Announcements - Hunt and Jump Forum - Mesa

Unfortunate news about image generation - big change for non-premium accounts

Ammit — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 05:42:55 -0800

If you missed my last news post "BC Changes Plus Game News" please check the announcement section of the forum for context.

Poor Haystack is trying very hard to work on image generation unification but there have been several time critical things things that have popped up over the last two weeks keeping him from getting stuck into this project. This entire week has been spent going back and forth between the courthouse and with lawyers trying to get a missing bit of paperwork generated, notarized by the Secretary of State's office, and airmailed to Bulgaria. And the lawyers were not even sure what this document is called so I hope you will excuse us some delay on this project.

In related news

We have very reluctantly decided that for the next few months, we will be turning off background image generation for non-premium accounts. Everyone knows there is a cost of living crisis happening right now and when you are an entertainment company you feel those cut bucks intensely. It costs us thousands a month to generate all the images for the game and those costs keep going up as the mega corporations look to offset their increased costs.

What will this look like in-game?
If you have a premium account there will be no change. Thank you so much for choosing to support us every month. It means a ton and goes directly to supporting our family and keeping the game up and running. An extra special thank you to those who have volunteered to pay the higher price premium price. You are our superstars.

If you have a basic or no upgrade account, you (or someone else) will need to physically open a horse's page for the image to generate. This is how the game used to work, and honestly, it worked all right. If a horse is not important enough for someone to look at their page it means it probably isn't important for them to have an up-to-date image anyway.

Is this permanent?
It is our plan for this change to be temporary, but I want to be realistic with you that I don't know when it will go back. We are moving to a city with a much lower cost of living and economic depressions don't last forever, plus we are working on reducing the costs of our image generation system. I am hoping when the pendulum swings back it will be auto-images for all again sooner rather than later.

I just want to be upfront and honest with everyone about why this is happening. We will do our best to make sure this cost-cutting measure is as minimally disruptive as possible and hope it is an acceptable compromise.

Final Reminder for gift exchange feedback

Ammit — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 02:13:12 -0800

@OliviaFrenzel please provide feedback about your level 1 recipient.
@HannatudeDrafts please provide feedback about your level 2 recipient.
@HannatudeDrafts please provide feedback about your level 2 gifter.
@GreatPlainsStables please provide feedback about your level 1 recipient.

Gift exchange feedback is now passed due. If you do not complete your gift exchange feedback you will be penalized from future participation.

Reminder: We do NOT provide customer service via email

Ammit — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:38:08 -0800

There has been a large uptick of people trying to send me emails lately. If you need assistance please send me a PM on the forum. For me to assist you I need specific account information that I can only get by looking at your account. I can't see your account over email. Your email is also likely to get lost because I am not looking for customer service messages in there. (and there are potential security risks doing it over email.)

Also a reminder please don't @ me anytime you post my name in the forum. @ tags are for when you need to get someone's attention. @Ammit means "Ammit I need you to look at this and it is important you do so right away." It's the equivalent of shouting for me. However, my name is just Ammit, so please just call me that. Use @Ammit in cases where you need to yell for my attention.

Watercolor Kit Promoter Axiom Red Rainbow Riot Thunderstruck Phantom Critter Tracks Phantom Bird Tracks Platinum Now For Sale

Ammit — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 07:30:01 -0800

Watercolor

Kit Promoter

Axiom Red

Rainbow Riot Thunderstruck

Phantom Critter Tracks

Phantom Bird Tracks

Platinum

Need your feedback on the Irish Draught

Ammit — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 02:58:22 -0800

Jenx is hard at work making the next BC. We are aiming for February with this one. The Irish Draught will be a medium/heavy bc. Let us know what you think and if any tweaks need to be made.

BC Changes Plus Game News

Ammit — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 11:12:16 -0800

First up BC changes
When BCs first came out they were completely linked to breeds so we had a script that at the end of each month cleaned up any horses that were not the right BC for their breeds. We have since shifted away from this meta but the clean-up script was still intact. It now only edits the BCs of foals aging up into their adult form. You won't have issues anymore with the clean-up script changing the BCs of horses you hand-changed to a new BC. (Again except for foals which age up to their breed settings.)

I have also added a bulk BC editor for premium upgrades. Should allow you to rapidly fix any horses that got accidently swapped on you.

