This was inspired by the Western thread floating about. Riding a horse, as in a Western game, or any game (medievel fantasies especially) could be interesting, for many reasons, but I''d like to get others'' ideas on how and why. I have my own ideas.

To stimulate your thought processes, the mechanics should not analogize well to that of controlling other vehicles. Well, more correctly, the mechanics might, but the end results are based on several layers of game data, which all combine to create the result.

Agreed. The player tells the character what to do, and the character''s action more or less tell the horse what to do, and then the horse does something that may or may not be anything like what the player had in mind. A sort of "chinese whisper" interface. You push the button for "start moving, the character flicks the reins and clucks his tongue, and the horse, depending on training, attitude, hunger, mood, etc., either starts moving, does something else, or does nothing at all.

It''s not unlike dancing. The horse and the rider have to become acquainted with each other. I remember when I was learning to ride a horse, I learned on an older full bred Arabian who was HUGE and a bit stubborn. Since I was the tallest and strongest guy in the group, they gave him to me. I really had to rein in him....literally, as he much preferred to stop and eat the grass then do any riding. But once he got used to me, he knew just a little kick was enough.

When I started one time on another horse, I think I may have overreacted a bit. Also, since the new horse was a bit smaller, I had to get used to her.

It''s very much like dancing. Even if you know the steps perfectly solo, once you pair up with your partner you have to learn to be sensitive to each other''s body movements and signals. That''s actually what makes partner dancing so much fun....learning to read the other''s signals so that you can harmonize better.

With mechanical objects there is no need for sensitivity. You don''t have to "become one" with it. It''s an external thing that you control. With living things or things powered by your own hands, you must learn to become an extension of each other.

How to do this in game terms I''m not exactly sure though. I''d say some kind of genetic algorithm could be used that strengthens a certain action and weakens others....but AI is most definitely not my forte.

To begin, we can enumerate many of the things one might do on a horse or with a horse:

• leading
  
• mounting
  
• walking
  
• trotting
  
• loping (light gallop)
  
• full gallop
  
• sidepassing
  
• jumping
  
• backing up
  
• stopping
  
• turning on the forequarters
  
• turning on the hindquarters
  
• pirouettes
  
• cutting
  

There are more, and I''m not claiming all of those require a specific game mechanic.

Why some are necessary though, say in the context of a western, are related to the activity at hand and the environment. Backing up is necessary to pull out of tight confining areas. Sidepassing is necessary for manuevering into position with a certain orientation for doing something like opening a gate in a confined area. Jumping is necessary during flight or chase. Turning on the hindquarters or forequarters is necessary for quick responsive movement during activities such as fighting or cutting.

Then, there''s a horses reaction to the environment. Young horses without wilderness experience will not immediately plunge into a body of water, say for example to ford a creek.

As Dauntless said, trust is important. The horse must learn to trust the rider, and the rider must learn to trust the horse. Both are required for jumping, among other things.

In a game, think of a horse as an NPC with a history and stats. Those stats depict the horse''s prior training, how the horse was handled, what the horse has experienced, where the horse has been, and so on. All of those factors determine how the horse will behave, react, and progress. And then there''s conformation. Conformation, in addition to the traits just mentioned, help to determine the value of the horse. Conformation will help to determine the athletic ability of the horse, and its resistance to going lame.

In a game, such as a Western or medievel fantasy, horse trading, thievery, and so on play a role, and the horse can add incredible depth to the concept of value added resources. Think about this: in the West, and frankly, just about anywhere, before the industrial age, the horse was one of the single most valuable resources, if not the single most valuable resource anyone could have. If you think about it, it''s rather odd that fantasy games up until now have actually overlooked that.

Horses have a sense of justice. They react favorably to reward and praise, and definitely seem to know when they got a raw deal. And that raw deal might be as simple as not giving one horse a carrot when the three others next to him did get a carrot. They remember those things, and they make you pay later, in a possibly comical way (to them, but not to you).

