Mounted horse as means of transport, hell yes, it's a dire need for those not wanting to "fast travel". As for mounted combat, throw it it if they can, but it's not my biggest wish. Afaik the success of mounted combat (other than jousting) was very short lived and knights soon began to dismount for the fight. Without spears (pikemen) in the defense, I fear mounted combat will be severely overpowered. But it's a great tool to rely on to get the hell out of there fast, once you messed up.

Maybe an intolerable amount of bow sway and reduced 1H weapon efficiency would do the trick? No 2H combat.

well people liked the ability to move quicker then on foot very much so i assume that horses will be in and hopefully you can attack on them or at the very least use archery (epona anyone?)

The cavalry charge was an extremely valuable part of an army, even well past the middle ages into the use of guns, even into the revolutionary war and beyond. I'm not sure where you get short lived, it was a staple of many battles and empires throughout their reigns.

Yeah in actual fact, mounted combat has been the determining factor in warfare all through history - the "Knights Jousting" was a sporting event, not a method of battle.

Alexander the Great used cavalry as his most prized asset, as did the Persian's of their day. This was also true of the Mongolians, who used mounted-combat to defeat China and most of Asia during the reign of Ghangis Khan - so it was also an Eastern way of war as well. Examples can be found in almost every major battle of history prior to WWI. There are in fact fewer examples of where a ground-based army was able to defeat a mounted one - the Battle of Tours being a significant example to Christian history. None the less, one should not think of Jousting as anything other than a short-lived, ridiculous sport of the rich, and nothing more than that.

I don't think we will see it in Skyrim, as Todd mentioned they were still experimenting - though I have some hope because even he said that he was unsatisfied with mounts in Oblivion. I hope we at least have good horses that we can do stuff while mounted on, even if we don't get formalized combat.

Miax

To question if you can interact is also to question inclusion. You can't interact with non-existent objects. Pretty sure horses WILL be in the game, and probably mounts- but i don't see how a mounted combat system would work well within Skyrim

Now that I've played Mount and Blade Warband, I just want to play the next Elder Scrolls game with Warband combat in place of what was done in Oblivion. The mounted combat (with swords, polearms, or bows) was great and would be amazing if mixed with the richness of the Elderscrolls universe.

I would rather have stale mounted combat than none at all. What Bethesda needs to realize is that they are a jack of all trades, and need to get rid of this "all or nothing" approach to content. Does ES always have the best magic system, best combat system? The best they are at is creating an open world where you can do anything. Including ride horses. But they shouldn't compete with something like Red Dead, because they can't. And Red Dead can't beat ES for variety (and a general fantasy atmosphere)

Yes it would feel odd, I want mounts just for npc and world immersion sake, with npcs doing jobs nows, at least some beasts having schedules, town based economys,etc Skyrim is going for a much for believable world than anything before it. I recall Todd saying that, and it seems clear they want them, but who know how much the pc can interact with them.

I remember distinctly in the lead up to Oblivion there were several hundred topics across several boards concerning mounted combat, I shook my head with a light sigh when I saw this topic, but I suppose it's inevitable.

Now as for horses, I believe one of the pictures in the GI mag had a picture of the PC stalking a horse in an autumn-ish looking forest, which to me, would at least confirm the existence of horses. :shrug:

Like the picture of the rider with drawn sword we saw before Oblivion was released

Horses in Oblivion is tragic, had been better to replace them with donkeys or perhaps pigs or cows for us to ride on. Prefer to use my horse as a pack horse in Oblivion.

I don't see any balance problems with mounted combat, first it's a single player game who focus on dungeon crawling. Yes a mounted archer or spellcaster would have few problems with a slow enemy melee enemy on flat ground but this would be pretty rare and a fast character can do the same on foot. Simplest solution if its a major problem is to make horses panic if hurt.

That was an actual screenshot though, not just concept art.

I can safely say that if horses are in the game, but mounted combat is not, I won't be using horses. They'll be useless unless they can outrun enemies. :shrug:

Would prefer not to have horses or other animals rideable unless it is done properly. They may be able to added mounts with lite combat thematics into the game before release, just remember that they would probably build it for the 3 archetypes if they did do it. melee,magic,archery. It is a lot of work to implement and balance.

This is pointless. Why would they devote so much resources into creating a gameplay element that would get used only when in the odd event when someone attacks you on the road which is quite rare?

I'd be happy if the riding was like in Mount & Blade where the horse gradually increases and decreases it's riding speed. So by just pushing the forward button once every two seconds you could keep a nice gallop.

Well if they do put it in, please god don`t make it like AC2, mounted combat in that just feels so wrong..

Because no mounted combat was pretty annoying then you got a tail of wolfs after you. With mountain lions it actually become pretty dangerous, you arrive at the destination and start to fight the monsters outside the dungeon and is jumped by two mountain lions.

If you has not experienced this you have not used horses much. Now I use a mod where I can make the horse follow me, together with a pack saddle it’s pretty useful.

Yeah. I never used horses in Oblivion because of this exact problem, and if there's no mounted combat in Skyrim, I'll probably ignore them all over again.

Also, "quite rare"? Did you just fast travel all the time, or...?

Assassin's Creed did horses amazingly well. So did Mount&Blade. The latter of which is made by a tiny company. Sure their animation could be a bit better but the mechanics best any game to date.

If Beth don't include them, it would at least be nice to have the flexibility to mod them in but that's a bit of a dream.

If they are going to leave the horses out (mounting wise), at least put them in the game as part of the livestock with sheeps and cattle, that way the game world feels somewhat immersive. And leave a loophole in the engine that allows mounting to be implemented via mods through a moderately easy method for those of use who are not horse haters. One alternative for the mounted combat might to allow hoove kicks and trampling.

I do believe that "horse" has antlers. I'd bet its a deer/elk/moose type of critter.

the issue of why it′s not in is making it work for both 1st and 3rd person

for 3rd it can work, games like mount & blade proves with such a camera that′s no issue

but with 1st I imagen it becomes quite a mess to be riding at high speed, trying to keep track of both how your horse moves and your foe.

Bethesda is thinking bigger. Instead of a horse armor DLC, why not make a horse DLC? :chaos:

What the heck, civilizations over years, used bows, swords, lances and all sorts of other weapons wjile mounted. And yah if you do enough damage to your horse it dies and then you tumble off, and it goes inot one of those thrid person views where you roll around a bunch.

@Ralos

Mount abd Blade has 1st person viewpoint as well.

And if horses are not in I will be thouroughly dissapointed. Because they were really speedy and walking everywhere si a pain.

I know..and I used it for 2 seconds...because it svcks, aka making it work for both views in skyrim would most likly also svck...well at least for those with first person

I think the trick would be balancing mounted combat versus foot, though. Especially archers/mages - if a melee fighter has no way to catch up to them while they ride around, attacking them with impunity, that's broken as hell.