How can we improve Equiverse?

To expand on the reason I don't support EVC Foundation.

I like to have my own lines, but I always released them to public at some point (like right now). That's how I play the game. Spending real money will prevent me from playing the game. I am broke college student and I cannot afford to do that. Also, I would be super p*ssed if I got a horse with lousy conformation for EVC or horse that doesn't meet the requirement. Such waste of money.

Also, I can see that lead to elitism in this game. Established players with their own lines will benefit the most from that idea. For those who have no horses or newbies will suffered the most. Tell me, how can a newbie with less than $50k in bank afford a horse? Obviously, they can't afford to buy foundation horse. A lot of established players would sell their horses for at least $25k. Therefore, that newbie will only able to buy ONE horse without going bankrupted within a week. If that horse didn't bring that player a profit, then that player is screwed. Rescue Center will be empty so newbie cannot get a horse from there. So, where in the world can newbie find a horse? Unless, you're suggesting that established players to sell their horses for much lower price?

That idea will required us to have several rich players who are willing to spend real money on this game. We will have to depend on them for bringing new blood into the game when we are running out of horses. We will have to depend on established players to sell their horses or offer them for stud. Rich and established players vs newbies and unestablished players will lead to Elitism.

I've joined a game that cost real money for foundation, I went broke within a week and couldn't recover from it. Eventually, I left the game because I can't afford to spend my real money on a game. I've some players make it without investing real money, but it's by pure luck. If they were lucky, there would be cheap horse available on the day they joined.

I said that new players would be given their tutorial horse. Let's say it's 1 credit per horse. That makes a herd of 16 foundations only $8. I don't know about you, but I can spare $8 once in a while.

I do not support real money for foundations. New people will be disinclined to start playing. Young players will be frustrated.

Real money form deluxe features is quite nice because it doesn't detract from game play/success.

Since conformation is a feature, and foundation horses are "random" in stats/confo, I would be pretty annoyed about paying real money to get a 49% confo horse. Like irate.

Tokens are fine for adding value to foundies.

I'm ok with horse tokens being brought back, or some other way of limiting how many foundations are available, but I don't support them being limited to only being purchased with credits. The number one thing that attracted me to EV was the fact that it was not pay to get to the top, but it was pay to make things easier. By requiring foundations to be bought with credits then that gives those who can pay an advantage over those who can't.

Yes, one credit per foundation horse isn't very much at all to those of us who can pay, but there are many players on this game who are unable to pay whether it's because their parents wont allow it or because money is too tight to spend on a game.

Perhaps there can be a happy medium, where everyone has 5 horse tokens a week, with the additional option of buying 5 more tokens that week for one credit each. This way everyone can get foundations, though if someone wishes to pay the extra credits then they can purchase some extra that week.

I don't exactly enjoy the idea of limiting the number of foundations in a week, like it used to be. I like starting herds of 8/16/32 etc etc horses easily, for my own breeding projects, but I am one of the people that are also a very large "throwaway" foundation creator. I can make 100 foundations, and keep 40 of them while I search for the genes/confos I like. If I were to suggest anything to break me of that, I would prefer something along the lines of not being able to delete/rescue/resell a horse just created for x number of days. Force me to keep those foundations for a month, and I'll only create the amount I need for my projects.

I'm not even a fan of that idea, but it's better to me than limiting the amount I create. I don't want to have to buy foundations off of people for more than they're worth. One of my favorite parts about the recode is the fact I didn't need to post around to find 4-5 other people to make their 5 foundations for the week so I had enough to start my lines.

Definitely don't charge money for them. I don't have the money to spend, the credits I have are from art and other things I've sold. I wouldn't pay credits for foundations. I don't buy other people's horses for my own breeding reasons (overbred/overbred parents/not the genes I want/lines that cross my own) but I do buy a lot of horses, mainly well-maintained foundations, rather than lined horses that may or may not cross with my lines.

I do (against what I'm sure some people want) am all for a foal-number block. I realize people like pretty colors and such in breeding, or don't care about the number foals a horse has, but I feel like people would charge more for studs if they had only a limited number of breedings. I also like the idea of horses not being able to be bred before a certain age, like 10, or 15. I know not everyone does, but I can't help my opinion, haha. I feel like if the game had a clear goal - whether it be stats or confo or whatever, everyone would align in their direction. I personally feel that the goal is to get the highest statted horses on the game, but everyone plays the game in their own way.

Either way it's done, there are going to be people that love the changes, and people that hate the changes, and a dozen other people who like some and hate others.

I'd much rather have limited capability to create foundations than have to keep them for a certain period of time. There's another game I used to play that had a similar feature (though it wasn't horses) and I found it to be one of the things I liked least about the game. I liked it when players would help each other out with buying foundation horses.

i know a lot of people only breed their horses once (usually at age 20). something we could do as players that might help without the game itself being tweaked would be to breed twice. we could sell the entire first crop, or wait until both crops of foals are born and decide which ones we want to sell.

