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Oh! I was reading through someone else's post and thought of something else that's been on my mind for a bit.

It would be be very, very cool if the GMT lab had a tool in which we could add or remove genes and get a "preview" of what the change might look like. With a disclaimer, of course, that this isn't exactly what your horse will look like, just an option of what it could be. I don't know if it would be easier to have an image generator that you could add or subtract code to and have it pop in a pic of what that code would result in, or if it would be better to take an existing horse to "try on" gene modifications. But as someone with a TON of love of horses but a very basic understanding of genetics, it would help my understanding a lot if I were to be able to create a certain genetic strand myself, then alter one thing at a time to see how each alteration changes the look of the horse.

Am I explaining this in a way that makes sense? Any other visual learners know what I'm talking about?

I really like your "are you sure you want to sell [horse] for [hbs]?" idea! I've definitely accidentally sold horses I meant to put up for breeding before!

I am very surprised that pointed creates are selling for very different prices here

@BossScorpio and @rachrobe2 mentioned on a different thread the idea of having achievements lead you around a little more and I really agree that this would be great! In fact I wouldn't have hurt feelings if there was just random achievements for any user to complete at random. Maybe one or two things a week, or a daily achievement, just for another reason for daily login? I remember being really disappointed when the tasks ended tbh, not for the hbs or stalls I earned so much as just for something different to do. In the beginning when breeding and sorting doesn't take long and you're building a show herd, the month can reeeeallly drag sometimes while you wait for a "thing" to do. As soon as you hit your point cap, creates really lose their draw since there's not as much of a guarantee of a return on investment, and although breeding is less expensive, when it's done it's pretty much done until next season. Here on Forest on my main accounts I find myself sorting and selling and culling and such to get by, but that's because I've got some wiggle room with funds.

Anyway, that's a really long winded way to say that achievements had a lot of draw for me because it kept me coming back to check something off my list. The sudden end was jarring.

It could be cool to have a series of achievements for certain sections of the site. I'll use the horse search as an example. I didn't learn how to effectively use the horse search until winter GE last December. If we had a series of achievements that worked users up to really being able to utilize it, that would really change a lot of user's experience. It could be easy stuff to start like "Search for a 6 year old warmblood mare and open her page", "search for a horse for sale from the Foundation Rescue (hint: user #13)", "find a horse for sale under 5000 hbs and open it's page".... then eventually get more and more specific to build understanding. Stuff like "search for a mare that is older than 2, younger than 10, and carries the sb1 gene", or "find a black draft stallion who is het dp and het sty". The later achievements not only get more specific with what to look for, but help to build understanding of genetics terminology such as het meaning 1 copy and hom meaning two copies.

The horse search is such a huge feature I feel that this would not only build understanding and enjoyment of the game but it would probably also drive horse sales and breeding programs as well.

Oh I see. I thought maybe logging the keystroke of clicking on their page would suffice... of course you could accidentally complete the action just through normal navigation but that happens occasionally anyway. :)

I suppose it could go through the foundation rescue instead? Since horses are price controlled there it could be focused more on searching gene combinations, bone weight, ages, genders etc?

Since we're already in the realm of "things I don't know if it's possible to code or not".... I have always had the problem that when I roll my herd helpers then navigate away to another page, if I forget and use the back button the game automatically rerolls for me and charges the 5000 hbs. Not a big deal for my main account but it's a heft chunk for a newbie. Any way to add an "are you sure" popup for paid rerolls??

I also thought it might be neat if possible for users under 20k points to be able to "earn" a free HH reroll for creating horses. Like maybe every 10 creates gets you another one? Idk if this would flood the Herd Helper forum or throw off game economy or anything, but I remember always being a little bummed when my daily free rerolls ran out, because sometimes the forum is a little dead.

After having played the newbie way for a few days, I have to say that I feel like the pointed create system is definitely much more encouraging to new users now! I had enough after just 3 days to buy ivs for an upgrade. I did that primarily so I could make a private sale through a buddy chat. I'm almost back up to the funds I had before purchasing ivs too. On Bluegrass, before the new pointed creates adjustment, it took me a good month or two to get to this point.

I'm finding that I've hit the "what next?" stage of my newbie career. I'm not scraping and saving for every penny anymore, yay! This means I can run testing and make creates without checking my balance each time. But now my sense of purpose has gotten a bit lost. I'm not ready to lose the income yet, so I'm not going to start keeping my show horses and put myself over the point cap. I can't start a breeding program, because lined horse breeding (in my mind) involves a lot of funds for ivs and gmts to start a really unique line. Bootstrap breeding involves a lot of stalls, which means I need to save for ivs to buy barns. So I'm still creating pointed horses and selling them for now, saving and putting money into ivs.

This is the place where I feel like newbies might start to lose zeal for the game. It can be a fun personal contest to see how much you can save (my whole Bluegrass account was created just for that purpose), but at some point I think that loses its shine and you really decide you want to pick a "thing" and do it. But it's hard to break into.

I am so tired right now that I'm pretty sure nothing I say is making any sense. I'll either edit or finish my thoughts in the morning when I can string together a coherent sentence.

FolliesMarionette, is it worth it? (Re-rolling that many times)

I agree with the “what now?” stage of the game. On Mesa, I’ve decided to dominate era 3. That gives me a goal. I also want to make a really great W1 cause wow do I love that color. Here? I don’t know. I came to learn how to make pointed creates and understand what I was seeing on Mesa.

I spent a lot of real money on Mesa to get as rich as I am on here (where I’ve spent no real money) but yet here I’m not sure what to do with myself. In that way the feedback month is great, as it’s a task and a focus.

