Thread: Mounted Combat: Is it all its cracked up to be?

A lot of people on here are getting very giddy about the Mounted Combat coming with RoR, and rightly so if its done correctly. I cant help but think that a lot of people are getting their expectations to high however, and are going to be bitterly disappointed when it is released.

Introducing Mounted Combat – Ride into Combat atop your loyal War-steed as you defend the people of Rohan from the forces of Isengard and Mordor. Customize your War-steed’s armor and level its skills over time to aid you in mounted defense of King Theoden’s lands. Mount your steed and gather your fellows to fight against Warbands, contingents of roving warg riders that have been scouted all over the Plains of Rohan! It falls to you to head off and defeat this new threat before they over take the land.

Reading between the lines from that announcement it seems that the mounted combat will most likely only be allowed in special scripted areas (instances), in the same way that skirmish soldiers could only be used in skirmishes originally (changing now admittedly). I hear a lot of people talking as if they will be able to pick up a horse in bree and ride into combat in the open game world, but i seriously doubt this is going to be the case.

Talk of "Gathering fellows" and facing off against "roving warg riders" gives more indication of the likelihood of instanced mounted combat, with the difficulty being adjustable depending on the level of your horse and size of group.

So while on paper this is still a very addition to the game, and im personally looking forward to it, i do think some people are a bit blinkered and are only reading the "Mounted Combat" and assume that we will be able to hack the heads of every Orc we pass from the safety of our horses as we ride through Middle Earth. I hope they arent too disappointed.

My personal view of how this mechanic will work is this:

You buy RoR, you get your mount. You can customise it in a similar way that you do with your skirmish soldier. Outside of Eastern Rohan, the mounts skills are greyed out. When you enter that area(there may be a load screen, not sure), the skills become 'active'. I think the zone itself will either be completely open like most of the game, or be somewhat segregated in the style of Moria or Mirkwood.

To be honest I'm not really 'ecstatic' about the concept, but I am looking forward to trying it out. And frankly, trampling Orcs sounds like great fun.

I read the same thing between those lines Sounds like the war horse will be a second soldier type used in specific areas. You'll advance it's skills and armour, levels in a way like you do your soldier. However, there is one little gem that might give more insight into what this will actually be. The new ability to call forth your soldier on land. That sounds like you can use it in Rohan but still not sure?

Originally Posted by Nyrion

My personal view of how this mechanic will work is this:

You buy RoR, you get your mount. You can customise it in a similar way that you do with your skirmish soldier. Outside of Eastern Rohan, the mounts skills are greyed out. When you enter that area(there may be a load screen, not sure), the skills become 'active'. I think the zone itself will either be completely open like most of the game, or be somewhat segregated in the style of Moria or Mirkwood.

To be honest I'm not really 'ecstatic' about the concept, but I am looking forward to trying it out. And frankly, trampling Orcs sounds like great fun.

I dont think it will be useable in the whole Rohan zone though. I get the impression that the situation might similar to Battle for Lorien, or the Angmar Battle instances:

Talk to an NPC in camp, he gives a story about these Warbands (Roving warg riders) attacking different areas of Rohan blah blah blah.
You accept the quest. (different Tiers of quests available and ability to level up your horse etc)
Click travel to travel to an instance, either solo or as a group.
Those instances could be in different regions of Rohan and with different objectives once inside but with the common enemy being warg riders.
Go to battle on your war steed until quest objectives complete.
Speak to NPC, claim reward, leave instance.

Im not even convinced the War Steeds will be useable outside of the instances themselves (meaning we cant pose and parade around Bree on them) as lets face it, this would make all other horses (Store bought included) obsolete.


Think back to when skirmish soldiers were first announced and how good they looked on paper and compare it to what we actually got on release. Im getting the same gut feeling now with the horses having similar limitations and SM sink.

Dont get me wrong this isnt a whining thread, far from it. I think the addition of mounted combat will be great fun, its more to open a discussion so people dont get their expectations too high and think its going to be something it isnt

You all obviously missed the write-ups on other websites, like Ten Ton Hammer.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/fe...iders-of-rohan

They make it very clear that mounted combat will only be allowed in the Eastern Plains of Rohan.

Originally Posted by Eadreid

snip

It won't. The only place mounted combat will function is on the Eastern plains of Rohan. The rest of RoR's landmass is taken up by Amon Hen and the Eaves of Fangorn. And the landmass in total is going to be HUGE(reportedly twice the size of Moria, which makes me believe that using instances for MC is not how it will be done.