Client Side versus Server Side generation
There is an additional issue going on that has been causing some confusion because it looks like a BC issue but is not. If your pastures are generating as national types instead of the set BC or your aging up horses are showing as national, tack is in the wrong places horses are floating, etc you are not experiencing an issue with BC settings.

The game has two kinds of image generation. Client-side generation happens when you refresh a horse on its page (or use the Advanced tack editor). It working fully correctly right now. We also have server-side generation. This is the generation that happens silently in the background. Right now client-side generation is happening all in one go but server-side generation is happening in two steps. Old generation and new generation. The old generation only makes the old BCs and the new generation fixes it to the correct BC. The new generation 1) can fall behind and 2) sometimes does not fire correctly. For example, I believe no pasture foals are getting the new generation system on any server.

As of right now bluegrass server is backlogged and is still processing new generation requests from Jan 2nd. The other two servers are caught up on new-generation requests. Any horse with old generation on Forest or Mesa is stuck and needs an image update to be triggered to get it moving again. There are a number of bulk management features that trigger image updates you can pick from to trigger this.

Why was this not fixed before? And when will it be fixed
The old generation has critical features we need to make the server-side generation work, we have to run it, but it runs on an old operating system that needs to be updated before we can unify it with the new generation. It's a pretty complex thing to fix. We would have loved to get to it soon but we had to get out gift exchange and payment system updates first to keep our business afloat.

Work on this fix has already started and we expect it to be solved before Feb rollover.

Health Stuff and Travel
Sorry, it took me over a week to get the BC fixes out. I had a nasty flare start-up at the beginning of the year that I am only just now getting over. It's been a very difficult and painful one that made it impossible to work.

On Monday, Jan 15th I am flying back to Bulgaria. There will be a break in customer service while I travel.

Work on the next BC has already started (Irish Draught!) and I look forward to focusing on UI updates in the coming weeks and months.

If you had a horse change assigned BCs (Not just the image) please post inside

Ammit — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 11:19:52 -0800

I think the issue is with our BC clean-up script that handles aging up of foals and cleaning up people's bugged BCs was arguing with people changing BCs on the page. If your horse changed BCs and you think it should not have please post the following below:

A link to the horse
Age of the Horse
What BC was before rollover
What BC it is now
What BC the breed is set to for that bone weight <-look this up if you don't know

I will add a bulk BC changer as soon as I am able to but please remember I am both sick and dealing with critical paperwork from multiple international agencies the next two weeks and those MUST take priority over this.

Deck the Stalls Contest!

Ammit — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 06:53:29 -0800

Thank you everyone for all the amazing new backgrounds you created for our game. We are capping off the December celebrations with a tack-up contest. Please use the tack editor to create the best image you can.

Rules:
-You must have created the image entirely, with no purchasing from other players.
Entries will close early on December 29th.
-Jenx and I will be picking one winner per category per server.
-Only one entry per category per account, please.
-You must label what category each entry is for.
-You may edit your post to change your entry but please only make a single entry post.
-Winners will receive a 1,000-stall barn!

Best Turn Out
Show us your best horse barn or show grounds look. The new Show Time tack pack has stall drapes, and plants to help you fancy things up. Can be in the arena, on the trail, or in the barn but show us your best dressed-to-impress image.

Most Festive
Dress your horse up with the most festive image possible. All Holidays allowed!

Some tips:
-If you are having issues with layering messing up when you move an item forward or backward (or flipped items unflipping on save) try deleting the item and re-adding it from the "Add New Item" menu. Duplicating can cause some issues
-Use tab to cycle through the items in the list if you lost something in the image.
-You can also bring an item forward lots of times if you are not seeing it.
-The reset button can help if an item has jumped off the screen.
-Use the arrow keys to move an item around more precisely.
-If the image is not updating on your forum post clear your cache.
-Have some more tips? Post them below.

Mushroom White 8 Axiom Wrong Warp Pangare Plus Appaloosa Spot Regulator 1 Phantom Critter Tracks Phantom Bird Tracks Now For Sale

Ammit — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 07:30:02 -0800

Mushroom

White 8

Axiom Wrong Warp

Pangare Plus

Appaloosa Spot Regulator 1

Phantom Critter Tracks

Phantom Bird Tracks

Ribbon Hunt Winners!

