[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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They don't care about players not having anything to do. They just want players to buy the Divines, Specials, etc. that they are throwing onto the Trophy page. It just comes down to wanting more passes bought.

I only buy the Xmas pack, no passes during the year but at this point, I'm done putting any kind of money back into the game. I'm so frustrated.
Arabians are best
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The thing that is starting to irritate me about this new trophy business aside from the obvious, is that we can't necessarily pick and choose the trophies we wish to work on like the old page.
We've been saddled with "this is what you have to do to earn a medal" and some as other players pointed out, these objective bars will sit there not progressing until the event they are tied to rolls around again. Not to say you can't pick and choose which objective you take on because you can to a certain extent however there's no flexibility at least that's how I see it. I was working on coat and special coat trophies before this whole change went down and was quite content selecting which trophy I would aim for next once I'd completed one and now I've got parameters defining what I have to aim for. It feels like I've been shoved into a chute with no choice but to do these objectives or watch my rank slip into oblivion default smiley (m)

I do think its made it the difficulty go up for new players because sometimes we won't see the things that are tied to these so called trophies for months. How are they supposed to do well?
Yes the divines and all that jazz were part of the old trophies but for other players that weren't that successful at collecting divines they could still secure a solid trophy ranking with coats, special coats, companions etc.

I just hope that the thigs to be added at later dates will be more thought out or the things we have brought up as not working to well can be looked into. I know that that's undoubtedly not going to happen but one can only wish.

An additional note, if they've got the time for designing new divines and pets (honestly its a thing of nightmares to me, no offense to the artist behind it, its just not my cup of tea), surely new graphics for incoming coat breeds could be created. I think a large majority of us are tired of seeing the same model graphic used for multiple breeds. Breeds of which hold little resemblance to each other, yes some breeds can resemble each other but there are still noticeable characteristics that define them. I know I'm talking t a brick wall but you know the brick wall might be lisitening default smiley xd
ryanchi
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double post but a an edit button would be lovely as I was typing way to fast for my brain to comprehend I'd absolutely butchered the word listening default smiley (8)
ryanchi
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Does anyone know if they changed how many horses you can do lessons with before you stop earning eq? I thought it was after you look after 1000 but apparently it’s a lot less now.
Ruffian
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It's still 1000, but aging horses that don't have a m arms will count as multiple towards the daily amount
Oathkeeper
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We have the same fragment rate for the pet horse as Arthur? Respectfully, that's ridiculous, they are redone wilds/chimeras, they aren't worth thousands of passes, even with a trophy being added for them. I am struggling to justify going for this one, it's going to be like a 2000 pass loss and a good chunk of the possible prizes if I don't get lucky.
Oathkeeper
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Still haven't taken care of any horses since the overhaul. And all the updates are addressing absolutely nothing. So yeah, no motivation until they change the approach
MsAnirine
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feels like they have purposefully nerfed pass divine drops too, which would track if they're trying to push pass buying on older users imo. my amethyst legitimately has not dropped passes once since *January 12th* and I have not missed a day of working it. :l
answrs
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My guess is that they're losing money due to the new trophy system and are getting desperate but I don't see how putting out a "new" Divine that's basically just an ugly skin slapped over an old series and pricing it at 3 to 4 times the ALREADY exorbitant cost is going to encourage people. default smiley (o)
Crookedstar915
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Oof, looking closer, Pet horses not only have their breed but they also have a thing no other horse has called "family" (in this case, dogs) which implies they're not going to do just ONE dog, or cat, or what have you, but... a whole BUNCH of each.

Hard to say how many they intend but yeesh, looks like they went all in on this.

I wonder if they'll even release the full series if this one flops.
Crookedstar915
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I said this before in the event thread but at the thought of an entire series of these things I'll say it again:
I legitimately think they could have just slapped some stitches on it, labeled it the frankenseries, called it a day, and it would likely have had a much better response than the visceral recoil of Nope™ response it's been instilling in everyone that sees it.

chimeras for all I disliked them at least had the excuse of 'well chimeras are monsters so they can be a little creepy looking' but 'uwu cutesy pet series'? definitely does NOT get the same grace.
answrs
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This is why I picked out divines that have a fixed drop rate, like Sapphire and Ruby, you can't just change their drop rate, it will always be 10 every 2 days from Sapphire and 50 every 12 days from Ruby, same with how each rainbow will give 10 passes every week.

I know that Howrse is a business and relies on people buying passes and packs to pay the bills, but expecting people to fork out £50-100 almost every week is not the way to get people interested in spending. In fact, it discourages spending, people see the amount it will cost and shy away. With how expensive everything is nowadays, money is very tight for many people, which means a lot less to spend on stuff like games.

