[UPDATED] Devs' Corner: November 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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Please look into the competition delay that has been going on more or less since the trophy change. The competitions do run eventually, but when you are on a team or someone that blups multiple a day it really slows you down.
Oathkeeper
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Oathkeeper wrote:

Please look into the competition delay that has been going on more or less since the trophy change. The competitions do run eventually, but when you are on a team or someone that blups multiple a day it really slows you down.


It has been reported and is being worked on
deimos
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Crookedstar915 wrote:

We're not getting the trophies back. Best bet is that they'll add a collections display to our page, edit the collections to be a LITTLE closer to the old trophy format and less confusing and glitchy, and clarify exactly how and how much collecting affects our ranking.

Worst case scenario, they'll just leave everything as is and take the loss in terms of playerbase.

In any case, we're never getting back the Rays, the GAs, and I'm doubtful about the Iris Coats as well.

Deep inside I know your right. I just SO wished it wasn't so.
Howrse seems dead set on forcing me to play competitively again - and/or only collect divine. NOT happening
Asfridur
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Quoting Funnyone because I cannot quote a post with quotes;

"I take offense at the implication that mods and admin are somehow dishonest in our communications with players. That is simply not the case. If we say that we are passing along your feedback, then be assured that we are.

We are not privy as to who makes what decisions about how the game changes and/or progresses. Howrse is an Owlient game owned by Ubisoft. Do you know how many layers of management and development teams that may involve? I sure don't. But I can tell you, mods and admin are low in the hierarchy of the company. We only know what we are told and strive to give players the most accurate information that we have available, which often isn't a whole lot. We had no input in the change if the trophy system, just like we had no input in the removal of pass horses.

You may think we don't hear you but we do. You might think we don't listen but we do. You might think we don't care but we do. We simply do not have the power that players think we have. That is not our function on the game. We pass info, complaints, etc. on to those directly above us and they do the same. What the powers that be decide to do with that information is not in our control.

So while it is perfectly OK for players to voice thier opinions about changes that happen on the game, it is not ok to take your frustrations out on others. Calm, rational criticism of changes and offered solutions to improve on changes are more than welcome and appreciated."

Funnyone, I meant no offense, certainly not that the admins or mods are dishonest. I believe there has been a misunderstanding of what I was saying due to my inaccurate wording, and vague definition of what Howrse Team means. I will make what I was saying clear:

The fact is, the players want changes. At the very least, they want to know why the changes are happening, a good explanation of them, and, to know that if they have suggestions, that they are considered. But the only concrete affirmation of those things would be changes made that reflect the player requests, or an official statement by the Howrse Team addressing the requests.

And there is simply little to none of that. There is no proof anything makes it's way to the right people or that if it does, it's heard, that is all. Whether it is the fault of the admin or mods not providing feedback, or that whoever receives your comments is not moving forward with it, so on, so forth, the point and problem is that whoever makes the decisions is either ignoring us or not getting the information. I did not mean to imply it is the dishonesty of the mods or admins that is the problem. Actually the last two paragraphs of my statement that you quotes were directed at the Howrse Team that is able to take action that changes the course of the game, or whoever decides to send out informational PMs to all players. Not to the mods or admins. I merely included the mods and admins in my statement because you are the first link in the chain of communication, and there was no clear statement of what exactly your role is, based off the comments and misconceptions of some players.

Players are directing their ire at you because they DO think you have some influence or say in what happens to the game. Where did that mentality come from? Who knows.
But in order to prevent illful comments like that in the future, diffuse that misconception. From what you have said, it seems like your function is more or less similar to Contact Us. You receive complaints, suggestions, info, and pass it on, alert us to the incoming fixes not yet implemented to the changes, but already planned out, and that is all. I appreciate your statement because I sense it wasn't really clear to some players what you can and cannot do, based on the amount of misdirected comments. But I feel what you have said makes it exactly clear what your role is. There is no reason to direct any responsibility onto you if it is not your responsibility at all.

So there you have it folks, we are in a Contact Us fishbowl. In which case, here is my request: Dear Howrse Team, whoever presents our suggestions to those who can actually act upon them and, those of you who do make those changes, please address our comments and suggestions, and/or adjust some of the changes of the game to reflect what we ask for. A kindly written letter of address should not be too much to ask for from those powers that be in charge.
Joblitzen
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Joblitzen wrote:

A kindly written letter of address should not be too much to ask for from those powers that be in charge.


