[FT] Spoiler Zone!
Hello, This topic is made to receive any of the spoilers concerning new features you find or feel like sharing. Players that are in the test may decide to share what they are experiencing or not. Of course please remember to use the spoiler banner when sharing new information with everyone. To make the Spoiler Banner: [spoiler*] the text you want to hide [/*spoiler] Make sure you are removing the asterisks (*) before posting. You can post screen shots as long as you also use the spoiler banner to cover them. On this topic, you may talk about what isn’t on the game yet. Warning: We do not guarantee that any of the info that is posted in here is true or accurate. Nor that the features will be launched on the game. Please remain polite with each other; no one has the prerogative of spoiling or a patent on the rumours and spoilers that are on the game. Thank you for your collaboration and understanding. Regards Ow |
Thanks ZOwey for the fast update
 <font color="#b402cf">I have collected the ideas in this topic (looking at you GeneralLee and ~Echo~) and I have shared them directly with Ow. It may take a few days for this to be resolved. We're heading into a weekend and it's likely that whatever we do won't happen until early next week. That's not ideal, but this isn't a simple issue anymore and so we need to make sure we don't make things worse! FYI, I've come close to censoring a few posts in this topic in the last few days, but I haven't because I don't want players to feel like we don't want to hear their criticism. Again, I ask you to consider if what you're saying to staff would earn you a sanction if you said it to a player. Feel free to complain about the changes all you want. But please don't complain about the people who make this game. Those are the comments that are generally rude. If you're telling us that we're bad at our jobs, etc, then you have made it personal when it doesn't need to be. I know people are upset but we<i> can</i> discuss this calmly and politely, I believe. </font> I think that hearing from the team that their actual goal is not reducing the number of AP is quite comforting. As long as the problem will be resolved soon and, again, the number of AP stays the same as it was before, I am pretty sure we all wouldn't mind if the team changes the AP distribution Lastly, thank you for passing on our ideas and feedbacks, I just hope that they will be taken in consideration |
By Retired breeder, 23rd May 2019 18:12:53
I appreciate you getting back to us, and I do apologize if my posts came across as rude or out of order, it was honestly just caused by a bit of anxiety that yet another big change had been done behind our backs, but I will take more time to wait and see in the future when it comes to this.
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By Retired breeder, 23rd May 2019 21:05:37
Thanks so much ZOwey for looking into this, it's really appreciated and hopefully can all be fixed soon!
It is also comforting to see ideas and feedback are being taken into account! |
May I just point out one thing that always drives me nuts about these ranting sessions? People are saying that Howrse is dying because of all the changes being made. But that statement has been floating around since before Ubisoft took over. People have been saying it for years and it never happens. Right now, the Directories page states that there are over 130k players on this server with 280 connected at the moment. Howrse is not dying. The server's activity level has stayed fairly stable since I was a noob. Can everyone please stop spreading fake news? We get enough of that in the tabloids. Older comment, but I just wanted to add what I've experienced since joining. Howrse used to be booming- horse sales were incredible, there was never a shortage of competitions or studs, we could be and resell for a profit with passes, etc. Nowadays, that doesn't happen. There is a website called archive.org that takes screenshots of a website throughout its lifespan. If you compare the statistics shown on their pages, you'll see a considerable difference between online player count today, and, say 2011 and 2012, two of the years I'm looking at. A random date in 2011 has 3716 online users, and 2012 had 4829 players, with a total player in 5 millions and 7 millions, respectively. 2013 has nearly 10 million registered players, but with less than 3,000 online on several dates throughout the year. In 2015 many dates show less than 2k players, even less than 1k players throughout most of the year, and at the beginning of 2016 they stopped displaying that information. Quite a substantial difference compared to the less than 400 or so I see normally (245 at the moment). So, in terms of active players, not in registered accounts, player activity has dropped. It shows, most painfully, in horse studs and sales- Retired Coats that I used to be able to sell for a fair price are going for dirt cheap, because 1) there's few collectors, 2) the collectors already have the coat, and/or 3) they know there's not a competitive market for coats anymore, so prices will continue to drop. And now, I can't find studs for draft horses or donkeys. Period. I have to use my own studs. Whilst I understand that it may be tiring to see all the talk of Howrse dying, it is also fair to say that the numbers show that to be true. Do I want it to be? No, I grew up on this game! I used to love it! But not anymore. Even if Howrse did get a huge popularity boost from Ubisoft, it's clear the game is no longer going in that direction, and I would prefer players, especially new ones, to take these things with a grain of salt.
