How can we improve Equiverse?

Question for clarification, Abbey...

In that compromise (which I think is fair) would you be getting rid of individual division locking?

No, division locking would stay, but I would probably remove full account locking as it would no longer really be needed.

My only suggestion has to do with conformation stats, because I pretty much love everything else about this game, and that suggestion would be to have *less* stats. Maybe get it down to four or five instead of eight?

I guess the only reason for this suggestion is that when I first began playing it was hard to see exactly what to breed for, but it seems to be this game is geared more towards stat points than conformation, so maybe save a bit of that coding for something else? Anyway, just my 2c worth after reading the whole thread :D

Last edited on 2016-05-26 at 08:51:14 by Poetry + Roses Stables

^^ I have to disagree. I love conformation because it gives more realistic feeling to the game. If possible, I would love for the game to shift the focus on conformations/heights/temperaments instead of stats.

Poetry, there's no point saving coding for something.. I don't have to continually maintain specific pieces of code so it wouldn't save me any time reducing the number of conformation stats.. in fact it would create work for me :P

Oh! Never thought about that! Well, then, I can't think of anything else to change. I really like all the stuff that's been added, so I will stop cluttering up the thread :)

I think it's difficult for new players to start up their herd and keep a good budget, so it'd be nice to even out the economy a bit more.

The interest thing, sure, but if you're broke like me, well for the last few weeks I've been getting $31 interest, while people with a few million... While if I suddenly become rich and get tons of interest I'm sure I'd love the current system, but since I'm in state of perpetual broke-ness, I prefer the old 'allowance' money (15k a week).

I don't like the current leisure riding. I've done it 5 times a day for the past week and gotten nothing. I think it'd be much better if it went back to the original 1 time a day (or maybe 2), but with better, more frequent rewards.

Just wanted to throw an idea out there... I have learned through discusison wiht other players that quite a few do not like the private auction feature, myself included..There are players who say they wont even look at horses up for private auction...The problems Ive encounter with private auctions is, I would bid on a horse ...and not hear anything for2 weeks or longer...totally forgot even bid on the horse by the time I got a response that my bid had been accepted..Well, by that time, I'd already found another horse and purchased it..so I just blew money on bidding on a horse weeks ago and not getting a timely response...

Just a suggestion, that may improve the sales market.. An public auction house. Players could put their horses up for auction for a set period, ie 24, 48 hrs...Other members would be able to follow the auctions and monitor the biddings..Players would notice which horses are getting the most bids and where they're at...which may make them want to bid on a particular horse, thinking..'it must be good, everyone wants it'.. more bidding, higher prices.. In a previous game I played...the auction house was very popular.. Even foundies were going for decent money...
Just a thought.......( creeps back to her corner)

I apologise for the super long post but I was looking at everyone else's suggestions in turn.

I don't support having a turn based account, I love cron running at a set point in the day, sad as it sounds it gives me a reason to get up. I think if this was taken away, a lot of players would be less inclined to visit each day and your player base will drop pretty quickly- not to mention a lot of other games are turn based, and I think cron makes EV a little bit more unique.

I agree with Sonoma on limiting General Store items, I think it worked well when someone would buy out the items in the store, and everyone would buy out the treats on the market, it creates a demand for items if they run out.

Cross breeding would be cool but I'm not sure of how the popularity would play out, it'd certainly work well when there's a lack of studs for one breed, but as soon as you've done that it makes those lines impure and possibly a less valuable horse. What happens to the horse after that? If it gets to 90% Arab lines in the pedigree is it considered an Arab again? Is it going to remain a cross breed in that pedigree forever? It's a cool idea just either needs more thought or to be avoided completely.

We've had the height and temperament discussion before, and I think the agreement was it'd be a nice personalisation feature for the horses, but long lines could suddenly be put at a huge disadvantage if it affected competitions, and it'd annoy a lot of players. So don't think it'd should affect competitions.

Don't agree with foundations = 1 evc. You're going to severely limit the horse market that way in terms of pedigree, especially with the inbreeding block. If you can't afford foundations, you're effectively screwed. However I support bringing back horse tokens, but only in an even amount. A lot of players will buy horse pairs and herds to be equal, I thought the old limit of 5 horse tokens was stupid because of this, if it's going to be reintroduced then I think 8-12 horse tokens a week will suffice, with the ability to buy more horse tokens with credits.

I support the idea of a public auction house, I think the time limit on bidding on a horse will give players more of an incentive to bid on the horse they want before it's sold to someone else. As someone who uses the private auction feature a lot, I prefer to vet homes before selling on good horses but unfortunately it seems to be a turn off for people. As long as the auction house has the ability for a player to remove a horse for sale and to set a minimum/reserve price, I think it would be a good replacement for the private auction feature.

