How can we improve Equiverse?

This post is locked for now - I will be posting a topic soon detailing the suggestions that I like and will be implementing to the game in the near future! Keep your eyes peeled :)

I want to open up a bit of a discussion, and I feel like the best place to do that would be the game discussion board ;D

Please bear in mind that everything mentioned here is purely hypothetical and may not be applied to the game at all.

With that being said, how is everyone finding the new Equiverse so far?

I've been trying to play the game on-and-off, and while I'm extremely happy with the artwork (I think the artist did an amazing job) I find the gameplay a little.. stale. We are technically working on a model from the 1990s where you care for your horses, show them, possibly breed them, and then that's it. You're done for the day.

I spend 5 minutes caring for my 18 horses, entering them in shows (albeit with auto-care and auto-showing), I ride if I remember to and then I'm at a loss of what to do. The game doesn't really draw me in enough to stick around for hours at a time. And while that's cool for some people who may not have much time to dedicate to an online horse sim, for other people who enjoy the community and want something else to do other than endlessly browse the forums, that's not really good enough.

So that begs the question; How can we improve Equiverse?

I have a couple of ideas, but I'd really like to hear from you. In order to get the ball rolling, I'll start with:

After a couple of months of considering, I've conceded to the idea that showing is very stale and there needs to be more intuition from that side of things. A suggestion a while ago said that shows being created should be available immediately. I now agree with that sentiment, but with a couple of other ideas: I would want to reduce the number of maximum entries a show can take, and I would want to restrict the amount of entries by a single account (to stop members creating shows and then immediately filling them up with their own horses). I would then let shows run as soon as they are full.

I have also been considering a system where members don't have to worry about logging on every day to look after their horses, or locking their account so their horses don't age. This would be a system where cron is separated entirely from the overall game and becomes linked to each account. When that account accesses the game for the first time that day, that is when cron runs for them. This would include horses aging/losing hunger/etc, Deluxe accounts running down, and so on. I know this keeps getting brought up, and it's very polarizing, but this is my current train of thought.

I'd love to hear your thoughts :) if you have any experiences from other games that you think would apply here too, feel free to post them.

Last edited on 2016-08-11 at 02:32:35 by Abbey

I think there does need to be a bit more to do.

If you don't do art, it's very difficult to make money, but very easy to spend it.

I think there should be more games (not the world type ones). Perhaps things like solitaire, Sudoku, mahjong, etc, to make a little bit on the side along with higher/lower and coin flip.

I LOVE the way the system is for caring, training and breeding over all. And I love that it's very reminiscent of old sim games. THAT helped draw me in. (the art community keeps me here)

I would love to see more incentive for activity in the forums as well.

I'd like to see the clubs more dynamic as well. Polls added, etc, maybe some bonuses for your horses qualifying for official clubs?

I like the idea of shows being available immediately and limiting them.

A game I play essentialy has auto locking, so if you dont log in that day, everything on your account is as it was when you left it until logging back in. I think this would be a great idea to implement if you wantd to do any sort of auto locking system.

BUT, this game also is not a horse sim, and does not have things like showing/and training in the same regard.

ETA: Another game I play has post tipping. So when someone likes or agrees with your post, you can tip them from your own funds. The tip is a very miniscule amount compared to the over all economy of that game. (25 gold when even the poorest only have 1 billion gold)

Last edited on 2016-05-19 at 16:58:59 by -❆-Buck

Personally, I like the old school horse-sim the best. That's what keeping me here for several years. Currently, it take me about 30min-1hr to take care of my 100+ horses. Then maybe other 30min-1hr on showing my horses (if I decided to handpick shows). I find that little too much so I locked most of my horses to cut down time spend.

I would love to see stricter breed associations. Right now, clubs are flexible and many horses can be registered into club if presidents like them. I think it takes away challenge. I would love to see associations that are super strict with registry and offer perks. I think it would be challenging and fun goal to breed for associations' standard. Associations should have their own show system that only horses from that association can enter.

EDIT:
Perhaps the associations should have a standard set. EX: to register your horse, your horse must be:
1. At least 500 stats.
2. 80% confo or higher.
3. Trained in Western or Endurance. - okay, maybe not this...
(note: this is purely example. But, that's how strict I would like it to be. I would like that it is standard so new president can't modify it.)

Perks can be:
Registered horse can show in their association shows plus regular. ex: 10 regulars + 5 association shows.
Hall of Fame - I like Aglet's idea. Permanent Medals/Ribbons on Horses' page and small money prize for getting on hall of fame. Gold Medals - In top five. Sliver - Top ten. Bronze - Fifteen.

Which brings me to achievement related to shows. Maybe we should add achievement system for horses... if a horse won first place in 100 shows, it will earn medal or ribbons. 500 shows, trophy. Something like that. Achievement should come with small perks as well. To encourage players to breed for success...

