Horse rentals

[Beskytter]

So, I know that most pet horses are suffering from the new weight limitations. It has made it next to useless to use most of them for now.

I'm not really sure that this is a long term fix, but it is something that might help lowbies who have to travel the world over time and again because of quests they need to do to join guilds or finish lessons, etc.

Rental horses that aren't part of the pet system at all. You'd pay something like 1 platinum to rent the horse to take you to your destination where you turn it back in. When you're ready to leave, rent again. These horses would have weight limits too and sturdier horses could be higher priced (so that heavily armored PCs can still use them.) but there's no naming the horse, no giving the horse anything, but they would be able to help PCs travel a bit better than the current caravan system which keeps players stuck to a certain schedule.

[Harroghty]

While I disagree with your assessment of horses and weight, I have toyed with the idea of post horses. The idea needs some tweaking to be viable.

[Yemin]

I'm not exactly sure what the percentage is but in my experience the cheaper horses can barely get a character from Waterdeep to westgate using the roads whereas others can handle a fair number of trips before they need resting.

The number of horses that I've personally noticed make reasonable mounts are in the minority though.

[Terageld]

I'm not really experiencing a problem with horse carry weight. With big burly Raihan, his armor, and his enormous supply of figs, my horse's load is still medium. I think it still has to do with the price of your steed. For travel, I found that a 30 platinum warhorse is your best bet. The 12-15 platinum ones are horrible, in my experience.
One thing that really grinds my gears however, is that there are horses out there bred for carrying stuff, not fighting. This makes them flee from any bandits you run into on the roads, instead of helping you fight. It makes travel a hassle. I can understand if a pony or a mule was running away from a bandit, but a horse? I think it should stand it's ground.

[Yemin]

I don't know much about horse nature irl but in the tabletop, with the exemption of war trained animals horses have something called Dosile x.

It makes them timid and naturally run away from combat unless your riding them and succeed on a ride check to make them stick with you.

Personally. I'm glad for it. there are some mounts that won't flee when you order them to and then the troll kills them before you can kill the troll. *sigh*

To get back on topic though. I think horse renting if it wouldn't be too much trouble is an ok idea. Rent horse mobile that get you from point A to B and can be returned / sold at any stable for a lesser price. Otherwise poofs when you log off. Or can be ridden back to the original stable and returned / sold back for a lesser price than was bought for. Would allow people to have both pets and still an ok mode of transport other than relying on communal fly spells in whatever form.

[Terageld]

Personally. I'm glad for it. there are some mounts that won't flee when you order them to and then the troll kills them before you can kill the troll. *sigh*

Don't even get me started on the trolls and hill giants... One wrong direction can cost you a 70 platinum steed. *flips table*

[Beskytter]

I'm looking at a price based on distance versus a flat rate. No selling it back afterwards for a return, just a straight one time use like the griffons in Silverymoon without the option to just pay a ton up front.

Waterdeep to Berdusk -- 2gp
Waterdeep to Silverymoon -- 2gp
Waterdeep to Shadowdale -- 1pp
Waterdeep to Zhentil Keep -- 8gp

The reason I don't like using caravans is the hamper on RP and the time it takes to get places. I know realistically it shouldn't be an IC hour from the Deep to the Keep but putting lowbie characters on a caravan that takes at least twenty minutes to get there without RP or anything else to really do sort of makes them zone out during that time. I know, when I first joined FK I tried to do the smart caravan riding for low level travel but got so bored that I afk'd half the time and eventually stopped wasting the platinum.

The rental horses would allow players to still take detours but essentially the horse is only set up to get them so far before expiring. The city to city chart would be a guideline of how far the horse will go before bolting into the wilds and vanishing from sight, leaving the rider on the ground confused and embarrassed.

In my head, this would help facilitate travel for those low level guild entrance/completion quests that fling them from Luskan to Tantras and back many times over, while still putting the work of traveling in the hands of the player.

[Yemin]

I think the reason van travel is so long is to keep in balance with PC abilities higher up the chain. There are some paid travel options that are instantaneous but they're not common and would play havoc with the value of teleport and flight if they became the standard.

If I remember rightly. There are more things to do on a van than just sit and wait, but I think those only occur between certain stops. I don't think there is a way of shortening van and ship travel without affecting the methods that currently exist to overcome them, so maybe there ought be more things to do on them to keep people playing instead of idling. I like this horse rental idea so far. Only problem is that it would make vans nearly pointless as vans currently are.

[Ungtar]

With the inclusion of all the new roads leading everywhere, travel on foot is much, much easier.

I think the problem was pretty much solved by that.

The difficulty in moving around is only a small, small portion of your character's existence and represents their transition from a mundane person to an Adventurer. It is my humble opinion that the experience of that transition should not be exchanged for convenience.