[UPDATED] Devs' Corner: May 2024

Our developers have something to tell you! Every three (3) weeks, our devs will provide you with information about their work in the “Dev’s Corner.”

This publication is a way of keeping everyone updated on what’s happening with the game. We invite you to discuss and leave your feedback for each of the publications.

Note: All posts must adhere to the forum guidelines and be constructively made.

Take a look at our very first Devs' Corner publication!

Warm wishes,

The Howrse Team
 
Ow
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deimos wrote:

I rather suspect the people who run the game and the shareholders who support it care very much about the inner workings and the efficiency of them.

Is Equidow a ghost town? Perhaps they should be the 'chosen one (two)' to lead the way and everything could be done in French. They were the first, have the longest lasting players and most history.

---
Well yeah, but I'm not talking about the shareholders....I'm talking about us players.

Of course Equidow is not one of the ghost towns and if they want to be the 'chosen one' that's fine with me. We just want answers to our game questions and fixes that are long over due.
Arabians are best
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Capella wrote:

English is an international language. All countries teach it in schools. Games that have forums have it as ONE forum even if servers are different. And it is a much better solution then discord imo.


Just because it's taught doesn't mean people still retain the language enough to use it in their day to day life. I took spanish and if someone was texting full spanish texts I wouldn't understand. Millions of people in america aren't fluent or know the bare minimum to get by.

It's not inclusive just because English one of the most used languages. Its like saying me building a park makes it inclusive for everyone because the main people who use it can freely use the park but those who use wheelchairs or have physical disabilities still struggle. They may still be able to use it but not fully or not at all. Which means it isn't inclusive.
apollonia
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Not everything have or can to be inclusive, sorry, this is just not realistic. And using one English speaking forum for all servers is the most efficient and practical way possibel. Many games do the same and it works fine.
Capella
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My top preferred option would be one forum on its own platform separate from all the other servers but created, run and controlled by Howrse. I think it would need to be in English because that is the most commonly used, taught and widely used language in the World which is why the International server uses it. Many people on here use a translator a lot. Its not ideal but it is the most practical solution.

That way we could all use our own usernames, passwords and not have to give any information to any other organisation.

It would take some resource and organisation but in my opinion would be a great way to bring us all together more.
deimos
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deimos, that is a very good idea in lieu of the fact they don't want to talk to us on the actual game that we play. I hope you have presented it to the Powers-that-Be. default smiley :)
Arabians are best
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I will do although everything in this topic is read by Admin as well although not necessarily every day. default smiley :)
deimos
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I genuinely dont know how to play this game anymore, so much of my game was based around collecting trophies. I log on now and I'm just stuck.
superauri
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superauri wrote:

I genuinely dont know how to play this game anymore, so much of my game was based around collecting trophies. I log on now and I'm just stuck.


I moved on to starting a breeding line. It's a personal project, not competitive or anything, and on the bright side I'm always in passes cause I never have anything to spend them on anymore. default smiley (8)
Crookedstar915
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superauri wrote:

I genuinely dont know how to play this game anymore, so much of my game was based around collecting trophies. I log on now and I'm just stuck.

I'm just dabbling along.
Never short of passes, because I rarely use them for GA's anymore. So basically I can now hoard the passes, giving me a higher chance to try and get a devine if I so desire. I might still fail of course, but at least I have more passes to use.
Howrse got the short end of the stick, since my pass buying days are over.

Just trotting along breeding lower ends mostly. Not really caring if I get a blup or not before I breed. Maybe I'll focus on something else eventually, who knows.
Asfridur
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superauri wrote:

I genuinely dont know how to play this game anymore, so much of my game was based around collecting trophies. I log on now and I'm just stuck.


I'm struggling with that exact issue. I'm not sure what to do- everything feels aimless and purposeless. I miss playing.
ScarletWren
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To be honest, I felt like this for such a long time, not knowing what to do when I went mostly solo as I had been with teams for so long. My walker project started as just a way to increase my grand prix ranking and allow me to keep the fountain, but it ended up becoming my main project and I take delight in watching my horses perform better over time.

