CLOK BBS

Per today's changelogs:

- Mounts can now be purchased at the Shadgard stableyard.
- A stableyard has been added to the Corvus Outpost where mounts can be purchased and empty carts can be stored.
- There is now a limit to how many mounts a character can purchase (2 at this time). This limit may potentially be raised via special abilities.
- Receiving Riding training from an NPC trainer will now immediately grant 1 point of the skill if the character did not already have any Riding skill.

So hooray, a lot of people have something to save up for, now! Some additional info about mount stuff:

- In addition to being able to move around the map more quickly, remember that being mounted also makes dragging a PC's corpse significantly faster.
- Corvus and Shadgard each have two unique appearance options for riding horses that the other doesn't have, the rest being shared between both.
- Reminder that horse brushes (not to be confused with scrub brushes) can be purchased at a general store and used to BRUSH a mount to increase its morale, being more effective with higher Riding skill.
- Given there is now a limitation on number of owned mounts, expect the ability to sell mounts back to a stables soon(tm). Still deciding on how to handle legacy characters that already have more than the limit. Some people have a truly shocking number of mounts! Not to mention that awful tactic of taking a swarm of horses around to act as meat shields in combat ...
- War-trained mounts to come soon-ish(tm). We want to restrict their availability to characters who are actually trained for and capable of using them, as well as make sure non-war-trained riding horses retain some unique value of their own rather than war-trained mounts being considered superior to non-war-mounts in every way (except for price, I suppose) which was the case in Original CLOK.
- Yes, we're looking into making war-trained mounts less prone to panic when they or their rider is attacked.
- Low priority, but eventually yes to things like saddles, saddle blankets, bridles, and such.
- Saddlebags were problematic in their previous implementation as they turned mounts into mobile storage units and exacerbated issues like item bloat and overinflated expectations of item safety/permanence outside dedicated storage facilities (banks or homes). They may make some kind of return if we can think of some additional limitations that will make them viewed as a means of temporarily hauling things around for a particular trip instead of just being treated as increased long-term storage.

Thank you for the additions!! Riding horsies are always a fun RP tool (shame on you people who use them strictly for item storage! They are living(-ish) things! :D)

Rias wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2024 3:38 pm - Saddlebags were problematic in their previous implementation as they turned mounts into mobile storage units and exacerbated issues like item bloat and overinflated expectations of item safety/permanence outside dedicated storage facilities (banks or homes). They may make some kind of return if we can think of some additional limitations that will make them viewed as a means of temporarily hauling things around for a particular trip instead of just being treated as increased long-term storage.

I posed a suggestion to this on Discord, putting it here for consideration.

What if steeds had limited slots available, i.e. reins, bridle, saddle blanket and saddle, but the saddles themselves had the addition to add additional slots directly attached to the saddle itself, similar to how belts work? A horse cannot be stabled while wearing a saddle, they must be removed and stored separately (either with the addition of a "tack room" at the stables for a small fee, or in the player vaults/homes themselves). Depending on the saddle, they have a few additional slots available to store additional baggage; basic ones might just have a "cantle" slot and a "saddlebag" slot, for instance. More expensive, and festival, saddles could have additional slots, i.e. "horn" slots and "skirt" slots.

Unless being currently ridden by a player, I think these additional baggage slots should be free game for anyone who walks by, should their natures be inclined to the shadier side of things. You leave your horse sitting in the Town Commons while you go running around town for errands? Don't expect your belongings to be there upon your return. Leave them out in the wilderness while skill-grinding, looting, et cetera? Oh well. Thar be bandits out there, after all. The PALM ability should also work for them, even if ridden, just the same as any player character. I think this would limit people from using them solely as mobile vaults, since they clearly aren't secured, but also add the provided boon of anyone in a player's group being able to run out for a bandage or two without the steed's player needing to be there.

Each saddle slot should have a limited number of containers useable with them, too. "Horns" shouldn't have much, maybe a place to sling a scabbard (rifle or melee), a pole or lance rest, or a small belt-pouch sized container; small sized items with a limit of 15. "Cantle" slots could be a singular item of medium-sized or smaller, such as bedrolls, blankets, coats, etc. Saddlebags could be satchel-sized containers, holding medium-sized items with a limit of 30.

Anyhow, thanks again for the hard work!

Edited to Add: Also, if handcarts make a return in some fashion, these should not be useable with saddles. One or the other, not both. Maybe logging sleds, too, but I'm less inclined to add those since they were a more effective corpse-transport than handcarts. Maybe have them add the "uncomfortable" tag to any animal they're hitched to (in case people use mules for general utility) or make it so they aren't rideable at that point. I'd prefer the former, personally. Food for thought!