Learning to Ride Is Hard!

Parsifal

I tend to stick to one character in MMOs, but recently I started my first alt, as my main character has been magicka-based the whole time and I wanted to try out a stam-based character. There was one thing that left me in shock and awe when I made my new alt: riding lessons aren't account-wide! It took me over 6 months to max my riding skills on my first character, and I'm really bummed about having to do that again. Not only that, but I'm only able to log in 3-4 days a week due to my work/family schedules, which means it will take more like a year to max these skills. The stamina one I don't care so much about, but the speed is pretty important in Cyrodil, and it's such a pain having a tiny inventory!

I looked at the crown store, since I'd be willing to spend a few crowns to speed it up, but I was blown away by how much it would cost: essentially $150 to max all 3, which is a ton of money just for that. Are my only two options to either wait a year or spend $150? It just seems to me like the champion system encourages the creation of alts, but these riding skills definitely do the opposite.

I've been playing the game since the beta, so if I had known this back then I might have made an alt or two and just maxed the riding skills along the way, so that I've have them ready if I ever decided to play another character.

Elsonso

It is a balance between time and money. They don't want characters rocketing to the top of the horse training ladder, but if you want to pay for it, you can do it much faster.

SquareSausage

The only reason it is so slow and you have to do it on every characater is they want to try and force people to buy the upgrades from the CS.

SydneyGrey

Yep.
At level 10, you get the prompt that you can join the war in Cyrodiil. I highly recommend doing that just long enough to go through basic training, because at the end of basic training, you get two skill points and the ability to unlock a skill that lets you vastly improve your speed for a while, including your mounted speed. (Think it's called Charging Maneuver, but I'm not looking it up right now.) I do it on every character, even if I never plan to PvP with that particular character.

grannas211

Mount speed, undaunted, and mages guild (in on console) are the bane of my existence for new characters. Probably in that order too.

badmojo

SquareSausage wrote: »

The only reason it is so slow and you have to do it on every characater is they want to try and force people to buy the upgrades from the CS.

False. The system was already in place in beta...when there was no crown store.

I get that microtransactions suck, but so does misinformation.

Verbal_Earthworm

I park my 6 characters next to the stables and log in daily to buy their riding upgrades, then i log out.

It's the only way to ensure it doesn't take more than 180 days for any one of them.

Linaleah

badmojo wrote: »

SquareSausage wrote: »

The only reason it is so slow and you have to do it on every characater is they want to try and force people to buy the upgrades from the CS.

False. The system was already in place in beta...when there was no crown store.

I get that microtransactions suck, but so does misinformation.

this. actualy the system was worse before. you could only feed your mount 60 times. so you had to feed different mounts for different purposes. mounts themselves were not account wide. and... there were more expensive horses that gave you bonuses, and at the time gold was much harder to make then it is today. those horses at the stables that cost 40k gold? left overs from that time when you had your basic 10k gold horse, and then you had one with 20 bonus to stamina, one with 20 bonus to inventory, and one with 20 bonus to speed. so it was important to buy a better horse.

it takes 5-6 month to level a horse nowadays. yes, it sucks. yes i wish that was sped up and not just via cash. but.. horse leveling always sucked in this game, it actualy sucks a little less now, since you can max out all 3 stats on a single horse now.