You fall off your glossy, black-shelled inix...

[Intrepid]

It could also be that a naturally clumsy individual might not be well-adjusted to travel.  If your Agility is low (don't tell us on here), you might just be maladjusted to riding.  It is a sucky situation to be in, but I can see there being a few reasons to do this from a balance perspective:

1) Again, trying to make the rangers more dependable than a warrior/hunter.
2) Trying to make people more dependent on wagons.
3) Trying to make people more dependent on whirans (those that would dare to use them).
4) Limiting how much you can practice your Ride skill.
5) Limiting what areas you go into unless you're strictly on foot.
6) And, as with above, limiting by race, stat and guild who is good at riding.
7) Specializing which mounts are good for each race.  It could be that maybe your race is not suited to Inix.

Anyway, the above is speculation, but you could experiment with the code and see if any of those are true.

[Adieren]

Well, I noticed that nomads are particularly good with mounts. It's nice.

[FantasyWriter]

Mercenaries as well.

[Aaron Goulet]

I disagree with the simple fact that riding a horse is most certainly not the primary mode of transportation for our society. Any comparisons you make here I think are going to be irrelevant.

You're right; instead of having a fuzzy, nicely-curved back to stick a saddle on, you've got a slippery, bumpy carapace.

[X-D]

I don't think one should fall off their mount beyond the earliest stages of ride. If that's not the case, it should be fixed. At 20 days played and having been a steady rider, this should never happen. Seems like over the last five years there is this trend to try and make things codedly as much of a pain in the butt as possible. It's really killing my enjoyment of the game. Seems like when I play I'm being forced to spend too much of my time concentrating on dealing with coded nuisances instead of just rp'ing. The grey area that we can rp in is rapidly disappearing and I feel the game is becoming overcoded with stuff that adds nothing to enjoyment of the game and only serves to irritate me when I play.

I so agree.

I often sit here going, Why is this in game? I could name at least 10 things that have been added in the last 4 years that add nothing to the game, subtract from rp and simply annoy....bleh.

[Krath]

What X-D said

[Rhyden]

I don't think one should fall off their mount beyond the earliest stages of ride. If that's not the case, it should be fixed. At 20 days played and having been a steady rider, this should never happen. Seems like over the last five years there is this trend to try and make things codedly as much of a pain in the butt as possible. It's really killing my enjoyment of the game. Seems like when I play I'm being forced to spend too much of my time concentrating on dealing with coded nuisances instead of just rp'ing. The grey area that we can rp in is rapidly disappearing and I feel the game is becoming overcoded with stuff that adds nothing to enjoyment of the game and only serves to irritate me when I play.

I often sit here going, Why is this in game? I could name at least 10 things that have been added in the last 4 years that add nothing to the game, subtract from rp and simply annoy....bleh.

Gotta love that progressive criticism. I suggest making a new thread compiling these 10 or so things over the last 4-5 years that have been 'killing your rp' and 'overcoding' the game. I'm really curious what these things can be since I've only seen coding improvement in Arm during these years. Then again, I wasn't around past 5 years ago, so maybe things were coded perfectly back then?

...really? Shouldn't there be some point at which this doesn't happen? Shouldn't every guild every get a high enough ride to overcome this, at least while at a walking pace?

I believe every guild should be able to master riding to the point where they never fall off. That said, I prefer the falling off code to the 'refuses to move' code.

[KankWhisperer]

I say if you want to be a good rider, pick a class/subclass that is a good rider.

There are so many other things in the game that don't make sense like how you don't learn combat moves
when you train in the 'Byn despite training almost every day for a year? Haha.

You skin an animal and get one piece of meat?

And on and on and on. Just deal with it. Personally I find any logs submitted to boost stats or skills
or to add skills a little twinkish but again that's just me.

[musashi]

I would kinda rather have those things fixed to be better in line with realistic expectation than just deal with them. 

[number13]

In my expert* opinion, it takes longer to teach your PC to ride than it does to actually go out and learn how to ride a real horse.  To rub salt in that particular grievance, you have to start over a square one with each new character. And so, the "you fall off" shtick got old quick, even through there's a realism in riding being an exhausting activity.  

I think characters should take a percentage of the terrain's MV cost when riding (but still able to ride when their own personal MV is at 0).  Rangers and experienced riders are taxed less. Only when the mount is running, the character wielding two items, or in combat should falling off be at all common.  