Last edited on 2016-05-20 at 08:20:47 by Aɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇᴅᴀ

*First off, I really do love the recode, and almost all the changes have been positive ones, in my opinion. :)
But now, enjoy some disjointed ramblings:

*I think some expansion of clubs would be a great way to increase interest/time spent/community, but I'm not entirely sure what to suggest! I wish more people took advantage of the breed clubs as we have them, but some club leaders are much more active than others, and for some no matter how much the president tries to drum up interest, no one participates. It seems like the clubs could somehow be a more-used tool for networking as well as improving your horses, but I don't know how to encourage that.

*I'm intrigued by the idea of the sort of "individual cron" that you mention. I just posted a thing (in response to a suggestion) about how I worried that auto-locking could negatively impact the game, but if you think otherwise, as a player I'd be in favor of it. I've actually spent a fair amount of time worrying about how hard it would be to revive my herd if I ever failed to lock, haha, and not having to be afraid of that would be a big relief. I spend a lot of time here, lol, and knowing my work is safe would make me very glad. (And remove some anxiety every time I have a late day at work or my internet goes down or if I decide to go on vacation, haha.)

*Like some other commenters, I really enjoy some of the simplicity of the game. (The "old school" vibe, lol.) There's enough strategy required (choosing breeding pairs, picking shows, etc) that I do think about the game and what I'm doing, but it's not so complex it becomes frustrating. I wouldn't want that aspect to be changed too drastically, because I do play the game for fun. I don't want it to feel like work or a chore or something I can mess up too badly. :P

*I have a LOT of horses, around 300 or 400 over two accounts, so I spend probably a minimum of 2 hours on the game each day. Often far more, if I browse the forums, work on breeding plans, or if my internet is slow, lol. I really wouldn't want any new features to be particularly time-consuming (or if they were, I wouldn't want them to be 100% necessary) because I'd have a hard time keeping up. (Totally my fault having so many horses, admittedly.) But I can certainly see that for people with 10 or 20 horses, or even 50, it doesn't take long to do the daily routine.
And all that said about how much time I spend here, pretty much all of that *is* just on the basic daily grind.

*I like Buck's suggestion about having more little mini-game type things. Especially as an avenue for making a bit of money. Not that I want EV to feel like just a hub for flash games or anything (not like Neopets or Webkinz or something, lol), but as something to do to kill some time and get a little cash.

*I'm still not sure how best to improve the economy. It seems like the people who have a lot of money are still the artists, and everyone else is pretty stuck. :/ I don't make or sell art, and from show earnings I've been fairly consistently on the leaderboards... yet I don't feel especially wealthy. (I'm not hurting for money or anything, I have plenty in the bank, but most of that came with me from old EV.) Some players buy good horses for what seemed relatively standard pricing on the old incarnation of the game, but to be honest 80% of the offers I got (prior to minimum bids being enacted, thank you for that!) were extremely low-ball offers. (1000 EVC for a 500 statted foal? No.)
Honestly, I'd really like it to be easier to make money with horses, but I'm not sure how to do that without it causing inflation, and the problem just resurfacing. :/
But we seem to be in the same boat as the old incarnation of the game, where people don't blink an eye at 50k for a tag, but 50k for an excellent horse that's the product of careful raising and breeding for months or years is a hard sell.
And in general, daily stuff is just more expensive now than it was; at least 40k to show, 5-6k to repair my tack daily, 8k-ish on feeding/treating, plus training... I don't object to any of these things, but it makes the profit from winning shows disappear very quickly! (Again, I have a lot of horses, so my costs are high, but so are my winnings, usually.) I feel kind of stuck, despite doing well by most measures.

*I will try to think about more actual suggestions, rather than just pointing out areas that I think could improve.

I absolutely love the recode, but I do have issues with the economy on here. I feel like equiverse is a sim game first, and art, although a big part of that, should not be the big dictator of things. For people like me, who are on equiverse for no other reason than the fact we really love the game, it can feel really quite unfair when we are at a disadvantage at times financially over what is essentially an add-on to the game.

I really like the idea of having other ways to make money through the game. I think it would be cool if an element of strategy could be added through this also.

Just my two cents, thanks for everything you've done Abbey ♥

I think the problem with economy is the fact that some players refused to be firm with their price...

For example, EVC's price are flexible now. I've tried to keep EVC's price higher (more than $50k) but other players keep selling it for lower than $50k. Once, I've seen someone selling it for $40k (which I snatched quickly and sold it for $50k - $10k profit for me). That concerned me because if the value of EVC went down, then everything else' value can go down as well.

For horses, I've seen some players selling their horses for under 10k. They didn't even bother to set a reasonable flat price. When I set price, I tend to do it in two ways.

