Fighting with mounts (and a bit Multiplayer mounts)

[zinder]

I really want to see fighting with mounts and multiplayer mounts. I only know one MMORPG with both of those features.(i dont know one which has only one of them.) They are really fun.

Here is an idea how it could work:
A player can own a mount. You can ride free, but not attack while riding. If you try, the mount throw him down and run a short distant away.
If you want to fight with it, you must train it for war. Then the mount becomes similar to a hired NPC.(It has health, skills, max weigth, stamina, etc) But if it is killed and not ressurrected in time,it is permadead. Also you can buy equipment for it, e.g. armour for mount, armoured sattle.
The mount can have melee attack or a short ranged shot/magic, not both.
Ranged attacks need ammo and the rider can only attck with the mount\'s attack. If the mount has a melee attack, the rider can choose between his and the mount\'s attacks. (On multiplayer mounts, the rider can only use the mounts attack indepent from type. And not all mounts must have an attack.)
A hard hit at the rider, can make him fall off.
For balance ranged attacking mounts should not flying and rider\'s ranged/magic attacks should have a malus.(Otherwise every nonranged is an easy target.)

Some examples to illustrate it a bit more (i know those animals will pretty sure not in PS, but perhaps something alike) :
Horses: fast, mid health, melee attack front, back. You can buy saddles, body armour, and chariots. Saddles influence you too.(harder to make you fall off, give armour to you, but better saddle makes horse slower, costs stamina) Body armour protects the horse better with same downs as saddles.
Chariots comes in one-horse and two-horse variants. Both make the horse slower, cost the attack, but give protection to rider and allow one(one-horse)/two(two-horse) fighting passangers(only their own attacks). Chariots can be destroyed without killing the horse and horse can be killed without destroing the chariot. Chariot can only combined with light body armour, not with heavy or saddles.

Elephant: slow, good health,melee attack front. You can buy weapons, body armour and cabines. Melee attacker need a long weapon or a jump attack against the rider. Weapons are for the tusk and make the attack stronger. Body armor same as for horse.
Cabines allows up to 6 passengers and come in to flavors: open and closed. Open allows attacks at and from the passengers. Closed protects the passenger, but disables attacks. Cabines can be destroyed without killing the elepahnt, but killing the elepahnt destroys the cabine. Weigth rules which combinations of armour, weapons and cabines are possible.

Small ground dragon: low max weigth, low health, short ranged fire attack forward (ammo is sulfur, multiple shots per bit). You can buy saddle, ammo and body armour. Saddle and body armour similar to horse.
Ammo comes in different concentrations, higher concentration more damage.

[Drilixer]

I think mounted combat would be anice addition - even world of warcraft with all it\'s mounts doesnt have that

[Caldazar]

I\'m not sure to which extent this can be added, but I really like the idea! Also, there could be mounts that required more than one rider. For example, one dwarf could have trouble controling a huge dragon, but five dwarves could easily control it, and use all of its abilities.

[Drilixer]

yeah! the mounts could be done like the vehicles in Tribes 2... ome guy stear the dragon and the other guy is perched on it\'s head and control\'s it\'s breath attack for example

EDIT: I\'m not really sure how this would fit into the game though...

[Mindari]

nice ideas on mount fighting

maybe if the mounts r intelegent enough they could attack indepentatnly from the rider eg, the rider attacks and thier mount uses melee attack at the same time

[Wormtail_]

I like the idea of having mounts in the game. And perhaps you can tame animals in the wild, so you can use them as mounts... Perhaps the size of a character and the size of a mount also influnces factors, like whether you can ride it or not. I\'m not sure whether a wolf is up to carring a Kran, but maybe it is up to carrying a dwarf. Or a wolf-like creature.

Perhaps in melee combat, there can be a \'charge\' ability. Okay, maybe I am \'borrowing\' an idea from the AoW series, but here\'s the idea if you need one. If the mount is moving fast enough, and the character is wielding a melee weapon, then they get a damage and attack bonus. Perhaps their defensive ability is weakened, though. Polearms could have a bonus with charge, for various reasons, too. Polearms could also deter a mount from advancing, though, as realistically, a horse will walk anywhere EXCEPT the place with a lot of pointy objects pointing at it.

As for mounts attacking independently of the rider, Ilike the idea, but I do not think that the animals intelligence should make a difference.\' Animals are intelligent, but they don\'t attack unless provoked or angered. Or scared. But perhaps mounts can have their own characters, like their health differing from others yet speed making up for the low hitpoints. That may not be the best of ideas, because it can be hard to implement if ou want a horse because it has at least a certain amount of hitpoints and you get one with loeer than average.

All in all, a greata idea. Elephants as mounts or elephant-like creatures are going to be interesting... Heavy body, trunk, tusks, and feet that squash things... Ouch.

[Drilixer]

will their be allignments in Planeshift - I\'ve heard peope mention evil and good and neyutral but so far I\'ve just taken it to be simple RPG decorum - if there is there could be many allignment specific creatures like Dark Wolves (dangit i forget the D&D name!!!) for evil characters etc etc