The first time I got on a horse in Oblivion, I wanted to fight from its back. The rear box-art features an Imperial guard charging, sword out, on horseback. The heavy plate armor featured in the game would only realistically be useful for wearing on horseback.

Mounted combat was one of the first things that came to my mind when the Skyrim announcement hit. I can cast two healing spells at once, I can shout dragon-words, I can view every POS in my inventory in HD, 360 degree detail (none of these being things I cared about, or even considered), but God forbid I can fight from the saddle. Come to think of it, this is pretty much all I wanted for Skyrim to have that Oblivion didn't. This is my only true disappointment.

Don't get me wrong, the game looks excellent, and I'll begrudgingly dismount to kill hundreds of Timber wolves before I get tired of the game, but seriously?

Agree? Happy about the lack of this feature? Never cared? Like to walk? Post away.

they said that they tried it but it changed the game too much or something like that

I can definitely see how it would change the gameplay considerably, and without some nice polearms there's just no point except for bow and arrow.

I don't care too much as long as the dismount animation is FAST. I hate getting hit several times by enemies while my character leisurely gets down from the horse like nothing is going on.

I never use mounts that much, anyway, so I'm not really disappointed in the lack of mounted combat.

I dont really care for mounted combat. As long as they fix the kill animations im fine with just ground combat.

As stated above I heard they did try it. Would have definitely been awesome but now that I think about it, it would have had a massive change on the game play. I do not think it would feel very "Elder Scrolls"

Mounted combat is more of a warfare thing. As in Mount&Blade. I am not sure if it would fit Oblivion too well. Would be nice, but not essential.

One day long from now it might be available.

I await that time.

Having to dismount every time a wolf wants to try to gt under your horse=lame. They should have strived to make mounted combat, or at least a way to attack some way from horseback.

Would have been nice but it aint really a biggy for me.. Im fine with dismounting to fight my opponents.

It would change gameplay, especially with the addition of polearms, as you said, but think about the possibilities!

Imagine bandits actually having to ambush you to stand a chance; mounted bandits; charging at a giant across an open plane; being knocked off your mount by a large enemy, or having it killed underneath you and taking damage from the fall; being ensnared by a low-hanging web of a giant spider; horseback archery being difficult as hell; jousts! All these things are badass, and it seemed to me that Oblivion was just begging for many of them.

Am I the only one that found mounted combat in fantasy games to be a bit cheesy? Not to mention that it could cause some playstyles to lack. I could see a rouge like character having difficulty hitting someone on a mount with a shortsword or dagger.

Its all about game balancing folks, if they tried it and said it made the game too easy then we have to trust them at their word, otherwise you would have 1000 people coming here complaining that the combat is too easy and they just ride around in circles killing creatures without even getting touched!

Would be cool. They'll do it next game.... *cough* In 4 years!!! *Cough*

Meh, it won't feel like elder scrolls, and combat won't be very good unless we add pole arms.
Plus in most games that I played that let mounted combat it feels rather meh, controlling the horse, controlling where you aim, controlling your attacks. Its way easier just to dismount and kill the enemies

Screw Mounted combat, it wil ruin the game.

well i take that back it would be cool for 1 powerful joust in combat that does extra damge, but it wont be effective in long term combat...
also horse jacking lik throwing someone off their mount would be badass. but i guess it would be cool for mounted combat, but then again Bethesda knows what they are doing

Its not like mounted combat is a longstanding feature of CRPGs.

this^

Would have been nice. Mages could cast magics at the enemies, rogues could shoot bows, and warriors could melee.

Why couldnt they just add a -50% damage on horseback or something? that way we could ride around killing the timber wolves without getting off, but then when a truely dangerous enemy comes along we would dismount and fight proper. *When working on making centaurs for Oblivion I encountered similar overpower problems, I just did things like stopping you can going backwards, sideways is slow and turning is much slower......there is no reason they coulnt have just nerfed horseback combat a bit and put it in.



It will again be a much winged about missing feature.

Lots of work on that one. Even till now no real horse combat is available with oblivion mods. I am disappointed with no horse combat, even more so with 3rd person only horse riding.

But i can sort of understand that to make an entirely new set of animation for all attack options there is for a feature only used like 10% to 20% of the time is somewhat wasteful.

Wouldn't feel like a TES game? It's just another option for people to use. It's not like they can go spelunking with their horse anyway. I kinda wish adventuring in groups and riding horseback were required simply to survive, and only the truely badass could walk the winding trails of SK alone and survive.

There's so much more I care more for than mounted combat.

When a Saber-Toothed-Cat knocks you off of your horse, killing it and trouncing you in one smooth leap from its place of concealment in the rocks, you'll wish you could ride around it in circles. Making horses vulnerable as hell (as they would be in a realistic setting), would balance things out nicely. Animals could hurt them badly and kill them before you could get off (but not obnoxiously so), as could arrows, enemy polearms, magic, and mounted enemies.

Think about fighting a mounted enemy when you're on foot. All the advantages would be against you as they'd be with you if you were mounted.

I think Beth could do this. I have faith in their abilities, and they always impress.

This. There are much worse issues to concern people, I don't think many were actually expecting horse combat.

How can you have faith in their abilities if you don't have faith in their judgment?