TameRidingOverhaul v0.1.20

Experimental first build of a more responsive Valheim mount controller.

Stationary facing lock (v0.1.20)

While mounted and stopped, the tame now keeps the direction selected by the rider instead of allowing vanilla idle/AI look updates to rotate it on its own. A/D turning and the S 180-degree about-face remain intentional steering inputs, W movement remains unrestricted, and the lock is not applied while airborne.

Controls

Uses Valheim's existing input bindings, so remapped controls continue to work.

• W — move forward while held
• A / D — turn left/right, including while stationary
• S — turn the mount around 180° (no reverse gear)
• Shift / Run — sprint using the normal saddle stamina system
• Space / Jump — mount jump
• LMB / Attack — creature Attack 1
• RMB / Block — creature Attack 2
• MMB / Secondary Attack — creature Attack 3 / Special
• Shift + Y — toggle Sit on the rideable tame you are looking at (configurable)

Sit shortcut matching is modifier-based rather than an exact-key-state match, so holding an unrelated movement key does not block the command. The displayed hover shortcut is generated from the live config.

While mounted combat is enabled, the rider's own attack/block inputs are consumed so the creature performs the attacks instead.

Creature levels / stars

Default unlocks intentionally match vanilla's three creature levels:

Creature level	Display	Available attacks
1	no star	Attack 1
2	1 star	Attack 1 + Attack 2
3	2 stars	Attack 1 + Attack 2 + Attack 3/Special

Creatures above level 3 (from other mods) simply keep all three slots. TameRidingOverhaul does not add its own damage scaling; it uses the creature's existing attack item and therefore preserves whatever level/stat multipliers the game or another mod applies.

A creature can only use attack slots that actually exist in its default attack-item list. For example, a creature with only two native attacks will not receive a fabricated third attack.

Movement

v0.1 combines two changes:

1. Direct A/D steering sets a desired mount heading instead of relying solely on the sluggish vanilla steering feel.
2. The ridden Character's movement values are multiplied while it has a rider and restored after dismounting.

Defaults:

• Normal movement: 1.35x
• Sprint/run: 1.70x
• Acceleration: 2.0x
• Turn speed: 2.5x
• Direct steering: 160 deg/s

All values are configurable.

Trampling

Trampling is enabled by default. At sufficient speed the mount can break/pass through selected small vegetation. v0.1.16 explicitly recognizes the small natural flora variants that previously slipped through the generic name/size filter, including:

• Beech_small1 / Beech_small2
• FirTree_small / FirTree_small_dead
• YggaShoot_small1
• Bush01, Bush01_heath, Bush01_deepnorth, Bush02_en
• shrub_2 / shrub_2_heath
• small branch/sprout prefabs covered by the existing category rules

These explicit small-flora prefabs are allowed even when their combined renderer/collider bounds exceed MaxObstacleSize. Full trees (TreeBase), tree logs (TreeLog), building pieces, WearNTear structures, planted Plant objects, creatures, and loose item drops are still explicitly protected.

Natural sapling trampling exists as a config option but is disabled by default.

Sit / hold-position command (v0.1.19)

Rideable tames now have a persistent Sit state. Sit is a hold-position order; it does not require a dedicated creature sitting animation.

• Default shortcut: Shift + Y while looking at a tamed rideable creature.
• Press the shortcut again to release Sit.
• Dismounting automatically enables Sit by default.
• Mounting automatically releases Sit so the creature can be ridden immediately.
• Sit clears the tame's follow target, persists the state in its ZDO, and suppresses AI locomotion while active. The tame may still turn/attack/react; the command is intended to keep its position rather than freeze physics.
• The default Shift + Y binding does not overlap Valheim's tame rename gesture (Shift + E) or the emote wheel (T). The shortcut remains configurable.
• Legacy default bindings are migrated through the existing one-time migrations to Shift + Y; custom keybinds are left unchanged.

Configuration:

[Sit]
Enabled = true
Keybind = Y + LeftShift
SitOnDismount = true

BepInEx may serialize the keyboard shortcut text slightly differently; use Configuration Manager or edit the generated config entry if you want another binding.

Configuration

After first launch:

Valheim/BepInEx/config/uk.ainzworth.valheim.tameridingoverhaul.cfg

Important settings include:

• speed multipliers
• direct steering and steering rate
• stationary turn assist
• jump enable/force/cooldown
• mounted combat enable
• attack unlock levels
• trampling enable, minimum speed, radius, size limit, damage, and vegetation categories
• Sit enable, keybind, and automatic Sit-on-dismount
• debug logging

Build

From PowerShell:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Unblock-File
.\build.ps1 -Install

Default Valheim path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Valheim

Custom path:

.\build.ps1 -ValheimDir "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Valheim" -Install

v0.1 test focus

This is deliberately the first gameplay test build. Test in this order:

1. mount/dismount repeatedly and verify normal creature movement returns after dismount
2. W/A/S/D steering at walk speed
3. Shift sprint and saddle stamina drain
4. Space jump while grounded
5. 0-star / 1-star / 2-star attack unlocks
6. attack animations and cooldowns while moving
7. bushes, branches, and FirTree_small collision/trampling
8. multiplayer if available

Enable DebugLogging = true and send BepInEx/LogOutput.log if a specific creature behaves incorrectly.