You should probably send something like that off to Contact Us so hopefully they will present it to whom ever is on the ladder above them. I very much doubt that those who actually do make the decisions have ever read any of these threads or ever will. When this game was sold to Ubifail everything changed....not for the good.
Arabians are best
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WeaverofDreams wrote:

I've just come on here to voice my complaint again, Sorry i know this has been said before.

I don't think i can sigh hard enough about this Trophy page. The more i look at it the more it annoys me. I can't work toward trophies if i don't know what they are. I can't effectively use a trophy page that doesn't explain itself well.

I can't tell if the meter means i have that level of trophy or I'm working toward that level, I'm supposed to have won 3 gold levels, what are they? How far from Platinum am i?

I don't know. default smiley (d)

default smiley (ow) Please add some explanations or fix this Howrse. i don't think i can sigh any harder.


I 100% agree with this. I don't know what I am working towards nor do I care to try and sift through everything to find that out.

This game is really starting to feel like a job as well with the objectives and events. Stroke 30 horses, do 30 of this other thing, do 50 of something else. I don't want to spend hours on here try to do one thing.

Honestly, I'm personally reaching my breaking point with this game default smiley :s
WaffleCorporation
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One thing this change does highlight? How bad the fairy tale divines drop rate is. I ain't trying to complain about things, but I have 20, one would think I would have gotten the 60 for the current trophy in the time since the change went live, but I haven't, and most of them don't even offer that good of a prize. Meanwhile, I have 12 active dragons and I am already on the diamond trophies.
Oathkeeper
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I decided to use this thread to update y'all as to how long it takes for me to take care of my horses, to show how much the Update sadly destroyed my motivation to play the game

Notifications: 20
Day: 15
Taken care of horses today: no default smiley :(
MsAnirine
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Oathkeeper wrote:

One thing this change does highlight? How bad the fairy tale divines drop rate is. I ain't trying to complain about things, but I have 20, one would think I would have gotten the 60 for the current trophy in the time since the change went live, but I haven't, and most of them don't even offer that good of a prize. Meanwhile, I have 12 active dragons and I am already on the diamond trophies.


Oh yeah my snow queen hasn't given me anything in a loooong time, at this point she is quite useless. Little Tom Thumb is definitely better and I forgot which else I have but they're better than snow queen
MsAnirine
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I only have Little Mermaid and won't be going for a second Fairy Tale for sure, I heard her drop rate was monthlyish but she actually takes longer than that. Which I wouldn't care about for her main prize, but the other two things she gives aren't worth a once-a-month drop.
Crookedstar915
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Does anyone know if there is a list of the trophy requirements?

Otherwise I started one in my EC forum. Just post your stats and I will put a list together....

I just finished silver Manure Pile with 100k droppings. Next is gold with 250k droppings. Thats A LOT of poo..... default smiley (lol)

I still hover over the bar to see if they changed anything I the showing of the exact amount. Thats a must have, really.....
JoyDreamer
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I JUST came back for the first time in months and I was faced with this hideous "divine" Jenny. Is this really what you expect people to pay ridiculous amounts of money for now? Gods, this game is going downhill fast.
ʜᴇʟᴀ
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To quote Funnyone,
"I take offense at the implication that mods and admin are somehow dishonest in our communications with players. That is simply not the case. If we say that we are passing along your feedback, then be assured that we are.

We are not privy as to who makes what decisions about how the game changes and/or progresses. Howrse is an Owlient game owned by Ubisoft. Do you know how many layers of management and development teams that may involve? I sure don't. But I can tell you, mods and admin are low in the hierarchy of the company. We only know what we are told and strive to give players the most accurate information that we have available, which often isn't a whole lot. We had no input in the change if the trophy system, just like we had no input in the removal of pass horses.

You may think we don't hear you but we do. You might think we don't listen but we do. You might think we don't care but we do. We simply do not have the power that players think we have. That is not our function on the game. We pass info, complaints, etc. on to those directly above us and they do the same. What the powers that be decide to do with that information is not in our control.

So while it is perfectly OK for players to voice thier opinions about changes that happen on the game, it is not ok to take your frustrations out on others. Calm, rational criticism of changes and offered solutions to improve on changes are more than welcome and appreciated."



