Thoughts on: A *something* refuses to move

[jmordetsky]

I like the new ride code, a lot. I like that it's terrain sensitive. etc.

What I don't like, is constantly typing the direction that I want to move in.

Wondering - would ride be better if rather then fail the entire movement, it added a significant delay and an echo.

> e

You have a hard time moving your mount.

[time passes based on skill]

movement occurs.

[Cutthroat]

This would be nifty.

[jmordetsky]

Or even - an auto retry with a delay.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I would actually like this quite a bit.

Good idea.

[AmandaGreathouse]

+1 from me.

It's always a pain in the ass to be riding behind someone and have to redo your entire emote/tell/what-have-you because your mount stopped and you have to catch up to them again, then reinput it.

[Mechafish]

I dig this idea.

[elvenchipmunk]

I don't like the sound of a massive delay. If no methods other than invoking a longer delay can be thought up, then I would be in favour of a small, second or two delay added on, its length decided by your current ride skill. Something that's just enough for two riders, both riding the same mount, both spam-walking in the same direction, but the one with the higher riding skill will eventually (or quickly) outride the other one.

Again, I don't like the word -massive- delay is all. And would prefer a method other than a delay to represent poor riding skill. I simply can't think of another way represent it. I'm sure someone will, though, and I will be in favour of it 

[FantasyWriter]

Also, critical fails should go in the wrong direction... not no moving at all.

my $0.02

[RogueGunslinger]

Oh god no. No more wrong direction shit please.

I like movement delays.

[AmandaGreathouse]

Disagree, FW. There's enough of that already when darkness can do it and storms can do it. Last thing I want to see is yet another thing which can drop you into a hole or get you further lost from the people you're travelling with who reasonably -wouldn't- lose you. Thumbs down.

Still all for the delay and keep trying for that direction thing, though.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Oh god no. No more wrong direction shit please.

I like movement delays.

QFTFT.

[X-D]

The current ride annoys me to no end.

I would be all for a delay, something, anything other then.

OMG SAND...STOP DEAD 3635535 TIMES.
move
sand
move
sand
move
sand
OMG EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE LAST ROOM BUT FOR NO REASON AT ALL REFUSE TO MOVE!!!!!


It is even worse when you have the class with the highest ride skill and surely have it maxed and even have riding gear and it STILL happens.

[Jingo]

When did this change come in?

[Morgenes]

When did this change come in?

Just the other day, or at least it feels that way, it was posted January 28, 2008:

http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,29504.0.html

For the record, the penalty for riding across rougher terrain can be overcome by using two hands on the reigns.  In order for a seasoned rider to really be affected by terrain they would need to be running their mount with neither hand free to use the reigns. 

That said, I agree that more failure options other than your mount refusing to move is an interesting idea.  What kind of things do you think would happen if you're riding a giant creature across uneven terrain without a hand on the reigns?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

You would get thrown or the beast would take longer to move. Those both seem the most playable. To get thrown, though, I would rather reserve for real troublesome situations. Most of the times, like 95% of the time, I would rather just see an additional delay for a failure to move the beast.

[brytta.leofa]

It might go in the wrong direction (though probably not over a cliff, into a pit, or wading in silt).
It might get fed up and decide to sit down and rest.
It might speed up or slow down.
It might see something edible and go after it.

[Morgenes]

I like the extra lag, and throwing ideas.  I'll try and wrap them in carefully so that things balance out pretty well, but balking totally will still be a possible outcome, just not nearly as often as before.  Feel free to keep throwing ideas here, I'll consider them.

[Fathi]

I like the extra lag, and throwing ideas.  I'll try and wrap them in carefully so that things balance out pretty well, but balking totally will still be a possible outcome, just not nearly as often as before.  Feel free to keep throwing ideas here, I'll consider them.

Maybe just put a limit on the amount of times that balking totally can occur?

I've had it happen upwards of fifteen times on a 'road' room before.

I don't mind my mount refusing to move all that much, more the fact that it seems to happen a large amount of times in a row at certain skill levels.

[X-D]

Maybe reins are used differently on zalanthus, but When I was learning to ride at like age 4, I was never taught to use two hands on the reins...matter of fact, using two hands is actually harder.

As to rough terrain, I cannot see as terrain on zalanthus can be any rougher then what we have in the hills and mountains of Arizona, where I live (check flickr for my pic) Where I ride often. Much of the riding is up and down, through washes, over or around ridges and rocks and still I use one hand on the reins, even my 58 year old mother who has been horseback maybe 4 times now in her life is capable of riding along with one hand in control of the reins without the horse deciding to stop every hundred feet or whatever.

Sometimes your mount might decide the route you want to take and the best route are different things, but we cannot have that in arm because it would move you an entire room out of the way. So, having a greater delay on a fail but still moving and in the right direction at least makes some kind of sense.

