How the hell do I control this horse?!

[Olav Grey]

Okay, I'm new to PC gaming kind of. I've played Skyrim, Oblivion, and mostly strategy games. I put in about 120 hours of RDR2 on PS4 and picked this up. First off... wow, it's gorgeous on ultra settings.
Secondly the horses control like butt with keyboard and mouse. Or I'm just bad. I'm in the mission where you follow Javier up the mountain to find John and I'm constantly fighting my horse. He'll be facing straight and I'll press "W" and he'll just turn to the left, sometimes in a complete circle, sometimes just turn left. I'll press D to go right and he'll just continue going left, or some other direction. I can't seem to figure it out.

I remember a few issues on PS4 with the horses but not this bad. I'm also having an issue where I'll press and hold shift to stay at a steady speed and Steam overlay comes up like I pressed Shift Tab even though I've not pressed it. This doesn't happen in any other game I've played, not Skyrim, CK3, FS2020... so far just RDR2. Any ideas?

[gaqo]

They do that weird thing you describe, press to go one way and they go other. You just have to get a feel for the horse. Small taps on the keys, in many ways the horses are very responsive once you get used to them.

Smaller horses are easier to manoeuvre. Try a few exercises to practice, like weaving through trees.

[Olav Grey]

Originally posted by gaqo:

They do that weird thing you describe, press to go one way and they go other. You just have to get a feel for the horse. Small taps on the keys, in many ways the horses are very responsive once you get used to them.

Smaller horses are easier to manoeuvre. Try a few exercises to practice, like weaving through trees.

It doesn't really feel like an issue with how the horse controls, so much as it feels like a bug or an game problem. I've tried the short taps and that seems to work for slow pace travel, but holding Shift also seems to just bug the horse right out.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Hold shift with W other wise the horse will automaticaly follow every curve of the road.
Combined with the arrows between the numlock and the main keys use them to direct the horse by tapping L < or right >

[josephwlee1990]

W is straight, so the horse is most likely going straight forward relative to where the screen is looking. There is an option in the settings to make W go straight for the Horse/Player, or straight for the way the screen is pointing

[smilymonkey5669]

Have you tried using a controller? I respect the whole kb+m master race thing but I'm certain this game was designed to be played with controller given how much easier it is to play it while using one. Autolock being just one example.

Again, kudos to you guys who use the keyboard and I bow down to your superiority. Don't flame me please.

[Dr. Peeper]

I know exactly what he's taking about. It's like they parse off nothing, don't go the direction you pressed, and many times leads to slamming into rocks or a tree. But characters also do it from time to time but more in a circular fashion. Today my left hand was bugging so I used controller while on the horse. The steering is 10x better.

[DargonBlak]

Originally posted by Olav Grey:

I'm constantly fighting my horse.

First of all, you're not crazy, or bad at it - the Horse is just programmed in a way that makes it very erratic when it starts moving.

Press "w" - and only "w" - and you horse will turn a complete 360 degrees before moving in that direction. Completely stupid if this is on purpose (imo) - i've almost shot my own horse in the head on a few occasions.

Pressing "shift+w" is "go forward fast", and does seem to override most of the errant behavior when starting out, but then you run the risk of the horse bolting and chargin off like it's being chased. Again - completely stupid imo.

To make it worse - the collision box, and (what i consider) collision avoidance of your horse is equally quirky. And the collision avoidance seems to grow in size based on how fast you are moving.

I think the collision avoidance is what causes many of odd behaviors around obstacles - you will notice this behavior when moving through woods or near rocks.

Most of all - i've learned to simply Slow Down - and start out easy. I've come to expect some of the odd behavior, and leaning back makes me want to shoot the horse less.

Oh, and another weird behavior is that oncoming horse riders will want to pass you on your RIGHT - not Left (so Drive on the Left). Once i figured this out - life got better.

As others have said - yes it's quirky - and it will take time to get used to - and i don't expect it to change anytime soon since it is very complex behavior.

[Olav Grey]

Thanks all for the help! I played around with options and what seemed to be throwing me off was an option about the direction I'm pressing, be it W, D, or A, was relative to my Camera position, rather than the horse I guess. I changed that option and the weird horse movements are all but gone.

It is still extremely awkward, especially after 120 hours of PS4 play. I prefer the aiming with the mouse but the movement with keyboard is really bad... seems I'll have to make a decision to go controller or m+kb.

[KroniKx187]

Change both options to "horse relative"

[DrPlowKing]

Originally posted by KroniKx187:

Change both options to "horse relative"

I agree, changing to horse relative makes the horse behave like you'd expect it to, it will run forwards regardless of the camera when pressing W

[DargonBlak]

Originally posted by KroniKx187:

Change both options to "horse relative"

I disagree with this, but it is definitely a personal preference.

When Riding Only - i prefer "Camera Relative" since that is how other games mostly work - you steer your horse by using WASD and/or the camera when simply riding about.

When Aiming (Shooting) - i definitely agree with "Horse Relative" - this allows a "turn and shoot" while ur horse keeps going forward

Just remember, when Aiming, to release "W" and maybe press "CTRL" to stop your horse before the cliff. (a little motion is okay while looking the other way - a lot of motion can end badly).

Although, i may try them both to Horse Relative to see if i like it.

[gaqo]

I always put some of the horse's behaviour down to innate behaviour. It does seem to go in the wrong direction at first, but swing round. Willful.

They also rear up if you try to go over a cliff by accident.

[Maj.Tryhard]

Originally posted by Olav Grey:

Thanks all for the help! I played around with options and what seemed to be throwing me off was an option about the direction I'm pressing, be it W, D, or A, was relative to my Camera position, rather than the horse I guess. I changed that option and the weird horse movements are all but gone.

It is still extremely awkward, especially after 120 hours of PS4 play. I prefer the aiming with the mouse but the movement with keyboard is really bad... seems I'll have to make a decision to go controller or m+kb.

I spent about the same amount of time on Xbox. While the gunplay feels amazing with m&kb, it's far from being as effective. I tried to switch over completely; and just like with GTA, I've become pretty smooth and very precise after learning how to manipulate the controls just right. Regardless, I've started keeping a gamepad on my desk(also just like GTA.) Some things are better with m&kb, but some are better with gamepad, and the best thing you can do is get used to switching on the fly.

I dunno how it works with PS controllers, but you can just plug an Xbox controller straight into your PC in a pinch. Works great.