You may be right of course, but I sincerely hope not.

Originally Posted by Joroc2054

You all obviously missed the write-ups on other websites, like Ten Ton Hammer.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/fe...iders-of-rohan

They make it very clear that mounted combat will only be allowed in the Eastern Plains of Rohan.

You obviously didn't read my post correctly, as again I did state Eastern Rohan in specific.

But combat isn't the same as simply riding them around. That much has yet to be confirmed, best we can do is speculate right now.

Pretty sure it won't be in an instanced area. As far as I understand it, your mounted skills will be usable in the Eastern Plains and the mobs in that zone are going to be warbands, which are groups of 30-40 orcs/wargs.

I honestly don't care much about mounted combat. I'd like to see it be done well for the people who really want it, though.

Originally Posted by Nyrion

You may be right of course, but I sincerely hope not.

I hope im wrong too, i hope that MC is an "open" addition rather than something thats restricted.

But combat isn't the same as simply riding them around. That much has yet to be confirmed, best we can do is speculate right now.

Thats the point i was making originally A lot of people are assuming that we will be able to mount up and ride these steeds into battle all over Middle Earth, but i felt that was unlikely.

Originally Posted by LeppardUK

Pretty sure it won't be in an instanced area. As far as I understand it, your mounted skills will be usable in the Eastern Plains and the mobs in that zone are going to be warbands, which are groups of 30-40 orcs/wargs.

The instance could be set in the Eastern Plains though, think of the example of Battle for Lorien. That is set in the same areas as other quests but the mechanics hugely different. IMO the only way to have both standard "questing" mobs and the roving warg riders, is to seperate them by instances. General questing will be done as it has been done since release (Go here, talk to him, kill him, collect XYZ, return, profit) and the mounted combat will be an instanced set of quests against the Warbands.

Again...hope im wrong, but its just an impression i get based on past experience.

In all the interviews I read about RoR, they made it sound like it will be a zone that you enter much like the Moors. You mount up and go into the fray, you'll have the option to fight from horseback. You'll be able to be dismounted and be able to fight unmounted. In none of the interviews did they ever say that it will be like being in a skirmish. So, I'm expecting something closer to the Moors, but without the pvmp aspect.

Eastern Rohan is the only Zone you can have mounted combat as of now. I am sure Western Rohan will also have mounted Combat. Will they allow it in Gondor or other zones? Not sure yet.

As for the mechanics, who knows. I doubt it will be a twitch system which means a basic induction system using our current weapons. Which will be interesting also.

I mean my tank swinging my 2 handed axe or my cappy using his halberd just will not seem right. But I shall wait and see what they come up with before trashing the idea.

My concern with mounted combat is the possible squeezing of the size of the eastern fields of rohan. I mean sure its a very large area but if you are only allowed to be there on your super-fast mount (because of the danger), you'd traverse that area in no time, and it wouldn't feel as big as it could if you were walking. high hopes.

I've never been on the mounted combat bandwagon. After radiance and LIs and skirmish soldiers, I lost faith that Turbine could do it on a large enough scale and with enough quality to do it justice. And it looks like I was right. HAving it in just one zone, regardless of size, seems more like a side game, much like PvMP. I seriously doubt that I'll spend much time doing any mounted combat, aside from quests.

I'm not excited about mounted combat.

Call me cynical, but the only thing that comes to mind is in what way it will funnel us to the Lotro Store and the introduction of even more grind.

Originally Posted by Maxal

As for the mechanics, who knows. I doubt it will be a twitch system which means a basic induction system using our current weapons.

Or else specially provided weapons, since as Maxal said waving a two-handed axe or a halberd around while mounted just wouldn't look right.

I'm not looking forward to it, and I'm not looking forward to Skirmish soldiers on landscape either. Think Lag. Too many things going on at once. I believe it's being added as a selling point and nothing more.

I think many people has too high expectations on mounted combat. They heard mounted combat and imagined all that great scenes of it in movies and i understand that. I hope im wrong, but as i see it, it will be exactly like current combat just with some bonuses and different animations as you will be mounted on your war-steed. Maybe i dont remember it right (its some weeks i have done it) but thats like NPC mounted combat looked like in ROI epic questline, they simply ride to enemy, there stoped and fight them on spot. Its hard to make something like Mount and Blade-s combat in game with tab-targeting, skill clicking combat. I really hope im wrong and that my imagination is just failing here.