No horses. Imagine that.

[FlintlockJazz]

You could ride horses and even carts in TES 2 Daggerfall actually, and Oblivion was just return to that feature.

[Greydragon]

Sorry, I didn't really have a point to my last post; I just write whatever random things take my fancy.

 

In regards to my earlier point; mounted combat doesn't need to go completely out the window if modern warfare has completely removed the practice. There are always people who stubbornly cling to traditions. You just have to make it clear in game how utterly useless this kind of combat is and problem solved. A demonstration would work well, or a part of the introduction to an ancient battlefield. Essentially impress the situation and it never has to be addressed again. However lack of military mounts does not mean that civilians don't still use them in day to day work; all it takes is a random cart or two in a cut scene and an animal contentedly eating grass in a field you can't access. It doesn't take much.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Greydragon

[Diagoras]

In reply to Diagoras's dissection of my post I will elaborate:

 

Sent you a PM with my response, as our discussion is off-topic. Suffice to say, what you're saying doesn't really reflect the realities of 16th century firearms and their usage.

 

Ahh... but would it have been, had horses NEVER existed, and had mankind attempted domestication of deer or cattle or chocobos since the dawn of man?

 

That's an interesting question. My only reading about this is from Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel in which he claims that there isn't really another creature that can replace the horse on Earth, but that's obviously not a real source.

 

Isn't replaceable by any creature in the world? Unless of course you count cattle, zebra, donkeys, and a multitude of other animals that may not even exist. We are not talking about Earth here. These alternate species may have been domesticated as long or longer than horses.

 

None of those creatures effectively replace the horse. And I don't quite see the point of making a world without horses if you proceed to populate it with magical horse equivalents.

 

Also dogs have a long tradition in warfare on Earth; as do many species. As early as Ancient Egypt.   

 

I noted that - but dogs aren't horses.

 

 

Camels do work as a replacement as long as the climate is suitable.

Given a long history, selective breeding and a lack of horses, there might be thicker fur camels that'd manage in the cooler zones.

 

Now that is a species that I flat-out forgot about! Yeah. camels could replace horses in some roles, and I'm honestly ignorant as to how effective they were vs. horses. Could you have effective replacements for shock cavalry with camels? Fast mounted archers? And, arguably most importantly, would a camel collar provide equal results to the horse collar which revolutionized European farming?

[Adhin]

I kinda try to avoid pointing out war situations in relation to anything related to an RPG since singular combat or small team combat just doesn't translate the same. Either way I hope they show said beasts of burden, horses and otherwise, out and about. I don't wanna be riding them, as gameplay wise it wont add anything to this style of game. In a TES like RPG-ish game I get it, massive land to cover solo, useful to be on something fast. In BG2, Planescape: Torment? Utterly useless as it comes. Hell if they did do it in BG2 you wouldn't even 'move' faster, your horse would of still walked at normal speeds and it woulda ended up being just a 'new kind of combat specialization'... which is silly.

 

I kinda hope they have some kind of encampment upgrades, involving horses and such that make traveling from down to down 'faster' in a mathematical sense. That being going from City A to City B (in fast travel) takes say, a week normally, takes half the time if you've bought a horse or use a caravan or something. I think any of that would be woven into less combat oriented roles, or just for atmosphere but it needs to be there.

 

As for Dragon Age they had horses, they where even part of some of the family crests. The War Dog's weren't so much a 'we have dogs so we don't need horses'... it was just a magically breeded war dog they incorporated into there sociaty and warfare... horses still existed and where used. BioWare just gets lazy and never bothered to put models in to show them. Hell you had 'caravan' like stuff you wandered into with 0 animals. Beginning of game I think, after the war, you run into that dwarfs wandering merchant... no animal. He apparently dragged his big ass cart all over the place instead of using a donkey or something (which im sure lore wise he used a donkey or like animal).

 

Ahh and at this point im just saying the same crap over and over heh, heres hoping for animals to be in the game for atmosphere.

[Lephys]

Beginning of game I think, after the war, you run into that dwarfs wandering merchant... no animal. He apparently dragged his big ass cart all over the place instead of using a donkey or something (which im sure lore wise he used a donkey or like animal).

He was a Dwarf. He can probably tote a whole cart on each shoulder, and STILL sprint for a few hundred yards without becoming winded.

 

It's funny, 'cause I thought up one of those used-in-almost-every-type-of-game-you-can-imagine-at-one-point-or-another "push levels," involving horses and some kind of dire chase scene for your party (Stop the guy who's getting away with the important artifact, or escape the impending army, etc.), PURELY in a "Wouldn't THAT be both ridiculous and hilarious?" sense... But then... Logistically, I surprisingly think it could actually work. The key word being "could" (and not "should").

 

Each member of your party on a horse. Relative to your enemies, you can still move around and use abilities like in regular combat (because EVERYONE'S moving at like... what... 30MPH horse-running speed? So it's like normal combat, but on animated horses, and with the background moving, from a technical standpoint).

 

I'm just saying... it could happen. o_o

Edited April 9, 2013 by Lephys