PackBeasts

PackBeasts

Make every tame pull its weight: ride anything you tame, load your mounts with saddlebags, and lead, tie up or fence in any creature with real ropes.

At a glance

• Ride any tamed creature, from boars and wolves to trolls (seated on the troll's head), with all of its attacks on the mouse and number keys.
• Take flying tames into the sky: climb, dive at up to 30 m/s, land and take off again.
• Saddlebags on every saddled mount: a 4×2 chest on your lox, asksvin or moose that opens even mid-ride.
• A leash for any creature, wild ones too: lead several at once, tie them to a post, or drag carts, logs and chests behind you.
• Tie-up rings with real rope physics: string ropes up to 30 m between rings to fence a pen, or hang lanterns and signs from them.
• Smarter tames: a passive switch, healers that actually heal, taming that goes on while you're away, and tames that turn on wild ones of their own kind.
• Elemental stones: a rare drop (0.5%) that gives a tame an extra star, up to 10, and Fire, Frost, Lightning, Poison or Spirit damage on every attack.

Needs Jotunn. Everyone on the server needs PackBeasts, on the same 1.7.x version.

Features

Saddlebags

• A chest on every mount. For a saddled lox, asksvin, moose, OdinHorse's horse, or any creature a mod lets you saddle. A leather bag hangs on each side of the saddle, and the bags open as a 4×2 chest, also while riding.
• More creatures. Tamed creatures that can't wear a saddle can be added in the settings.
• Nothing is lost. Bags that hold items can't be taken off, and neither can the saddle. When the animal dies, the bags and their contents drop on the ground.
• Your look. Size, position and angle of the bags, for all animals and per animal.

Ride any tame

• Riding handle. A small leather grip that works like a saddle on any tamed creature that can't wear one: boars, wolves, bears, trolls, and anything a taming mod lets you tame. Seat and riding pose are fitted to each creature's model; one without a ready fit (a seal, creatures from other mods) gets a seat in the middle of its back, sized to the creature. No saddlebags hang on a handle.
• Sit on a troll's head. You ride on top of its head and move with it through every step and attack, staying upright and facing where it faces. A calmer camera keeps the view from swaying. You get on at its back.
• Hold E to ride. Hold E while looking anywhere at a saddled or handled creature to get on; a short press commands or pets it as usual.
• Seals. A seal a taming mod lets you tame (LetMeTameYou, for one) can be ridden on land and out at sea. Creatures at home in water don't tire or drown while ridden, and keep your seat just above the water.
• Use things from the saddle. Doors, chests, berries, items on the ground and workbenches.
• Trolls pick up logs. Ride a troll to a felled trunk and press E: it fights with the log and keeps it, also in a pal stone.

Fight and steer

• All its attacks. Left click for quick attacks, right click for heavy ones, a different one each press: a troll punches, slams the ground and throws stones. A mount with three abilities or fewer has them all on left, right and middle click, so a dvergr support mage's bolt, heal and shield are one click each.
• Every ability on a number key. 1 to 9 and 0: attacks, then spells for friends (a heal goes to whoever is under the crosshair, or to you), then roars and calls. Unused numbers stay on your hotbar, and key hints at the bottom right list every key.
• Aim and move. Shots fly towards the crosshair. Jump makes the mount jump, A and D move it sideways and S backs it up.
• Hold forward to move. The mount moves while you hold forward and rolls gently to a stop when you let go; S stops it at once. The game's auto-run key (Q by default) keeps it going hands-free.
• Smooth handling. Mounts ease up to speed over about half a second, keep moving through turns and slow down in sharp ones. You stay exactly on your seat every frame, so riding doesn't jitter, fast flying included.
• Mount stamina. Running uses 3% a second (about 33 seconds from full), a quick attack 6%, a heavy one 12%, a jump 4%; riding skill lowers it, down to half. It refills from empty in 15 seconds of rest, twice that when the mount is hungry.
• Mount speed. The host can make ridden creatures faster or slower, all of them or per kind, and each star adds 10%. Holding run, any ridden creature runs at least 5 m/s on land, so slow ones keep up.
• Speedometer. Small text above the game's bars shows your speed (km/h, m/s or both); on a flyer also how fast it climbs or dives and how high it is.

Fly

• Climb and dive. Hold jump to climb and crouch to dive, nose down, over mountains or into caves. Flying ahead reaches 25 m/s and a dive 30 m/s; near the ground it slows and pulls out of the dive, and a creature that also walks lands and takes off again.
• Folded wings. In a dive it folds its wings in like a diving bird (on your screen).
• Level camera. In the air the camera stays upright instead of leaning and tipping with the creature. You still look wherever the mouse points.
• Zoom out on big mounts. While riding you can scroll the camera out far enough to see all of a big creature, such as a dragon.
• Steady back seat. On a creature's back you move with its back exactly, so you never sink into it or float off it, and the camera takes out the bobbing of wing beats and steps.

Get off