. When raising mounts, you might be able to breed in recessive traits so that a rare larger horse might also be bred for speed or quick stops.
Oh this would be cool. If a group is trying to body block a choke point, a big mount can run in and push them around or something.
Well it wont be like in WOW where you dont lose any maneuverability compared to unmounted. But like everything there needs to have risk vs reward. The reward being higher move speed, maybe some kind of mounted combat, collision dmg, and the risk - less control over the movement.
Example for the inertia - "Horizon: zero down", Where the mount start off bit slow, then you can increase the speed as it moves and you cant make sharp turns while the mount is moving. Tho there the stopping is almost instant, and maybe depending on the weight of the mount the breaks should take some time.
If there is inertia, hopefully it would be a small amount. In a game where people collide with each other, mounts being hard to control makes moving in mounted groups sound like a nightmare.
Good reason to have mounts that handle bumping into things and some that don't.
Big point of emphasis for mules with packs over horses, horses will keep bumping into things with loads, mules adapt and avoid hitting stuff.
Would be nice if mounted had more to it than just increased character run speed/capacity.
I have been noticing that frequently people come and ask for stuff that belongs to a survival simulation game and not to a fantasy RPG, all these things also add a lot to the game scope.
I don't care about realistic and I hope the devs dont stress too much about this, but if they do something like this then it would be enough having a acceleration/deaceleration ratio to the mounts. If a mount can get full speed instantly then it would also be able to stop instantly.
Great idea! Guild Wars 2 actually had nice, subtle mount movement.
I wouldn't want full on physics or anything resembling that though.
This would also severely hurt melee classes. In the past I used to main warriors, knights, and classes like that and you are constantly turning on a swivel to maximize your effectiveness. Not only that but you have to retreat a lot more than other classes and being able to turn on a dime is very important. Can you image a charge type skill, or a skill only useable from an enemies back how bad that would feel. Not to mention I think the visual with turning around would look bad in a combat situation with body collision.
I have played melee, support, and healer in several mmos and I can't see this feeling good with any of them types of playstyles. I mean even range dps which I have never played, how would you kite someone?
I’m really tired of simple tank controls for vehicles of all sorts, land mounts and ships.
Animals shouldn’t be able to break the laws of physics, turn at high speeds without leaning into the turn and having at least some sort of a turning circle. Spinning around the Z axis while standing in place at impossible speeds, immediately changing direction mid-gallop, stopping on a dime, all this stuff is getting pretty old.
For ages now, mounts have been the default form of movement for EVERYTHING in MMOs because there are no drawbacks and no skill required to maneuvering them. If there were some slight drawbacks and a small learning curve, I think players would be making more interesting decisions of when to mount and when not to, as well as utilizing their mounts in more skillful and rewarding ways than just “move faster”.
On top of this, if ship movement in the game is as simple as “press left to spin in place counterclockwise, right to spin in place counterclockwise, up to go forward at a constant pace, down to go backward at a constant pace” things are looking grim. If they’re willing to put momentum, some level of a turning radius, wind direction and speed, current direction and speed, sail activation, and oar activation into ship movement, then one can imagine a more simplified degree of control complexity for land mounts would be possible.
Dragons Prophet was the best mounted experience I’ve had out of any MMO.
GW2, AA where decent.
I mean, I'd rather have neither, but just saying.
Black desert was actually very cool, mount wise.
If it were a skill, then speed, turning radius, acceleration and other mounted travel related actions could improve as skill improved. There could be interactions between player riding skill and animal traits and, perhaps, even mounts could have related skills which improved and interacted with the rider's related skills.
I’d have to hear some specific examples in detail to understand exactly what you mean, but theoretically, yes, I suppose there could be a level of skill-tree-esque progression there. I do worry that might over complicate things though.
In my mind, the skill progression would just be you learning how to master the system, and perhaps relearning some things whenever you get a new mount, kind of like when you get a new car. Nimbler creatures have sharper turning circles and run faster, but are less stocky in a fight. Some jump higher, some swim faster, etc. This could be a spectrum of values for many different creatures so that you’re encouraged to try many species of mounts to find the one that works the best for you.
One is your character -- the other is one of a thousand possible vehicles.