Welcome to the fourth Pactoria dev blog. This one is about mounted combat. Cavalry fighting with lances is officially ready to go.
How it works
- Lances are a new weapon built specifically for mounted combat, and come in iron, gold and diamond.
- Damage isn't a flat number. It scales off momentum.
- Riding at full speed over distance builds momentum, tracked by a bossbar at the top of your screen.
- The more momentum you've built, the harder the hit lands when you connect.
- After a hit, momentum resets to zero and the lance goes on cooldown.
Solo riders and group charges
Because momentum resets and the lance goes on cooldown after every hit, a single rider can't camp on a target and keep swinging. One charge is a real hit, but it won't end a fight on its own.
Where it gets dangerous is the group charge. Riders hitting the same target back to back stack damage quickly, and since the cooldown is per rider there's nothing slowing that chain down. A target who looks fine after the first hit can go down fast when a second and third rider follow right behind. It's less about any one lance being strong and more about riders timing it and committing to the same target together.
That's the whole idea behind the system. No single rider should dominate a fight alone, but a group riding together is genuinely something to watch out for.
Jousting
Mounted against mounted works differently. Two riders going head to head comes down to positioning and timing your charge, and there's a real chance of knocking your opponent clean off their horse mid clash. It adds a lot of unpredictability. You can play it perfectly and still end up on the ground.
Why this matters for roleplay
We've wanted this for cavalry factions and military guilds for a long time. A way to actually feel like cavalry, rather than foot soldiers who happen to be sitting on a horse. Nations can run their own jousting tournaments for prestige, organize proper cavalry charges as part of larger battles, and build an identity around how they fight.
That ties into the bigger picture for us. Every part of Pactoria should feel like it has weight and purpose behind it, and mounted combat having its own mechanics, its own risks and its own counterplay is part of that.
More is in the works as always. See you in the next one.
Speel nu