Funnyone and all else having issues with the PAYING PLAYER BASE, YOU are taking the brunt of the complaints because YOU are the face of the company. Moderating this game is a volunteer job. If you hate dealing with player complaints so much, you are not obligated to be here. I am also reading back to see trophies, GAs, and Rays are gone or severely devalued. What has this game become?
ʜᴇʟᴀ
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ʜᴇʟᴀ wrote:

Funnyone and all else having issues with the PAYING PLAYER BASE, YOU are taking the brunt of the complaints because YOU are the face of the company. Moderating this game is a volunteer job. If you hate dealing with player complaints so much, you are not obligated to be here. I am also reading back to see trophies


Excuse me? Who ever said any of us hate dealing with player complaints? That is not the issue. It is the attitude and tone similar to what you have used here that is the issue. I would suggest you rethink how you word your posts. You want to make a complaint, feel free to do so. But don't do it with insulting, brash comments.

We are volunteers, you are correct about that, but we do not have to tolerate abuse by players.
funnyone
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JoyDreamer wrote:

I still hover over the bar to see if they changed anything I the showing of the exact amount. Thats a must have, really.....


Yeah, it's unusable now. default smiley :(

I've quit bothering entirely. They haven't said anything about what, if anything, they're going to do to fix it and it's been over 2 weeks at this point. I think if they were going to say something they would have. All they did was say that they would be 'talking with the team" whatever that means and that was over a week ago. And posting that second insensitive topic.

I'm pretty sure they're just going to leave it broken. They don't really fix much these days, possibly due to a lack of funding, but if they keep making decisions that drive away their playerbase I dunno what they expect.
Crookedstar915
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I mean, the help center has been completely dead for how long now with them *totally* promising to fix it. totally, guys! so they're *definitely* gonna get around to fixing issues players have with the trophies! yeah the only human communication about it has been through volunteers with no power to change anything and a hilariously tone deaf forum thread expecting people to sing their praises for it, but they're definitely listening to our complaints and are gonna fix everything soon!

/sarcasm.
answrs
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answrs wrote:

I mean, the help center has been completely dead for how long now with them *totally* promising to fix it. totally, guys!


For those of you who may have missed this mornings announcement, the help center is now available again. I guess somebody heard something.
funnyone
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The site had lag issues before the update.
After the update, it has gotten way worse. At least once every hour the site slows down to a crawl.
It's so bad you even get the spinning monkey, if you click on the community tab. Don't even try to work your horses
Asfridur
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Still crying and grieving my years of progress the Howrse devs ripped away. I do not care who is in charge, how many layers of admins and mods there are. The fact that all we get out of this are a few mods complaining that it isn't their fault... I'm sure it isn't your fault at all but we are still upset. This makes me even further dislike Howrse, as they are allowing their mods to be shouted at while not doing A SINGLE THING to fix the issue. Literally all it would take is a statement such as "We at Howrse hear your concerns and are working to fix it." Why is that so hard for you all? I'm no computer dev but I know for a FACT that this message could be sent to players DMs. Ubisoft is an evil company and they have clearly infected Howrse with Apathy and Greed. They finally "fix" the help center after literal months of complaining, so maybe in four years they'll finally make this game playable again. I don't have high hopes as Howrse and Ubisoft thinks we are worthless, just sentient dollar signs.
Mikunotcheating
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Oathkeeper wrote:

To be fair, the atmosphere in this topic hasn't been the nicest, especially when it comes to how quite a lot of the posts have been targeted at the admins. The anger and frustration is justified, but the way some of it has been shown is not; would you feel comfortable posting when there is a high chance that whatever you say could be torn apart in a similar fashion? It in no ways justifies the silence, but just a little food for though as to why they might not have really said anything.


Yes, because that's what happens when you work for or volunteer with a company?? I'm sorry but this is still a COMPANY. Sometimes when you work for people you will have to deal with upset customers.You're not allowed to hide in a broom cupboard until the angry customers leave.
If a mod is like a receptionist and cannot fix the issue, all they have to say is "I understand your frustration, I am passing along your feedback, I can't fix this issue but I'm sorry that it's causing upset."
It really is that simple.
Mikunotcheating
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Mikunotcheating wrote:

Yes, because that's what happens when you work for or volunteer with a company?? I'm sorry but this is still a COMPANY. Sometimes when you work for people you will have to deal with upset customers.You're not allowed to hide in a broom cupboard until the angry customers leave.


