New features

Also, removing horns/wings/BMI is not "mutilating" a *pixel* horse on this *game.* And implying that, which is basically trying to make anybody who completes these objectives feel guilty/bad about themselves, especially younger/more impressionable players, is honestly pretty messed up.

I didn't really mind the removal of body parts objectives; it was just the rosette one.

I never saw it that way, and I'm 16.

One of the issues with the not-completeable objectives (at least from my perspective, as a player who's been here a *really long time*) is that the objectives are replacing a system that used to be more time consuming, but that allowed players to earn significantly more passes and didn't require black market items, high-GP horses, breeding horses that aren't of interest, or even purchasing anything at all if you were really dedicated.

Because back in the old days, there were pass horses. Nowadays, your old horses go to Yggdrasil, and when you've sent enough of them, you get some paltry reward. Way back when, if a horse died over the age of 30, you got 100 passes (well, 1 pass, but the "old" passes were converted to 100 "new" passes, and it was a whole thing). The first 10 horses to die over 30 in a month would each award you 100 passes, for a total of 1000 passes. You could also purchase 100 passes once a month using equus (scaled according to how much you had on hand, so equally accessible to everyone). It took some time and planning if you didn't want to buy your pass horses, but it was doable, didn't require anything special, and didn't even require logging in every day. And if you were really dedicated, you could potentially earn another 2000 passes (each horse after the first 10 gave either a pass or a black market item). So, you could earn up to 3100 passes in one month, if you were really dedicated.

With the new system, in a 31-day month, you can earn up to 930 passes and 4 HOPs *if* you log in and complete the objectives every day. The trade off, of course, is that the current objectives *are* significantly less time-consuming than pass horses, so I'll give them that. Overall I don't dislike the system, because it allows me to spend a lot less time farming for passes. But some days when you get one of those objectives that you can't complete, or refuse to complete, or if you just can't log in for a few days, it's just... irritating to know that these things weren't obstacles that needed to be faced in the pass horse days.

Oh, the objective was removed. Yay!

I remember back in the days when people tested the new pass-system on test-server (me included) a lot of people pointed out that objectives that required you to remove items that are bought for passes shouldn`t be objectives at all (mostly because this system was made so even those who don`t have a lot of time for Howrse/new players/ and so on could get passes),it really doesn't make sense to get a Medusas Blood,put it on the horse and then remove it. Even if you have 50 of those things, those items are valuable and could be used in better ways than being destroyed. And yet here we are....

Ah well, better late than never XD
I miss the old pass-mining sprees. It was the highlight of the month. If this system was just an alternative way to get passes then it would be fine but... it replaced the old one, and I don`t believe for a second it was made to make it "easier for people".

New players and everyone else was ripped off. Period.

should also add on to that: even farther back, it was the first *30* horses that gave passes, not the first 10 followed by maybe passes maybe an item. So over the years, Howrse has been slowly decreasing the number of passes that can be earned for free, while steadily increasing the number of pushes to use/buy passes with constant events and new divines/collectables, new black market items, deals every weekend, etc. etc. and it just rankles a bit when you put not-completable tasks on top of it all.

In reply to both of you, and before anybody else jumps on this train, I've been playing for well over ten years, despite my lower seniority on my current account, and I remember and miss pass horses. I've always hated Yggdrasil/the new objectives system, since the day they were introduced. I never defended them, or said that they were a better option, or even a comparable replacement, since yes, everybody got ripped off, since we went from being able to earn up to 30 old passes/3,000 new passes monthly to barely earning 900 passes monthly, yet this was presented to everybody as an "improvement."

None of this changes any of what I said nor is it really relevant to my original comment.

I love easy, completely free objectives just as much as the next person, and it's certainly very nice when I get several days of easy breezy objectives that I don't have to put much thought/time/effort into, and I definitely get annoyed when I get a particularly difficult objective, or make the decision to skip an objective because it's too expensive/too time consuming/I don't feel like doing it.

But if every single objective is super easy, barely takes any time, doesn't actually require you to do much of anything, never requires you to have a specific horse or a specific item, what's the point? That's just boring. They may as well just automatically magically give you the thirty passes upon your first login of the day at that point.

I strongly believe that you should have to work for the things that you want/need, and that good things come with time. If a new player with absolutely nothing on their account could play at the same level as a player who's been on the game since the very beginning, *that* would be unfair. And nothing should just be handed to you. If you want passes, you can either spend your money that you presumably worked to earn in real life to buy them, or you can work in-game for them, whether it be the old system of tediously aging up horses every month, or the new system of completing two tasks every day.



I agree with this, 100%. But, still, that doesn't change anything. I highly, highly doubt that Howrse is suddenly going to reinstate pass horses and remove Yggdrasil/the objectives. I certainly wish they would but that doesn't matter.

