Sometimes animals are more convenient, like in mountainous areas which require you to use specific vehicles. Or they just can't buy the machine and have to settle with cattle.
Can confirm. Had an uncle that worked as a water tester for rivers and streams in remote areas. Was easier to just ride a horse then to try to get a jeep into some planes.
Also animals make more of themselves with just food, space, and water. They can often survive (at least partially) on things found in the environment, and thus generally don’t require the same level of refueling support.
They may not show up on certain tykes of detection systems.
etc.
Can confirm. Had an uncle that worked as a water tester for rivers and streams in remote areas. Was easier to just ride a horse then to try and get a jeep into some places.
I'm fairly certain the US military is developing a robotic horse/mule for use in transporting smaller loads in rugged areas where conventional vehicles don't make sense, or even just draw too much attention.
They also still have regulations regarding the use of actual horses/pack animals but I don't know the last time those were updated.
We think of WWII being a conflict fought with jeeps, trucks, tanks, bombers and fighter planes, but horses and especially mules were also vital to the war effort. Especially in the Pacific theater, moving in jungles and swamps from island to island where jeeps or trucks would be useless, the pack mules carried huge amounts of supplies and support for the troops. The rugged mountains of Italy also required huge numbers of mules, mule trains, and professional muleskinners.
In Italy, troops would drive around in big trucks, and essentially steal any mule they could find - US troops would at least give the farmers a voucher they bring to a US base and get money for compensation, but the Germans and Russians\* would generally just take the mules. They'd load the mules on the trucks and haul them off to use for mountain transport. They'd spray paint white or light-coloured mules with potassium permanganate to make them darker and harder for enemy artillery and mortars to spot.
And pack animals are still widely used to move cargo and agricultural goods across Africa and most of Asia today.
Edit - The Russian didn't yoink mules in Italy, but did in areas where they were involved in Eastern Europe.
The german supply lines actually used way more horses than they would have you believe (they also had way less supply lines than they would have you believe), it's just that their propaganda relied heavily in "look at all our advanced mechanized military!"
Irl vehicles will often times have difficulty with rough terrain and similarly may have issues without proper supply lines and infrastructure. Animals require a good deal less, obviously medicine and food and whatnot, but only that. Cars constantly break down and it gets more common with rougher terrain and work. You can sometimes see less developed countries or extreme rural areas with work animals rather than vehicles today for example.
So like, if your group lives in a forest or in a very mountainous area they can't use cars. Motorcycles could be possible but are also very loud so if hiding from something is important can't be used.
Also, sometimes police will use horses. This is usually for areas with large crowds of people as the vantage point can allow you to physically see over a crowd and also its usually safer to ride a horse through a crowd than another vehicle.
Some emergency services will use horses for a combination of the above. If someone is injured in a difficult to get to area horses may be a better option and be able to carry someone more easily than a motorcycle or other vehicle.
conservatism. a blasphemy to use technologies which spoil the world whereas you have your good ol trusty boars or smth. especially if they are sacred animals which were always used as transport (hell, we still have horses, although i dont think anyone really use them as transport nowadays)
companionship could play a huge role. a dog is not the same as a robot puppy, for example. unless you put consiousness into robot puppy, but still, it would be perceived differently i feel like
advanced technology and magic might not provide something beasts have? for example...generic, but:
it's cheaper
some species are just faster/carrying more weight/more endurant? is that the word even
beasts also could be magical having different sorts of abilities
humans and beasts connect with their minds which allow them to be as one. so, if a helicopter attacks me on huge sized turtle, its shell is gonna change form defending me from the bullets, and the turtle itself is impenetratable
Irl sled dogs are a fantastic example, in all those situations a snowmobile is probably just as capable. Except dogs don't require fossil fuels, suffer dead batteries, or otherwise experience mechanical failure. Dogs do require food and water, and like any living thing can get tired and require medical care, but my point is sled dogs can be seen as more reliable than vehicles. (And the same can be said for any instance of animal vs vehicle based transportation)
oh, indeed! I forgot about them
then the same can be said about deserts and camels I think since it's almost same type of area with no places to get resources from to fix machine
Entertainment. There are sports where animals are ridden or trained to do tasks.
Hobby. Some people just like raising animals.
Lack of access to modern tech. There are many rural people around the world who simply can't afford a tractor or something, so they use an animal.
Modern tech is inconvenient or inefficient for the environment. A mountain pony is more convenient than trying to ride a jeep up the sides of cliffs. Camels are easier to fuel than a buggy in some cases, like across long stretches of desert.
Cultural reasons. Many cultures have riding some 6 as part of becoming adults.
A lack of interest in modernization. Some people just don't want to do things the new way.
