Now players can attack their enemies while riding a horse. Too bad there's no multiplayer -- this feature would make for some fun PvP!
Bethesda said on Thursday that mounted combat has arrived in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. This means players can now do melee and ranged combat while riding a horse. Players who opted into the latest Steam Beta Update will see the new feature in the PC version now. Information regarding mounted combat on other platforms will arrive on a later date.
"Thanks again to all our fans, we remain committed to supporting the game through our free updates, mod tools, and more. And yes, we’re still working on our first add-on, Dawnguard – some great stuff to show you soon, stay tuned!" the company said. "If you opt into the Beta, be sure to back up your saved games or simply be careful not to overwrite your existing saves. If you decide to opt out of the beta program, your old saves will still work with the current release of Skyrim on Steam (v 1.5)."
To get into the beta and download the new update, simply follow these instructions:
1. Log into Steam.
2. Click on Steam in the upper menu.
3. Select Settings.
4. Under the Account tab, go to the Beta Participation section and select Change.
5. A drop down menu will appear. Select Skyrim Beta.
6. Select OK.
7. Steam will now restart. After Steam restarts, Skyrim will be updated to the Beta version currently available.
"If you decide you don’t want to run the Beta anymore, redo steps 1 – 4," Bethesda added. "At the drop down, select NONE – Opt out of all beta programs. Let Steam restart, and Skyrim will automatically update itself back to the latest released version. To provide feedback on the beta update, use our beta forum."
In addition to adding mounted combat, the update brings numerous bug fixes which can be seen here. These fixes include general stability and memory optimizations, general AI pathfinding optimizations and bug fixes, optimizations and crash fixes for data leaks, and more.
The really sad thing is Bethesda owns Arkane (Dark Messiah) who did some of the best melee combat out there, and is in competention with Gothic/Risen which does have a fairly decent combat system in an open world game. Plus Mount and Blade is an indie title with better combat.
It's never going to be as good as Mount&Blade. Why do they even try?
Adding such a major change to the combat system 6 months after release is just weird.
Is the world even designed for mounted combat? I bet you get stuck on terrain all the time.
Still, thumbs up to them for great and cost free support. I just hope that they won't break the unofficial community patches again, instead of simply integrating them into the game officially.
I was distressed to see the main article mention multiplayer, as your comment distresses me. I thought Skyrim was a phenomenally good game, but the combat is pretty rudimentary and the wide-open areas don't encourage pvp scenarios. PVP in Skyrim would reduce directly to a gear comparison, just like most MMOs, and there's absolutely no point. The announced TES MMO is a shameless money grab, and I'm troubled that there seem to be those who disagree.
My thoughts exactly. First they sacrifice KOTOR3 for SWTOR, now they may shift focus to Elder Scrolls MMO (hope not, since it's an external studio). I can only hope that it fails like SWTOR did.
Just finish the Dark Brotherhood quest line and get Shadowmere. More health and respawns if killed:
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Shadowmere_%28Skyrim%29