All I was saying in my original comment is that if you take away all the even remotely difficult/expensive/unlikable objectives they'd be completely boring/pointless.

It's honestly not that hard to complete the majority of your objectives, especially once you've been playing for more than a few months. Save your money, plan ahead, hoard certain horses/certain BMI, and make the decision to skip an objective/lose your streak towards a HOP that could very well contain absolutely nothing of value when you feel the objective's too expensive/time-consuming. I'm a very casual/occasional player who's never bought a single pass and I don't remember the last time I got an objective I couldn't complete. There's plenty I simply choose not to complete, because they're not worth it to me, or because I don't have very much time for the game that day, but they're all doable.

Remove a unicorn's horn is fine. If you've got any male unicorns on your account, unless you intend to BLUP them and sell their covers, or unless they're very high GP/very rare coat, you're probably not going to be getting more than 10-20 passes for them in the sales. I've had male unicorns sit in the sales at 10 passes for a week. So why not de-horn them for that 10/20 passes?

Remove a WOY can be useful...I hate WOYs with a passion unless I'm skilling.

Groom a divine horse...nearly everybody who plays somewhat actively should have at least one divine by now...there's been many, many opportunities to get a completely free divine over the past few years...reindeer, Etrian, the Falabella in the pinata promotion, the anniversary/objective divine...and countless other opportunities to get very affordable/completely luck-based divines. If your account is very very new, or you only log on once in awhile, yeah, maybe you'll have to skip that one. But it's honestly not that hard. I literally only actively play maybe one day a month from last summer onwards and I've never bought a single pass on this account yet I have 16 divines if we count Yggdrasil. Plan ahead, save your passes, save your HOPs, wait for another free divine, or go for a cheaper divine in one of the regular promotions/weekend offers.

Produce a unicorn is luck based...yeah, that one's annoying, so skip it if you don't breed unicorns regularly/as a part of your normal day to day game play...if you're a unicorn breeder, though, you'll probably be fine. All about how you play your game.

Anything involve unicorns/donkeys/drafts is simple planning ahead/playing strategically...keep a horse of every species on your account for those feed/groom/bed a pegasus/unicorn/donkey/draft objectives, save your final covers on your donkeys/drafts for objectives/only breed them when you have objectives.

Win a rosette is annoying, too, but it's completely doable. Lots of very affordable rosette level skillers (or foals to be skilled) in the sales if it's worth the investment/time to you. Lots of times they can be flipped anyway. If your own competitions have rosettes, you can simply rig them/enter your own horses. It slightly trashes your prestige but it's easily recoverable/worth it. If you have a highly skilled divine like a water divine you should always be able to do it. If you keep current skillers on your account, either as a part of team/personal breeding project, or to boost your own EC's prestige/mission price and to run in your own competitions, you should always be able to do it.

Colored tack/colored bonuses/use a certain BMI...can be annoying, sure, but again, completely doable...plan ahead, hoard your colored tack/BMI, and take advantage of any tricks...like activate the color bonus can be done by simply switching the specialty of a horse that already has it, use a customization item can be done by simply changing the name/background of a horse that already has a Lyre/unlimited Ray, etc.

Sometimes you have to make the decision to sacrifice a mere 10/20 passes and your streak so you don't spend more passes than you're getting if you weren't prepared for the objective or because you simply don't feel like spending that much time/effort on the objectives today...that's perfectly fine, too...it's just 10/20 passes...you can make those passes back in a myriad of other ways.

The only objectives I ever really skip are the ones where I'll literally make more money by simply selling the horse (Pegasus/WOY) or the ones where I don't have enough time/don't feel like it that day (something ridiculous like stroke 40 horses or use 12 aging points or anything like that on a day where I just came on to check my messages and maybe do a few things). Everything else is very doable if you plan ahead.

^^ Also if it comes down to spending Equus like to purchase a donkey/draft or skipping an objective, keep it mind that it's usually way easier to earn that Equus back...50,000 Equus on a donkey/draft with covers left is basically a round of saddles in your workshops...you'll have that money back in 12 hours.

Welp, they say, "Power corrupts!" , for a reason...

You know, I wouldn't so much mind the fragment system for divines *IF* there was a general fragment for any divine, and every event you could get some fragments to save and spend on a divine of your choice...of course the fragments needed to unkock divines could be raised, but at least you could have multiple chances for a divine, instead of one chance and then there's never that divine again.

And I am also not happy with Yggdrasil. It's essentially a cool-looking way to rip people off. I have 2 horses in Heaven, both with MA, and he's only about 60 now. I will need 7 more horses to get the black orchid, which is in no way worth 2 MA plus a bunch of aging points.