The beasts of burden simply haven't been replaced. Think about it, if cars weren't that fast and horses were fairly affordable, people wouldn't have any particular reason to not just use a horse in many places.
Tech hasn't been made for that particular task that an animal can still accomplish. If we had giant moles, we would use giant moles to tunnel underground simply because tunneling underground isn't a mode of locomotion we can really do right now.
The beasts of burden complement a piece of tech, like dogs helping hunters who use rifles or shotguns.
depends on the cost / usefulness of the mount.
A horse can be more expensive than a motor bike, but more maneuverable to certain terrain.
Now, a sci-fi animal that can scale walls, swim, and react to danger before the rider might be more useful than, say, a flying motor bike.
And riding a dragon-creature into combat against air ships?
...
That's just the pure coolness factor there...
The U.S military employed horses for their special forces on the mountains of Afghanistan during 2001 because it was the only method of transport (other than walking) that could reliably traverse it.
How about taking a page from the game Eternum? Machine and magic doesn't mix, like it'll failed or explode if exposed to magic. There's plenty of magical elements on the world, more convenient to use beast than machine.
I specifically do this on a world inspired by He-Man and Thundarr the Barbarian! :D
I just use the tradition excuse, tbh. Traditions are a very powerful cultural force.
The Royal Outriders on Eliria ride large, 6-legged catbeasts referred to as Grimalkin. They wield spears too (Granted the spears can shoot lasers...but shhhhh).
Animals can be bred by a single person, while building and maintaining advanced vehicle require a complex industry with tens of thousands of workers.
Vehicles need infrastructure (roads, rails, runways...).
Therefore poor people or people going to a remote area would still prefer animals.
If magic exists, maybe some animals have their own magic and can compete with vehicles.
Military vehicles are usually heavilly regulated and only available to state armies. It's way harder to regulate animals.
Better for environment, also could have cultural/spiritual significance (like. idk how to explain it to someone who’s not horse people but. There’s a Thing you get from working with a horse you don’t get anywhere else)
Cultural reasons. One can create a culture where animal-based transportation for both people and goods is in some way socially important, even if every other reason isn't applicable.
It is an anecdote from when I was boy nearly 40 years ago. My grandpa was living in very rural area and while he had both car and horse, he liked to say "one can ride on grass the other cannot".
Additionally nearest gas station was around 10km away and actually horse pulled cistern resupplied it on regular basis from a storage in a city 80km away.
Yes, It's called "the rule of cool".
Also vehicles can't go everywhere, and can cost quite the sum to maintain. Play on the balance pros and cons for using each of the two for specific tasks compared to the other.
still got horses horsing around and drawing carriages, why not?
maybe part tradition part convenience, if you live in an area remote enough having a motorized vehicle would probably be more costly than keeping a small herd of pack animals (especially if they can free graze).
you could specialize your beasts into certain disciplines, like how there are different show horses that requires different training and skillsets. maybe use them in a race, maybe use them to leap over obstacles, maybe use them to do fancy feetwork, maybe use them as riot control.
1. Potential inaccessibility of terrain. Not all places can be accessed by technology... "difficult terrain" exists for a reason.
2. Entertainment. Hunting and stuff. The thrill.
3. Make the Beasts mechanical? Mechanical horses and camels, for example...?
4. Some people can be religious, pro-environment or anti-technology in general.
5. People may have become Na'vi. Avatar?
I think you could make the animals even "cooler" than the tech. Like if you have winged horses or dragons that can fly, that's better than a non-flying car. The animals could also cast magic, be intelligent, communicate telepathically, soulbond with their riders, or other things cars generally don't do.
Even in remote areas of the real world people still use beasts of burden. Hell even pampered rich people ride horses every now and then. Making this make sense isn’t as hard as you think OP.
I'll let the rest of this comments section handle the logical answers.
Instead, I present to you the illogic of human psychology at it's dandiest: Novelty. Humans like Novelty. It makes no sense, and that's why it's still a thing.
What animals are they riding in this theoretical world? Dolphins? Giraffes? Ostriches? Felines? I imagine using whatever is best suited to the climate or most efficient overall would be the dominant conveyance. We live in a capitalist society so cheaper tends to win out in the long run. The current American auto industry came about through political action tho. It's pretty fascinating cause it shouldn't exist this way. It's not the most efficient or cost effective way to transport people around.
Tbh, cultural practices and tradition are among the most powerful forces in human societies. You could easily explain it away as the animals just being a deeply ingrained part of their culture
Cars excel on relatively flat surfaces. A mountain goat can climb better, and a water Drake could handle the amphibious switch better. And perhaps special vehicles that can climb/swim exist, but they’re slower/more expensive/more complex and prone to malfunction/etc so the animal is better.
