Ok, so it seems like Bethesda may yet have some horses for us to ride. No confirmation yet, but some indicative evidence in another thread. BUT, if we're going to have horses in Skyrim, then there's not just the concern of whether they'll feel like real animals or not. There's also the concern of how much they will be in your face.

Take Shadowmere, for instance. In Oblivion, I completed a quest for the Dark Brotherhood and Lucien... urrrh sorry, Mr. Lachance (respect thy mafiosi, and all that), rewarded me with Shadowmere. Now, I'm not the one to ignore an offer I shouldn't refuse. But as a person who sees horses in Oblivion as more or less dead weight that just gets in the way, I found the rewrd to be rather pointless.

Fair enough, the reward was there. But a few more hours into the game, I got kinda effing fed up by that horse that refused to stay in the stables of a town. Everywhere I went, that immortal horse popped out of the woodwork. At least the Priory Horse had the good sense to DIE DIE DIE when I impaled it with my blade after getting fed up by it always appearing next to me. But as y'all know, Shadowmere is invulnerable. He cannot die.


So, to my point:

Could you fine guys over at Bethesda please make a better effort of scripting the horse so that it STAYS at the gold dame stables whenever I leave it there? That way, people like me will be able to leave it there to rot, without making the game worse for the average stud-and-mare fetishist out there. But that's the thing, I'm more into latex fashion myself, but do you see me crying? noooo. Anyways, I'd imagine that you'd want to cater to both player groups - those who wanna ride and those who prefer walking on foot.

Please remove the horses' pathological compulsion to always stand next to you in thick and thin. I do have an intimate zone, you know...

I agree, this is one of the reasons i never ever had a horse on Oblivion , and Shadowmere , i dunno if she died every time i got it i just left it there :spotted owl:

I want a horse marker on the map instead, just that.

Ive kept the Uni as a mount for 300 play through in OB, you just have to put them in the right stable. Mounts followed you for the sake of convenience. Its design was not always convenient. While even the rudimentary mounts in OB could be RPed into importance, they need mounted combat. That adds a whole new gameplay mechanic. That's why riding should be some general skill, or skill in general.

I just don't want mounts at all, they were more or less useless in OB imo, and the larger focus on verticality in Skyrim would make them even more so.

an easy workaround is to simply get on another horse stolen or not. the game thinks thats you new horse and then you dont have to worry about it anymore. i agree the character run speed was way to fast near the end and horses were more of a hinderance travelling than useful.

Mounts were not useless in Oblivion.

Say what? Shadowmere was fast as hell and useful. This is a good reason to remove speed and athletics, too fast of run speed. Or maybe someone didn't even try to ride Shadowmere *cough*

No, different builds for different customs. Not a reason to get rid of those. More reason to make more than one build/character. Agree about mounts. All were useful in Oblivion. Depends on your build.

Me liek Shadowmere.

She be a gud meat shield.

Sadly she be not yield meat cuz she can't be killed.

i never had a problem with my horses chasing me... they'd stay where i left them, unless i fast traveled, then they'd obviously appear near me, or if i traveled to a town, they'd appear in the stables, and stay there...

maybe your game was possessed or something.

I would more or less have to agree with this.

I never had a horse following issue either unless i fast traveled or there was an enemy and shadowmere was still close behind, plus! Come on shadowmere was a savior when i was carrying to much and had to go knock him out and use him as a mule, very use full.

But i do hope they do a good job with horses, red dead really did a good job with them and skyrim has either got to match that detail or over shadow it.

Pleease NO mounts in Skyrim,

One out of the best 10+ things on the top of my head they could announce for Skyrim is "There will be no mounts in Skyrim".

I used Shadowmere, the only real horse with any use, but that was just as a pack horse. I even used the unicorn for a whole playthrough, but that was for RP'ing purposes.You're all entitle to your opinion but for me they were far more of an annoyance than they were useful, I'd soon as well have them removed than done as poorly (IMO) as they were in OB.

Exactly and that is exactly what Todd Howard said in other words in a podcast. So at least it is confirmed that if ride-able horses do make it in the game that they will be better done then they were in OB.

We need mounts. Make them better with mounted combat. Have it based on skill/attributes/perks etc. Plus, mounts in OB were great for any character that didnt raise speed. Which was plenty o' builds. Not to mention the spells you could cast on your steed to do all sorts of things.

They would have been useful in Morrowind but with fast travel and with very little speed you could run faster or as fast as horses it was more annoying then helpful. The exception is shadowmere.

Not really. All the mounts had different speeds in OB. Plenty of builds dont raise their speed at all and if they do, its not faster than the faster horses. Plus, plenty of people dont use fast travel. that aside mounts can be expanded on, not cut outright.

I would rather have mounts then not have them but if I am able to run as fast as horses easily, not be able to cast spells or attack well riding, and/or be stalk by them. I would rather not have them in.

But its a bit selfish isn't it? Just because you dont use them, you dont want them in for anyone? If there was something you used and I didnt, I wouldnt want it cut. You could raise your speed and athletics with any build in OB sure, but some of us stuck to our build/class/character etc. Some were naturally slow like the pure mage, or the tank warrior, etc.

What I really want is a re vamp to the horses but if they can't do it properly I would rather have them focus on something that they can do well and implement that into the game. Is that more clear?

I get you, but all that needs to be revamped is mounted combat. Add it and maybe add penalties to certain builds/attributes/skills etc. That's all they have to do. Its not really that hard. Make it so you can fight on horse, with penalties if your worried about balance. Fast builds can not use horses if they so choose, just like a warrior wouldnt use spells. But a slower build has that option. Plus all of the types of builds that can be built around mounted combat alone.

I found them to be fine, what was poor was athletics and speed. They made mounts useless because of the unrealistic movement speed that was made out of them. Morrowind was too slow (snail pace) and Oblivion ended up being too fast. Luckily they are gone this time around and it seems that movement speed has been cut down significantly meaning mounts will be useful in Skyrim if they are in and means the world will feel even bigger than Oblivion with the mountains and reduced movement speed.

Or just make horses faster, like mods did. Removing speed and athletics because the top run speed was much faster than the horses run speed is a not a good reason to remove them imo.