I can personally spare £10 most weeks for this game, but the majority of weekend offers are outside that price range, so I usually take that money elsewhere. Yes, £10 is a small amount, but people would likely be a lot more likely to spend real money if they know that £10 can actually get them something of value or at least very close to it. To make it clear as well, I'm not expecting divines like Balios and Jade for that amount, but divines like the pastries, love, and prehistoric would fit nicely into that price range.
Oathkeeper
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I have 30 wilds I haven’t tamed yet….message me if I’m on I’ll send requests. I think I have at least that many other ones too pending.
Ruffian
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Oathkeeper wrote:

I can personally spare £10 most weeks for this game,


I'm around the same! But this new price tag for divines is freezing me out of spending for passes... I will now only buy them if we have a weekend offer or if Howrse offer me a divine pack - I got 1000 passes and Nutcracker for £15 a few days ago which was awesome!

But these new divines and their prices are just too much! Plus, a lot of players here are still kids! The prices need to be far more realistic - especially as Howrse have now made them integral to the game instead of pretty ad ons! (which in itself is a terrible decision) At the moment, players are quickly working out they cant afford anything, leading to less passes being bought! We aren't stupid...

Howrse is becoming less and less about actually breeding and caring for horses, and more about buying things to access new 'levels'. There is no strategy or game play needed.

It just makes me sad default smiley :(
Bell_z
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censurer This message has been censored since it does not follow the forum rules.
To add to my other comment, I appreciate EchOw trying to help and respond, but it's totally evil that everyone else at Howrse has allowed EchOw to bear the brunt of this conversation especially since they clearly can't do anything to change the game. Get some real Customer Service Reps in here and make some actual changes. It cannot possibly be as difficult as you're all acting like it is. Long Live EchOw!
Mikunotcheating
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I have said before in this topic, you are not allowed to be rude to or about any of Owlient's employees. They will not be rude to you.

The development team are being told about any suggestions for change. If, and that is if, not when, changes are decided upon, and that must happen across all servers in all languages, they will be implemented but it will not be immediate.

It is EchOw's job to monitor this topic and she is doing it as her job warrants. If she has nothing to tell you that is because there is currently nothing more to tell you.

Bottom line is that the game does listen to player feedback and ideas but they also have to listen to their managers, the business plan and future changes that are to be made which none of us can possibly know about.
deimos
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I hope if they intend to release... however many of these abominations they intend to release they figure out how to fix the pricing on it too cause there's no way people are going to be patient and continually shell out 11k passes for a "Divine" that gives 750 max.

I'm shocked people are doing it ONCE, frankly.
Crookedstar915
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It's a great marketing angle having a complete set even if it isn't profitable. If you compare the balios to the one in the other series that gives nyx packs, you will never come close to the return you get from balios, hands down. I wouldn't have gotten it, except I thought it would give more per year and it completed the set for me.

I thought the entire reason why we were supposed to have ambassadors was to be able to take what people were asking about, communicate directly with admin, and then report back with things that were being actively discussed. It appears that experiment was a dismal failure but the things people say here and who they say them to hasn't changed. Even the original Ow had to deal with it.

Years ago, only a few of us were invited to test and then other people got upset so they decided to open it to a larger audience. The downside to that is they get feedback before it's released but then they come in here and exacerbate things by saying "we told you" which then gives the perception they KNEW but chose to do it anyway. There's likely limited things that can be done when it gets to preprod but I have seen them make changes, just not as often as I think they should.

When the nyx packs first came out they were 7 passes which really only gave the one "perk" which was the star as arms + timer were 7 passes and they actually listened to us and lowered the price. In fact, I'm pretty sure they did it within a day or two.
Ruffian
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For those interested, the diamond trophy for the wilds is 400, I say it like this as every divine trophy I have completed only had 1 diamond, so it looks like it will cap at 400 if it follows the same pattern.
Oathkeeper
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For those who are interested, according to Equideow the sixth Divine has been revealed to be

Click to display
Dark Chocolate
default smiley :)
Nalu93
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Nalu93 wrote:

Click to display
Dark Chocolate


They really just threw the most useless divines in a pot and drew lots of which position to assign them, huh? Like, really??? They couldn't even have made it the female of the pair?
opıɐu∀
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Nalu93 wrote:

For those who are interested, according to Equideow the sixth Divine has been revealed to be

Click to display
Dark Chocolate
default smiley :)


I was wondering, thought it might be as had randomly seen it in someone's production. But these days with the various packs you can't be sure and I hadn't seen a comment.

That one is epically useless to me!
haffyfan
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It really brings me the greatest amount of joy to have to buy 200000 fodder in increments of 10000default smiley (d)
superauri
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Click to display
Dark Chocolate?


Seriously? default smiley (d)

Considering the sheer amount of work you have to do to get these things, that's just a major insult. I am appalled by how they think this is going to inspire anyone to try and achieve these new worthless trophies.

Like at LEAST Etrian and Skinfaxi, while utterly pointless, at least had the virtue of being rare and unreleased for ages so I GUESS if someone really wanted to collect all the Divines but missed them the first time they might be inspired? I mean I'm not, but I can see how somebody else could be, maybe.

Click to display
But Dark Chocolate!?!? He was released for FREE two years ago and he doesn't DO anything without his mate. I'd rather have a third Tianma and that's saying something. default smiley (n)
Crookedstar915
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