I have somewhat mixed feelings regarding the new BLUP changes.

As a non-competitive breeder I almost always aim for 100 BLUP for both parents in any case, no matter what I'm breeding. As I predominantly breed unicorns my main concern regards competitions. Unicorns tend to be lower skilled than normal horses for their breed, so this may make competition wins a little more difficult with the likely influx in competition entries from GP race horses. But this translates more generally for anyone trying to breed that isn't within a margin of skills and GP that can make them on a competitive par with top breeding teams. Despite best interests, for some breeders they may not have access to a single winnable competition, because they may blanketed by top teams. That's already the case when you're trying to win rosette comps for trophies, or get wins with skillers. Competitions are only going to get harder to win.

And that's only on this server - from 2011-2015 I played on a regional server. I was a competitive breeder, who in the end gave up because of the stagnation in competitions and the pace on regional servers in every aspect of the game (breeding, sales, competitions etc.) is much slower. I think with these changes a lot of players on regional servers are going to be frustrated, perhaps to tipping point like I was, and give up.

Nonetheless, it stops rewarding shortcuts as much and provides a more noticeable difference between those of us who do work hard to breed from 100 BLUP, and those who rush and breed at 70 GP. I know people have their reasons for doing that, and will likely be hacked off at the increase in resources they will need to use to remain competitive, and I can't speak for them. I think this might actually also encourage people to be *more logical in their blupping processes* too though? For example, if people are trying to BLUP a Shetland, they would be more strategic by skilling speed + dressage then entering low difficulty SJ competitions, rather than just trying to train the best skill first and find themselves struggling to win higher difficulty comps? It might overall improve the quality of horses being produced, but will definitely create a bigger void between more and less, strategically, well-bred horses.

Does anyone know when the Wanderning Horses will come back to Howrse?

Anything on the promo after the cards yet?

That anyone using bots such as iMarcros will be banned sometime in the future. Is this true?

I'm kind of amused, honestly. I haven't played competitively for almost a year, I think?
I was going to start breeding Standardbreds in November. More casually than anything else. Then I checked this topic and read about the blup changes. There goes my desire out the window. I wanted to breed Standardbreds because they only require Mountain rides to get to 70, even 80 blup - which is good enough for me. Good enough to have fun and not take myself too seriously by trying to get 100 blup. But if this blup change happens, I'll have to use more aging points and do both types of rides and it'll feel like pointless extra work. No longer will breeding Standardbreds have any type of benefit for my personal breeding style.

I know a lot of competitive teams will have problems with this change. But I also feel bad for the people who breed on their own. I'm lucky enough to have a lot of aging points, but now less fortunate players are going to have to dish out more from their own account and change the way they could have been breeding for /years/. It's just another change I don't see the point of. Sure I get that there are people who already do breed at 100-blup - but that's their own choice. Now everyone else is going to have to be forced into that choice if they want the same gains. Our own unique breeding style choices just keep getting narrower and narrower.