[jmordetsky]

I think in and of itself - the system that determines a failure - is fine.  Rough terrain should make it harder - and realistic or not the requirement of two hands essentially forces you to be weapon-less, which I like as a penalty.

My only gripe is the constant typing of e...somtimes I just type e;e;e;e;e;e;e;e and watch the screen . I type stop if I get fucked up. This way I can focus on emoting.

What might be cool is just an auto retry. Or even a move e; command that just walks you east.

My biggest issues is I'm following a dude along, he's an uber ranger and I'm 1 day old. I'm trying to emote and keep his life interesting as he rides along but I have to keep copy and pasting my says and emotes so I can e;e;e;e and keep up. Fragments the experience.

sorry for the messy - trying play and post.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

It might go in the wrong direction (though probably not over a cliff, into a pit, or wading in silt).
It might get fed up and decide to sit down and rest.
It might speed up or slow down.
It might see something edible and go after it.

I like these, as well. However, the going in the wrong direction should NEVER do more than get you off track, or get you near a beasty you didn't want to be near. It should NEVER drop you down cliffs or into pits or into silt, UNLESS you are fleeing on it, in which case --- accidents happen. Still, those should only happen at low ride levels.

Beasts reacting to various plants is also an awesome concept. But I'd rather see some of these things as scripts rather than hard coded ... thus, through scripts, you could correct (clear flags) before the animal did something.

The brown inix turns its head towards ~green

(is_mount_running)
(if_no)
(ride_skill_check)

fail: The brown inix stops to eat ~green; NPC stop
success: The brown inix grudgingly returns to its task.

These things would never happen if the mount was running, or you were fleeing. An animal knows as well as you do when it's in trouble. Fuck that plant then.

[X-D]

Beasts reacting to various plants is also an awesome concept

And VERY realistic...also the bane of newb riders IRL.

I once had a Huge red horse which I of course named Yoshi. Half shire half quarter, you felt like you should be in plate armor riding him. Anyway, I got him for $1000 when he was 3 years old. Why so cheap you ask, Well, as I said, he was a massive stallion with a mind of his own, nobody could control him. Not that he was mean or anything just that if you were riding along and he saw/smelled a patch of clover or nettles....thats the direction he was going to go.

If you did manage to get him going and he saw/smelled something else interesting in the distance you might find yourself in a very sudden gallop.

It was work to control and train him, but inside of two weeks I had him realizing who was boss in our relationship and he was easily the best horse I've owned our seen....Oh...still never used more then one hand on his reins and no spurs either...though there was a few times he had teeth marks on his ears:).

Oh, and thats another thing, Animals tend to have more brains on danger then we do, and good luck getting a beast to move towards what it considers danger. When you see movies showing cowboys riding 3 feet from a cliff...these are normaly specialy trained animals. Ride off a cliff...HA!, good luck...its something I've always wondered about in arm, do the animals simply have death wishes or something?

[RogueGunslinger]

Isn't one hand used for balance while riding? Maybe instead of thinking it as both hand on the reins, think of it as if one hand is busy holding a weapon or something else it isn't helping you balance as well?

[Krath]

Isn't one hand used for balance while riding? Maybe instead of thinking it as both hand on the reins, think of it as if one hand is busy holding a weapon or something else it isn't helping you balance as well?

For beginner riders yes. If you know how to ride a horse, DECENTLY, you only need one hand. All commands and balance, at least with my training irl, are done with the legs.

[X-D]

Balance...how?

I mean, if it was bareback maybe, but even then, native americans used to be able to do some crazy things mounted with only reins to control the animal.

But if you have all the normal trappings (which some mounts have in desc so I assume virtual) Balance is done with the legs, the same as walking.

[Lizzie]

I took a horse out for a dayride with a rancher once. He brought adult sized stirrups. I needed "boy-sized" stirrups. There was no way to go back to the ranch, in time for the ride, because he had brought the horse to the other side of the property (this was in Wyoming) and our goal was to ride back to the ranch, and the driver had already taken the cart away.

So, I rode on a morgan with a western saddle and no stirrups. I can tell you - there is no balance, legs or otherwise, when a morgan decides it wants to run, and your feet aren't secure in a set of stirrups. The only reason I didn't slide off that beautifully polished leather saddle and get trampled, was because I had one hand yanking on the reins, and the other clutched to the saddlehorn.

I don't recall reading -anything- about stirrups on any Zalanthan mounts, including horses. So sure your ass might well be on a saddle (or not) but your feet are -not- secured. Your legs are dangling, you have one hand holding onto -something- attached to that mount, unless you have the brute force AND groin..to keep yourself from falling off.

[X-D]

There are such items IG, and read room descs where mounts are kept or near them, plenty of saddles, reins, saddle bags, stirrups etc etc etc. Besides, a simple rope with two loops that can be thrown over the mounts back makes quite nice stirrups if riding bareback.