I might miss a few days of horseshoes just so I don't have one of those ugly things stuck in my breeding farm. Unlike White Chocolate, who I made an actual effort to get via all my inventory TCs and exchanges, I'm not spending anything to try and get both a Jenny and Zebra

I've been avoiding the spoilers so I'm a bit behind, but I wanted to give my opinion on some of the new stuff.

1. I really hope that the graphics for the Zonkeymily aren't done, because those are rough. There's practically zero shading and highlighting, and the colors... Not to mention the graphics match nothing that's in the game. They look somewhat similar to the Parade Apple coats, but way too cartoony and unfinished. Yikes... 0/10
2. The Phanes Egg is a terrible idea. Breeders were under the impression that donkey and draft unis could only be bred 3 times, so allowing those unis to breed again can really screw up the GP race. I know I've bought no cover unis to use for RCs that were way above the market GP rates, that weren't gelded. I have no interest in entering any GP race, but that could give me an unfair advantage by using someone else's hard work to advance my own unis. 0/10
3. Oh look! Another paid premium prizes event! :|


I am just gobsmacked by the Zonkeymily divines. I hope that idea is scrapped and started fresh. Also, I hope it isn't an indicator for the graphics for Howrse in the future. I will nope right out of here if it is.

Yes, the Phanes egg could be a problem to the GP race IF and I repeat IF they hadn't given us ample warning. This item will be released in more than 30 days and they warned us YESTERDAY with a private message sent to everyone telling us to adjust our sales accordingly.
The GP race is fast, and a month is a lot of time to adjust and retire sales and or trace another line in the sand for GP release.

It could have been a disaster, yes, but they have given us THIRTY days to adjust.

Isn't the shark chimera a (premium) price in the upcoming Pinata event?

Since the post I made yesterday, I’ve seen some images from a discord server that unfortunately seem to indicate that, as of now, there is no system in place to prevent absolutely hideous zebra or Jenny color combinations. I’m sure zonkeys will be just as horrible.

I don’t think they’re going to try and reduce some of the randomness in favor of more appealing visuals when it comes to colors since said randomness is supposed to be the way an ‘unlimited’ number of unique divines in this series happens. Given that fact, this solidified my decision not to take part in this newest series to the best of my ability.

It feels a lot like they are just throwing things out just to throw new things out, not really with much thought or care. I'm really not trying to be rude, but what kind of purpose does this new series serve? People have been asking for actual zebras for years, but this was what they came up with?

It probably wouldn't be as bad if the art was up to the usual quality, but the art leaves a lot to be desired, to the point it ruins the excitement that this feature could bring. I understand it is probably like this due to the variants, but almost all art programs with layers allow you to lock the layer, which basically lets you color in only the places already drawn onto the layer, so designing the colors shouldn't be too tricky. I'm not going to pretend to know how tricky coding is, but as someone that has drawn for over 10 years now, I can't just ignore how big of a downgrade the art is.

It probably doesn't help that the majority of the divines as of late have been really subpar, yet still carry the same price tag of 2000 to 3000 passes. I like that the developers are trying new things, but it feels like some of these new things aren't going through a proper quality check. Even if it meant showing us things months in advance, they should start showing us things and taking feedback, making changes based on what the players are saying and agreeing on.

For example, the offspring of this new series, based on the theme of different colors, could offer something like a random Iris' color item once a month, like how certain divines give a certain element.

I completely agree with you on everything, but especially this part. I'm a staff member on a virtual pet website and the art quality for the species in that game is, I'd say, pretty on par with Howrse's normal standard for equines. It's far from cartoonish and, given the nature of the pets on that game, I'd say it's pretty close to as realistic as they can get it without slapping an actual photo of an animal online.

I say all of this to include the fact that colors on that game are chosen or determined through hex codes, and users can use *any* hex code that exists. What this means is that there are practically an unlimited amount of colors that can be used, and this has no effect on the quality of the base images because, as you said, certain layers lock so that the integrity of the shadowing is kept intact.

I cannot wrap my head around how and why Howrse either didn't or can't do this. They seem to do the same thing, or something similar, with the different coat colors that exist for each breed base on the game. At the very least, even if those colors are all done by hand, it doesn't change the fact that the shading/highlights/etc. seem to be pretty consistent across coat colors for each breed (i.e. they likely don't change that layer for each breed coat variant, only the base color). Now I could be wrong and maybe the highlighting is done individually as well, but I've *seen* other sites use a consistent highlight/shadow/detail layer regardless of the base color underneath, so it's doable.