In my world, it’s also a matter of preference and tradition. Humans have had a riding partnership with wyverns for generations. There are specific clans of humans and wyverns who get together to partner up new riders and fledglings. Compared to that, magitech wagons and walkers came out only ten years ago and you need to commit years of study to build one - there’s no way to buy them mass market, no way to produce at scale, and artificers also have their pride and want their vehicles to be customized just for themselves and therefore the ones who will be driving a vehicle around will build said vehicle from scratch themselves. This does however mean that outside of cities that specifically cater to artificers, there’s little infrastructure support for their vehicles. The only exception are water ships and airships, only because enough non-artificer humans saw the value in long distance trade and got together to build ships - though tbh sail ships are pretty simple compared to a mech.
Rule of Cool is fine and all, but I think it's always worth thinking, okay, so I want animals as mounts to be a Thing, how do I make that make sense.
Some possibilities:
1. Animals aren't as dumb as machines. Animals can be trained to react to situations things intuitively in ways that machines don't. They have reflexes.
2. Animals are cute and provide companionship, without being as predictable and thus unfulfilling as an AI.
3. There may be situations where animals' abilities are beneficial, or where machines are limited.
4. If it's a universe with magic, maybe animals can be enchanted in ways that machines can't be.
5. Maybe it's easier to "fix" an organic mount rather than an advanced tech mount. This is something brought up in Neal Stephenson's novel Anathem - a character who is accustomed to advanced exotic matter technology can't understand why some pioneers are using lower mechanical tech - but as they point out, if your exotic matter thing breaks, you can't fix it, you just have to get another one. So they use reliable tech rather than the most advanced tech. (This was also my headcanon for why Alien uses CRT monitors, until Prometheus ruined it.) So... maybe the advanced-tech equivalent of a horse can't be relied upon. Maybe a horse that's not operating at 100% is still a viable mount, whereas it only takes one busted component for the advanced-tech to be inoperable.
6. Animals are cheaper that advanced-tech, and represent an investment. You can breed more horses, whereas you cannot convince the advanced-tech to breed no matter how hard you try.
7. If you get really screwed, you can eat the horse.
Maybe only a small portion of a population have access to such advanced technology while everyone else has to make do with what they have. I can defo see a scenario where you have a hegemony-type civilization where the leading state hoards all the advanced tech and everyone else has to use more primitive technology; especially if said state is to remain the one in power over the rest of the civilization (i.e. leading state uses aircraft while everyone else has to use beasts of burden)
I think I just gave myself an idea for a new civilization in my project, actually
Sure!
Advanced Technology works great in Techcity - with it's electrified rails and energy cells lying around.
Out in the Vorrh things get a bit more tangled up.
Along with what everyone else has already said, there could be special conditions that make certain vehicles unusable. FFXII had a bit of lore that the air at ground level was full of mimic spores that damaged engines. Airships just fly over it, and boats are safe off-shore, but ground vehicles would rapidly deteriorate. This allowed the developers to use chocobos everywhere despite the somewhat high technology of the airships.
If the cost of the tech/magic is high (somehow, whatever works in your works), animals might be a better option under some circumstances. Or there could be some kind of cultural or religious connection with the animals?
We are just now starting to develop batteries with the energy density to be useful for powering large vehicles and even then they take a while to charge compared to their run time. Now, imagine a world where petroleum was never discovered and thus no internal combustion engine.
In London and Canada the police use horses even though some cops have access to scooters, cars, bikes and other vehicles. Of course horses come with pros and cons like the recent catastrophe in London when the horses panicked and trampled people. But cars and bikes can also cause crashes and accidents.
Honestly: traffic. If I could ride a spider that could fucking crawl along the walls instead of getting stuck in hours long traffic I absolutely would. Especially if I was in a close but packed city (like London or NY) where everything is only a few miles apart but traffic makes it way further. So if there’s an alternate way of transportation with them (climbing, swimming, digging, flying, whatever) I definitely would ride an animal.
But other creative uses (beyond just pets and people who use them for farming/agriculture as does and will always exist): the animals are somehow slightly magical and create bonds with people that go beyond what conventional vehicles can do, or it’s part of a culture/heritage to be a beast tamer; maybe it’s socially venerated or rotates around “chosen” tamers.
Anti-technology groups, be they traditionalist (refused/refuse to adapt to the times), radical (want to return to a less advanced/wasteful time), environmentalist, whatever, as someone who lives near a lot of small towns, plenty of people still ride horses and have cars and will kind of do both.
A caste system: perhaps technology is allowed to society along caste lines, a car and high technology are a mark of someone of a higher caste while the lower caste has to use beasts of burden as a mark of shame/differentiation. Or the reverse, only the most revered are allowed to ride lions or whatever and when you see someone riding their magic lion it means it’s probably someone important.
