smithforge

Yes. After some tries, I am beginning to get the hang of it, uncluding large carts. (The horse I am riding is only ard 16 km/h). I also realised that turning the horse (or trying so) is the most troublesome. When it has motion (e.g. on auto-walk), it movement becomes more predictable and easier to control until get blocked by something which stops the horse and makes the movement control awkward again... there still seem to be strange cases where movement is blocked by slopes which are not up to 30, which usually happens when the slope is approached from a angle. Every time this happen, it will become another mess of forward/reverse/turning until the horse is free to go on auto-walk again. And the turret reference is very true . Being able to turn the head unlimited (using the horrible mouse drag to turn the view when riding....) round and round around the horse without somehow twising the neck or waist of the in-game avatar often makes me lose track of the horse's heading. It makes the fact that being able to see the horse's head is no important. (In this sense, large cart is easier because the animals are easily visible, unlike riding where view has to be lowered enough to see it) So I am getting wurmalized (getting used to and complaining less about the riding mechanism) Once again, thanks to all the suggestions given. They really helped!

This should stay so. But it can be interesting if we can come up with that "you are here" position by ourselves.. e.g. Tools: component: protractor - divides up a complete circle. measures angle. (can be a disc instead of the usual half-disc versions)component: plumb-bob - string with a weight. Points "down" when held by the non-weighted end of the string. Defines "vertical".tool: compass - magnetized pointer that when suspended freely (in the middle or floating on liquid) will point to "magnetic north" (which may not be grid north, but hell, we can make things simple in a non-real world).tool: some dioptra variant - surveying tool to measure bearing and elevation of its position to a direction (not a position but all position along the ray). (uses 2 protractors, a plumb-bob and a compass). Looks like a rotatible protractor set in a vertical plane perpendicular on top of another protractor, with an attached plumb-pop and compass. The plumb bob is used to orientate the tool such that the "horizontal protactor" is realy horizontal abd the "vertical protractor" is vertical. The compass + horizontal protractor will measure the horizontal bearings. The vertical protractor + plumb-bob will measure the elevation.Use: After we have this, we will now measure the bearing and elevation of certain landmark positions. This includes: stars (if the night sky texture is consistent enough). Sun at time of day (assuming it did not blind us...), distant landmarks (like lighthouses, towers, or other points which can be seen from far away). By measuring the bearing of a few visible landmarks from a position, we can now determine the relative position of "here" from the landmarks, on an accurate enough map. Thus determining the "You are here" position on the map.

I would say marking the map and being able to share is fine. (because the position is not automarked, so person marking can still make mistakes) But no to auto-pointing/navigation (e.g. having a pointer that points to marker on map in real-time). Instead, consider something like Navigation Skill which can use a sextant, or even use an accurate-enough star map in night sky texture, and sun position during day, enough to do our own navigation, using Compass, a Map, maybe a Sextant and our own knowledge and skills. (yeah.. just like in real life.). (In addition to the landmarks etc mentioned by RedBaron_Johan). i.e. some skill is involved.

Thanks for all the advice. I guess with practice we can get used to it. But whether it can be "better" or is it intentionally "difficult" though is another question. Perhaps one way to improve things is to add limited auto-pathing: e.g. when horse gets stuck head into an obstacle, there will be some automatic pathing where it will try its best to go around it, or make tight turn around possible. It is supposed to be living after all. I am thinking that I will probably master riding... but I cannot but think that the riding system really needs improvement.

Ahhh... the frustration. Is it intentionally made to be so unintuitive? or it just turned out that way? The strange steering (also includes the absolute heading of the rider), couple with the unintuitive stopped by slope thing which make it hard to move out of some tight spots at times (even with reversing), which in the end requires the rider to get off and lead the mount out manually. I am not placing hopes on the riding system being improved in the short run (if there is any plans for it at all). So if there is anybody who can offer tips on how to rider more easily and less painfully, you have my whole-hearted gratitude.