You can voice your dislike and upset without being rude to another, and while most posts have followed this, there have been those that haven't. I've personally volunteered in customer service and I've had to put up with people abusing me over being upset about something just because I happened to be there, despite the fact I had no say in what upset them.

I don't understand why people think it is their right to abuse anyone that happens to represent the company, even those that had no say in the direction it is going. The mods are volunteers, the admins probably don't have the final say in the decision making, yet both take a whole lot of abuse from angry players.

I have no problem with people voicing their dislike, I have no problem with people criticizing changes, I have no problem with offering constructive feedback, but what I do have a problem with is people thinking it gives them a free pass to say whatever they want to another just because they are upset.

I have no problem with people voicing dislike and criticizing change and, respectfully, I am getting a bit tired of people implying that I do just because I look at things from a different perspective.
Oathkeeper
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Mikunotcheating wrote:

If a mod is like a receptionist and cannot fix the issue, all they have to say is "I understand your frustration, I am passing along your feedback, I can't fix this issue but I'm sorry that it's causing upset."
It really is that simple.
Again though, our role is to moderate the forums, player disputes, and to answer questions, not relay feedback about features. If players wish to send feedback, Contact Us (Admin) is the way to go, and appropriate feedback threads when available. This way, the information relay is kept streamlined, and isn't going through extra channels to its destination.

I am indeed sorry about the update, because I have been affected by it as much as anyone else. I provided tons of feedback about the trophies on preprod, much of it my own, but as I hang out in the Spoiler forum a lot, I also take the discussion there into consideration as well. It's not part of our role, but just how I choose to provide feedback on preprod. It doesn't disrupt the avenue of how feedback is provided because all of the testing forum's topics are considered anyway. Many of the other testers also pass along information they've read in the Spoiler topic.
Legacy Ann
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Mikunotcheating wrote:

If a mod is like a receptionist and cannot fix the issue, all they have to say is "I understand your frustration, I am passing along your feedback, I can't fix this issue but I'm sorry that it's causing upset."


This isn't our job exactly. If players have feedback about a feature then they need to send it to contact us to Admin to pass along to those who can do something about it. We are not receptionists for the game. We moderate the game, which is why we are here in the forums reminding players about etiquette.
Rogin
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Not very impressed with the new help center. Sure, the layout and search functionality seem decent at first sight, but they're actually useless. Why is it that I can search "special fifth element" and get literally NO relevant results when the old help centre would bring up tons of relevant results? Even with the BMIs filter on there? Why are you once again adding in unwanted redirected loading pages to view the answers for each question instead of the old system where it was just a drop down? Why do you insist on wasting our time and lagging out the game and adding irritating unnecessary steps to everything???? Stop it howrse!! Stop doing this every "update" default smiley (li)default smiley (li)

All you had to do was remove the repetitive questions and outdated information like the stuff on diamonds and old passes. Maybe even make a pop up that forces players to view/search for answers to their question before posting it if it is repetitive to avoid the overload of the same question literally 3 questions down on the "recently asked" or whatever section. Now I can't find any of my answer to questions. Yes, I actually went back to some of my answers because it had information that I still found useful, now that's gone default smiley (li) the added search functionality would have been a nice bonus on top of getting a proper update, but it doesn't work for everything unless you went to go and remove all that info from the help centre too. Not impressed with this update. Not by a long shot. I don't get info relevant to my searches and I can't see my past answers. I want the old help centre back with the system that didn't load up a new page just to view an answer. Stop downgrading things like this!! default smiley :@default smiley (li)default smiley (li)
ShadowKokufu
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The new Help Center update is a bit too much.

1. When you try to ask a new question you have to click the "Still stuck? Submit a topic to the community"
But when you do it will delete the question you wrote and you have to retype it, why? Who approved this mechanism?


2. The search tags mechanism is overwhelming, there are 16 different categories that you have to decide which one is relevant to your search query. The more the merrier? Actually not, people would have a better experience when faced with a smaller amount of options pool especially when some options have overlapping areas.


3. Also, why must I search for a specific question to access the menu of choosing a category?
omer951
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