[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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JadedHunter wrote:

IM pretty happy about it.

I saw trophies as kinda useless before because it just checked a box.

Im glad im actually going to get rewarded for playing the game and not just paying 2500 passes for a silly bee companion or whatever.


Howrse ruined that too when they offered bee companions in an event. If you're buying them that expensive, you're being cheated out of your money.

Ya know I'm seeing a pattern of howrse ruining things lately.
Ever since the new profile page came out I've been complaining about how ugly the new modern "look" is. The reason I liked howrse was for it's old style look and it makes me annoyed seeing them change everything and completely ignore the complaints of actual players
apollonia
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haffyfan wrote:

maybe I'm just old!


I'm older than many expect too default smiley :p


aracari wrote:

i'm autistic


So am I default smiley :d For me thought it's triggering my nerdy like of number-related targets, so I feel motivated to earn more points default smiley :p


minkthepink wrote:

I've been horrified before at things that I end up liking!


Same here!
Dr Zig
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I keep typing thought today instead of though default smiley xd So, is it too much caffeine for old Zig so far today or not enough? default smiley :p
Dr Zig
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Honestly, this update has scared me into trying to imagine what Howrse will do next. What big important good feature is next in line to be utterly ruined? And honestly,i don't want to even try to imagine it because that scares me even more.

I said this on the test version, I'll say it again. If you want to start redesigning stuff, redesign all those boring repetitive horse coats to make each breed unique. The graphics can use a redesign- the graphics on this game is sup par to graphics on several other games. But DON'T ruin things that are beautiful or things that don't need to be ruined. We pointed out that this update won't be taken well when it goes live on the test server because it is unnecessary and it looks like you're ruining a good feature to add something that NOBODY asked for, wanted or liked. And it's just plain hideous and generic and has no meaning. Well, guess what? You didn't listen to our feedback so now you can deal with the backlash that comes with it. And that backlash is more than just words. It's players losing their trust in the developers and losing their motivation to play the game because their games have been ruined. It's players telling their friends not to join the game because all the developers do is downgrade everything irrespective of feedback and tester backlash. It's players opening their eyes to see how they get treated like horse droppings because the developers are outright showing that the players don't matter to them. It's players who have or have not spent real money (aka your income) deciding that this game is not worth spending money on.

I wonder just how many players have been rethinking things thanks to your horribly-thought-out lazy attempt at modernising the game in a way that nobody wants except you. This wasn't thought through and it shows. I mean, just look at all those mobile games and whatnot that have the same trophy page layout and yet they're still better than this because nobody had enough sense to realise that players actually want to see the prizes that they are working towards. For the hundredth time or more, NOBODY wants less detailed information. More detail is always welcome, less detail is not. We pointed this out when you tried that bad English thing with all the item descriptions- another lazy downgrade that just made you look unprofessional. Now there's legitimate coat item and info on coats that I search for and can't find because you ruined the descriptions AND removed the help centre so all the old info is gone. You're making this game more and more unplayable with your unnecessary, unwanted updates that nobody asked for. Because of what? "This game is old and needs to be modernised so it will be updated whether you like it or not"? I remember being told that by an admin that probably isn't around anymore when you added tax to the game. Those words stuck.

And you know the worst part? I distinctly remember a tester pointing out that Howrse has time on their side; they don't need to implement this change immediately and they shouldn't because it clearly wasn't thought through and there's far too much need for improvement. But of course, this is Howrse, I suppose something like that would only happen in my wildest dreams default smiley (lol)

Maybe you should start playing the game so that you can see what it needs, because it definitely doesn't need this. We liked having our true trophies displayed on our pages and now they're gone. We liked knowing how many items more we need to get a specific trophy and now that's been replaced by useless percentages that don't moce unless you add x amount of items. Talk about discouraging. We liked having an overview of our BEAUTIFUL trophies where one click would list everything that we have, almost no scrolling need (then again I play classical on my phone, so maybe desktop will need a bit more scrolling). Hell, we liked that our trophies were beautiful and unique and not generic, and now that's gone too.