Having 100 passes per dead horse could get you one black orchid per death, plus an extra one after 9 die. For 9 horses with Yggdrasil, you get one black orchid.

Well, I can't speak from a strong position, since I wasn't all that dedicated to using pass horses, but impressions I got from the slow change of rules regarding pass horses, (and yes, I've been on here longer than my account shows - I started in the first month this server opened), they were never meant to be farmed and used to earn passes; just a way of rewarding players that looked after their howrses well enough for the howrse to reach 30 years old.
Yggy takes us back to that basic premise of looking after your howrses, since the older your howrse is when you send them to heaven, the more years you get on Yggy... as to the time and effort it takes to reach rewards, I'm still coming to terms with that one

I popped by to say that I think they replaced the pegasus wings objective with "run an ultrasound on a mare". A perfectly doable objective that I got for the first time today. Thank you Howrse. I'm grateful that you didn't add something ridiculous to the objectives pool.

Now if you can just get rid of the unicorn horn objective . I'll NEVER mutilate my horses just because you will give me 20 passes or 50 points to do so. Ever.
And the give birth to a uni objective too. Even as a unicorn breeder I still have to age up 12 mares just to get a single unicorn foal thanks to the "1/5" chance. And then I need to age those mares back up to covering age for just in case I get that objective again. Talk about wasting APs. I even remember a time when I aged up all my mares and used BOTH covering sessions and STILL didn't get a unicorn foal and couldn't complete the objective. That objective is nothing but an annoyance, especially on day 6 or 7, and it would be really nice if you could get rid of it. I may have more than enough mares to breed now but I know that those streaks of 25+ fails are just going to start again at some point. I have actually started keeping a record of my highest fail streak now thanks to my "bad luck".
Or if you don't remove it, then at least higher the chances of breeding a unicorn for only the first unicorn foal that you get for the day on the day that you get the objective.

Oh yes, also remove the sell a horse at auction objective. We can't even complete that on the same day because the horse only gets sold on the following day.. IF it gets sold. Now I've got breed x horses every day just so that I can put x horses up for auction every day for just in case I get that objective the next day. ..And then I'll get the objective after the one day that I forget to so. Lol.

I dont recall ever having an objective to 'sell' a horse at auction. I have had 'place' a horse up for auction and sell a horse for xxx however the sell one does not specify auction.

You know, after playing Howrse for 12 years, starting when I was 8 years old, I never really had the chance to learn the game mechanics. Starting off so young and a lover of horses, I was just happy to have horses, but I never really understood the genetic potential and skilling systems. Here I am 12 years later, now 20 years old, barely began to play competitively about 2-3 years ago, and Howrse has ripped away the opportunities of pass horses and many other features from me right as I began to understand the game. I also agree that these events and promotions, that happen all the time now it seems, have gotten much harder to complete without using/buying passes. I appreciated the previous challenge of these events where it was doable if you were dedicated. Now, regardless of your dedication, you'd have to buy passes anyway. Now tell me, how do you keep players' loyalty if you practically force them to buy passes at every turn? It hardly seems fair anymore

Yeah, I don’t even try to complete them now, just go for a few prizes I want that are usually smaller.... and if one of them it to far from where I am I skip it (even if it’s something I need or have been wanting for a long time)

I think the worst objective is to purchase a horse in auction. It just takes forever to get one with all the auctions resetting 30 seconds every time you make a bid.

Yeah, to get a horse in auctions you have to have a lot of free dough on hand, because if you don't, you'll get outbid...

I would just leave one mare with hestua gift uncovered but they are hard to find.

It goes both ways.

Sure, they are just pixels. No real horses are hurt and those that don't mind doing those objectives may be perfectly nice people in real life.

On the other hand, if you can imagine entering horses in a game into races, feeding them, breeding them, birthing foals etc then you can also imagine removing bits from them might be a bit unpleasant.

Saying these objectives make you feel uncomfortable is expressing a genuine feeling.

I think we need to respect each other's feelings and not take someone else's feelings personally. Being different in how you feel about this makes us different, not better or worse as people in real life.

I've never comented on this thread but: In my opinion the objective that I find a bit "unpopular" might be the "Remove a unicorn's horn" - like... why...

[quote=1403668039][author]jdean[/author]I think the worst objective is to purchase a horse in auction. It just takes forever to get one with all the auctions resetting 30 seconds every time you make a bid.[/quote:0]

I must have missed this game update- when did it happen? Just noticed it recently and I hate it as well.

Can I just say that I don't particularly like the new font for the classifieds?
I liked it better when it was bold. I mean it's a tiny thing, I just liked it better. It feels wonky.

Did the font size or type change for the competition result place rankings? The new one is really, really uncomfortable to look at for some reason.