Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-25178962-20140716145327

=Mounts= Now hooooold your horses, I know exactly what you are thinking, good sir! You see this new account, you see this subject, and you just have that gut feeling that my face belongs to the attention-deficit imbecile of your fist's dreams. But I say nay, before such fantasies can go any further! Some may cry out, 'This has been torn down and deconstructed as a suggestion many times over'! And such is true, to the point it was added to a list of things to not suggest by our respectable member, NoBanana under the entry 'Upgraded Cart'! But, and I couldn't press this on you more, those who predated my arrival and proposed this exact concept were not me, and I am an entirely different creative force than they were, or ever could be.

What am I talking about adding, exactly?
The idea is simple. Introduce an animal that can be ridden and directed, as well as items associated with it. Now, there would be a dedicated animal for this concept, and you would not be able to mount any other animal. It is not at all affiliated with the suggestion of 'Tameable Animals', which was deemed terribly OP and easy to abuse. To lend stability to the idea, several things would be added to the game to accompany this idea. Saddles, mount armor, horse seats, stables and lances/pikes.

Stats and Recipes
I personally prefer that the mount would be modeled after (and possibly named after) the horse. The mount would have a fairly respectable health level while wild, weighing in at an impressive 120 health, with an attack just above par with the Bento Buck, one of 20 damage. However, the 'wild' mount would have an AI similar to the field lynx (that is, passive until provoked, chasing the aggressor until one of them is dead or out of range). Both 'tamed' and 'wild' variants have a default walkspeed of 30. On death it drops nothing, not only because I can't think of anything existing for it to drop and making a new item just so it drops something also entails the responsibility of making that item useful somehow, but because it would also hammer in the point that these animals aren't meant to be killed. These horses would be found at Mainland and Desert on the old map, and Overhang and Stonewall on the new map, in groups of three.

Once a horse is tamed, a new 'wild' horse will NOT spawn in its place until the tamed horse is killed. A tamed horse would have no AI, and only would move while mounted (much like a Cart). The limited amount of tamed horses in a server would lead to targeting them for the advantages they offer, if captured. Also, once tamed, horses can jump. To dismount, you would need to press a button that is in aGUI that appears when mounting.

Saddle
To convert this raw resource spawn into a tamed, rideable beast, craft a saddle with the horse's back, and process item. This function would take at LEAST as long as it takes for leaves to mature into a compost. This process would be cancelled if the horse dies while the process is ongoing. The saddle would be crafted like so: Bento Leather, Rope, Iron (r) > Create Item = Saddle Crafting 2

Barding Armor
Once tamed, this horse would have 100 health, and regardless of it being ridden or not it has a separate hitbox from its owner. To improve this mount's health like you would your own, you would have to provide it with barding armor. You would equip your horse with armor by placing the armor in front of it and riding it into the armor, akin to how players equip armor. If there is already armor on your horse, you need to mount the horse (so the game definitely knows what horse you are talking about) and select a button in your inventory next to 'Unequip Armor', labeled 'Unequip Mount Armor'. Leather barding armor, the entry level armor, would be crafted like so:

Bento Leather + Bento Leather + Bento Leather + String + String > Create Item = Leather Barding Armor Crafting 4

Leather barding armor is made with the intention that it can be acquired not long after crafting a saddle, and protects your horse with an extra 50 HP at no walkspeed penalties. The next rank up, steel barding armor, is made by this recipe:

Anvil + Rockma Hide Armor + Steel (r) + Steel (r) + Steel (r) + Rope > Create Item = Steel Barding Armor Smithing 5, Crafting 5

Steel barding armor would more than triple the leather barding armor's protection with 170 HP, at the cost of 6 walkspeed. The only thing that is more potent a defender is a pricey mithril barding armor, crafted as seen here:

Anvil + Rockma Hide Armor + Mithril (r) + Mithril (r) + Gold (r)+ Fabric > Create Item = Mithril Barding Armor Smithing 7, Crafting 7

This mithril barding armor would add an impressive 250 HP, at the cost of 2 walkspeed.

=The Stable=

The stable would be to horses as a harbor would be to boats. It would be roughly the size of a sandstone hut, but tall enough for a horse and their rider to maneuver in. The stable would be divided by an interior wall, to create two 'stalls' for the horses. The front of the stable would be open faced, with a block half as tall as the stable 'closing' the horses in. It would be triggerable like a harbor's triggerable block, with a button mounted on the end of the interior wall, facing the open end of the stable.

The recipe for a Stable is as follows:

Wall + Wall + Wall + Plank + Thatching > Create Tool = Stable

Architechure 4, Carpentry 3

=Horse Seat=

This would use the hull mesh, and seat horses like they would a player. To release them from the seat, a player would have to mount the seated horse, and have it jump. Recipe is as follows:

Small Tree Stump + Small Tree Stump > Create Item = Horse Seat

Additionally, it is suggested that one or two Horse seats could appear on larger ships by default (large sailboat, merchant frigate, warr sloop).

The Pike
The pike would be a medium range weapon, with a distinct radius around the player that deals no damage (because once you are close enough, the tip isn't a threat any longer). Instead of a slashing motion with this unwieldy weapon, it would be set to a 'down' position and be used to thrust. It would have a slow reload, have damage equal to the tier level's sword, and an impressive range that outdoes all other melee weapons. On the ground, the pike adds a tactic to ward away lone raiders, because the intimidation of taking five sword hits from the tribe of three before the raider can even reach them is a hefty one, while on horseback it is a weapon long enough to be able to easily reach ground targets without stopping and endangering the horse to extensive melee damage.

Iron pikes would be crafted as shown:

Anvil + Med Handle + Med Handle + Iron (r)/Steel (r) > Create Tool = Iron Pike Smithing 5

Steel pikes, crafted as shown:

Anvil + Med Handle + Med Handle + Iron (r)/Steel (r) > Create Tool = Steel Pike Smithing 6

Mithril pikes, crafted as shown:

Anvil + Med Handle + Med Handle + Mithril (r) + Gold (r) > Create Tool = Mithril Pike Smithing 7

Why this should be added
Currently, we only have two animals of any value beyond aesthetics while alive (cows, chickens), and one of them can be manufactured (chickens in chicken coop or hen house). Adding the mount would add a fast paced combat possibility, and add a use for large ships, because horses, unlike other valuable items, cannot be stored in the backpack. On the other side of the raiding/defending coin, horses would be an alternate target for raiders to focus on, seeing as they are so valuable. Larger settlements would be easier to man, with quick (and practical) transport available to go from one place to the other. Should Barding Armor be adjusted? Buff Stats and Debuff Price Buff Stats and Buff Price Debuff Stats and Debuff Price Debuff Stats and Buff Price  