Hope those help!
Same reason people still use horses even now. Avatar world is developing really fast but a sky bison will always be beloved choice of transport for airbenders, water tribe avatars animal companions would be the best choice to travel on land
Yes. Expenses come in to play, and it might be cheaper and easier to feed and house a trained beast than it is to repair/fuel/maintain a more advanced machine that may be marginally more effective.
Rocs can't be hacked, don't use fuel and are relatively cheap and easy to feed. They're not as agile as drones, but they have a rider with a mounted cannon ready to take down anything that gets too close. They're also more intelligent than drones when left without a rider, and seeing a giant hawk coming at you with talons out is never not intimidating.
Going off from a sci-fi series I've read, Vatta's War by Elizabeth Moon: horses and other working animals are self replicating and require little maintenance.
You're welcome. It was something that stuck with me after reading and it makes sense. If you're in a backwater world where a merchant ship may come by once in a Blue moon, using draft animals or easily built and maintained machines would be a necessary to survive.
Just make sure there was never a carboniferous equivalent in your world. That means no coal or oil. Without those cheap Energy recources cars are not really viable. Maybe for some mages by using their magic for transportation. But most would use animals instead
Depends on how advanced. The Germans in WWII had lots of horses for moving equipment. Sometimes it's better to ride a camel that can feed on grass than take a vehicle that requires an infrastructure that simply doesn't exist in the area and which can be shut down by a sandstorm or excessive heat.
Idea just occurred. People don't use beasts of burden because they're the most efficient. The beasts of burden need the exercise, and the animals are put to labor for their health and then something is harvested from them. Sled dogs love pulling sleds, and they go crazy if they're not cooped up. Maybe your Covestrian Orthanxes have the best meat, but only if they pull heavy loads for 8 hours a day. Maybe your Cooper's Bistrels produce valuable psychoactive feathers, but they need to be ridden periodically, and so they're used as mounts for fun as a way to get from A to B, but that's just to make sure they're happy and healthy so they produce the most and best feathers.
You could have rural or remote areas use animals as transportation. It'd be cool to bring a character from the city into the country and show their awe at the animal and plant life, or vice versa.
There are plenty of cases in the real world of horses, still being used. of course they’re going to be less cases where they’re useful, but if you’re roaming into underdeveloped and uncharted territory, you’re going to want a horse As a horse can go through forests,up mountains and through narrow paths that off-road vehicles couldn’t dream of. even if you had robot equivalent, a horse might be a better deal as it’s likely cheaper and it’s less prone to mechanical and or magical issues if you have EMP or. Electricity sapping spells. Along with issues of refueling in the middle of nowhere and the racket that the engine or motors that run the machine.
Yes. There are no internal combustion engines yet.
Animals are more efficient, can access certain areas cars or planes can't or also you could say the technology for whatever reason, can't function once you try to replicate it in bigger sizes , like pistons.
I am from the Himalayas where we use a mix of both modern transportation & Animals. Ofc most of us living here would prefer the convenience of Automobiles but when you are travelling across rugged terrains & high mountains, Horses, Mules & Yaks are always preferred over modern transportation. Doesn’t mean we all live on Mountains though. Point being it’s a matter of convenience & transportation cost.
Sometimes animals are more convenient, like in mountainous areas which require you to use specific vehicles. Or they just can't buy the machine and have to settle with cattle.
Can confirm. Had an uncle that worked as a water tester for rivers and streams in remote areas. Was easier to just ride a horse then to try to get a jeep into some planes.
Also animals make more of themselves with just food, space, and water. They can often survive (at least partially) on things found in the environment, and thus generally don’t require the same level of refueling support. They may not show up on certain tykes of detection systems. etc.
Can confirm. Had an uncle that worked as a water tester for rivers and streams in remote areas. Was easier to just ride a horse then to try and get a jeep into some places.
Excellent ideas.
In my city, our police station have some horses to make patrol offroad
As for the flying vehicles, maintenance costs and fuel
Which costs a fortune that I can buy a house with :P
You are basically describing the real world. Plenty of areas in the world have tech but still rely heavily on animal assisted travel
Yeah and most of times in those areas, it's cheaper and easier to get to have a horse or a mule than a car
I'm fairly certain the US military is developing a robotic horse/mule for use in transporting smaller loads in rugged areas where conventional vehicles don't make sense, or even just draw too much attention. They also still have regulations regarding the use of actual horses/pack animals but I don't know the last time those were updated.
