Asked by cascadianhobo , June 18, By "Hidden" I don't necessarily mean "poorly explained" like the weapon familiarity mechanic, since the information is there if you know where to look for it. The best example I can think of is horse courage - beyond what you might be able to infer from the copy in the catalog descriptions and derive subjectively and qualitatively from playtesting, there is no discreet, visible quantitative metric.
But unlike health, stamina, speed, acceleration and agility there's no explicit rating or ranking that's visible to players in- or out-of-game. I bring up the question for two reasons: One, as a racing enthusiast, I have a blue roan Nokota "Molly" and Nacogdoches saddle with Bell stirrups, which in theory should equal in speed the best Thoroughbreds and Fox Trotters.
But I regularly find her struggling to match pace with those two horses in particular. Could it be character weight, maybe?
Or some kind of rubberbanding? Because it's not just that other horses catch up to me, but actually pass me in a side-to-side contest. On a similar note, the same horse really struggles on the Spider Gorge course. Whereas my black Arabian "Lenny" seems to struggle a bit at first by then finds his stride and barring a duel with a Fox Trotter holds its own in top speed over the rest of the course. Maybe the Nokota, a relatively small breed, struggles in the deep snow?
And I'm also curious if horse size plays a role in the outcome of collisions. Would my Ardennes "Karen" hold up better in a Saint Denis Streets brawl where a lower probability of eating cobbles with your face might more than make up for the lost speed?
