Almost 10 hours in to my second 100 hours of my first Skyrim play-through and I decided to give horseback riding a try.

I really didn't like horseback riding in Oblivion. I just felt that control of the horse was unnessesarily difficult and is the reason why I have ignored horses in Skyrim to this point.

But I have to admit, horseback riding in Skyrim is quite good. It is so much easier to control your horse and makes getting from point A to point B a little faster without resorting to any quick-travel methods, which I mostly avoid anyway.

So now I can traverse the gameworld a bit faster without missing the sights and it is actually enjoyable.

Like many other threads have pointed out already, it would be nice if you could harvest alchemy ingredients and have some ability to combat while mounted, but it is not a deal-breaker for me. In fact, more often than not, having a horse is a great way to just out-run random encounters I'd rather not deal with.

It was a pain at first with my horse constantly getting into fights when I did fight something. But I've learned to just park him away from planned combat situations so that solves that problem.

Anyway, really liking the horses in the game, wish I had simply tried it out sooner.

it's too glitchy tho...

glitchy yes but good enough for a mule to carry you home when you can't run xD

When I first started riding across Skyrim, having to re-buy steeds after pushing them too hard over cliff edges is a fine way to burn through 1000's of Septims.

I much prefer 'Windwalking' in my legendary glass armour now tbh.

And horseriding has those immersion breaking moments too:

http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim/thumb/0/07/Skyrim-horse-meme1.jpg/468px-Skyrim-horse-meme1.jpg

the horse "system" in skyrim is a joke.

it's the barebone basics.

2worlds1, who didn't have quite the same amount of resources or experience as gamesas, implemented a far superior system.

that should make gamesas ashamed.

agreed, it's good to have a horse if you use fast travel.
or else he will either get killed on the road or glitch somewhere

I found the controls of the one horse I rode for a minute to be really odd. Maybe its becase they turn with the mouse? I would prefer if you looked with the mouse, and steered the horse with wasd. I've walked everywhere ever since.

Never played Oblivion, so I dont have those horses to compare to.

go buy 2worlds1 today for a couple bucks and you'll quickly see how it dominates gamesas.

How so? Can you explain?


I agree it is barebones basic. But it does that 'basic' part much better than Oblivion. If you want to get from point A to point B faster than walking (and without using fast travel or a carriage) it controls easy enough to make it enjoyable. I played TW1 and TW2 and didn't use horses in either game. But I understand those who may be interested in a proper 'horse simulation' versus someone like me who wants some realism, but mostly just wants to move faster through the game world using an easy-to-control vehicle.


I pretty much wish 3d games of this type just standardized on WoW 3d controls. Love or hate WoW, Blizzard perfected the camera system for 3d games. My view is that it should be standardized much like WASD is standard in most 3d games now. If that were the case in Skyrim, you could pan and view as your ride your horse in the way you want to - which is how I'd prefer to control the camera while riding myself.

LOL gameplay vids look so stupid on that piece of crap game.

that game has lots of good ideas and was fun.

and, the dialogue was hilarious.

every rpg 'fan' should want that company/series to make a profit, gain experience and continue to put out games.

I dug the way horebackriding is in the Mount&Blade games. More like that would be awesome, including the mounted combat.

mount&blade sounds like my cup-o tea, for sure.

can't wait to get my new computer...

Yea I don't like steering with the mouse. I've had that in games before and always hated it. I'm on 360 with Skyrim though and with the controller you use the same controls and the horse works surprisingly well. It is missing a few things. Not being able to back up is bad. It would have also been very nice to have horseback combat. I would love to have a stamina bar for the horse so I could keep a bit of stamina in reserve after sprinting in case something pops out of the woods and comes after me. Random horses found in the game always walk off the second you get off of them. Horses jumping into combat is bad and horses you buy should be essential just as companions are if they're going to fight enemies. The essential vs unessential decisions made for Skyrim were all pretty dumb. Horses climbing cliffs is also pretty stupid.

I like them when I want to carry a lot of loot and I like them for getting from point A to point B quickly. Other than that I'd rather walk.

How were the Oblivion horseriding controls difficult? Just WASD, and you could do it in first-person, and it was independent of the mouse.

In other words, you could just hit your autowalk key while on horseback and look around at the sights - something I really really wish could be done in Skyrim. But it can't, because of the foolish mouse steering issue.

And seeing the sights in 3rd person? Terrible. You can't zoom in or out very far, and so if you want to look up a slope of a nearby mountain, it's an exercise in frustration.

I use horses much more rarely in Skyrim than I did in Oblivion. As another poster once said, the Skyrim horse system takes the worst elements of walking everywhere (relatively slow travel speed, inability to avoid annoying encounters) and fast-travelling (unable to interact with the world around you - e.g. by talking or collecting ingredients on horseback), and combines them into an awkward mess.

I have gotten used to it to some extent, but it's not an enjoyable experience.

I guess the horse animations look OK, though...

jaberk-

that's absolutely correct and perfect: "takes the worst elements...and combines them into an awkward mess."

lol! spot-on accurate.

Well, I can't take credit for it - don't remember who said that first, but it was some months ago, and I found it to be a perfect description of the failings of the system.

well, you can easily find him on top of rocks or houses, or if you dismount while you are on a mountain side it might fall down and die.

this also explains a lot: http://www.google.it/imgres?q=skyrim+horse&hl=it&biw=1366&bih=643&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=Nd9ilbffUxeygM:&imgrefurl=http://funny-videos.eu/how-to-fly-your-horse-in-skyrim-dragon-cannon/&docid=QJQmX1A4g7G0QM&imgurl=http://funny-videos.eu/wp-content/image/img_28300_how-to-fly-your-horse-in-skyrim-dragon-cannon.jpg&w=480&h=360&ei=DWGET4vHN5TP4QStlLC1Bw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=702&sig=101357079692372931323&page=3&tbnh=137&tbnw=177&start=43&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:43,i:180&tx=57&ty=59

They die WAY too easily!