How can we improve Equiverse?

•Honestly I think that each breed should have a specialty that it gets bonus points for showing in. People would be more apt to show in that discipline so you'd have a higher consolidation of horses with set strengths. Having that higher consolidation would make for a larger gene pool and more people to breed with and compete against. People could still show in whatever they wanted - but they just wouldn't get that bonus.

•Like the people above said - something to do with the foals would be good too.

•Maybe some sort of title system next to the horse's names would be interesting - when they reach a certain amount of points or whatever they'd get little symbols like the horses do in the arab world + ++ // etc. It would quickly let people know who is an accomplished horse and would add even more value to those horses as well as bragging rights to the owner.

•Other things like weekly championships or something would be interesting. Horse would have had to make a certain amount of points to be able to enter the show - and then they'd be able to enter a championship show for their discipline (could be nice if it was by breed and discipline but that might get too hairy). A larger purse would be issued to that winner and maybe a cute rosette graphic could be slapped on the horse for the week or a little ribbon in the background or on the page - or even just a little trophy. Idunno.


•As far as graphics goes. People might enjoy being able to tack their horses. It'd be a money sink which we kinda need. Halters, Bridles, Pads, Saddles, Wraps, Blankets, decorations, etc. I know that it'd be a "long term" type thing since graphics are expensive - but it's an idea - the stuff could actually even be bought with credits to make it more worth while to have the graphics done.

•I think that branding would be nice to implement. Something permanent that a breeder (and only the breeder) could place on the horse.

each breed should have a specialty that it gets bonus points for showing in

-I like this, except I don't think the game has enough breeds to make it worthwhile (and it would be disproportionate if matching game breeds to what breeds 'typically' do IRL). I'm having a hard time wording exactly what my thinking on that is, but I think it might be better to give bonuses to generations of horses that have all been bred for and competed in the same discipline (e.g., my Andalusians have always been for dressage, so multiple generations down the line will have been 'bred' specifically for that, thus earning a small bonus for competing in the 'right' discipline - since this could work for every breed regardless of discipline, it would even things out better. If that makes absolutely no sense, I apologize. Like I said, I'm having trouble wording it.

some sort of title system

-I would LOVE to see something like this!

We could have our own little business! Like tack making, but the tack would be different to ordinary tack? Idk! Or farms? Let me know what you think!

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but I don't quite feel like going through 5 pages of paragraphs, so I'll just say:

I loved Shifty Jim. I feel like having him back and players being able to find out what their horse is truly worth, is something that would help selling horses at reasonable prices. I feel like if other members were able to see what a certain horse was valued at, and what they were being sold for, would REALLY help increase the amount of horses people buy from one another.

Edit: I also just found it really fun to find out what my horses that I spent the hard time and money on were worth. And trying to increase value on my horses was something I tried really hard at.

Last edited on 2016-07-17 at 05:06:51 by wey™

wey, shifty jim was nice and all, but from what I remember he valued horses at the bottom dollar, so therein I didn't use him much for my prized personal horses because they mean so much more to me when trying to sell them.

Ohhhh I remember that. If there was any way to try and fix that I would like for him back, but otherwise never mind xD

I think another issue we were having with shifty jim is that he wouldnt sell the horse based on color or pedigree, and people were just buying store horses to turn a profit when giving them to shifty jim.

I'd suggested something be included to value horses earlier in the thread, but Abbey said she prefers the market to be variable, rather than placing a set value on horses. Which is understandable, especially when there are many different breeding goals that people may have, and considering the relative rarity in different breeds. I do wish there was a more standardized system for valuing horses, though, both to keep people from drastically underpricing or overpricing horses. I suppose it'd have to be something more community-driven than incorporated as a game mechanic, though.

I like this, except I don't think the game has enough breeds to make it worthwhile (and it would be disproportionate if matching game breeds to what breeds 'typically' do IRL).

What if highest popularity discipline, for a given breed, got the bonus so it wasn't dictated by RL but by EV players "popular demand" so to speak. It could, in theory, even change if enough breeders left one specialty for another. I do think EV has enough breeds to support such a system, though as someone who typically breeds off-the-wall specialties for my horses I know there would be a great loss of value in my own horses.

I registered for this game back in January, I just started getting into it. I stopped playing because I found it confusing on how to level up. Being a fairly new player I have a few suggestion that will help other new players that might have been in my shoes.

Suggestions:
1. A tutorial to help get things started (I play another horse sim game also. On that game they have a tutorial to help new players get started. They get rewards after each step is completed. Tutorial stops when you get to a certain point)

2. I seem to think leveling up is difficult and seems to take awhile. Maybe lowering the XP needed or making leveling up easier. (More chances to gain XP, XP gain higher)

3. New breeds added! I realize this takes money for the art, but maybe have a poll on the breed to be released (It gives you time to create and raise funds)

4. Option to have the tack appear on horses. I think this would make the horses seem more realistic.

5. Have the schooling arenas training options for the specialty chosen. Clicking on the specialty having the option for ex:(Jumping - Ground pole to 4ft jumps) ex:(Dressage - Routine work to piaffe)

6. Height and Weight for horses

**Edited for support section**
I support the temperament and making money easier outside the art community along with the horses aging ONLY when you log in.