(*maybe a total of 10 hours worth of lessons and practice in mountainous-desert terrain. When I was 12.)

[Ampere]

In my expert* opinion, it takes longer to teach your PC to ride than it does to actually go out and learn how to ride a real horse.  To rub salt in that particular grievance, you have to start over a square one with each new character. And so, the "you fall off" shtick got old quick, even through there's a realism in riding being an exhausting activity.  

I think characters should take a percentage of the terrain's MV cost when riding (but still able to ride when their own personal MV is at 0).  Rangers and experienced riders are taxed less. Only when the mount is running, the character wielding two items, or in combat should falling off be at all common.  

(*maybe a total of 10 hours worth of lessons and practice in mountainous-desert terrain. When I was 12.)

+1

[drunkendwarf]

Just fell off again last night.
While walking the mount, with a small weapon in my off hand, moving through the desert. Nothing particularly harrowing about the terrain by the room desc. I find it ridiculous.

[FantasyWriter]

Just fell off again last night.
While walking the mount, with a small weapon in my off hand, moving through the desert. Nothing particularly harrowing about the terrain by the room desc. I find it ridiculous.

Options:
1. Keep riding on rough terrain until you skill up enough to not do it.
2. Don't ride on rough terrain.
3. Store and app a new PC with that is a Ranger, Merchant, Breed, Merc, or Caravan Guide (or any combination of the prior, for that matter).
     (wow, that's a lot of options for a rider with a high ride start and/or cap)
4. SHEATHE THE DAMN DAGGER.

This message brought to you by your friendly neighborhood helper-man.

[Cutthroat]

Or get a mount suited to the terrain. Inixes clearly do better in certain places where they come from, or else they would not live there. Should be the same with war beetles, sunbacks, ratlons, etc.

Even if that doesn't have any coded effect, at least it will be easier to RP understanding what to do on different terrain for skill bump logs.

[janeshephard]

Just fell off again last night.
While walking the mount, with a small weapon in my off hand, moving through the desert. Nothing particularly harrowing about the terrain by the room desc. I find it ridiculous.

Is your agility abysmal? I have never had these issues. Then again all my characters have been rangers so far (I'm so bad).

[Nyr]

Just fell off again last night.
While walking the mount, with a small weapon in my off hand, moving through the desert. Nothing particularly harrowing about the terrain by the room desc. I find it ridiculous.

edit to add:  And really, individual issues are best dealt with by a request and not a call to arms on the GDB, but feel free to bring up the topic in general. 

Discuss?  Go ahead.  If you have a specific concern about something with YOUR character, this is not the place to bring it up.

[drunkendwarf]

The reason I brought it up is to see if other people are having similar issues with fairly long lived characters that you know have had plenty of practice riding.

[valeria]

Reasons why I think the riding code is fine, and don't think comparisons with riding horses can be sustained-

Horses like people.  Because horses tend to like people, they try to help you stay on.  Anybody who has ridden a horse who did NOT like to be ridden or who did NOT like the person for some reason knows that horses are stinkers who will make riding a pain when they don't like you.  On the other hand, insects and lizards don't like people.  They can't, they're missing the part of the brain that lets them get attached to things in the same way mammals do.  Your lizard would probably not care one way or another whether you stay on.

Insects and lizards are not shaped like horses.  These things probably do not have nicely rounded backs that legs can fit around naturally, which is conducive to staying on something.  I picture riding Zalanthan mounts, beetles particularly, as riding a rolling barrel with a saddle.  And probably not even a very secure saddle, given the shape of beetle carapaces and stuff.

Riding over rough terrain is strenuous.  Even when riding horses.  Riding in Zalanthas is probably even more strenuous than I can imagine, with the factors mentioned above taken into account.

Conclusion- I don't see the falling off the mount code as excessive.  Even with non-riding classes, I rarely fall if I follow the advice of people given here.  Ride smoother areas, ride with both hands on the reigns, etc.  Sure it's a pain to fall off, but if you want your character to be good at riding, there are ways to make a character good at riding.

[FantasyWriter]

Camels-like animals in 2.Arm FTW.