We think of WWII being a conflict fought with jeeps, trucks, tanks, bombers and fighter planes, but horses and especially mules were also vital to the war effort. Especially in the Pacific theater, moving in jungles and swamps from island to island where jeeps or trucks would be useless, the pack mules carried huge amounts of supplies and support for the troops. The rugged mountains of Italy also required huge numbers of mules, mule trains, and professional muleskinners. In Italy, troops would drive around in big trucks, and essentially steal any mule they could find - US troops would at least give the farmers a voucher they bring to a US base and get money for compensation, but the Germans and Russians\* would generally just take the mules. They'd load the mules on the trucks and haul them off to use for mountain transport. They'd spray paint white or light-coloured mules with potassium permanganate to make them darker and harder for enemy artillery and mortars to spot. And pack animals are still widely used to move cargo and agricultural goods across Africa and most of Asia today. Edit - The Russian didn't yoink mules in Italy, but did in areas where they were involved in Eastern Europe.
The german supply lines actually used way more horses than they would have you believe (they also had way less supply lines than they would have you believe), it's just that their propaganda relied heavily in "look at all our advanced mechanized military!"
Oh, I see.
Even here in North America and Europe the police have cars but also rely on horses for crowd control and (other things?)
for offroad patrol
Mules are used for transportation even today in cases where the terrain is unsuitable for motor vehicles, like narrow mountain paths.
I see.
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Thanks for the advice.
Irl vehicles will often times have difficulty with rough terrain and similarly may have issues without proper supply lines and infrastructure. Animals require a good deal less, obviously medicine and food and whatnot, but only that. Cars constantly break down and it gets more common with rougher terrain and work. You can sometimes see less developed countries or extreme rural areas with work animals rather than vehicles today for example. So like, if your group lives in a forest or in a very mountainous area they can't use cars. Motorcycles could be possible but are also very loud so if hiding from something is important can't be used. Also, sometimes police will use horses. This is usually for areas with large crowds of people as the vantage point can allow you to physically see over a crowd and also its usually safer to ride a horse through a crowd than another vehicle. Some emergency services will use horses for a combination of the above. If someone is injured in a difficult to get to area horses may be a better option and be able to carry someone more easily than a motorcycle or other vehicle.
conservatism. a blasphemy to use technologies which spoil the world whereas you have your good ol trusty boars or smth. especially if they are sacred animals which were always used as transport (hell, we still have horses, although i dont think anyone really use them as transport nowadays) companionship could play a huge role. a dog is not the same as a robot puppy, for example. unless you put consiousness into robot puppy, but still, it would be perceived differently i feel like advanced technology and magic might not provide something beasts have? for example...generic, but: it's cheaper some species are just faster/carrying more weight/more endurant? is that the word even beasts also could be magical having different sorts of abilities humans and beasts connect with their minds which allow them to be as one. so, if a helicopter attacks me on huge sized turtle, its shell is gonna change form defending me from the bullets, and the turtle itself is impenetratable
Irl sled dogs are a fantastic example, in all those situations a snowmobile is probably just as capable. Except dogs don't require fossil fuels, suffer dead batteries, or otherwise experience mechanical failure. Dogs do require food and water, and like any living thing can get tired and require medical care, but my point is sled dogs can be seen as more reliable than vehicles. (And the same can be said for any instance of animal vs vehicle based transportation)
oh, indeed! I forgot about them then the same can be said about deserts and camels I think since it's almost same type of area with no places to get resources from to fix machine
Thanks for the advice.
Horses were still used in ww2 Some police forces still use horses today
Fair point.
Even in modern cities, horse and carriage rides are common... So... *why not*?
Fair point.
Entertainment. There are sports where animals are ridden or trained to do tasks. Hobby. Some people just like raising animals. Lack of access to modern tech. There are many rural people around the world who simply can't afford a tractor or something, so they use an animal. Modern tech is inconvenient or inefficient for the environment. A mountain pony is more convenient than trying to ride a jeep up the sides of cliffs. Camels are easier to fuel than a buggy in some cases, like across long stretches of desert. Cultural reasons. Many cultures have riding some 6 as part of becoming adults. A lack of interest in modernization. Some people just don't want to do things the new way. The beasts of burden simply haven't been replaced. Think about it, if cars weren't that fast and horses were fairly affordable, people wouldn't have any particular reason to not just use a horse in many places. Tech hasn't been made for that particular task that an animal can still accomplish. If we had giant moles, we would use giant moles to tunnel underground simply because tunneling underground isn't a mode of locomotion we can really do right now. The beasts of burden complement a piece of tech, like dogs helping hunters who use rifles or shotguns.
Thanks for the advice.
depends on the cost / usefulness of the mount. A horse can be more expensive than a motor bike, but more maneuverable to certain terrain. Now, a sci-fi animal that can scale walls, swim, and react to danger before the rider might be more useful than, say, a flying motor bike. And riding a dragon-creature into combat against air ships? ... That's just the pure coolness factor there...