Thank you for creating this game and opening the doors for ideas!

Last edited on 2016-08-10 at 23:10:58 by Erica

@Erica - There is a tutorial exactly as you described. When you first join, it's directly under the navigation bar near the top of your screen. You get rewarded money after completing certain pieces of the tutorial, and it stops once it's gone through all the basics, or, you can skip it all at once.

I would like to disagree that leveling up is difficult. I came back not too long ago and got back in to showing horse around a month ago and finished up level 13, and am now right below level 14 after about a week. One thing I could say is that it should be added in the tutorial where to level up, as that was not mentioned and I wasn't able to figure that out for like 10 minutes lol.

Lastly, there won't be any breeds added soon. The old Equiverse consisted of nearly 20 more breeds than this version of Equiverse does, and they were taken out of the game after the recode because they were not popular enough to be useful in the game.

However, the rest of your suggestions are awesome. I think having the tack appearing on the horses would be very cool, although it would take some time and money to have artwork done for that. I also think that your schooling arena idea could definitely be incorporated into the current training routine somehow, and would be very cool. I also agree on the height and weight thing, and as others have said above (even though YOU didn't say this), I don't think it should effect performance.

@wey

I never had a chance to play the old Equiverse, but maybe just one or two new breeds that has the most votes will keep the game exciting. I never got the tutorial but maybe my old computer acted up at the time. To me leveling up seems difficult. I've been trying to get to level 6 to breed and it seems to be taking awhile.

Thanks for the clear up on the breeds and tutorial! Also thanks for the support!

Yeah, of course! And hm :/ idk about the tutorial thing, but I have a club that was created just to help new members/members that are lost if you want to come join! We are called The Tour Guides of Equiverse.

The only thing I can suggest for leveling up, is just showing and training your horses everyday. Or, if you want guaranteed XP, riding schools and training everyday.

To start off, I apologize if I'm repeating anything someone else has already brought up. I tried to read most of the thread but I'm sure I missed things.

1. No on credits for foundation horses. And this is coming from someone who has been known to pour real money into games and has no problem doing it. In the last day or two I decided I wanted to focus on conformation as well as stats and color, and I've created at least 150ish foundations just to keep the handful that ended up with the minimum conformation I was looking for. That'd be a pain in the [censored] to spend that much real money on something like that.

2. I'm one of those people who won't pay any attention to private auctions, so I love the idea of an auction house. I think private auctions should still stay, since it's a good way to safely trade a horse for money with a specific person. I find auction houses exciting and love checking them out whenever games have them.

3. In response to comments about the art community, maybe it would help if art could only be sold for credits, and those credits earned from art couldn't be exchanged for EVD. People could still make profit, but only use that profit for add-on features like stuff in the credit shop. And I know I'm biased since I make layouts, but I do feel like things that are for the game such as layouts or custom horse images should be allowed to be done for any currency. Anyway, it's a rough idea that won't be loved, but just tossing it out there.

4. In response to talk of clubs/registration in official clubs/etc. it might be fun to let players make clubs that could accept horse registrations. Clubs could set their own standards for registration and build reputations based off what they choose to focus on in registration. I know this might lead to some cliquey situations, but it could be interesting overall. Like as a player I could strive to have my horses excepted by a group that only takes high stats, or I'd know to check a stud book on a club that is run by the three best Trake breeders in the game or something. This is another rough idea with lots of room for improvement, but something I'd personally like.

5. One thing I saw on another game that I liked was that geldings get a boost in showing abilities. People constantly ignore geldings because they don't seem to have much point, but in real life, which this game strives to have certain elements of, geldings are of course super common. Theoretically it'd put more of an emphasis on showing. From my perspective right now, showing on this game is only a means to an end (showing leads to stat points which are meant to be passed through breeding) instead of an actual goal/focus. It'd be nice if showing played a more central role, though I know geldings getting a bonus would probably only play a small role in what would need to change to make this happen.

6. Someone earlier in the thread brought up the idea of grading horses based on breedability or something like that. The same game I mentioned above that had geldings give bonuses also used a sort of stallion rating system. Stallions received grades, from best to worst being *Star, A, B, C, D, F or whatever. Pretty much all players just gelded anything below an A, because the higher the grade, the better the offspring turned out to be. If this idea or something similar were to turn over to EV, the higher grade would probably mean better chance of passing on either stats or confo. This whole idea isn't necessarily something I'm for, but might be an interesting companion to geldings receiving bonuses since people would be gelding more often.



That's all I got for now. I'm sorry if it's all garbage. It's 2am and at this point in the night I'm usually not the best idea maker. xD But even bad ideas could be building blocks for good ones, so maybe someone could still build something good off of what I've rambled on about.

Okay guys,

Thank you all very much for your contributions! I am going to lock this topic for now as I think there are a whole bunch of suggestions in here that I would really love to implement.

I will re-open it (or repost it) at a later date when we've got a bit further with adding new features to see how everyone feels about the game at that time.

I will also be going through the replies to this topic, picking out the suggestions I like, and will be making a huge post on the forums with the suggestions I like and what I plan to code in.

Keep your eyes peeled :D