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<font color="#b402cf">Hello again, I've been able to catch up with the comments I've missed. First, what was communicated to us was that it was just a change in how the AP were received, not a change in the amount of AP received. That's why I said 'roughly' because if there was an intended decrease it was likely supposed to be very small (or it would have been mentioned to us). Clearly, that's not what happened. The team has asked admin from all versions to provide numbers from individual players showing how many AP they received before the change and then after the change. We compared those numbers to the number of horses woke that day to make sure we were comparing apples to apples. So far what we are seeing is a drop in AP gained per day on most days since the change. We admin have submitted this information to the team and now we're awaiting further instructions. I can only imagine that they wanted those numbers because they wanted to see if they matched up to what they predicted. I know this will SHOCK all of you, but sometimes we have bugs! Sometimes our coding does not work exactly like we expect. Why didn't we test this change, you ask? Well, there are actually lots of little changes (I know, I know, this one turned out NOT to be little) that go into updates that our player testers don't test. We do have an internal QA department that handles a lot of the smaller changes that don't require a large amount of testing. You could definitely make the argument that this one should have been tested more and I can't argue with that. Many of you have asked why we made this change and I have said that it was because we don't want people to feel like they have to care for 1000 horses a day to compete with those who do. If you want to spend a lot of time caring for all 1000 then you do get a benefit, it's just smaller than it would be if the odds were the same for all 1000 horses start to finish. I'm pretty sure THAT was the intention. Additionally, we do think that large amounts of repetitive tasks cause people to try and cheat by using automation. We have made many changes that discourage that sort of behavior, so I would bet (though I haven't been told specifically) that this probably does have something to do with it. If the benefit is mostly in the first several hundred horses, then the benefits of cheating do not outweigh the risk. That's good for all players. I'm sure those that do try to use automation do so because they don't like to sit and press a button over and over and over! I will share any new info I get. </font> If it’s to stop people using automation programs then ban the people who do rather than letting everyone else take the hit? |
If it’s to stop people using automation programs then ban the people who do rather than letting everyone else take the hit? I dont think its that easy to be able to point out who is and isn't cheating, especially from an admins or game developers perspective. (take my word with a grain of salt, im no admin and certaintly no game developer) Just because you think somebody is "clearly cheating" does not mean that they are. They are doing things to try and limit cheating, and I do agree that some of those things punish the majority more than they punish the ones doing the cheating though. I dont believe there will ever be a game with absolutely 0 cheating though. *shrug* |
Now that we have finished bickering I will ask again...
 Anyone got the prize list for the lottery?
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Here you go ChesterPony
New info for our current test session Click to display the Lottery has started and here are the prizes and info to get tickets, which hasn't changed much I tested buying Pegasus/VIP, and you do *not* get tickets when purchasing either of these like we have in the past. Hopefully this could change when this goes live, but we'll have to wait and see.  For those who are new to the Lottery, you can win both clovers and the prizes shown here from your tickets. You can use the clovers to buy those items from the clover shop. Basically, the items won from tickets, and items you can buy with clovers are the same. The clovers just allows you the chance to buy these items in case you get unlucky and don't win them from your tickets  
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Thanks Rogan.
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Is this where RC coats are usually leaked from another server before they're available on this one?
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Older comment, but I just wanted to add what I've experienced since joining. Howrse used to be booming- horse sales were incredible, there was never a shortage of competitions or studs, we could be and resell for a profit with passes, etc. I wanted to add my personal anecdote: When I first started in 2007, I bought a green star strawberry roan Arabian unicorn (very rare at the time) for 10 old passes (1000 new) and I believe I sold it for as much. I've had a unicorn with the rarest coat in the game in the direct sales for a few weeks now and it's not selling for 1 old pass (100 new). I understand the economy (monetary and skill/GP based) will change over time but that's crazy. (This was not meant to be advertising - I'm sorry if my wording is not allowed. Mod please remove if you find it in violation of forum rules.) As for species with limited/restricted coverings: I think we need the option to charge more than 7,500e for a covering. The prices of coverings has never changed much since I've been here. If you can buy a donkey with no used covers in the sales for 100k, you're losing money to offer public covers for 7500e. That's why no one is doing it. Having the "cover a draft mare/donkey" as the Daily Objectives has driven up the price of those species which makes them more expensive/not as worth it to acquire. I understand Howrse doesn't want everyone to earn their Daily Objectives passes every day but it's a little ridiculous to not adjust things related to the economy when the economy itself adjusts. It took 11 years to raise the max direct sale prices. But it's totally fine to quietly release an AP update that affects half the players. 