Would it really be that difficult to use the same mechanism they use for their breed coat variations, except with a coded program (or however they've made it possible for the colors to randomize) so that the color only changes below the shadow/details layer?

Well, design aside... Who came up with a zebra-donkey mix? I would understand mules, but this is just ridiculous.

Well, design aside... Who came up with a zebra-donkey mix? I would understand mules, but this is just ridiculous.

Zonkeys do exist in life.

those zonkeys can never be more than yet another digital creation pixel line.
Unless the GP will be as high as the released “foundation” horses, and we will be able to create teams with them.
Then maybe some groups will pick them up, and start breeding competetively.

Honestly not a fan, and not at all liking how barbie rainbow colored this idea is

Won’t even mention how I like the new bm idea giving us options to get more covers out of donkeys and drafts… advanced warning to us or not.

Oh, okay, they are cute too! I have never heard of them/seen them but they kind of remind me of okapi. I still think it's weird that we got zonkeys first and not the mules. Thank you for teaching me something new though, I should have done some research first

never mind their a divine series
so no team creating there

@The Fifth Queen
I'd be at least a little interested if the divines were natural colors rather than any color under the sun. Something similar to Diamond Apples, there's some gorgeous designs out there.


@Nalu93
That's true, I just think I would be frustrated if I was in either the donkey or draft uni GP race. I hope no one has issues with it, I know I won't be throwing my hat into GP racing any time soon

Celtic divine, Goibniu.

My Goibniu cycles through to drop the P.Stone every 85ish days.

wild then :3

Dülmen Pony, one of the wilds.

Honestly, I'm just thankful they made the Zonkeys a divine series and not customization coats. Means I don't have to worry at all about collecting them.

I don't know how making graphics and digital art works, but in regards to the lack of shading and such, I imagine because of the amount of variety on the possible patterns and colours you can get, they don't have it in their means to apply proper shading and such in a cohesive way that would work with all the patterns and colours. But that's just a guess. That or they just didn't bother because of the amount of scope. I mean, the slight highlights they do have look super wonky on top of certain colours and patterns already. They just really missed the mark and I think were a little too ambitious. They could have made the base design super nice, and then focused on making a certain amount of patterns to play with. They could have even added more in the future. I've seen some people on Discord say that they look like NFTs, and, well, yeah...

Not super pleased with the premium key prizes either. In my opinion, most of the good prizes you don't have to pay for. They could have at least put a few three star items on the other side, like a P. Stone, or MA. I mean, I know everyone likes Hestia, but I'm not about to pay 600p for an item I don't actually need. They even put the male donkey uni on the premium side lol. My guess is they're trying to cater a little more towards the people who complain about the paywall by making the prizes a little bit more even. Which, you know, is fine. I just would have liked to see more stuff on the premium side if I'm paying 600p for it.

Maybe if they'd had this event a little later instead of two premium keys back to back I would be more okay with the prizes. On the bright side, they added the harmony pack back lol.

It's definitely possible to establish a changeable base layer without affecting an upper layer of shading/markings/etc. The site I mentioned previously has ~200 different markings to work with on 12 different species. The colors for each marking (and for the base, which is entirely separate) are chosen via hex codes, which offers virtually an unlimited amount of possibilities. In addition, individual pets on the site can have an unlimited number of markings. There are an infinite number of unique pets that can be made on that site, and its team is astronomically smaller than Ubisoft and likely even Howrse.

Given the usual quality of Howrse's graphics, I can't understand why they'd be unable to do something like what I described above. I have to assume it's for a lack of trying.

Goibniu is one of only two Celtics i need to complete the set...shoot. I was hoping for a cheap weekend. I might try a few times, but if luck isn't in my corner, i'll probably just get a few fragments and call it good, and hope for better luck the next time he's released. I really don't want to break the bank over him. Since he offers a P. Stone i imagine the fragment rate won't be very good. Besides, the other Celtic i need is Epona, and she hasn't shown her face in a very long time, so its unlikely i'll be completing this collection any time soon.