As Dauntless said, a communion is built over time, to the point where the horse seemingly reads your mind. What the horse is actually doing is picking up on subtle unconscous body cues you are giving off right before your actual intentional cues.

The levels of game data which effect the operation of a horse include:

• The actual controlling command to the horse.
  
• The horse''s current mood.
  
• The horse''s experience with that particular maneuver.
  
• The horse''s trust of the rider.
  
• The horse''s distraction level, based on unfamiliar surroundings.
  
• The proficiency of the rider giving the command.
  
• The horse''s athletic ability.
  
• The horse''s health.
  
• The fit of the saddle and the type of bit used.
  
• The horse''s current attitude towards the rider, with respect to recent events.
  

I think a simple way of having a horse in a game that would actually be fun to play and be noticeable to the player would just to have delayed timing to when your action kicks-in. So perhaps you push right to send the horse right your character on the horse does a little animation with the reins and then the horse turns right...

Some of the ideas in bishop_pass''s post seem pretty fun and quite interesting, but I''m not even sure how much the player would actually realise is happening. Would it only be an annoyance having to train and learn trust between the horse and character to the player? I certainly think that''s something I would find annoying.

Zelda 64 did a good job of it. Check it out if you can.

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Brent Gunning | My Site

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Original post by garconbifteck
I think a simple way of having a horse in a game that would actually be fun to play and be noticeable to the player would just to have delayed timing to when your action kicks-in. So perhaps you push right to send the horse right your character on the horse does a little animation with the reins and then the horse turns right...

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That doesn''t sound fun at all, honestly, It just sounds like sluggish response. An interesting thing about horses is their ability to become so attuned to you that they respond almost before your signals.

quote:

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Original post by garconbifteck
Some of the ideas in bishop_pass''s post seem pretty fun and quite interesting, but I''m not even sure how much the player would actually realise is happening. Would it only be an annoyance having to train and learn trust between the horse and character to the player? I certainly think that''s something I would find annoying.

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That''s what makes one horse so much more valuable than another, and that is what would make the game interesting. It would also make the player intensely loyal to protecting the horse.

Understand you, yes, what I said does sound a bit boring. I think that what I really mean is that say you stop, the horse takes a while to stop, doesn't just immediately stop like your character would when he was off the horse. Played Dynasty Warriors? You stop moving and the Horse suddenly halts, I think having the horse actually skid or have to slow down would be pretty cool.

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Original post by bishop_pass
It would also make the player intensely loyal to protecting the horse.

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I love the idea of the player actually getting a little upset when his Horse gets hurt, perhaps enough to genuinely make the player try and escape a sticky situation with his horse rather that storm into the fight, much like crying at a film. The problem I can think of here is saving the game and going back, usually when the death of a character happens it's very linear and you have no option to stop it happening -- happens in a cut-scene or FMV like WC3, your heroes die all the time but then genuinely pass away only during cut-scenes and FMV.


Games have too little emotion involved in them -- I don't think I've ever genuinely been scared by a game, or upset. Only happy when I get a head-shot in Halo, or something dumb and simple like that.

Also re-reading through your post bishop_pass, I actually like a lot of the ideas, I'm just thinking for some of them, how much would the gamer actually notice?

[edited by - garconbifteck on December 10, 2002 5:54:14 PM]

I liked the way the horse worked in DW. I thought it skidded a little bit (mostly eye-candy) when you stopped, and you definetly had a large turning radius if you turned while moving.

It was realistic enough to be believable, but not so much so as to be a pain-in-the-ass. Like Black&White. If I wanted to have to work as hard as training a dog to do tricks, I''d train a real dog to do real tricks.

I think a sluggish respond is an exceedingly poor implementation, beacuse you lose a great deal of control and orientation in the virtual world from the real one. It''s far, far easier to look around when you''re riding a real horse than when your avatar is on a virtual horse.