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Time for us all to remember that this is the Spoiler Zone and a place to discuss things not yet on the live system.
ZOwey is dealing with the current issues and if she needs any more help with them she will tell us. This is not the place to compare what things were like 10 years ago. This is a different world in every way, in real life and virtual ones. Neither is it the place to put forward ideas, there is no forum for that but if you wish to give feedback then Contact us is the place to go. Right, that's all from me but please now take the topic back to where it is intended. Thank you.
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By Retired breeder, 26th May 2019 02:59:38
Are all the season divines going to be released in the private sales?
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Are all the season divines going to be released in the private sales?
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<font color="#b402cf">Hello again, I've been able to catch up with the comments I've missed. First, what was communicated to us was that it was just a change in how the AP were received, not a change in the amount of AP received. That's why I said 'roughly' because if there was an intended decrease it was likely supposed to be very small (or it would have been mentioned to us). Clearly, that's not what happened. The team has asked admin from all versions to provide numbers from individual players showing how many AP they received before the change and then after the change. We compared those numbers to the number of horses woke that day to make sure we were comparing apples to apples. So far what we are seeing is a drop in AP gained per day on most days since the change. We admin have submitted this information to the team and now we're awaiting further instructions. I can only imagine that they wanted those numbers because they wanted to see if they matched up to what they predicted. I know this will SHOCK all of you, but sometimes we have bugs! Sometimes our coding does not work exactly like we expect. Why didn't we test this change, you ask? Well, there are actually lots of little changes (I know, I know, this one turned out NOT to be little) that go into updates that our player testers don't test. We do have an internal QA department that handles a lot of the smaller changes that don't require a large amount of testing. You could definitely make the argument that this one should have been tested more and I can't argue with that. Many of you have asked why we made this change and I have said that it was because we don't want people to feel like they have to care for 1000 horses a day to compete with those who do. If you want to spend a lot of time caring for all 1000 then you do get a benefit, it's just smaller than it would be if the odds were the same for all 1000 horses start to finish. I'm pretty sure THAT was the intention. Additionally, we do think that large amounts of repetitive tasks cause people to try and cheat by using automation. We have made many changes that discourage that sort of behavior, so I would bet (though I haven't been told specifically) that this probably does have something to do with it. If the benefit is mostly in the first several hundred horses, then the benefits of cheating do not outweigh the risk. That's good for all players. I'm sure those that do try to use automation do so because they don't like to sit and press a button over and over and over! I will share any new info I get. </font> Any news? |
Do we know what event is coming after the Lottery?
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New Background form Ow's Helios' Ray:
Click to display 
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Do we know what event is coming after the Lottery? Click to display Japanese cards supposedly, not sure what's after that though?
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Found some images on the French version, thought I would share.
Click to display  
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I know we never know which horses will be in the luck items, but can someone point me to the post that may have listed the order? I'm hoping they re-release the windies.
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Click to display Click to display Those tails are a bit freaky! Made me think of Danish pastries (yum) but i'm guessing some sort of almond based cake/desert? I assume the wolf is a new chimera.
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Does anyone know if we can expect to see specialty coat BM items (bewitched pumpkin, magic hat, etc.) come around again in promos or for sale? Starting a collection and trying to decide if I should save money for giving coats to my own horses or start buying them from the sales...
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Found some images on the French version, thought I would share. Click to display Ooooh, I LOVE that first one.
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Does anyone know if we can expect to see specialty coat BM items (bewitched pumpkin, magic hat, etc.) come around again in promos or for sale? Click to display Catrina's Brooch will be a prize in the promo after the cards, The French Hike
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Have the testing spots become available for this session yet? Not sure if they ran out already or not.
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