In Medieval II Total War, playing as one of the Eastern factions had an incredibly unique feeling, as opposed to playing as their European counterparts. In Europe it was all about heavy infantry and cavalry, whereas with the Eastern factions, playing with lighter, faster, skirmishers and horses, you could play the game very differently but with the same or perhaps even greater efficiency.
Now we come to ETW. While their new game mechanics (firing arcs, range, etc) have made artillery and musket infantry MUCH more useful, they have seriously neglected the use of mounted ranged units, wielding bows or muskets.
The whole PURPOSE of ranged horse units is to allow them to move quickly around and among enemy formations, all the while firing their weapons. This is how it was in MTWII, and this is why horse archers were so deadly. Now, in ETW, we have Dragoons, Carabineers, and even some horse archers, but none of them fire while moving, which almost cripples their usage. It would be one thing if they fired right when they stopped, but they must first do this little "dance", if you will: Run up to the enemy, stop, spend agonizing seconds reforming their perfect line, since they all got broken up running, wait a few more agonizing seconds, take aim, fire a volley, reload (which will have to be restarted if they move at all during that time).
Within that time frame they will get murdered by any competant infantry commander who could probably position and fire before the enemy can even run away. Horses should be able to run around and flank units, firing into sides and backs on the move, really becoming a nusiance to the enemy battle line. That would make them USEFUL. Yes they have uses now, but they are severely gimped by not being able to fire on the move.
Now, in any case, does anyone think that there is any remote possibility of modding this in in the future? From the way the new ranged mechanics work (with the little "cone of fire"), it seems like were are doomed to having useless ranged cavalry, but I don't have much modding experience with ETW specifically, so I'm wondering if anyone thinks we might be able to change this in the future and how we might be able to go about doing so.
Throw some thoughts my way, people!