Improvements to auto-striding feature (Patreon)

Continuation to my last two posts about the striding mechanic. The auto-striding has had some tweaks.

In my previous testing of this feature, a problem I noticed was that the horse would often bolt towards the jump at the last second, skipping one stride. To beginner players this sudden and unpredictable change in the horse's striding would be difficult as well as confusing.

After the latest tweaks, a normal auto-striding horse will try to find a suitable stride length prioritizing the last stride length command the player gave it. An example: you adjust your horse's canter length (with W and S buttons, same as in the demo) to be 2.5 meters (short canter) - your horse tries to find a matching stride that is closest to 2.5 meters.

There are still occasional times when the horse reacts suddenly. So yes the feature does not work perfectly 100% of the time, but I'm trying to get it to as high of an accuracy as possible. On the other hand, you could say that some level of imperfection adds a touch of realism, as even the best real-life riders have to deal with some level of striding unpredictability. The likelihood of the horse doing sudden changes also increases significantly the less time it has to count the strides - therefore sharp turns with the auto-striding horses are not the most ideal, or would at least require fast reaction times from the player.

One thing that the "automatic" horse doesn't do, is correcting its speed to match the jump height. As showcased in the demo game, the horse's jump height is dependent on its speed (less now than in the demo). That is why at 01:05 in the video the horse takes 5 strides and knocks down the oxer. On the next try I demonstrate how the combination has to be ridden to get the correct 3 strides.

With all of this being said, there are of course also horses that will NOT respect your stride length wishes. ;) This would be the equivalent of the hot blooded horse but for the auto-striding type. I figured that the regular kind of hot bloodedness (gradually increasing speed) doesn't work well with auto-striding, as the math operation would get unnecessarily complex. So the hotblooded equivalent for an auto-striding horse is simply a horse that prioritizes longer stride lengths as well as rather skips a stride at the end than adds an extra.

Not sure how much it shows up in the video, but since you liked it I left on the developer visualization of what the horse sees (it's the thin red and green lines).