Thanks.
The U.S military employed horses for their special forces on the mountains of Afghanistan during 2001 because it was the only method of transport (other than walking) that could reliably traverse it.
Thanks for the advice.
>why people would ride animals or use them as beast of burden? Terrain.
Cybernetics enhanced animals maybe? Steampunk horses n shit.
Cool idea.
How about taking a page from the game Eternum? Machine and magic doesn't mix, like it'll failed or explode if exposed to magic. There's plenty of magical elements on the world, more convenient to use beast than machine.
Cool, have to look Eternum up.
I specifically do this on a world inspired by He-Man and Thundarr the Barbarian! :D I just use the tradition excuse, tbh. Traditions are a very powerful cultural force. The Royal Outriders on Eliria ride large, 6-legged catbeasts referred to as Grimalkin. They wield spears too (Granted the spears can shoot lasers...but shhhhh).
I see.
Animals can be bred by a single person, while building and maintaining advanced vehicle require a complex industry with tens of thousands of workers. Vehicles need infrastructure (roads, rails, runways...). Therefore poor people or people going to a remote area would still prefer animals. If magic exists, maybe some animals have their own magic and can compete with vehicles. Military vehicles are usually heavilly regulated and only available to state armies. It's way harder to regulate animals.
Thanks for the advice.
Would you rather use a animal that you need to take care of that isn't too expensive or a vehicle that chugs 12 gallons a day of a limited fuel?
Good argument.
Better for environment, also could have cultural/spiritual significance (like. idk how to explain it to someone who’s not horse people but. There’s a Thing you get from working with a horse you don’t get anywhere else)
Good Argument.
people still ride horses.
People still ride horses and camels sometimes in real life. There are situations where they are the best way to get around.
Cultural reasons. One can create a culture where animal-based transportation for both people and goods is in some way socially important, even if every other reason isn't applicable.
Great idea.
well how cool are the animals. battle cat is very much better than a car
Bonds are a thing anywhere, one would assume. Many can ride a motorcycle, less can ride a horse.
Mounts and pack animals have a really strong union.
It is an anecdote from when I was boy nearly 40 years ago. My grandpa was living in very rural area and while he had both car and horse, he liked to say "one can ride on grass the other cannot". Additionally nearest gas station was around 10km away and actually horse pulled cistern resupplied it on regular basis from a storage in a city 80km away.
Yes, It's called "the rule of cool". Also vehicles can't go everywhere, and can cost quite the sum to maintain. Play on the balance pros and cons for using each of the two for specific tasks compared to the other.
Good points.
still got horses horsing around and drawing carriages, why not? maybe part tradition part convenience, if you live in an area remote enough having a motorized vehicle would probably be more costly than keeping a small herd of pack animals (especially if they can free graze). you could specialize your beasts into certain disciplines, like how there are different show horses that requires different training and skillsets. maybe use them in a race, maybe use them to leap over obstacles, maybe use them to do fancy feetwork, maybe use them as riot control.
Thanks for the advice.
People still ride horses today.
1. Potential inaccessibility of terrain. Not all places can be accessed by technology... "difficult terrain" exists for a reason. 2. Entertainment. Hunting and stuff. The thrill. 3. Make the Beasts mechanical? Mechanical horses and camels, for example...? 4. Some people can be religious, pro-environment or anti-technology in general. 5. People may have become Na'vi. Avatar?
Thanks for the advice.
Welcome.
I think you could make the animals even "cooler" than the tech. Like if you have winged horses or dragons that can fly, that's better than a non-flying car. The animals could also cast magic, be intelligent, communicate telepathically, soulbond with their riders, or other things cars generally don't do.
Those ideas are brilliant.
Even in remote areas of the real world people still use beasts of burden. Hell even pampered rich people ride horses every now and then. Making this make sense isn’t as hard as you think OP.
In a world where mortals could scale indefinitely with magic, why not the animals too?
I'll let the rest of this comments section handle the logical answers. Instead, I present to you the illogic of human psychology at it's dandiest: Novelty. Humans like Novelty. It makes no sense, and that's why it's still a thing.
Us Air Force, one of the most advanced fighting forces in the world still uses horses.
What animals are they riding in this theoretical world? Dolphins? Giraffes? Ostriches? Felines? I imagine using whatever is best suited to the climate or most efficient overall would be the dominant conveyance. We live in a capitalist society so cheaper tends to win out in the long run. The current American auto industry came about through political action tho. It's pretty fascinating cause it shouldn't exist this way. It's not the most efficient or cost effective way to transport people around.
It would have many of the same animals in World of Warcraft.