[tortall]

Reasons why I think the riding code is fine, and don't think comparisons with riding horses can be sustained-

Horses like people.  Because horses tend to like people, they try to help you stay on.  Anybody who has ridden a horse who did NOT like to be ridden or who did NOT like the person for some reason knows that horses are stinkers who will make riding a pain when they don't like you.  On the other hand, insects and lizards don't like people.  They can't, they're missing the part of the brain that lets them get attached to things in the same way mammals do.  Your lizard would probably not care one way or another whether you stay on.

Insects and lizards are not shaped like horses.  These things probably do not have nicely rounded backs that legs can fit around naturally, which is conducive to staying on something.  I picture riding Zalanthan mounts, beetles particularly, as riding a rolling barrel with a saddle.  And probably not even a very secure saddle, given the shape of beetle carapaces and stuff.

Riding over rough terrain is strenuous.  Even when riding horses.  Riding in Zalanthas is probably even more strenuous than I can imagine, with the factors mentioned above taken into account.

Conclusion- I don't see the falling off the mount code as excessive.  Even with non-riding classes, I rarely fall if I follow the advice of people given here.  Ride smoother areas, ride with both hands on the reigns, etc.  Sure it's a pain to fall off, but if you want your character to be good at riding, there are ways to make a character good at riding.

This would only be true if you're going out and taming your own mount. The mounts that are sold my NPCs should be well trained, and shouldn't be trying to buck you off. If you bought a horse from a breeder of horses, and ever 3 miles it would randomly buck you off and you HURT YOURSELF, what would you do? I'd return the damn thing and demand something better trained.

No, insects and lizards are NOT shaped like horses. However, Zalanthians have been riding these things for.... How mnay years now? Thousands? We're in the 21st age that had some 74 years per age? Yeah. A Zalanthian is gonna be used to the shape of the beast.


My problem with this code: When you fall, you loose HP. Some warriors will fall off ever 1-4 rooms for the first 5ish days(so I've observed). Heck, even one of my rangers fell off a few times after this code went in, and she was already at 15-20 days played! I find falling off the mount jarring, I find your mount refuses to move jarring. I find the latter LESS jarring.

[evil_erdlu]

...
My problem with this code: When you fall, you loose HP.
...

When you fall, do not just hop back and proceed just to fall again. A single emote is enough time to regen the few HP lost because you're reclining when you fell and you're regenerating. Fall, emote "emote dazed, me struggles to regain his footing;feel stars". Then type stand and you'll have full health again.

Or sheathe one of those weapons and you'll not fall again.

[jhunter]

I think characters should take a percentage of the terrain's MV cost when riding (but still able to ride when their own personal MV is at 0).  Rangers and experienced riders are taxed less. Only when the mount is running, the character wielding two items, or in combat should falling off be at all common.  

No. Not unless some of the other things that already tax movement are done away with or the scale is changed to alot for more movement vs. your endurance skill than it currently is. That's a trend that I would like to see go away. Taxing this and that with more and more movement and stun pts.

[valeria]

My point isn't whether I'd return a horse that bucks me off, my point is that insects and lizards are NOT horses.  They aren't going to be as easy to ride as horses.  Any comparison with horses is apples and oranges, unless your character is riding a horse.  Nor is being 'used to' a sloping convex surface isn't going to help your legs grip it any easier.  Especially if your mount doesn't have a saddle (and not all of them do).

I don't find it jarring or unrealistic at all.  One of my professors- riding a horse who he has been riding for years, not a lizard- fell off this past summer and broke his leg riding over rough terrain.  He's been riding for 30 years.  And then there's Christopher Reeve.   

[Synthesis]

...
My problem with this code: When you fall, you loose HP.
...

When you fall, do not just hop back and proceed just to fall again. A single emote is enough time to regen the few HP lost because you're reclining when you fell and you're regenerating. Fall, emote "emote dazed, me struggles to regain his footing;feel stars". Then type stand and you'll have full health again.

If you're in the grasslands east of Tuluk, maybe.  Anywhere south of Luir's, it will take you all goddamn day to recover 5 lost HP out in the open.

[number13]

When you fall, do not just hop back and proceed just to fall again. A single emote is enough time to regen the few HP lost because you're reclining when you fell and you're regenerating. Fall, emote "emote dazed, me struggles to regain his footing;feel stars". Then type stand and you'll have full health again.

That works fine if you fall once, twice a trip.  When nearly everyone in a large RPT party is taking a dozen tumbles each, it becomes cumbersome. And silly.