*Pop ups rant*
Some of us - I'm probably speaking more about myself here - liked having no unnecessary pop ups in events and objectives, now those things are so incessant that I don't bother with those "features" any more entirely because I can't stand the pops. And honestly, I'm starting to find them offensive. It's almost like you were telling me that I'm too stupid to understand that clicking "confirm" on the objectives would get me passes so you just had to shove a pop up in my face to shout at me, which honestly I find rude too. Not to mention that there's some stupid pop ups too - why do we need a pop up to tell us that we got fragments when we're on the page of the luck it and we have a friend counter for the divine on that page already? All that tells is that you like doing unnecessary things.
*pop ups rant over*

And honestly, I would hate to say this if it wasn't true, but I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the backlash the same way that I was so looking forward to seeing all those 1* ratings for the lottery that only gave us droppings. The main difference being that you could hide your 1* ratings but you can't hide your backlash unless you go through the effort of deleting every comment or deleting/hiding this topic. But if you tried that, players would just vent somewhere else, most likely the spoiler zone. Maybe think things through before implementing them next time? Like actually use your brain in an attempt to IMPROVE the game instead doing what you always do (downgrading everything)?

It's almost unbelievable that you went ahead with this change despite all the backlash about it on test server. *Almost.* (this is Howrse after all, this is what they do best: downgrade everything that could possibly be downgraded) Now if you could kindly undo it just as quickly as you added it, that would be nice. Thank you.

Anyways, I'm gonna sit back and enjoy the backlash after checking if you fixed that link thing for the coats. There's nothing more satisfying than - ignore my phrasing - watching the developers ignore the players (give them a middle finger) and watching the players give that middle finger right back to them. And I say that with the smile of satisfaction, if that's a thing.
ShadowKokufu
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☆ SilverWing ☆ wrote:

Honestly, instead of removing the piggy bank system - which has no sense to me at all, because the buyer spends more than the seller gets - they have decided to change the trophy page. What's up next? Change the wandering horses as well?


The thing is, the piggy bank was added to cushion the blow of losing 10%, removing it would not remove the sales tax.
Oathkeeper
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This change has been the worst thing since zonkeys came out. I'd rather be forcefed zonkey events than this
apollonia
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I'd really just like to voice a bit of disappointment in finding that trophies are no longer displayed on one's profile. It feels really hard to grasp how much progress has been done in the game when all the trophies are suddenly just little ribbons, and it feels a bit like being cheated. Like, the old trophies were a checkbox of things and a nice way to see one's progress. Feels like like the old format could return in the form of a "show all trophies" button or something like that.
Angeygirl
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ShadowKokufu wrote:

Honestly, this update has scared me into trying to imagine what Howrse will do next. What big important good feature is next in line to be utterly ruined? And honestly,i don't want to even try to imagine it because that scares me even more.


They utterly ruined the pass system once they took away the horse passes. Nothing is worth anything these days and now even the "rare" companions arent worth much.

Honestly nothing is valuable these days, even divines are 600-700 passes because of the influx.

Once they changed the pass system and sales so much, people just stopped playing.

They have proved they can and will change things whenever they like. It takes a huge uproar from players (like when they tried to change the silver apple retired horses) to get them to stop or change it back.
JadedHunter
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I've already expressed all of my critique on preprod, so hopefully the team saved all of those notes, because there are still a lot of needed improvements to these pages if we're going to be stuck with them.

I'd still like to at least see some special icon or highlight for the mini-collections we've completed. What I'll miss most about the efficiency of the Trophies page is that I'll have to scroll around the Collections for twice as long, squinting at numbers, to find missing coats
Legacy Ann
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apollonia wrote:

This change has been the worst thing since zonkeys came out. I'd rather be forcefed zonkey events than this
Well.. actually, maybe I'll just wait instead of commenting default smiley (lol)

Yip, the link to our coats in the "collection" (our real trophies) is as useless as ever, still linking me back to a random fail in my sales tab when I've got the allocated horse coat blupped and bolted and showy in my trophies tab. That link is utterly useless because I still need to manually search all my tabs to find the allocated coat copy that is meant to be blupped and bolted. Plus the interface was ruined so now i can't stand even looking for the coat. I dread it. Well done Howrse, you've successfully turned the interface into more of a hassle than it's worth and I can't stand that update either. Thank you for ruining features of this game that was so nice. I gave you the suggestions on the test server; go look at that to see what you can do to improve it. I'm tired of having to retype everything I wrote on the test server because you guys couldn't care less about using tester feedback, or any feedback in general unless it starts costing you money.

