No.250341473
>fantasy setting has magic and flying creatures
>still using horses as main transportation
No.250341651
>>250341473 (OP) #
>setting has nuclear energy
>still using coal as main energy source
this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
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There's a lot of hidden costs and infrastructure needed for magical flying beasts. Not to mention limited capacity. Little can compete with the horse drawn cart when it comes to capacity for price though.
Boats beat out horse drawn carts by an insane amount.
It’s why trade hubs and major cities were practically always on a major river and/or in a favourable location for a port.
Yep, not having a bunch of your trade going to feeding and caring for your horses makes a huge difference.
Boats can also move much more than a horse and cart. More than a pair of bullock even
Someone's never owned a boat.
There are 3 idioms that come to mind.
A boat is a hole in the water you pour money into.
A boat owner is only happy twice. When they buy a boat, and when they sell it.
"You don't want to buy a boat. What you want is a friend with a boat!"
A boat for personal use and a boat for trade use are two very different things.
For trading, boats have always been better in regards to the amount of stuff you can carry, even back before sails were invented. Also, unlike roads, water doesn't need maintenance, it just needs to be at a high enough level that the boat won't crash into rocks or whatever.
My main point was that boats aren't free to run. They require constant maintenance and care to remain viable. If you're going to include the maintenance and running costs of a horse team, then you need to also include the equivalent for boats.
Don't get me wrong, when you have a waterway, boats still win, by a large margin. Hence why Europe has so many canals etc.
This message brought to you by Big Equestrian.
Big horse killed my baby
They are opportunistic carnivores after all
Is that what Bojack Horseman is all about?
No, my baby loooved heroin.
Big (and smol) Equestrian
All magic comes with a price.
What can I get for tree-fiddy?
Well, it was about that time when I noticed that Rumpelstiltskin was about 8 stories tall and Crustacean from the Protozoic era...
It just costs 1 gold coin a month with the new wizard subscription....
I have giant hummingbird mounts in my game, but guess what? They need nectar from giant flowers, or just barrels full of sugar water, and/or they sometimes pick fights with giant insects in order to try and eat them. (Fun fact, hummingbirds eat small insects IRL) They're dead useful and loads of fun, but it exacts its price.
I'm so very glad that I never tried to enlarge my pseudodragon familiar to try and ride him into battle. Never even thought about the fact that pseudodragons cannot pay attention for shit.
Big chocobo disagree with you
Large chocobo is pretty neat but can't compete with my spherical sheep mount
True
Plus, not every species can be domesticated. Gryphons and dragons are independent and not herd animals. So they may not understand the concept of following a leader, which is an important part of domestication. And if they did, you'd probably have to best them in combat before they'd do it.
But you can talk to them and make friends with them
This assumes two things: That I am capable of making friends and that I would then not feel weird asking to ride on my new friend.
Is it not normal to ask if u can ride ur friend?
But what if cart drawn by flying pony?
I could never ask Fluttershy to haul things for me. At that point, I would start carrying things for her
YEAH!
But also Equestria is r63-land.
This, but also for coal power in the 80s and 90s.