Current movement behavior

• W: forward only while held
• Shift+W: sprint only while held and stamina permits
• A/D: turn left/right, including at standstill
• S: one press turns the mount 180 degrees; there is no reverse gear
• Releasing W forces the persistent vanilla saddle throttle back to Stop
• Vanilla autorun is disabled while mounted
• External creature level changes while mounted are logged; this mod never changes creature level

v0.1.5 mounted stamina

TameRidingOverhaul now uses mounted stamina as a shared movement/combat resource:

• Normal forward riding drains stamina slowly.
• Normal riding does not consume stamina; sprinting is the continuous movement stamina cost.
• Primary, secondary, and special mount attacks each consume configurable stamina.
• An attack is blocked when the mount does not have enough stamina to pay its full cost.
• Sprint automatically falls back to normal riding when stamina is depleted.
• Stamina regenerates rapidly whenever the sprint/attack recovery delay has elapsed, including during normal riding.
• The vanilla saddle stamina value is kept authoritative so the existing mount stamina HUD remains useful.

Default values:

[Stamina]
Enabled = true
MoveDrainPerSecond = 0.0 # legacy/ignored; normal riding is always free
SprintDrainPerSecond = 8.0
RegenerationPerSecond = 18.0
RegenerationDelaySeconds = 0.75
MinimumSprintStamina = 1.0
PrimaryAttackCost = 10.0
SecondaryAttackCost = 16.0
SpecialAttackCost = 24.0

v0.1.7 mounted auto-pickup

Valheim normally suppresses its player auto-pickup behavior while the player is attached to/riding a mount. TameRidingOverhaul now restores auto-pickup while mounted.

The mounted implementation:

• respects Valheim's normal Auto-Pickup on/off toggle
• uses the player's current auto-pickup range, including range changes from other mods
• scans around the mount rather than the rider's elevated attached transform
• respects item m_autoPickup, inventory capacity, carry weight, ownership, tar state, unique-item restrictions, and normal pickup eligibility
• directly collects eligible items once they enter the mounted pickup radius so fast sprinting does not outrun the vanilla item-attraction animation

Configuration:

[AutoPickup]
Enabled = true
RangeMultiplier = 1.0
ScanIntervalSeconds = 0.08

Set Enabled = false to keep vanilla's no-auto-pickup-while-riding behavior.

v0.1.7 compatibility fix

• Fixed compilation against Valheim 1.0.15 where Character.FaceLookDirection() is non-public.
• Stationary A/D turning now invokes the internal Valheim method through Harmony reflection, with a safe direct-rotation fallback.
• No gameplay/balance changes from v0.1.6.

v0.1.9 movement correction

The mounted controls now deliberately follow Valheim character-style semantics:

• W: forward only while held; uses Valheim's normal saddle forward-control path
• Shift + W: sprint while held and sufficient stamina is available
• A / D: turn left/right and may turn the mount while stationary
• S: one press turns the mount 180 degrees; it is not a reverse gear
• releasing W: forces the persistent vanilla saddle throttle back to Stop
• S does not consume movement stamina because it does not translate the mount

The direct Walk/Run/Back writes to Sadle.m_speed introduced in v0.1.4 were removed because they interfered with straight forward riding on Valheim 1.0.15.

Valheim 1.0.15 also exposes saddle stamina through GetStamina, SetStamina, and GetMaxStamina; v0.1.9 no longer probes the removed m_stamina field, eliminating that Harmony warning.

v0.1.9 stamina/combat correction

• Normal W riding no longer consumes mount stamina. The legacy MoveDrainPerSecond config key is retained only for config compatibility and is ignored.
• Normal riding may regenerate stamina after the configured recovery delay. Continuous drain is reserved for Shift + W sprinting.
• LMB/RMB/MMB attacks still spend their configured discrete stamina costs.
• Mounted attacks now use the creature's runtime-owned attack items and keep the selected attack weapon equipped until Valheim's attack state has finished. This fixes attacks that animated but produced no damage because the temporary attack item was restored too early.
• External creature level changes are only debug-logged. Mods such as BetterTames may intentionally level tames after kills; TameRidingOverhaul does not modify creature level itself.

Airborne animation/audio behavior (v0.1.13)

TameRidingOverhaul no longer overrides locomotion animation or locomotion audio while a mount is airborne. A player-triggered Space jump uses the configured jump physics, but Valheim owns the creature's airborne animation/audio state completely.

The separate stationary-idle fix from v0.1.10 remains active: when the mount has actually stopped, stale movement input and locomotion blend parameters are synchronized back to idle so a movement loop does not continue indefinitely while standing still.

Keyboard layout

Letter-based Sit keybinds follow the active keyboard layout. With the default Shift + Y, German QWERTZ users press the key labelled Y, not the physical US-Y position labelled Z.