Crazy Angel, I will be doing just that because of the confo feature. 3-4 foals per pairing, aiming to keep at least 2. Stats can be improved by training/showing/treats, while I only have so many shots at getting confo that satisfies me. Any foals I cull out/sell will still be nice Gen 2 foals for those looking. Some may not be sold but studded out, which may help too.

I agree that better stock on the market could move prices upward for good stock, and downward for middling/poor stock, which is how it should be.

I want to throw out there that since the new EV, I have no had any problems selling my horses for the prices I am asking. I don't know if my prices are low (generally 10k per 100 stats), so I think the economy has been fixed. I'm not sure if that's the same for others.

I really like EV the way it is, I like the reminiscent feeling of games I played as a kid. I do like the focus on genetics though.

Edit: I believe they are selling because many breeders are starting twh lines.

And I don't agree with foundations for credits, but that's mostly because I like being able to start horses whenever I want and another just....hmm what is the word I'm looking for. It's just another aspect that reminds me of old games and I like it!!

Last edited on 2016-05-25 at 22:01:41 by marigold sunshine [mardi]

It'll depend on the breed. If it's a common breed, it'll sell decently. if it's an uncommon breed? Not likely.

Apologies in advance because this gets a bit rambly:

That's quite often been my general play style as well; breeding my pairs anywhere from 2-4 times in order to get the genetic combo I'm searching for. Now with conformation (and how much it can vary from foal to foal between the same pairing), that's an extra reason to do so. I sell most of my "extras" and keep one or two to stud out later. This means I get what I want, but can also provide good horses to other players.

Unfortunately, I have a hard time selling those horses, lately. I hold pretty firm on my pricing (as was discussed earlier in this thread; I agree firm pricing is necessary for a strong market.) A lot of that is breed; certain breeds sell fairly quickly, because they have dedicated players who are willing to pay for a high-stat horse. I don't price to gouge anyone; I usually price a bit below the 10k/100 stat "standard", unless there are desirable colors or very good conformation involved, in which case it'll be just above.
Kuk hit it pretty square; there's a lot of time and effort invested in getting these horses, and parting with them for less than that means I'm taking a serious loss on them, and I'd rather just deal with keeping extras rather than sell them at a major loss.

So I don't think that all the problem from a game-playing/horse-focused perspective on the game is the fact that people don't make their horses available for purchase; some of it is that the horses that are available simply aren't being purchased. Whether that's because people don't want lined horses, because they don't have the money to pay a fair price, because other people price horses just to get them gone, because they don't check for horses for sale, etc. I don't know.

It certainly makes me a little more worried about that 2-4 foals number going forward, because I want to be able to pick the best of them for my own program, but I don't want to be stuck with that many "spare" horses. (They're good horses; I'll keep and show them until they die if I have to, but I have so many horses as it is, I want to be cutting DOWN, not adding more!)

Some of it is maybe the "culture" of the game, where many players prize having their own, extremely private lines. That's not a bad thing! I understand the pride that comes from horses that are 100% yours for generations doing well! And I understand not wanting to rely on the availability of someone else's horses, when there might not be something that fits what you need for your own program.
(This could also change once the shininess of the new art and genetics wears off, since a lot of people started up new breeds with a boatload of foundations, but may open up to outside stock after the first generation or so. The recode hasn't let us get through a full generation yet, and that may change some things.)

But along with C.razy A.ngel's suggestion for more players to be willing to offer up "extra" horses, I'd suggest players be willing to purchase quality horses as well. Obviously that can't ever be a requirement, and for those who want to do their own thing, that's fine.
But if you want a stronger market, consider buying good stock as well as selling it. Right now it seems like kind of a vicious cycle of "my horses don't sell, so I'm not going to breed any extra" -> "there aren't any good horses available" -> "I'm going to keep my lines private, since I can't bring in comparable stock" -> "everyone has private lines, so my horses don't sell..."

So my actual game-feature suggestion:
I think that having some sort of standardized value system for our horses could be a benefit. (As I understand, this was something that existed way back before I ever started playing, in the first incarnation of the game.)
Now, this would require figuring out what the "true value" of a horse is. The 10k/100 stat figure became the player standard on the older version, but a lot has changed. so that number may not be as good a standard as it once was. (This was mentioned earlier in the thread as well.) Stat gain and inheritance has improved, daily care is a bit more costly, and I'm not sure how show earnings truly compare. A lot of people still go off of that pricing, myself included, but it might be more appropriate for that to be changed.
And as there are different goals that people can have in mind, some value is truly subjective.
So what I'm suggesting is just a base guideline; players could then make their own decisions on moving that value up or down based on conformation or color or generation or discipline or age or whatnot else.
I think having that base guideline would help people with pricing their horses, since some people really just don't know how much a horse might be worth, and wind up seriously over or under-valuing it.
And having a semi-objective value might make prospective buyers a little more willing to purchase a horse if they feel they're getting a fair deal on it, not just paying an arbitrary price.

(Edit 'cause I goofed a number.)

