CLOK BBS

The subject of horses permanently dying was brought up today. There was a big debate but I figured it'd be more permanent and productive to post it here!
WHAT WAS DISCUSSED:
Horses cost a lot, and perma-death might turn players off from buying them.
It's way more realistic for a dead horse to stay dead. (And opens RP opportunities. It's also weird if your horse that you've so lovingly cared for died an hour ago and you're seen riding it around again.)
Unique mounts should be 'immortal' though, with special flavourtext to rescue them. Or they could just flee battle when 'dead' and return to a stable to recover.

OTHER HORSE NEWS:
Some people feel that for their background, stabling horses in cities isn't very RP-friendly -->
Stabling horses in the wild, or setting a "return-to" command to make your horse return to a certain location if they're left in the wild for too long.
Horse tricks! Make your horse do tricks to impress people (based off riding skill?)
Wild horses for domestication. <-- On a side note, taming wild animals. (With more permanency than a druid)
Hitching posts.

DID I MISS SOMETHING? POST IT HERE!



My thoughts on horse death: I feel as if mounts shouldn't be able to magically recover from a headshot and reappear in the last stable it was in. It ruins a bit of the RP narrative, as swearing a death grudge against your horses slayer doesn't do much if you can just summon up your horse again and ride around like nothing happened.
One of my characters, for example, treats his horse with respect and care, while another treats his donkey like another piece of equipment. Each person can treat their mounts differently, but it doesn't reduce its mortality. It doesn't make sense for special mounts like Waywolf to die permanently, so obviously there'd be an exception on a case-by-case scenario, but I feel as if generic horses should be able to stay dead when killed.

WHY I THINK ITS ALSO GOOD: People don't really treat their horses like a real horse. Most people use them like a type of equipment, and we always hear on OOC people asking for their horse because they'd forgotten to stable it, or they'd just forgotten where it was. If horse death was implemented, people would be more inclined to either ride their steed off to log out, or would actually stable their mounts.

That brings up the topic of "why are special mounts excused from death?" They're 'named' characters, and like all named characters should be given some form of immortality. By "named" I mean it's a unique character, unlike any kind of store bought steed. <-- TO BE MORE SPECIFIC, I MEAN ONLY EVENT HORSES. Just because you named your horse, like I did mine, doesn't make it immortal. Gotta clear that up.

Hey, horse murder would be a real crime then!

OPINIONS ON PRICING:
I feel as if the price is fine where it is. It takes much time, effort, and riln to raise a horse from infancy, and even more to train it to be war-capable.

OPINIONS ON WILDERNESS STABLING:
I think that'd be fine, but would come with risks. If someone walks by, they could kill your horse, or if a wild creature kills your horse that'd be another thing. The risk would then lie on the owners horse, because they chose to stable it in the wild instead of in the safety of a city stable.

OPINIONS ON DOMESTICATION:
I think domestication would be cool, but should be limited to certain animals. Wild horses, as mentioned by another player, would be nice. However, a newly-tamed creature would definitely not be as obedient as one store bought, for obvious reasons, so I don't exactly expect a domesticated wild horse to happily accept a harness and lug around your wagon for you. At best, tamed wild beasts would accept your riding of it, barely.


I think that's about it. Commence the posting!

EDIT: With horse perma death, skinning and butchering of horses, too! :]

Other suggestions I'm making:

Raw fish filets ought to have the raw adjective. So like filet of raw perch vs filet of perch. I keep accidentally mixing my raw filets with my cooked filets and I can't differentiate when I transfer filets from my basket to my skillet.

[quote="Lun"]The subject of horses permanently dying was brought up today. There was a big debate but I figured it'd be more permanent and productive to post it here![\quote]


Yes, I would agree with pet death, as that's what I was used to in my other MUD, The Forest's Edge.

But I would not want to see pet permadeath added to the game 'as is'. Before pet permadeath is added, I would want to see three things introduced first: (1) the price of horses lowered to 4000 and warhorses to 15000; and (2) The introduction of barding (horse armor) that can be purchased to protect your steed. In TFE, one could purchase barding varieties in leather, chain, or plate mail. I believe only leather barding could go on a riding horse; and (3) the 'flight or fight' response be coded into the pets (see my next post).

The other odd thing I have noticed, is that horses whose rider has fallen have no sense of 'fight or flight'. The mob that killed the horses' master proceeds to attack the horse; and the horse or warhorse just stands there and takes it.

So I would suggest is that the horse probably break morale when it's rider is absent and being attacked; this would translate into a 50% chance each round that the horse will attempt to flee (25% chance per round for warhorses); and on the rounds it succeeds it's morale check, it fights back just like any mob would.

And another completely different suggestion for horses (and other hooved animals like deer and stags)...

...is that their usual attack be not a bite, but rather a kick from their hooves. Sometimes they would bite (around 20% of the time) but mostly they would kick.

Yes, make horses run away! Also, I always thought it to be a little odd that someone who has just been thrown off a horse can immediately mount again while still engaged. Haven't checked this in a while so could be wrong...

Huh. Warhorses should fight back. If yours doesn't, get a GM to check the horse's AI.

Fleeing when their rider is gone, and non-wartrained mounts fleeing in general, has been on the to-do list a long time.