Horses....could be done better

SwoopGB
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Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:04 am

Horses....could be done better

Post by SwoopGB »

Please don't take this as another whinging player having a whinge. It's constructive, I promise.


Horses.....right now, feel like a bit of a half arsed effort. I mean, they look nice, well, the jumping animation could be better but...it's pretty cool to ride around and all but....it all feels very one dimensional and grindy. The whole horse owning experience right now is:

Buy horse.
Get it fed, watered and bedded....yup, ok, all pretty standard animal mechanics in game.
Ride horse until daily riding requirement hits 100%....doesn't seem to matter if you're galloping or walking very slowly, the level goes up the same either way.
Clean horse. Ok, look, I get that a dirty horse is going to have a lower value but the in game mechanic is a mouse click on the horse to clean it up and the value shoots back up. That's not particularly engaging.
Repeat and sell horse when value maxed.
Every horse is exactly the same aside from colouring and name. Not even a gender.

There's only 2 reasons to buy a horse. 1) to train it up and sell for a profit (which feels very grindy, the more horses you've got) or 2) cos you just like riding a horse....so you buy 1, no more. It could be sooooo much more.

Firstly, this business of a daily riding requirement. If you're training a horse for fitness (speed?) then surely galloping would be most effective? But why stop at training just for speed? There are lots of different kinds of horses....you could train for speed, jumping ability, strength (pulling heavy loads...we'll come back to that in a minute), calmness.....

I'd like to see us able to breed horses.....cos different horses could have different traits and personalities. Breeding horses could stand a chance (not always) of passing those traits you want on to foals. Negative traits too, like horses who refuse to jump, or will suddenly decide a tree it's ridden past every day for a decade is now a monster that wants to eat it, throw the rider and bolt. Horses are like that. You might then decide a horse you've bred that's got brilliant traits you now don't want to sell but keep forever like a faithful family pet. Or breed from exclusively...but then horses would need to age and die eventually.

You get horses who will kick and bite other horses and need to be kept separated. Just like people, horses can be jerks too. Trying to find a pair of horses with positive traits you want to encourage that actually like either other could be an interesting exercise and add a lot of depth and replayability to the experience.

And again, there are lots of different breeds of horse that will have different traits. Like.....chestnut Arabian mares are always mildly insane, but really fast. You wouldn't train a Shire horse for speed, you'd use the thing to pull a plow.....or tow a loaded wagon.....that's probably enough of a hint about horse drawn farming equipment so we'll leave that one there.

And, of course, there could be obvious pitfalls to fall into like the player who breeds a Shire horse and a champion race horse and gets a big, slow race horse that'll refuse a yolk and won't pull a heavy load and is worth about £5.50 at the glue factory. Named "Soon to be Uhu".
FarmerJeff
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Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by FarmerJeff »

Horse Simulator! An FS youtuber suspects horses were added only to attract more female gamers to FS, and refuses to even use them in their current condition. I like a lot of your ideas, but wonder if they're suitable for FS, where sheep cannot even poop, much less horses.
SwoopGB
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Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by SwoopGB »

Dammit, yeah, I forgot to mention manure production. Well remembered.
Duckzor
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Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by Duckzor »

FarmerJeff wrote: Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:54 pm Horse Simulator! An FS youtuber suspects horses were added only to attract more female gamers to FS, and refuses to even use them in their current condition. I like a lot of your ideas, but wonder if they're suitable for FS, where sheep cannot even poop, much less horses.
And I suspect they are 100% correct.....just sayin!
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Addictedtofs
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Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by Addictedtofs »

I hate to be "that guy" but I don't enjoy owning horses..I can't really own more than two because of the amount of time it takes and because it gets to be a grind riding over and over again.
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TaintedBlackCat
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Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by TaintedBlackCat »

I agree with all of the above. You'd think with all the hype surrounding the introduction of horses into FS19 that the experience of owning them would be more involved. It seems all a bit pedestrian and rather disappointing, I wouldn't miss the horses if GIANTS had never included them. SwoopGB you got some great ideas there, be great to see the animal management side of FS overhauled and more in-depth.
I'm not perfect..but I'm Australian, and that's pretty damn close!!🐈 . Ex Royal Australian Navy sailor. Moved to New Zealand recently to dairy farm in New Zealand. 600 milking cows. Running old Duetz Fahr Agrostar 6.61
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PoggleBox
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Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by PoggleBox »

Just get the horse helper mod ....
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Grey20
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Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 6:10 pm

Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by Grey20 »

I don't consider myself a horse person, but I have explored the maps on horse back and they look brilliant, off the beaton track going places were vehicles can't go, it's like being in a different game but yes I do agree there cauld be much more, giants are probably waiting for feedback then they will improve them accordingly.

I just use horses to check on my crops and worker's at a nice easy pace and of course latter getting a nice payout, which of course you don't get if you use a vehicle.

Happy farming
Alagos
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Re: Horses....could be done better

Post by Alagos »

You know, the horses could be much more, but that also goes for the whole game.
Right now the horses and their 'grinding' are a perfect fit, since the whole game is one big grinding party, like it has always been =)
I assume people don't use Seasons, unless they say otherwise.

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