Please UNDO THIS UPDATE. The previous interface was far better. Thank you.
ShadowKokufu
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So as im playing my game after checking out the new trophies page, I was taking care of my divines. I got a notification saying "congratulations you completed the dragon divine something trophy" but when I go to the trophy page I can't see it, or the trophies I obtained. Is there more trophies than whats shown on the main page or?
jlmiller
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so disappointed with this update. collecting trophies was the last thing i actually enjoyed on this game :\
Scorsone
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I found where all the collections stuff is the for the coats and background and I actually love it! default smiley :d

On your main trophies page, where it shows "Special Coats", you should see a link that also says 'special coats'. Click that. Everything is laid out nicely and when you click the 'see' button any item, you see a detailed breakdown and with images *and* sub-categories, like colour or type. It's really cool!
Dr Zig
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jlmiller wrote:

So as im playing my game after checking out the new trophies page, I was taking care of my divines. I got a notification saying "congratulations you completed the dragon divine something trophy" but when I go to the trophy page I can't see it, or the trophies I obtained. Is there more trophies than whats shown on the main page or?
It's the medal at the very bottom:
"Dragons I
Get 50 experience points with your Dragon horses"

You get a medal (sorry, Howrse, but they really do look like medals) when interacting with certain divines. If you can't see that one, try selecting "special horses" from the filter in the top right
Legacy Ann
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Why does the new trophy pages not show all the horseshoes and clovers we've worked so hard to collect throughout player this game? They need to let us keep those.
mmiller
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mmiller wrote:

Why does the new trophy pages not show all the horseshoes and clovers we've worked so hard to collect throughout player this game? They need to let us keep those.
With this update they also removed the Golden Horseshoes won from events. Since we don't win those anymore they probably thought there was no reason to keep a trophy for it

It's the info in the last section of the Change Log
Legacy Ann
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Dr Zig wrote:

I found where all the collections stuff is the for the coats and background and I actually love it! default smiley :d

On your main trophies page, where it shows "Special Coats", you should see a link that also says 'special coats'. Click that. Everything is laid out nicely and when you click the 'see' button any item, you see a detailed breakdown and with images *and* sub-categories, like colour or type. It's really cool!


Thank you! I hadn't seen this page, I love the RC layout and seeing how many of each I have and the ones missing.

Is this available for GA's too do we know?

How do we know what contributes to the levels of trophies, it says I have 8 diamond, 15 gold, 28 silver and 72 bronze but what contributes to these?

I also can't figure out the scale that gives you prizes and how that is filling or what percentages various things are to it.

I like to know how things work! default smiley :p
haffyfan
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We don't have Iris' coats in the special coats collection default smiley :@default smiley (n)
Xanthos
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The reward system is fun. But i dont like how it looks now. I enjoyed getting the specific trophies displayed on my profile, that was way better than a bunch of random medals. Its a No from me
maliceki
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The sales links dont work default smiley (d)
Bell_z
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haffyfan wrote:

Is this available for GA's too do we know?


No sign of a GA one yet, that I can find, but it's probably so massive maybe it's coming but just not ready yet.
Dr Zig
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Bell_z wrote:

The sales links dont work default smiley (d)
Technically they do, but they're about as helpful as they were beforedefault smiley :p

Unless you mean the one you click brought an incorrect search? I used the link on a few and they all worked properly
Legacy Ann
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Legacy Ann wrote:

Unless you mean the one you click brought an incorrect search?


Yep that's what happened! I clicked a link for a few of the coat ones and it just bought up the full direct sales...
Bell_z
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I like the idea of working towards prizes with trophies, that can be fun, and I did enjoy clicking to get all my prizes today... and I like that Golden Horseshoes are gone, that was just confusing. I think it's much better just to complete the event tutorial!

That being said, I am really confused by everything else. Why can't I see what trophies I have already won? Why can't I see what prizes I am working towards? (Is it random? Do certain trophies offer certain prizes? What makes a trophy silver vs. gold etc?)

I guess I can't complain about free divines, but I *really* don't like Tarpan's perk as someone who breeds drafts. This basically makes the coat percentages completely meaningless to anyone with Tarpan...? If this was an attempt to introduce coat genetics, it's a really dreadful way of doing so lol. I would love if there was a way to "turn" Tarpan off, or maybe he activates on certain days like the Chinese horses, so we can choose to breed with his perk or not?

I'm really baffled by the Collections page, as well. In theory it's nice to click the link to see which horse matches the category, but what if I have more than one horse which fits the description? I also find the divisions of collections really bizarre. I guess it's cool to be able to see all the possible retired coats, but most of those only apply to like, 2% of the players on this game lol... I don't really understand the percentages, I'd prefer to see how my collection is contributing to my general ranking (and thus what I should work on to get higher).

I really hope these pages continue to get adjusted, because at the moment they are not intuitive at all.
lauralololili
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Bell_z wrote:

Yep that's what happened! I clicked a link for a few of the coat ones and it just bought up the full direct sales...
Which ones did you click on?
Legacy Ann
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