I do have screenshot proof from a time when voting and two similar ones were in the same round!

It depends on a couple of things. If they were identical other than something small like one had wings one didn't, or one had X color scheme and the other had Y color scheme than that is allowed (assuming they are the same creator) Coats like this are called twin coats.
For example these coats are very similar but have been in the CS for a long time.




There are also cases of the same lineart being used by several different players. This is also allowed as long as they are only using the same lineart and not copying another coat that already exists. For example same lineart different ideas and artists:

If the coat really is intentional with no differences to another coat in voting than that is NOT allowed and you can report it while it's still in the creation space. We had a group of coats pulled a while back because they were all identical, they were under different species but that didn't matter since there was nothing to differentiate them.

Hayila, I think you're correct about at least two coats - when I look at all the new creations from this month, and narrow it down to just "Riding Horse," the creations "Souky" and "Spix" look the same to me. They are showing on different pages, so there may be subtle differences, but they look the same in both line art and color.

From the all new creations page, I can't select any individual coat - would the correct way to bring official attention to it be to just vote until one of those coats pops up as an option, and report from there? What's the correct way to handle something like this?

The artist can make different species coats. I regret selling arabian magic a limited use riding unicorn coat but going wild by brimmerd? Is a unlimited riding horse coat. They are exactly the same except for the horn.

I found the coat you are talking about and brought their photos up next to each other, they are identical. If you're on classic view when you go to view all the creations there is a link at the top right of each illustration that says 'report abuse'. I'm not sure where it is on mobile, but you may have to wait until it comes up in voting again. I went ahead and reported it as well but it might be good if multiple players report it.

Other things to add--the guidelines for submission say that backgrounds need somewhere for the horse to place their feet on, and landscapes that don't have this, and just have a horse floating in the middle of the image still end up making it to voting.

Also being able to view all of the submissions *is* nice but it would be even better if you could view all of them on one page, or have like five times the amount of shown per page. Rather than have 53 pages of submissions to click through.

Anything in the right format can make it to voting. They're checked after the voting phase. Maybe it's less effort and they focus on the reported drawings. (Years ago, they checked submissions first and after that the voting phase started.)
Also, this guideline was introduced when the Helios Ray just made it into the game. If I remember correctly, there was not even a button to lower the boxes on the horses page, and there was no option to move the horse.
Now you can move the horse and there are several winged horses out there which don't actually need the floor just below their feet. Even some normal horses might just be floating between galaxies. I guess that's why they're not that hard about backgrounds with your horse floating.
Of course it's still up to you whether you want to not vote them or maybe even report them because technically they don't follow the Black Pearls rules.

"Years ago, they checked submissions first and after that the voting phase started.)" - this makes so much sense around why (over the last few years) I feel that the submissions on the voting page have decreased in quality - there's floating horses, some of the horses look more like a blob than a horse.

I wish Howrse would switch back to checking submissions first pre-voting, otherwise it's a waste of our time and votes if a submission isn't even guaranteed to make it to the end.

I personally save the names of creations I really like, and once voting is over/when I want to put a Golden Apple/Helios Ray on my horse I try to search up the creation I liked. Of course it may have not made it through voting, but if it wasn't an approved creation to begin with I would be a bit more disappointed that I went to the effort of trying to track it down.

I suppose you're right though c(=Mieez - that it would take a lot less effort to check if it's being manually done by someone.

Does anyone know when you're refunded passes from the Black Pearl if your submission didn't make it past voting?

Thanks in advance!

Some time on the 25th of the month. So, about 1 day before they are available for everyone. (This month it's been 21h before the others were available, when I got my passes back.)


And we see horses with a white background because someone didn't manage to make it a png maybe, some months ago I've seen backgrounds with the horse graphic still in the middle, and so on.

While now they can re-act if someone reports some coats. Actually I've seen them remove several coats during the voting phase so I had a different number of votes on different servers (1 left on the last day on one, 4 on the other ...)

Does anyone have some info on how I can merge my image with the GA template?
I'm using Krita - but every time I have the template, and I try and upload the image of my Horse drawing, it just comes up as white. Can't figure it out!

TIA

no matter what i do, it says my golden apple coat does not meet the "compulsory" format, even though i am matching the format. can someone help?