1. Set a reasonable flat price and be firm with it.
2. Set a price that are 20k above flat price I want and allow buyers to "negotiate" the price down to flat price. Buyers love it when they "save" money.

Most players didn't remain firm with flat price and often caved to unreasonable low price. Now, the buyers begin to think that 1k is reasonable price. Hence, the low balling offers.

That is why art community did so well. Good artists usually stay firm with their pricing so the standard price didn't change.

I honestly don't think economy will improve at all. No matter what.
Unless, we set up EV wide standard system and code it in. EX: EVC cannot be sold in EVC Sale for anything under $50k. Set up system that value your horses (goal: the value will be set as minimum price not base) and the horses cannot be sold for anything below that. Saddle cannot be sold for anything below $200. ETC...

EV wide standard system will prevent players from going lower and lower. Which is happening right now with EVC and majority of items sale. Two months ago, I was able to sell tack bundle for $650 easily. But some players decided to go lower than me so it can be sell faster. Now, my $650 tack bundle will not get sold unless I lowered them to $500. Same thing with EVC, some player would sell their EVC cheaper than lowest price available to ensure that their EVC will get sold first.

However, I can see that majority of players will protest against EV wide standard system. They like that they are able to sell their stuff faster by going cheaper. That's why I doubt that EV's economy will ever improved.
People seem to not realize that if they remain firm with it and people will eventually buy it... I just sold 4 of my EVC for 55k because it was lowest available at that time. After mine got sold, the lowest was $60k. However, that only lasted for few hours because the lowest was 44k few hours later. That's how fragile EV's economy is. EVC's value went from 45k to 60k then to 44k in few hours. That's 20k difference.

Last edited on 2016-05-20 at 08:03:05 by Aɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇᴅᴀ

I think the suggestions you made are good abbey. I liked the old EV where shows ran if they were full and we're available to enter right away. Since the new EV I realized that most shows don't get entries unless hand chosen.

I like 15 entries, 3-5 per person

I know that many players might disagree with me, but I'm personally not a huge fan of the idea of implementing a personal player CRON. There is something about knowing that I need to care for my horses that makes this game more fun to play. Then on those days when I'm too tired I log on real quick and lock my account. I know that life happens and players may not be able to log on, but I just prefer the current system. If a player CRON was added to the game I would most definitely continue playing and wouldn't even be too upset, but thought I'd put in my two cents on the idea.

Overall I love the new version of EV, I think the biggest problem we're facing is that players are holding onto standards set in the old game. (for example: 50k = 1 EVC, stats x 100 = standard price of covering/horse, etc.) I'm not sure how these old ideas can be reworked or changed so that they actually fit the new game better, maybe it'll take more time?

On Abbey's idea for shows I really think it would be okay. My biggest concern is that if I can only enter (say 4) horses per show, will there be enough shows at a given time for me to actually enter my over 300 horses?

I would love a way to make the breed clubs a more important part of game play, but as much I work at it, players still seem uninterested in the contests, games, or services I've tried to provide. I'd love it if there were some game implemented bonuses for horses registered to a club. Maybe we could have a player hall of fame & horse hall of fame with in the club? That way members could have a way to compete with each other for first place.

*Thought I'd edit to say I don't think stats or advantages in competition would make good club registry bonuses. I was thinking more of a monetary or player experience type of bonus. One that makes it worth while to players to register their horses, but doesn't mean that their horses will do better in competition.

Last edited on 2016-05-20 at 10:07:15 by Aɢʟᴇᴛ

I'm not sure about the idea of club perks. As it stands, I've stopped registering my horses with some of the clubs I'm in because I dislike the new registration rules. So, hypothetically speaking, my horses would be at a disadvantage.

Honestly, the game is a bit repetitive. It's boring having to wait 5 months to be able to bred a horse. While I can understand the nostalgia that people have, I frankly spend most of my time on other games that don't require a massive amount of waiting. I see EV as a chore most of the time. The only "excitement" is getting to maybe breed one or two horses every few weeks.

I think clubs registry should be averaged off the base number of stats for the horses in that breed

For foundations and second generations its tough to meet certain requirements or just luck that you can.

I think having some players run tests and keeping track of how many xyz can be gained through foundations till retirement may be a good idea to figure out registry. Have this testing go on all the way through to have a heavily pedigreed horse, although time consuming it would be a good way to get a baseline for registry fairness.

An average stat requirement wouldn't be a too bad of an idea, but I could see it getting skewed by stat monsters. So, maybe average - (some number) = minimum stat requirement.

@ Kuk, you brought up the length of horses' life issue. Do you have any suggestion about this issue?

Personally, the length of horse' life span doesn't bother me but I won't object if it is little shorter. However, I haven't see any good suggestion that appeal to majority. So if you have any suggestions, please do share.