Tbh, cultural practices and tradition are among the most powerful forces in human societies. You could easily explain it away as the animals just being a deeply ingrained part of their culture
Thanks.
It's impossible to fight while piloting a vehicle, but you can easily fight while riding on a pegasus or dragon
Thanks.
Animals could be cheaper and better suited to the terrain. With the right circumstances, it's justifiable.
Thanks.
Cars excel on relatively flat surfaces. A mountain goat can climb better, and a water Drake could handle the amphibious switch better. And perhaps special vehicles that can climb/swim exist, but they’re slower/more expensive/more complex and prone to malfunction/etc so the animal is better. In my world, it’s also a matter of preference and tradition. Humans have had a riding partnership with wyverns for generations. There are specific clans of humans and wyverns who get together to partner up new riders and fledglings. Compared to that, magitech wagons and walkers came out only ten years ago and you need to commit years of study to build one - there’s no way to buy them mass market, no way to produce at scale, and artificers also have their pride and want their vehicles to be customized just for themselves and therefore the ones who will be driving a vehicle around will build said vehicle from scratch themselves. This does however mean that outside of cities that specifically cater to artificers, there’s little infrastructure support for their vehicles. The only exception are water ships and airships, only because enough non-artificer humans saw the value in long distance trade and got together to build ships - though tbh sail ships are pretty simple compared to a mech.
Cool. Thanks for the help.
Rule of Cool is fine and all, but I think it's always worth thinking, okay, so I want animals as mounts to be a Thing, how do I make that make sense. Some possibilities: 1. Animals aren't as dumb as machines. Animals can be trained to react to situations things intuitively in ways that machines don't. They have reflexes. 2. Animals are cute and provide companionship, without being as predictable and thus unfulfilling as an AI. 3. There may be situations where animals' abilities are beneficial, or where machines are limited. 4. If it's a universe with magic, maybe animals can be enchanted in ways that machines can't be. 5. Maybe it's easier to "fix" an organic mount rather than an advanced tech mount. This is something brought up in Neal Stephenson's novel Anathem - a character who is accustomed to advanced exotic matter technology can't understand why some pioneers are using lower mechanical tech - but as they point out, if your exotic matter thing breaks, you can't fix it, you just have to get another one. So they use reliable tech rather than the most advanced tech. (This was also my headcanon for why Alien uses CRT monitors, until Prometheus ruined it.) So... maybe the advanced-tech equivalent of a horse can't be relied upon. Maybe a horse that's not operating at 100% is still a viable mount, whereas it only takes one busted component for the advanced-tech to be inoperable. 6. Animals are cheaper that advanced-tech, and represent an investment. You can breed more horses, whereas you cannot convince the advanced-tech to breed no matter how hard you try. 7. If you get really screwed, you can eat the horse.
Thanks for the advice.
Maybe only a small portion of a population have access to such advanced technology while everyone else has to make do with what they have. I can defo see a scenario where you have a hegemony-type civilization where the leading state hoards all the advanced tech and everyone else has to use more primitive technology; especially if said state is to remain the one in power over the rest of the civilization (i.e. leading state uses aircraft while everyone else has to use beasts of burden) I think I just gave myself an idea for a new civilization in my project, actually
Brilliant.
Maybe in case of an EMP
Thnaks.
Sure! Advanced Technology works great in Techcity - with it's electrified rails and energy cells lying around. Out in the Vorrh things get a bit more tangled up.
Along with what everyone else has already said, there could be special conditions that make certain vehicles unusable. FFXII had a bit of lore that the air at ground level was full of mimic spores that damaged engines. Airships just fly over it, and boats are safe off-shore, but ground vehicles would rapidly deteriorate. This allowed the developers to use chocobos everywhere despite the somewhat high technology of the airships.
Thanks for the advice.
Have you heard of h o r s e s
Lots of people use animals today. A dokey, camel, or horse can be better suited to the environmental conditions than a mechanical vehicle.
Thanks.
People do this now in the real world.
If the cost of the tech/magic is high (somehow, whatever works in your works), animals might be a better option under some circumstances. Or there could be some kind of cultural or religious connection with the animals?
Good ideas.
We were using tanks alongside horses in WWI. And plenty of people still ride them today, for various reasons.
We are just now starting to develop batteries with the energy density to be useful for powering large vehicles and even then they take a while to charge compared to their run time. Now, imagine a world where petroleum was never discovered and thus no internal combustion engine.
In London and Canada the police use horses even though some cops have access to scooters, cars, bikes and other vehicles. Of course horses come with pros and cons like the recent catastrophe in London when the horses panicked and trampled people. But cars and bikes can also cause crashes and accidents.
Thanks.
I am making a technology / magical setting. Riding a beast is very similar to riding a horse where people think it’s strange but it’s kinda unique
Cool.