Last edited on 2016-05-25 at 22:32:24 by «» Only the Wind

Hmm there used to be a horse valuer if I remember correctly. When I unlocked, I had some horses pages say "this horse has been valued at 32,000"

In response to all of the past 30 or so posts:

Think back to EV when it had horse tokens. Did horses sell well then? As far as I remember there were still complaints that nobody would sell horses, and instead would just "buy" horse tokens from other people to buy the store horses they wanted. That's not really buying and selling horses, that's buying a game currency (essentially).

As for adding in standard horse prices - I am hesitant to introduce this as I don't want horse prices to stagnate. I want them to fluctuate based on user demand. At the moment, yes, we have a problem with that. But it's the same with Credits- I don't want to set a standard price because then that kills the market and has everybody just using the same price.

Last edited on 2016-05-26 at 03:57:05 by Abbey

Strong support for both the showing suggestion and the cron suggestion from the initial post.

I've played games with something similar to what you're suggestion with cron. Essentially the games were turn based, and nothing would age or similar until you manually pressed the 'take a turn button'. Would it work to have the account-cron run when a button was pressed, instead of upon login? I can see pros and cons to this.
Pro: if you just need to drop in to pick up messages or similar you don't need to worry about horses aging or wasting deluxe time, and if you decide you do have time to care for your horses that day but their division is locked, you can easily unlock them then have cron run, as opposed to unlocking the division then waiting til the next physical day, when you may no longer have time.
Con: less intuitive, so new players may get stuck. You could perhaps resolve this by having the button appear in a notification up the top of every page if it hasn't been pressed yet. Label it with something clear like "Start New Day", and when pressed have a confirmation pop-up come up saying something like "This will age your horses by 1 day and reduce your deluxe time by 1 day. Are you sure you wish to continue?"

As an aside, having a manual button instead of automation would open you up to the possibility of stacking turns and taking multiple turns/days within a short space of time, i.e. take turn, horses age, deluxe time decreases by a day, care for horses, create shows, etc, then repeat until out of turns. You could gain 1 turn per day, and have it capped at, say 10, so you couldn't exactly go from foal to retirement too quickly, even if you were away from EV for a while, allowing you build up turns. Deluxe players could get perks such as getting a bonus turn every few days or so, and/or having a higher cap. Or maybe this could be gained through a credit item? This turn based system may shorten the physical time it takes for horses to age, but not by so much that you could get huge advantages from it.

Regarding making EV more engaging or giving people more things to do, some ideas (apologies for any repetition, I haven't read all the comments on this thread):

- Quests, something like my comment on this suggestion, where quests/challenges change regularly, and the size/difficulty of the quest (and resulting reward) is dependent on player level, that way newbies aren't turned off by things that are too hard, and established players aren't turned off by things that are too easy and boring, or offer little benefit.

- Jobs, where players specialise in certain tasks, which gives them account/horse bonuses. Depending on how you play the game depends on which job would benefit you the most, and you'd also need to engage with other players in some manner who had different jobs to you in order to gain those benefits.

- Grow crops. Maybe we could get a field where we could grow our own feed/treats. Deluxe players could maybe get more than one? Or ability to purchase more? You could buy seeds from the store, plant them in your field and have to tend them each day for a week for them to grow to maturity, then harvest them to get the items. If you miss a day your yield is reduced by, say, 10%. Maybe make it possible to find rare magic seeds not available in the store that allow you to grow things like peppermints. Growing things would be cheaper than buying them, thus reducing your horse care costs, and you could sell extras on the player market. However I can see this quickly flooding the player market unless there was a clear benefit to players buying things here instead of the store, such as store produce being limited in supply, or player grown crops being very slightly better than anything that can be bought in the store. For example, store has Turnips, which offer a 50:50 chance of 1 or 2 stats, while players can grow Quality Turnips, which offer a 40:60 chance of 1 or 2 stats.

- Bonuses for doing certain things and/or logging in regularly like what Nittrous suggested.

- Random events, where every time you load a page there is a very very small change of a random event happening, which is just a notification with messages like "you were out for a walk and found some wild carrots. 1 bag of carrots added to your inventory!" or "you were brushing your horse when they coughed up a ring. you sold it for $2,000!" This would mean the longer you spent on the site the more random events you would get. It would be something fun and interesting, without offering massive benefits to those who have the time to play all day. Maybe also include extremely rare events, which give credit items, or add a tiny bit of time to auto-care, etc.

- Would love to see clubs expand, but don't know what to suggest.

- I like the idea of official game contests/events that's been mentioned here. Things we need to use our horses to participate in, but also things where both established players and newbies are on a reasonably even playing field. A lot of games I've played that have high player engagement have a similar system.


Holy epic brain dump, batman! Sorry I wrote so much. :P

Last edited on 2016-05-26 at 04:44:55 by UlyssesBlue

For the "only progressing the account when a member logs in" thing - I would implement it by way of having to press a button to confirm you want to log in for the day, rather than allowing access to the whole game. This would lock out messages and forums as well, but with horse locking remaining in place I'd say that this is a fair compromise - to use the community you actually have to play the game.

I would not allow turns to "stack up" so that multiple logins could take place in the same day. It would still run on a daily basis.