Without completely revamping the game, no. The game is built upon the idea of stat growth over the course of a horse's life, which is why it's preferred to wait till the last possible day to breed horses.

Making the "years" shorter would make it harder to calculate when a horse ages and lessen the amount of stats gained unless the amount of stats gained from training/treats/shows is increased.

My issue is actually have to wait those 5 months to breed the horse once. Most games I play have set "traits", an analogue would be the conformation, and then "trainable traits", i.e the stats.

Like I said, it would result in a massive revamp of things and cause 95% of the players to go into a salty furor.

I find that when people have guidelines on the club, ie you need this many stats if your horse is X generation, etc a bit hard to keep up with so if I see anything like that I dont usually bother registering at all in clubs past the store generation because usually those are pretty darn simple to reach/understand. I wouldnt like it if the game force this to be something you had to do.

Often times right now I am on my phone when I play so somedays I just go I dont feel like dealing with my 65 unlocked horses and lock them for the day XD I am thankful that my Dad has felt like going to the library a lot recently because phone company being stupid and all makes it so I cant use the internet when I'm at home (which sucks because the hill right behind us, if I go up it, gets 4G xD), so I dont feel like the horse side needs more there really. But I am also just a frustrated internet via phone person in general so, idk XD

What would be fun is if personal groups could have horses added to them, so that your horse could be registered to more then one group that fits it, so to speak. But once again that could just be me XD Honestly Abbey, whatever you do always excites me along with everything that is already here so I am not picky whatsoever if you decide to add or not add more to it :D

You're about to hear the ramblings of a very tired Nitty, so bear with me.

If you're seeking to bolster the economy, it would be difficult, if near impossible. I'm using only my experience, which I must add is only a few random college courses and a love of World of Warcraft. I assume it's difficult to scale an economy down, so my rambling ideas may not work. A lot of economics classes use WoW for a good idea of an economy that's not real-world though, so here's what I've learned.

The ability for players to make money through time and dedication is important. You could consider the horse market here an example of what time and dedication can bring, but as like someone stated above, sometimes horses are priced like dirt. I know a lot of people go by the 1000 x 100s, but I've had my Appaloosa's priced for that -10k and they're slow to sell. People just feel like they don't -need- the horses, or don't have the space, or any other reason anyone can think up for buying more horses. I'm sure there are a million. If prices are low because people don't have money to buy/expand/etc, then something needs to be done to get those people that money. Through time and dedication. WoW has professions, where you do daily creations, and once you have so many of those items you can make a better item, and sell it. My brain doesn't want to think of anything like that as it pertains to horses, except for how the training system works.

Stats = money. Not all the time, as there are many different routes on the game that you can go through, color/confo/lineage, etc. But, maybe if there was another training aspect added, where your horse could go... I don't know, work on a lunge line, once every three hours. Gain a few stats. People could go do that to make their horses better.

Maybe make site-wide contests/events. A huge national conformation show is coming and everyone has 1 month to get their horses in shape. Maybe it counts the happiness, maybe if the horse was taken care of every day. You need to reward people for getting on the game and doing what they're supposed to do. Make a confo show for the people who do confo, make a stats one for the people who do stats. I don't know anything about coding, so it could be immense, or it could just be an algorithm to count how often they were fed/treated/whatever on top of their conformation/stats. I realize Equiverse is about everyone building to what they like in a horse, but we all know that stats and confo (with color included with the two) are the important aspects of the game.

People play WoW obsessively because it's a game where the amount of time you play more or less (depending on RNG, kinda like here) equals out to your success in the game. That's how I could see adding more to the game, and eventually fix the economy. There needs to be more money into the system for everyone who takes the time to play the game, while still allowing "casuals" to enjoy it as well. Being able to lock/unlock accounts helps with this, as you can't really lose your spot in the world, but the people who are on feeding/treating/training/showing each day should get something on top of that. It shouldn't be impossible to ever lock your account cause you'd miss out on whatever that "reward" is, but it should make people think "well, I can take the extra few minutes to take care of all these monsters (yes, monsters they are when there are so many) and get ____ for doing it in the long run."

It could be as simple as "hey, you logged in here for the seventh day in a row! You get ____!" or the more extensive monthly contest where it would track your entrance each day and you get something random that you can use if you collect so many. "Enter this conformation show every day and receive 1 chip (or 2, or 3, or 10). Enter 7 days in a row and get bonus chips. End of the month you get to use them on better tack, better treats, color randomizers, random rare genes for your horses, something that boosts conformation on your next breeding, etc etc"

Yeah, I'm sure I had more to this but it slipped away. XD If you implemented the cron running only when you log in thing, the idea of logging in each day to enter whatever collection contest would be more of a draw. People would stick on the site longer over the course of the day to do something every three-four (longer/shorter, depending) that could give them a chance to earn more tokens, or more stats.