There is a good chance of doing it since Mounted Combat is a biggy thing people want Beth already made it.

Add ons that a lot of people want that Beth made already = $$$$

Fix'd

If Bethesda really plan on releasing such mounted DLC, they could have done long time ago. But there were always something that prevents them to finalize that idea. And even if they were to release it, modders always try to make it even better. Remember the horse armor DLC from Oblivion?


Back to the discussion, Thank you everyone for brilliant suggestions
I just test the archers vs horsman (me ) and I got ....... pwned pretty bad. I think I really like the idea of arrows knocking down rider, or have a chance to stagger horses.

I also have some success in moving player to the horse saddle (with weapon drawn and swing like on a real horse). But my player only stays on the horse for about half a sec and Havok physic drop me down to the ground. Does any1 know the way to make ObjectReference, or Actor to stick to something indefinitely?

True. When you are half sink in an object you tend to continue sinking. Maybe if you attach a moveable static object to the horse, acting like a pedestal for the mounted character...

You might try http://www.creationkit.com/SetVehicle_-_Actor, though I suspect it won't work to attach the player to another actor. You can't do a SetPos every frame in Papyrus (the method I used for my Hoverchair), so that's a no-go. I suppose you could try attaching an object to the horse (much like the cart in the intro sequence) and setting that as the player's vehicle. There's a http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1321333-req-carriage-drives-you-places/page__view__findpost__p__20391449 mod on Workshop, but there are a ton of problems. Still, if your 'carriage' is an invisible, physics-free object (just a placeholder) then it might move with the horse, and the player could be attached to it with SetVehicle.

Maybe the function AddHavokBallAndSocketConstraint could do the trick. It attaches two parts of two objects togetter. It would be too fortunate to have horse back and human ash as eligible parts, but maybe attaching the legs to the sides of the horse would be even better.

Thanks Amgepo, I have been testing that 'AddHavokBallAndSocketConstraint', they seem only to work with ragdoll . I dig up few sample codes of add havok ball, they are only used for dead bodies and stuff. With 'alive' player, well, nothing happens, really..... Player just drop right straight to the ground.

I also tried to http://www.creationkit.com/SetMotionType_-_ObjectReference, but it seems to work on Object only, not Actor type . Player will always affected by Havok

I will try to attach the platform under the horse' bellies. But personally I think not possible, because the horse will move all the time, spawning an invisible platform every frame will create bloated ref to the save game.

You could move the same invisible block rather than making a new one each frame.

I suggest using the same chests merchants have below the floor on their stores. It's moveable, it has a quite appropriate size and shape and actors won't sink when placed on it.

About the correct instruction to attach things each other, I had no idea which one could be the needed one. I'm yet to check on that part.

Maybe movetonode could do the trick. It seems to be able to attach a sword to a hand. So, maybe it could attach a little object to a part of the horse and a part to the character (or to a part of the character and the dummy raider).

I just learn the hard way that this havok system doesn't allow 2 different entities in the same anim-box. (I don't know if I can make myself more clear). But no matter how do I set the pos of the rider to the middle of the horse's saddlebone, they just bounce off each other on the next frame. So to call setPos every frame might not do the trick.

I'm thinking of alter some existing animations, so it will enable to draw weapons in proper way. I found a way to 'draw weapon' while mounted, but the riders hands just won't move from original position. So, finding that animation and alter it might do the trick

I assume you've already tried SetVehicle?

Also, how would you do anything every frame? I thought that you could only request events by time-interval. If you pick a short interval you do the same thing several times per frame, if you pick a longer one you miss frames. Am I just revealing my ignorance here?

No, you are just revealing my ignorance Of course I can't call it exactly every frame. But by setting a short interval, the script will get updated 'almost' every frame. If I read correctly, no script can run twice per frame. (I don't know if another instance of that script might run on the same frame because of the Papyrus threading, but its out of my knowledge). I intend to have one instance of my quest script at a time

Ok, it took a while, but here is the update

Finally, I have made it possible to draw weapon/bows on horse back, with working attacks as well.
You guys won't have to press any 'horse combat' key like in oblivion any more. The Horse Combat Mode is now fully integrated into vanila mounting system

>> https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kWL2uroIFv0/T1yCNoV6MjI/AAAAAAAAAV4/43PRWnroXug/s1152/TESV%25202012-03-11%252003-38-48-86.jpg <<
>> https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-sbMeJ1pk6Js/T1yCKB09NKI/AAAAAAAAAVo/4ibWDLvwY0I/s1152/TESV%25202012-03-11%252003-38-29-36.jpg <<
>> https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-mpPZi-oq-4U/T1yCMLGvWlI/AAAAAAAAAVw/nRWmhGQnD6M/s1152/TESV%25202012-03-11%252003-37-52-73.jpg <<
>> https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3yrsVQ7ueVo/T1yCD-jl_tI/AAAAAAAAAVg/5DRi2vFs_FI/s1152/TESV%25202012-03-11%252003-37-46-52.jpg <<

Now what is left is some animations (maybe spears ) and balancing.....
I'm trying to add bows into the combat system, so you guys can play horse archers as well. But this feature is quite hard to do, because you can't turn around while mounted. (Your Z-angle is set to be the same as the horse's, so no side-way shooting)

Nothing short of amazing.

