Fight from the saddle.

Swing a sword, cast with a staff, or shoot a crossbow or bow while you ride your terrorbird. Your bird gets its own attack on a separate button.

In the base game your weapon disappears when you get on your terrorbird and the attack buttons do nothing until you get off. With this mod you keep your weapon in hand and fight with the same buttons you use on foot. Hits deal the game's normal damage and give the normal XP.

What it does

• Melee from the saddle: swords and other melee weapons work on your normal attack button. Your rider swings the weapon from the saddle with the game's own attack animation while the legs stay seated, and the swing gets a slash trail. The swing starts when you let go of the button, so it lands a moment after a normal click.

• Staffs and wands: the primary cast works while you ride. You stay on the bird while you cast.

• Crossbows: click to shoot, same as on foot. The game's 2 second reload still applies. On a controller RB and RT both shoot.
• Bows: a click fires the quick shot. Hold right-click (LT on a controller) to aim, then shoot for the full draw. More on bows below.

• Your weapon stays visible. The game hides the weapon in your hand while you ride. The mod shows it (you can switch that off).
• Stay mounted when hit: you stay on the bird when you take damage.
• Right-click does nothing while you ride (except with a bow, where it aims). That is the same as the base game. Without this a sword or crossbow block would start and throw you off the bird, so the mod keeps it switched off while you are mounted.
• Mount while in combat (off by default): lets you call your mount while enemies are fighting you.

Your bird's own attack

Your terrorbird has its own peck, on its own button, apart from your weapon.

• Press G (X on a controller, Square on PlayStation) while you ride and the bird pecks forward and gives its attack call. Holding or spamming the button gives one peck at a time. A peck takes 1.2 seconds.
• It can hurt: each peck hits ONE hostile creature right in front of the beak for 10 damage by default (0 to 50, or 0 for a peck that does no damage). Kills count as yours for loot, and the peck's damage gives Attack XP.
• It leaves animals alone: creatures that are not after you, like chickens and deer, are never pecked.
• Your own attacks do not make it peck. If you want the bird to peck every time you attack with your weapon, switch on Bird also pecks on my attacks.
• Pick another button: the key and the controller button are in the settings. On a controller you can use X, D-pad up (it also opens the inventory) or D-pad down. The bird attack is ignored on foot and while a menu is open.

Bows

• Quick shot: click, and the arrow flies when you let go.
• Aimed shot: hold right-click (LT) to aim, draw, and let go to shoot, same as on foot.
• While you aim, your rider leaves the riding pose until you stop aiming. The game only lets a bow aim when it thinks you are not riding, so the mod tells it that for as long as you hold the aim. The close aim camera hides most of it, and you are back in the saddle as soon as you let go.
• Do not press the mount key while you aim. The game starts its own mount animation. In my test it sorted itself out after about a second and the next shot worked, but it looks odd.

Settings

All live in Mod Menu (Esc > MODS > Mounted Combat), or in config.txt in the mod folder (restart the game after editing it).

• Mounted Combat on (default on): the master switch. Off puts every mount rule back to the game's own.

Weapons on a mount:

• Swords and melee weapons (default on).
• Staffs and wands (default on): the primary cast.
• Crossbows and bows (default on).

Mount rules:

• Stay mounted when hit (default on).
• Stay mounted when casting (default on): you stay on the bird while you cast with a staff. See Good to know for what else this covers.
• Mount while in combat (default off).
• Show your weapon when mounted (default on).

Looks and the bird attack:

• Terrorbird pecks (default on): the bird pecks when you press the bird attack button. Off means no peck and no peck damage.
• Terrorbird attack call (default on): the bird's call when it pecks.
• Bird attack key (default G): a new key works after a game restart.
• Bird attack controller button (default X): X, DPadUp, DPadDown or none (keyboard only).
• Bird also pecks on my attacks (default off).
• Rider swings the weapon (default on): with a melee weapon your rider swings it from the saddle. Off: the arm stays in the riding pose. Damage is the same either way.
• Weapon flourish and trail (default on): a slash trail on each mounted melee swing. With Rider swings off, the weapon also flicks forward.
• Bird peck damage (default 10, 0 to 50, steps of 5): needs Terrorbird pecks on. 0 turns the damage off.

Detailed log (default off): extra lines in UE4SS.log, for bug reports.

Install

1. Install UE4SS for RSDragonwilds (free, from the UE4SS for RSDragonwilds page on Nexus Mods).
2. Drop the MountedCombat folder into RSDragonwilds/Binaries/Win64/ue4ss/Mods/
3. Optional: install Mod Menu to change the settings in game. Without it, every setting is in config.txt inside the mod folder.

On Game Pass: use the BE version of UE4SS with the SCO signature, the normal build does not load there. Game Pass also installs the game under Binaries/WinGDK/ instead of Binaries/Win64/, so the MountedCombat folder goes in RSDragonwilds/Binaries/WinGDK/ue4ss/Mods/. If you install with Vortex, check that is where it ended up.

To uninstall, delete the MountedCombat folder. Nothing is left behind in your save.

Good to know

• Nothing is saved. Everything the mod changes is undone when you get off, die, leave the world or switch it off, and it never touches items or your save.
• Stay mounted when casting covers more than casting. While you ride with a staff or wand in your hand, the game's "status effects knock you off" rule is switched off, so other effects that would normally drop you off the mount do not either. Dying or teleporting switches the rule back on at once.
• Fast weapon swaps: if you switch from a bow to a sword and right-click within about a tenth of a second, the sword's block can still throw you off. A right-click a little later keeps you on the bird. Wait a moment after a swap.
• The rider's pose can twitch for a split second when an attack starts. It does not change the hit.
• Give it 40 seconds after loading in for Stay mounted when hit and Mount while in combat. The mod leaves the game's settings alone for the first 40 seconds in a world, while the game finishes loading.
• Weapons tested: dagger, sword, scimitar, mace, club, hammer, greatsword, greataxe, granite maul and abyssal whip all hit from the saddle, with your rider swinging and staying seated. Staffs and wands cast (a wand uses runes, so carry some), crossbows and shortbows shoot. A sword keeps swinging while the bird sprints, and a controller works too (RB attacks with a sword or a wand).
• Light on performance. While you ride armed, the mod reads one value per frame. In my tests that cost about 0.02 to 0.05 ms, with short spikes of 1 to 3 ms on the frames a rider swing starts. On foot it does nothing.
• Not sure it is running? UE4SS.log shows a line starting with [MountedCombat] loaded v1.0.0.

Tested on RuneScape: Dragonwilds 1.0 with UE4SS 3.0.1, single player, on a terrorbird: sword swings with the rider swing on and off (33 damage each, Attack XP), staff casts (30 damage, Magic XP, still mounted), crossbow shots with real mouse clicks (51 damage, bolts used, Ranged XP), the 2 s reload, bow quick shots (10 damage) and aimed shots (16 damage), right-click with a sword, crossbow and staff (still mounted), G and a controller's X for the bird attack, peck damage on a skeleton, controller RB, RT and LT with a crossbow and LT plus RB with a bow, the mount key in the middle of a bow aim, getting off and back on, getting off in the middle of a swing, dying in the middle of a swing, and leaving the world and coming back, plus every weapon listed under Good to know and melee and wand on a controller's RB. Not tested yet: co-op and multiplayer (as a host or as a guest), any mount other than the terrorbird, and Game Pass.

Links

Also on Nexus Mods: Battlebird Mounted Combat on Nexus Mods.