I’ve tried everything to get my Helios Ray submission to work, but it keeps telling me it doesn’t meet the compulsory format, despite using their template. I’ve checked forums and sized my landscape to exactly 2006 x 840 pixels. When I add it to a layer on top of the format, it’s perfectly centered over the transparent area. I’ve tried deleting the format layer, other times simply turning it off. I’ve tried turning off the background layer as well. I’ve JPEGs and PNGs. Nothing works.

What am I missing?

2106x940 is mine (including the canvas) - typos?

The canvas is part of your submission. Delete the white area but keep the outer frame including the black bars there (and anything outside them). If you use some automatic deleting of the white area, be sure the frame isn't damaged. If it's too transparent you could just duplicate the layer with the frame.

the helios ray format is jpg

Idk who submitted this illustration but, as a huge BMW lover, this HAS TO get through.
Good luck to everybody!

Mieez: Thanks! I'll try again in a month, and see if any of that works.

Meant to say that 2006 x 840 was for my landscape itself. The frame (the original file size) is 2106 x 940, taken directly from Howrse. I've tried submitting it with the frame still there, but that didn't work either. Is there a difference between JPEG and JPG? I'm using Procreate on my iPad, cause that's where I painted the landscape, but it doesn't have the option to save as a JPG. Closest is JPEG. Should I try transferring the file to a regular computer and reformatting it to JPG?

aah, okay, I didn't measure my creation. I only checked the file size of my submission ^^

I'd have to see and try that when the black pearl is available. Usually I wouldn't expect it to be a problem.

I'm sure that you have to submit the creation with the frame still there though.

Maybe it just is the damaged frame. So I'd check that first before trying a different format (which should be pretty much the same)
(spoiler: story time about why I think so ^^ ) That's why I'd suggest duplicating the frame layer from howrse though - that's what worked for me. After doing so, the pixels were dark enough for the system to accept my creation.


You're welcome, I hope it does!

I've seen a ton of coats in this round of voting that are just already-existing coats with wings or horns pasted on them, or the colour scheme changed. Is that allowed, or should I be reporting those?

I copied the following from the FAQ on discord.
Answer by the "Howrse" account to the question "I want to send the same design several times but in different colours, is that okay? "

(About the "submitting year after year" thing: I've seen creations pass after years of submissions though.)

So, short form: not strictly forbidden but not recommended either.

Sometimes I've seen apparently several people using the same lineart (I saw a horse in the same pose coloured with different styles). That would cause problems if the same pose was already forbidden. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the "submitting this coat with a horn again because it already passed without one" either. =/

What about adding other animals in the Golden apple coats? I thought that was a rule. Were there wasn't allowed any animals in the creation and yet I've seen this rule slip throughout the years. Any reason why? I honestly don't get it. A traditional golden apple coat shouldn't have any animals in that coat point, blank, period. But maybe howrse got too lax with it.

It is allowed now and even encouraged. I think there was a contest particularly to encourage us artists to add more of those kinds into the game! (specifically for foxes) Just like draft horses now before they made them into a breed. However, the rule still goes, the horse has to be the main focus, not the animal.

Probably applies to very low-quality work whose artist didn't make any effort to try and polish it in any way since the last month. I'm sure the Howrse team would want to see high-quality work go through, though! Some creations just need a few tries to go through, and I'm sure voters want to see a work they liked from last month go through, too! (Idk if a creation needs a certain number of votes or if there's a quota for each type of creation to be filled, but either way, it's fine to try again!) Also, I doubt they would store rejected work on the server for so long, and people's memories are terrible, so I think periodically submitting a creation while taking breaks of a few submission cycles in between won't trigger any reports, either. As long as it's high-quality, of course.

As for the variations, I really want more cutesy-wutesy coats for riding horses and dashing-looking coats for ponies, so I wouldn't be annoyed if a coat was there for both riding horse and pony. I still think they should look slightly different, because that would be boring to have the exact same thing and it would annoy rare RC collectors.

I have a question: Is it okay to post your creation elsewhere (outside of Howrse) after it's released while still mentioning or linking to it on Howrse? Or is it copyright of Howrse after it's been accepted? I know you can't do it before it gets through otherwise that'll trigger the plagiarism alarm, but what about afterwards? Thanks for any answers!

Hopefully someone can help me on this!

I'm trying to upload creations using the same method I usually do, but for some reason I get a messaging saying im not using the correct format etc.

Does anyone know why? I'm using Krita, and all my other submissions went through fine. I can't figure it out!

Are you using the template for your art?

It's possible you could be a few pixels over the template, since it won't work if you have too few or too many. The dementions have to be completely exact.