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EmKatze · Jun 2, 2022 7:16 AM

I am trying to run this new account as if I am actually new but it's a bit hard, it's been so long since I was really new! I am thinking back to 2017 and trying to put myself back in my head as I was playing. So far, the experience is way better than back then. So much has changed. It seems that I do have quite a bit more cash to work with from the start as before, though it is still limited.
I did go ahead and purchase the beginner pack for 1.99 because it seems like a great deal to me, I think it would also seem like a great deal to a new player, and it's such a small amount to really get you started in a new game. It's a great feature and I love it. It is a small price to pay to not have to manually enter every single horse :D
A few of my observations have been already discussed so I will skip those and move on to things I haven't seen spoken about yet.

As I was shopping for a horse in the auction today, to unlock the achievement, I noticed that when you search for horses for auction, the first ones that come up are all the oldest horses in the game. There doesn't seem to be any sort of warning that they could age out at next rollover. I think a warning would really spare some disappointment, as they are really shiny and highly pointed and would likely seem like a great deal to many players (I made this mistake myself in the beginning). I think on sale/auction pages, there should be a note near the bid/purchase button about how age works and that this horse might not live much longer, can no longer breed, ect.

I also think there should be more obvious explanations about breeding age, so you don't waste all your starting cash on creating horses that can't be bred for a month or more.

I personally don't think that beginning cash should be increased TOO much. How else will you know the value of things if you don't have to work for them, or have the incentive to keep playing and achieving things if you get everything all at once? I think it makes it a little more exciting to not have abundance at first, so that when you do figure out how to make lots of money it really feels great.

EmKatze · Jun 3, 2022 10:26 AM

Well, I am now at 300k hbs. That is insane. Definitely if new users can figure out the pointed creates selling, then there is no longer a cash problem. In my opinion that's absolutely plenty for starting out, since for a little bit you can just keep creating and selling.

Fiddler · Jun 3, 2022 12:54 PM

yeah, I didn't figure that out the first time until i already had 18k+ and i believed my horses too valuable to dump and start over. But it was so hard to resist making new creates, it is so exciting for me to see what comes up, the roll of the genetic dice.

And then I couldn't get below 20k and starved..

EmKatze · Jun 3, 2022 6:39 PM

I just want to say, besides the things that everyone else has pointed out that do need updating, -
I am REALLY enjoying this game again!

Really. You and the team have done a fabulous job Ammit. I loved the game in 2017 and I love it now. It must just be perfect for my personality or something but I just... love it. It's the perfect way to destress. Organization is one of my favorite things and also... collecting shiny things... so this is just my game. I did leave at one point - I needed a long break/start over, so my new user experience is pretty genuine since I started again "new" a few months ago anyways.

Overall my new user experience is great. I would definitely still become a long haul player even if I hadn't started until now. I've even tried other horse games since and this is simply the best. Yes, Ammit, you were right when you thought that you could make a better horse game than all the rest. You could, and you did!

EmKatze · Jun 6, 2022 5:50 AM

Wow! So those new achievements are really awesome. They are not showing up on this new account however. I got them on my main and on my accounts on the other two servers but not this new one yet. They aren't appearing at all.
But! Really appreciating the cash and extra stalls! Even as an older player that was fun to unlock all that cash. Just got my new splash M foundation on my cowgirl account.

EmKatze · Jun 6, 2022 5:51 AM

Nevermind, I was logged into the wrong account again. They are showing now!

EmKatze · Jun 6, 2022 5:10 PM

I would like to make a suggestion about showing for newbies (non-basic-upgraders).
My idea is to have another tab under Showing, much like the Train My Horses, for entering shows - so you can select your horse's name from a dropdown and just click enter. That way, showing is still manual and individual for free accounts in order to encourage upgrading, but it won't be quite as tedious as it is now, with having to click three times on very small buttons to enter each horse.

As I am thinking through this, it might not work as well for getting the concept across, as you wouldn't see the names of shows and it might not feel as much like you're entering a real show.

EmKatze · Jun 8, 2022 8:11 AM

I have decided to try to pick up some high PT horses to grow a bootstrap/show herd. However I am only choosing to do this based on my experience, I think that there should be more of an explanation about PT. New users likely wouldn't be inclined to spend 500hbs on a test to then to find out about Doris's reactions. Even if they did happen to do that, they are not super explanatory, though pretty fun. :D

CWScowgirl87 · Jun 24, 2022 6:09 AM

Well, as we are nearing the end of the month, I am really pleased with the new user experience overall. Those additional achievements really made a difference. Now things have slowed down and it got to a relaxed, playable point very fast. I don't feel too restricted in by my new user status but I definitely feel capable of playing the game to its full potential. I think these improvements have helped to shorten that time period of being a newbie and not being able to do much of anything by quite a lot. The showing bonus per day is already enough to create at least two horses per day, which sometimes as a new user is what you spend all you cash on, so that's a good thing - it's not too much and it's not too little. I like that I'm still creating pointed horses so all my fun creating is still going towards building me a show herd.

P.S. I noticed the new age warnings. Awesome. :D

EmKatze · Jun 30, 2022 8:19 AM

When I first started out it took me a really long time to figure out that altered horses were valuable. I thought the whole point of the game was breeding so anything that got altered by breeding advice was almost always instantly auctioned. Even after about a year of playing I still ended up auctioning pretty much all of my show herd so I could afford to buy macchiato for 10 GMTs when it first came out...
I am really happy that there is so much information now about how valuable show horses are, even if you never visit the forum. But with the peer group achievement, everyone has to at least find out that it exists at some point. So that is cool. I'm still working on my last three achievements, but I really like that now all the achievements aren't completed within a week. It gives you something to keep working towards and coming back to for quite a while longer. I still don't even have them all unlocked on my older accounts on Mesa and Bluegrass.
It feels really welcoming and positive here, as always.
I like how, for new users, there is more emphasis on points being what makes a horse more valuable in the sales market, rather than color. I think this will eventually end up in new people figuring out that higher PT = more points in the long run and I can see that that would encourage new users to start breeding for quality instead of just color.

Ammit · Jul 2, 2022 3:29 AM

"P.S. I noticed the new age warnings. Awesome"

The age warnings have been there for ages. You just didn't read them before now ;)

Thanks so much. I sent you 3 Brand New Day Straws and 100k.

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