It doesn't work for everyone, of course, but I personally feel that it's normal to feel burnt out after a big change to the game, be that in game change or a change you made to your play style.

For those interested, my burnout lasted for about a year, but I can now say that I am now enjoying the game and the projects I have started.
Oathkeeper
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I think part of it is that a lot of the more baked-in, competitive aspects of gameplay are barred to most players through sheer cost. I personally have no chance of being able to compete in the Prix, the general rankings, the breeder ranking, rosette collection or any of it due to the fact that I won't be able to compete against players who either have more seniority than me or resources due to buying passes. Which isn't a dig at those players - it's just the way the game is. But it does make it harder to find a goal to work at that feels fulfilling.

Collection was good for that, cause it didn't require you to compete against anyone. You could go at your own pace, earn passes and collect slowly over time if you wished or buy a million passes and get all the collections at once, it was up to you and no matter what pace you went at you'd be able to succeed the same, you weren't constantly fighting to keep ahead of players or struggling to even get the resources to contend in the first place. I guess the only one where this wasn't true was RA collection, but that was only one collection out of many.

I don't know. I do have my breeding line but it's not very good and never will be, and that's kind of a bitter thing to get around. Before I had my collections to display on my page and it felt like I'd really DONE something. Now I just have a line of mid-to-low tier horses because I don't have the resources to compete with top breeders and while it's fine for what it is, I do kind of miss the validation that came with trophies and I don't think I'll ever get it back.
Crookedstar915
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I've never bought things like aging points with passes, all of those came from working my horses daily and saving them up. default smiley (y) Caring for around 100 horses a day should get you around 20-30 aging points due to you finding more at the start, which really do add up after awhile.

This is where the burnout helped, as while I wasn't really blupping, I was still caring for a certain amount of horses every day, which found the aging points that I use without restraint now. This doesn't include aging points that divines dropped as part of their perk, these were just the points that I picked up while caring for them.

You don't need expensive items, tons of passes, top of the board horses, nor to work with other players to compete on this game, you just need to be willing to put in a bit of work and practice restraint with how you use your resources. I can safely say that I wouldn't have as much freedom with my resources and project had I have just done nothing for that year, as only taking part in the promos can only get you so far when it comes to resources.

I do agree that the top is fierce and near impossible to keep up with when you are on you own, it's part of the reason why I felt that it was so important that I found a project I really cared about and where I only compared myself with previous horses from it.
Oathkeeper
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I think the biggest issue with the trophy change was if you don't *want* to be competitive there's not much else. Completing a collection just gives you '12/12' now, which is kind of depressing. It's sad to think of all the non-competitive trophies that just don't exist anymore. Have a horse of every species, a GA in each color, a horse born every month for two years, every fifth element in unicorns, every iris coat...
Personally I wouldn't consider myself competitive or a trophy hunter so I haven't been effected much gameplay wise, I still go about my random little quests and projects, but I know 90% of players don't play how I do.
Royale
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Royale wrote:

I think the biggest issue with the trophy change was if you don't *want* to be competitive there's not much else. Completing a collection just gives you '12/12' now, which is kind of depressing. It's sad to think of all the non-competitive trophies that just don't exist anymore. Have a horse of every species, a GA in each color, a horse born every month for two years, every fifth element in unicorns, every iris coat...
Personally I wouldn't consider myself competitive or a trophy hunter so I haven't been effected much gameplay wise, I still go about my random little quests and projects, but I know 90% of players don't play how I do.


Yeah that was kind of what I was trying to say. I'm still not sure I COULD compete even if I wanted to - I'm not aware of any players at the top who aren't either buying passes currently or have bought them in the past in order to create a reserve. But I can't say it's impossible, either. Admittedly I just assumed it wasn't feasible and never tried. But I've never seen it or heard of it.

