Ranged Mounted Combat

[GhostWolf7]

Pretty straight forward, but how will ranged mounted combat work?

Will characters swivel in the saddle to face a targeted enemy? Or will you have to aim? Or can you only shoot at targets in front of you?

[Athelan]

Originally Posted by GhostWolf7

Pretty straight forward, but how will ranged mounted combat work?

Will characters swivel in the saddle to face a targeted enemy? Or will you have to aim? Or can you only shoot at targets in front of you?

You can't cast offensive magic from horseback, so I do not expect you can use ranged mounted combat at all. This is because ranged combined with the mobility of horseback would become an exploitation issue with kiting in both PvE and PvP. However everyone has access to melee combat and could engage from their mounts in that way.

[GhostWolf7]

Will that include ranged weapons? I'm assuming yes since kiting will probably still be a problem, but I just want to know for sure.

When I think about it, this was probably one of those things that sounded cool on paper (what with mongol hordes and all) but really wouldn't work out in an mmo.

Thanks for the answers!

[oootaaa]

Guess this is essential for balancing

[tutanka]

yeah i saw a link that showed combat off a horse with a lance or swords but no ranged...it accually implicated of the ability to form up a calvary march with lances how sweet is that?

[Caffeine]

really sweet unless of course your a spell caster trying do something vs a melee that can attack you from horse back while apparently you can do nothing to cause him damage without dismounting.

[tutanka]

hmmm i see your point and maybe there wont be anything done about it right away... but they could just limit your range while on mounts to even it out a bit i guess..but i cant recall any magic being used off mounts in conan lore

[Exilium]

Athelan said no offensive magic specifically. I would guess that means defensive magics can be used to increase your chances of out running melee forces. Also during massive battles it may prove beneficial to have some healers on horse back running back and forth casting heals and short duration buffs on the combatants.

[hackjames]

Honestly, this game looks great and I can understand almost all of the design descisions so far, but I don't understand the explanation that ranged combat from a mount is by default an "exploitation issue with kiting in both PvE and PvP". Why?

My point is that if it's a problem of technical implementation then that's one thing; sometimes things aren't feasible for whatever reason. But outside of that I don't see why it can't be done.

[admiralnlson]

I'm guessing it means you can't use range attacks/spells while mounted because otherwise you would see rangers and casters pawning every melee NPC/PC from a distance and use their mount's speed to keep their distance.
It's not a technical issue, it's a balance issue.