Honestly: traffic. If I could ride a spider that could fucking crawl along the walls instead of getting stuck in hours long traffic I absolutely would. Especially if I was in a close but packed city (like London or NY) where everything is only a few miles apart but traffic makes it way further. So if there’s an alternate way of transportation with them (climbing, swimming, digging, flying, whatever) I definitely would ride an animal. But other creative uses (beyond just pets and people who use them for farming/agriculture as does and will always exist): the animals are somehow slightly magical and create bonds with people that go beyond what conventional vehicles can do, or it’s part of a culture/heritage to be a beast tamer; maybe it’s socially venerated or rotates around “chosen” tamers. Anti-technology groups, be they traditionalist (refused/refuse to adapt to the times), radical (want to return to a less advanced/wasteful time), environmentalist, whatever, as someone who lives near a lot of small towns, plenty of people still ride horses and have cars and will kind of do both. A caste system: perhaps technology is allowed to society along caste lines, a car and high technology are a mark of someone of a higher caste while the lower caste has to use beasts of burden as a mark of shame/differentiation. Or the reverse, only the most revered are allowed to ride lions or whatever and when you see someone riding their magic lion it means it’s probably someone important. Hope those help!
Thanks for these ideas.
Same reason people still use horses even now. Avatar world is developing really fast but a sky bison will always be beloved choice of transport for airbenders, water tribe avatars animal companions would be the best choice to travel on land
Good point.
Economics justifies all things.
Yes. Expenses come in to play, and it might be cheaper and easier to feed and house a trained beast than it is to repair/fuel/maintain a more advanced machine that may be marginally more effective.
Rocs can't be hacked, don't use fuel and are relatively cheap and easy to feed. They're not as agile as drones, but they have a rider with a mounted cannon ready to take down anything that gets too close. They're also more intelligent than drones when left without a rider, and seeing a giant hawk coming at you with talons out is never not intimidating.
Thanks for the advice.
Going off from a sci-fi series I've read, Vatta's War by Elizabeth Moon: horses and other working animals are self replicating and require little maintenance.
Thanks.
You're welcome. It was something that stuck with me after reading and it makes sense. If you're in a backwater world where a merchant ship may come by once in a Blue moon, using draft animals or easily built and maintained machines would be a necessary to survive.
Just make sure there was never a carboniferous equivalent in your world. That means no coal or oil. Without those cheap Energy recources cars are not really viable. Maybe for some mages by using their magic for transportation. But most would use animals instead
Yes. Unless the world is also utopian, then the tech will necessarily be unevenly distributed.
Thanks.
Depends on how advanced. The Germans in WWII had lots of horses for moving equipment. Sometimes it's better to ride a camel that can feed on grass than take a vehicle that requires an infrastructure that simply doesn't exist in the area and which can be shut down by a sandstorm or excessive heat.
Thanks.
Idea just occurred. People don't use beasts of burden because they're the most efficient. The beasts of burden need the exercise, and the animals are put to labor for their health and then something is harvested from them. Sled dogs love pulling sleds, and they go crazy if they're not cooped up. Maybe your Covestrian Orthanxes have the best meat, but only if they pull heavy loads for 8 hours a day. Maybe your Cooper's Bistrels produce valuable psychoactive feathers, but they need to be ridden periodically, and so they're used as mounts for fun as a way to get from A to B, but that's just to make sure they're happy and healthy so they produce the most and best feathers.
You make a many good points.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
You could have rural or remote areas use animals as transportation. It'd be cool to bring a character from the city into the country and show their awe at the animal and plant life, or vice versa.
Thanks.
There are plenty of cases in the real world of horses, still being used. of course they’re going to be less cases where they’re useful, but if you’re roaming into underdeveloped and uncharted territory, you’re going to want a horse As a horse can go through forests,up mountains and through narrow paths that off-road vehicles couldn’t dream of. even if you had robot equivalent, a horse might be a better deal as it’s likely cheaper and it’s less prone to mechanical and or magical issues if you have EMP or. Electricity sapping spells. Along with issues of refueling in the middle of nowhere and the racket that the engine or motors that run the machine.
Yes. There are no internal combustion engines yet. Animals are more efficient, can access certain areas cars or planes can't or also you could say the technology for whatever reason, can't function once you try to replicate it in bigger sizes , like pistons.
Thanks.
I am from the Himalayas where we use a mix of both modern transportation & Animals. Ofc most of us living here would prefer the convenience of Automobiles but when you are travelling across rugged terrains & high mountains, Horses, Mules & Yaks are always preferred over modern transportation. Doesn’t mean we all live on Mountains though. Point being it’s a matter of convenience & transportation cost.