But even if I could I don't *want* to and that's the main thing. I mean, if I wanted to I would have picked a different breed. I breed Icelandics, and it doesn't matter how many resources I collect or pour in, there's no way I'm going to run the Prix or be a rosette winner or make it in the gen or breeder rankings with them. I knew that going in, so it's not like I was bamboozled into picking a failed breed or anything. I just like them. But they're also not going to help my game, I can't show them off, and there's nothing I really get out of them besides "wow I got a foal with a higher number than the last foal, yippee" and that's not BAD, but I still do miss the satisfaction of the page display and being able to show what I did, and having it count towards my game, the way we did with trophies. Now, it's all either "compete, or shut up and do independent projects."

I miss having a non-competitive thing I could work towards that ALSO benefited my game, is all.
Crookedstar915
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Thank you for sharing your messages and feedback about the latest game update!
EchOw
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censurer This message has been censored since it does not follow the forum rules.
apollonia wrote:

This message has been censored since it does not follow the forum rules.


*Hope the Howrse team takes it into consideration*

Poor EchOw is only here to be the whipping Ow and take everyone's displeasure unfortunately :/

I know you probably meant 'you' as in the Howrse team but I want to make sure others know EchOw only passes along info and isn't in charge of making changes, so people shouldn't be angry with them default smiley (y)
jsniper
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Yeah, EchOw isn't part of the game development at all and has no say in what gets put through and what doesn't. Ultimately it'd be up to the execs, who I'm pretty sure no one has contact with. Not us, not the admins. Maybe the devs but I'm not even sure they do.
Crookedstar915
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I don't like how horrible it is to try and see what you have now that the trophies are gone. I've been breeding (Iris) Lusitanos the last week or so and wanted to check how I was doing coat-wise. Obviously I can't just glance through since I don't know all of the coats and half of them have Iris Scarve's on top of them, so I thought "let me just pop over to my profile page and see what I have/need." A shame that feature is now so gone. And then I wanted to see how I was doing Iris-wise. There's not even a spot in collections to see how I am doing with them, so I have to do it the old-fashioned... no, the new-fashioned, slower, less convenient way, by going through the breeding farm and checking it against the Iris BMI page.
Veren
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Veren wrote:

I don't like how horrible it is to try and see what you have now that the trophies are gone. I've been breeding (Iris) Lusitanos the last week or so and wanted to check how I was doing coat-wise. Obviously I can't just glance through since I don't know all of the coats and half of them have Iris Scarve's on top of them, so I thought "let me just pop over to my profile page and see what I have/need." A shame that feature is now so gone. And then I wanted to see how I was doing Iris-wise. There's not even a spot in collections to see how I am doing with them, so I have to do it the old-fashioned... no, the new-fashioned, slower, less convenient way, by going through the breeding farm and checking it against the Iris BMI page.


Yep! Very close to getting all the GSH coats and now I have to go to the trophy page, click the "coats by breed" box, scroll twenty million miles to the BOTTOM of the page cause they listed all 50-whatever breeds in a big long list and just stick new ones at the bottom, scroll twenty million miles back UP, and THEN click the 'little show what I don't have' button.

Whereas before, I went to the trophy page, clicked the dropdown box on the horse trophy icon, and there it was.

The new page is an abysmal downgrade in every sense of the word and a HUGE nuisance to use.
Crookedstar915
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Veren and Crookedstar915,

I know. I absolutely hate, for so MANY reasons, what they did to the trophies! default smiley (n)default smiley (n)
Arabians are best
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Check out this month's brand-new features in the new Dev’s Corner!

Best Regards,
The Howrse Team
EchOw
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Don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but since I /never/ use the mobile version I just can't find the enthusiasm to care about the updates on that, and wish they would fix the issues on the PC version instead... like the advertisements not working. default smiley (d)
GhostlyHaunts
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*a good chunk of howrse players* "We'd REALLY like our trophies back"

*howrse devs* "Look! we changed the color of a button!"
MatchaBlossom
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