^ If not a public auction house then at least make private studding and private auction prices visible on the horse search.

I like Aglets idea of club bonuses, right now there's not really incentive to register horses in clubs other than to have a "this horse is registered here" on the page. I don't think strict/standards should be brought into clubs, it's a player thing, and players should be able to play how they want. I don't breed for conformation but if I wanted to register a 1k stat horse in a club, I'd be annoyed if I couldn't do it just because of a conformation of 80% not being met. If something like this was introduced it should be either optional, or the horse only has to meet 2/5 requirements or something like that.

Crops for stables would be cool too, but, if this happens then there's the possibility of the General Store treats being made redundant if player grown crops are going to be better. This would have to have careful thought if it's going to be implemented.

Also in regards to the art = rich argument, not necessarily true in all cases and this is a problem that's pretty much subsided since the recode. The art community isn't really what it was in terms of 'good' art being sold and (personal opinion from a super picky person) a lot of what is being bought is more pity buying than anything else. Art players shouldn't be punished just because they're able to make nice work, if players weren't making art, then you wouldn't have all the lovely custom tags and signatures to put on your accounts. Good art takes time and effort, so of course players are going to charge higher for it, it's a perk.

Also on the custom horse images comment, the reason nobody is selling those is because guess what- there's maybe what, 4-5 players that are actually at level 30? There's no market for it right now, I expect once players start hitting level 30 then there'll be a lot more game related art.

Speaking of art, I still love the idea of personalising tack/accessories/backgrounds to horses. I believe there was some mention of different backgrounds being available in the future, but I can see personalised accessories becoming a thing. There could be set locations for items like dumped tack on the floor, grooming kits, small animals/pets etc. Or even just allow players to add their own items to items lots, draw their own head collars/bridles/tacks etc if not having game items. This could also open up rare event and limited time items and such, snowmen for christmas, easter bunnies for easter. Just a thought, I like personalization aspects even if I have 300+ horses, I think it'd make up for the 5 months we have them, ha.

Also I really want to say, can the statistics page please be finished/updated? It looks like it's been a little bit forgotten about. I also think each breed could do with a breakdown of how many of that breed are in which discipline, maybe number of horses with THIS colour/marking, etc. Just saves repetitive questions on disciplines and colour rarity when players are starting up new breeds.

Cron is not unique to EV. Most horse games run on a 1 real life week=1 game year system. It's basically the norm for horse games that was started way back when with HL.

Games that are turn based are actually pretty uncommon. VHR/howrse are the only two I can think of. There might be others that use the system but they'd be non-horse and I don't really venture onto non-horse games.

Anyway. VHR is the older of the two and was very, very popular back in the early to mid 2000s. The only reason it declined was that the admin only updated the game once a year and then stopped being a presence on the game entirely. Howrse, as most know, is still very popular.

As much as I'm probably going to be slammed for this, EV honestly doesn't offer anything new that the 20+ other horse sims out there doesn't.

On an unrelated note, I like the idea of the auction house. My only comment is that horses that are entered into an auction should be locked. No showing, no breeding, no aging, etc.

Maple, you put this in the words I couldn't find:
"I like Aglets idea of club bonuses, right now there's not really incentive to register horses in clubs other than to have a "this horse is registered here" on the page. I don't think strict/standards should be brought into clubs, it's a player thing, and players should be able to play how they want. I don't breed for conformation but if I wanted to register a 1k stat horse in a club, I'd be annoyed if I couldn't do it just because of a conformation of 80% not being met. If something like this was introduced it should be either optional, or the horse only has to meet 2/5 requirements or something like that."

Completely agree. :)

A few of my own opinions.. (totally worked off of maples post, Thanks! ♥♥)

auction houses

I would absolutely adore an auction house being added. I personally, don't mind who my horses go to as long as I get the money from it. Once I sell it, I have no rights to them. I would love to be able to maybe sell a couple horses at auction that maybe I couldn't sell on straight sale. I'm probably one of the few players who do not have problems selling horses, but even then I support an auction.

I also feel like the auction might do a better job of getting horses who are for sale noticed. I don't know about anyone else, but I know I would be the type to go to the auction house and just browse and if something catches my eye I might put in a few bids even if I'm not looking for anything in particular.