Will NPCs be able to attack you on horseback? If so, will you be creating any AI for this?

Fantastic news! Hope making companions use this system is not too hard (I'm helping a friend with a companion mod and I really would like to make said mod sinergice with your's if both are installed)

I will look into it, from what is it now, NPC will be able to use moves like PC (because I mod the horsebehaviors.hkx, so it will apply for anyone can mount a horse, even from different mods)

The catch is, AI is not design to handle such moves... They will tend to dismount whenever running into combat. (Just like when they were sitting in a chair and you smacking them in the face, they will stand up first).

Disabling combatAI will lead to even more complex leads. Unless SKSE has something that can add/remove/update Alias AI packages on the fly, or modders found a way to override combatAI package. And even still, it will be very difficult.

My top priority now is to make combat feel real. I just got the basics down, and will need a lot of tuning Other than Mount&Blade, you guys have any recommendation on mounted combat mechanics that I should try to implement?

Mount and Blade is a very good model. I don't see why you need anything else, but please don't do over the top moves - stand on my horse and shoot people then do a backflip onto their horse and stab them. Stuff like that ruins everything :/

Why do you need something besides M&B?

Couched lances are awesome as well, if you include that....

You better [censored] believe we respect your authority.

And I second that post about couched lances. You won't even need an attack animation, just an idle spear-holding animation with damage out in front.

I think the reason Bethesda did not include Horse Combat is because of the lore & balance issue. They don't really want TES to be another M&B, and from the modder's view point, its also very difficult to implement the exact M&B cuz of the engine...

I will try to have control schema & combat system similar to M&B, but the actual experience should be somewhat different

Currently, I'm looking into Mongol horse combat system, as they were a force to reckon with in history

P/s: Crouched Lances? Damn right, they will be in the mod

Ok, Here is another Update

>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD07afsS3iw <<<

this looks pretty cool already..... this is one of the mods I really hope to see relased one day

keep up the good work

This looks very good so far. Almost as good as that GameJam thing we saw.
The push at 0:31 in the latest video looked a bit weird, but I'm sure that can be toned down or fixed later.

Question: will 2-handed users be able to fight on horseback?

Just looked at the latest video - good work, it looks amazing! I can't believe you've done so much so quickly. Really impressive!

The one thing that I don't like about it is that when you ran into the guards they went flying some distance - I would just like to ask if it's possible to have a .ini file to disable/tone that down?

Thanks, and good work

Yep, that looks quite weird because I haven't created an animation for the rider when the horse charges. I will be doing it soon, just stay tune

To your question, 2-handed users will not be able to fight on horse. Frankly, because I haven't seen any one would use 2-handed weapons while mounted. Carrying heavy weapons will just decrease the maneuverability in combat.
BUT, you will be able to use spears, yes, I mean SPEARS, and LANCES . If I could ask any artist for the spears model, I would make a video w/ working animation right away.



Ya, don't worry, I'm not happy with that horse-charge feature yet. I'm trying to find away to balance it out. Turns out, its quite difficult if the target stays right in front of the horse, as he will get charged multiple times, it's kinda funny to see it

I made similar mounted combat in Oblivion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vckqoncSag

I am planning to make it for Skyrim as well, just haven't started yet because other MERP things are keeping me busy, and for most of my ideas I need SKSE functionality. It's good to see you already got this far.


I hope you don't mind some sharing of concepts to both our benefits? I implemented weapon unsheathing in Oblivion by modifying and re-adding those animations as Idles, and making the weapon an AnimObject for those Idles. It looks like you found a way to have the actual weapon be unsheathed though?

I'm also curious how you implemented hit detection. Is this done the vanilla way with crosshair attacks, or do you have actual collision detection working on the blade? I managed the latter in Oblivion, but with heavy use of OBSE.


In my experience the challenge lies mostly in making the mounted combat intuitive and smooth, not so much implementing the basic concepts. The thing I have been pondering the most about is dynamic aiming animations. Do you know the vanilla bow shooting animation? They are in fact "aimed" for human actors, probably by dynamically blending several animations. Especially for thrusting spears such dynamic aiming is invaluable. It kinda svcks if you can only thrust or couch in a few pre-determined directions. It probably requires a new Behavior file, but I haven't looked into that yet.

Btw, to get a more realistic charge knock-back effect, you could perhaps add a GetHeadingAngle condition between the horse and the victim, so they don't get knocked side ways in that weird way. If you use PushActorAway for this, consider calling it from a temporary invisibly placed NPC that you put a little above the horse, so the Push is directed more downwards.

If you're up for cooperation, let me know.