Someone else mentioned something in a different new user thread (sorry I don't remember which or I would give credit to the idea) that got me thinking that if we were to do mini games or small tasks (busy work, although I hate the term) to earn extra hbs, a great mini game would be a guess the genetics game! Either giving a picture of a horse and having the user fill in the genetic code, with maybe a hb multiplier for every correct piece of the code, or alternately giving a line of genetic code and having the player use the horse search to find that horse's page in the game.

Or something similar to the contest that seaswell recently ran in which users are provided with a genetic code for a mare and stallion, and players have to find horses in the game that could be possible offspring from combination of the two code strands provided. Of if it is easier not to have the player search existing horses to find possible offspring, it could be easier for them to instead enter the results into a box and have the game save their correct guesses and list them under the parent strands. For every correct result that you come up with you could have an hb multiplier sp you win 100 hbs for the first correct guess, 200 for the second, 300 for the third, and so on. This would be a possible source of a couple thousand hbs, so not an overwhelming flood of extra money, but it would be a fun way for broke players to pass some time and earn a little bit of extra money to do stuff with.... and it would really boost understanding of genetics too!

Just went over the 20k point cap and decided to make another create to see how the points differ.... significantly lower than what I've been seeing. Also came out with a half point which I didn't realize was possible! Lol.

Starting to transition from money making to show herd collecting. This is significantly faster than what I did when I made my Bluegrass account. Also after selling my pointed Hidden Gates (which I probably underpriced honestly) I'm nearly to the point where I can afford a 1000 stall barn.

It would still be nice to see achievements that walk you through purchasing ivs and then using them to buy a barn, tack pack, etc. That was a process that I remember being confusing the first time I tried to do it.

I also have made it through all of the achievements except for the "reach 40,000 points held" ones and up from there. We still blow through achievements so fast, I think it would be good to seem some with lower payout or payout of a good show horse like others have mentioned. It took me less than a week to get through all of them, and I really think even just the basics of this game take much longer than that to learn.

Just a few ongoing thoughts. I'm sure I'll think of more as I read through other people's thoughts.

So now that the month of June has ended (boy that one flew by) I can really see how much effect it might have on a new user to start during a certain time period. Starting during June gave this account to tons of opportunities to make money that I wouldn't have had otherwise, especially now that there's a good guide to what herd helpers are truly worth! That fix was absolutely HUGE and so incredibly helpful, I think that will really change the game for newbies because they will know when they have something special.

I was honestly expecting to go pretty broke one at least one of my three accounts during the month, despite not participating in the GE, but I was surprised that the flow of income stayed pretty steady throughout. I did end up going low on my main Forest account but that's because I scraped together juuuuust enough money to get the ivs for a much-needed 1000 stall barn.

All this is meant to say that starting in a month where everyone is pretty active is really inspiring! I've had times where overall player activity is low and I think that more than anything makes is tough on newbies because there's just not much interaction to do.

I had the thought that if there was a way to do some kind of smaller scale monthly event every month, it might be fun for newbies to explore that while they're getting established. Nothing near what you do in June or December, but for example the egg hunt seemed to bring a lot of people back around, and I know the sea ponies event will do the same. I also feel like even after nearly a year, each event teaches me a bit about the game too! December was HUGE for me because that's when I learned how to really utilize the horse search and the auction.

After trying to give thoughtful advice that can also be realistically implemented (maybe?), I'm realizing how incredibly complex this game is. The thought of coding something like this completely boggles my mind. The thought of maintaining it and keeping everyone happy, thinking of ways to improve it, and thinking of new things to keep it interesting and exciting?

Well let's just say I'm in awe, truly. I have to really thank you for this, Ammit. I've said it before but the amount of heart and soul I can see in every piece of the game is obvious, and moreover you are always actively around the site, answering questions, getting involved in discussions, and showing unbelievable generosity and caring all the time.

As a rule I never spend real life money on games... it's the practical Virgo side of me, I think, saying that I must save my money for tangible things that bring me joy if I spend money on myself at all. But I broke my rule yesterday and added a little extra somethin' to my herd. The money I spent was not only hard earned on HaJ's part but also well deserved. I found a game I'm happy to support, and I may not be able to be a huge donor but I hope the small bit helps.

So overall, thank you. This game has helped me through a part of my life that has been great and tough in equal parts, and gives me something to wake up for sometimes. That's not a small thing and it's worth every penny and moment spent.

Just a note as I am reading this

" have always had the problem that when I roll my herd helpers then navigate away to another page, if I forget and use the back button the game automatically rerolls for me and charges the 5000 hbs. Not a big deal for my main account but it's a heft chunk for a newbie. Any way to add an "are you sure" popup for paid rerolls??"

Your browser already automatically warns you that you are about to resubmit form data. You are ignoring the warning message. All browsers do this. that is the white page that pops up when you refresh a page or use the back button sometimes. If you pay attention to those it will safe you a lot of heart ache on many websites

I agree it's totally my fault for ignoring my browser! Since I'm on mobile I get that notification more often than I think I would on a browser because it's significantly easier to go back than re-navigate to the same page. I ignore it because I'm on a website that I know that resubmitted something won't cause any real life harm (like putting another bill payment through or something like that). But it's something that I thought would probably be frustrating for new users. At the point I personally have reached in the game, it doesn't bother me in the least. :D

I hope the feedback helps! I enjoy stuff like this so it was really fun for me to give suggestions. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

And thank you so much for your generosity! I just love this game.