General Store items

If you put a couple horses in the riding school instead of showing them, you can get a good surplus of treats. I totally agree that perhaps limiting the general store would help create a demand. It's not unlikely for a new player to maybe put some carrots they got from the school in the item market for maybe a little more then store price, and if the store is out and an experienced player needs that treat, the newer player would be able to earn a little bit that they otherwise may not have been able to earn.

crossbreeding

I have no opinion. I'm neither for, nor against it.

heights + temperament

This is tough for me, Because I can see a lot of where it's coming from. But having been on EV for a long time, I hate for the horses I have worked on for 7+ years be at a disadvantage... again. My poor Arabians and Morgans, and even Haflingers. The ones from my original lines have already been at a disadvantage from stats. I started those lines before stats were introduced and then a couple generations in they were no better then stores. I hate to see 7 years of work be almost useless if height come into play and then "they're too tall" to do well in shows, or "too short" or any of above.

Crops

I feel like a crop field option would only be successful if the general store was limited, or if the treats grown could not be found in stores.



As for everything else, I really have no opinion on quite yet. I'll add if I get one though!

I haven't read through every comment, so I apologize if I am repeating specific comments...

I don't personally like the idea of an individual player CRON per se. It would make the game a little easier, yes, but I'm thinking from a different point of view from simple convenience, and I will explain.

Yes it can be a problem for people who, say, can't pay the internet bill or have a sudden power outage and can't log in for two weeks, to come back to deceased horses. I actually support an idea that Siren had in another thread regarding this issue, where auto-locking occurs after a set period of time (before horse death, perhaps after five consecutive days of absence) as a credit purchasable option. This takes care of that problem.

Now my reasoning behind this is two-fold. One, it does give the player base a little cushioning against worry of inability to care for horses for whatever reason (and trust me, guys, I get that - I was without internet for a few months once, and I had been playing a game that completely deletes player accounts that have been inactive for 40 days).

Secondly, I actually enjoy the idea of horses being neglected and dying... not because I find those sorts of things enjoyable, but because we have a lot of younger players and I think that including these things in the game helps to instill a sense of responsibility that is so often needed in the world today. I feel that personal CRON run when a player logs in would essentially remove that aspect and there would be virtually no fear of horses dying from neglect (unless someone logs in for over a week, doesn't care for their horses, and ignores warning messages).

Of course, that's coming from a place of viewing these newer generations who, no offense to anybody, seem to largely (not all of these children, but very many) be entitled and not worry about responsibility. Again, this is not a blanket statement encompassing ALL younger people, but I feel like the responsibility aspect that comes from the inclusion of neglect and death in the game to be important. If that makes any sense at all.

I know that there are other ways to learn to be responsible and games are supposed to be fun, but it's personally a really important trait and skill to learn. I've seen at points threads where younger players ask for advice on how to convince parents to allow them to have x animal as a pet, and players respond with "show them you can be responsible." And yes, as I stated above, there may be other ways to show responsibility, but a game is a great place to start to learn that.

I'm going to shut up before I keep blathering and make a fool of myself, if I have not already accomplished that XD

"I also feel like the auction might do a better job of getting horses who are for sale noticed. I don't know about anyone else, but I know I would be the type to go to the auction house and just browse and if something catches my eye I might put in a few bids even if I'm not looking for anything in particular." - kimtia
^ Couldn't agree more. An auction house would really bring a lot of visibility to horses for sale/auction and may be exactly what we need to stimulate the horse economy. I would also be the sort of person to just randomly browse it on occasion. Instead of having something like the horse search showing each horse for sale we could have something a bit more graphical, with a thumbnail of the horse's image along with some of the main points about it listed next to it, e.g. name, breed, gender, stats, colour, marking, genes, price.

Another point I thought I'd mention with the account-level cron: this may help to keep new players who've just signed up. I don't know about everyone else, but when I first start a new game I don't often immediately become hooked and play every day. There might be a few days between my first few logins and I know if I logged in for only the second time to find there had been negative consequences for my short absence it would be easy to decide the game wasn't worth my time and I wouldn't stick around. Especially if I had other demands on my time which meant I knew daily logins wouldn't be feasible (e.g. school, work, or just social life). There are plenty of games I enjoyed which I have left completely because they required daily logins to avoid severe penalties and I just didn't have the time to guarantee I'll always be able to do that. When I get hooked on a game daily logins usually end up happening anyway, but if they're effectively forced right from the start that's quite a turn off.

I'm absolutely against the limited horse tokens and paying EVC for horses from Equine Center. This would give huge and very unfair advantage to established players and people with ability to buy a lot of EVC. There are lot of young players who hasn't have independent income yet and can't afford to buy EVC.

I believed that the problem of too many unwanted horses can be solved with implementing of ability to delete horses. I know that this feature can rise objections and concerns for pedigrees, but I believe it can be solved with the deleting being restricted only to horses that don't have foals.