Ammit — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:30:19 -0800

Thanks, everyone for helping the PonPons at the showgrounds.

[#22796] @MoonfireFarm | 56 points
[#63] @MagesValley | 50 points
[#12824] @RamshornSportHorses | 49 points
[#10955] @AzilizM | 49 points
[#5185] @Acorn | 48 points
[#13133] @astridmoonnn | 48 points
[#20549] @whisperingpines | 47 points
[#159] @Amber | 47 points
[#16502] @Khisanth | 45 points
[#9524] @OneSaltyMitch | 44 points

If you are a winner please post below with a link to a GMT editable foundation horse and what ice gene you want added (only one copy per horse) OR let me know if you want 10 GMTs instead.

Congratulations to all of our year 45 Stallion Futurity champions.

Ammit — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 06:05:02 -0800

HuntAndJump.com would like to congratulate all of our year 45 Stallion Futurity champions.

Congratulations(?) to all of our year 45 Backwards Breeder club champions.

Ammit — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 06:01:02 -0800

HuntAndJump.com would like to extend dubious congratulations all of our year 45 backward breeder club champions.

Backwards Breeder Club Champions

Congratulations to all of our year 45 breeder club champions.

Ammit — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 06:00:01 -0800

HuntAndJump.com would like to congratulate all of our year 45 breeder club champions.

Create backdrops for the game - win GMTs

Ammit — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 05:00:07 -0800

Rules:
-All backdrop images submitted must be 500 by 500 pixels and saved in .png format.
-All backdrop images must be created by you, using any software, or drawing aids you want. No stock art or photographs, or anything that looks like a photo, please. AI, non-digital, etc are fine as long as the image meets the needed specs.
-There will be a horse standing in front of this. It has to look decent with a horse taking up most of the center of the images.
-The horses need something to stand on. It won't look right if you don't keep that in mind.

Category 1: December at the Showgrounds
-This year's December event theme is "December at the Showgrounds." We are looking for scenes you might see at a show. They might be a decorated areana or the bright Floriday/Arizona circuit, or in the showground barn aisles, or in the jumper ring, or on the cross country course. Anything to do with showing is fair game here. All showing disciplines are fair game.

Category 2: Seasonal Backdrops
-We are also looking to add 500 by 500 backdrops that are specifically December holiday-themed. Could be winter, could be summery December in Australia, could be taller versions of backdrops we already have. Any holiday this time of year is fair game. Just looking to pick up a wide variety of these.

Prizes:
-I will award 10 GMTs for every backdrop I use in the game. I will pick as many winners as backgrounds as I think are a good fit.
-This will run until approximately December 15th

Good luck! I can't wait to see your creations. :x

__________________________

EDIT

I am seeing a lot of entries with problems so I wanted to make a post clarifying what we need.

The first issue I am seeing is people not following the rules. Make sure your images are 500 by 500 and they MUST be either winter or showground-themed. Also no photos, AI that looks like photos, or photos that have had filters applied. These rules will be strictly enforced.

The next issue I am seeing is people forgetting that the horses need to stand somewhere and need to fit in the scene.

I will use this image that is already in the game and was just upscaled by Cavalynn on bluegrass as an example. The lower 1/3rd of the image is wide open and flat. There is nothing in the foreground and lots of clear areas for the horse to stand in.

A lot of the AI submissions forget that a horse has to fit in this image. Don't have stuff in your foreground that will fight the horse for focus. You are not trying to make a pretty picture. You are trying to make a picture that works for a game horse to be in.

We also have more winter submissions than showground ones by a mile and I mostly need showground ones. If you post more winter entries they are unlikely to win at this point, so better to focus your energy on showing.

Thanks everyone for the entries so far and good luck!

Akhal-Teke And Traditional Cob BCs have arrived!

Ammit — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 07:15:01 -0800

The final 3 (really 2.5) Breed Characteristics for 2023 have dropped. I can't believe we were able to crank out NINE between June and now. We are exhausted but so proud of what we have made.

The Akhal-Teke was by far the most difficult BC we have made so far. It fought us every step of the way. We also had the issue of the membership being rather split on what they wanted it to look like. While there was an overwhelming desire to have the AT in the game the membership was split on if they wanted the more elegant deer-like build that the breed can have or the more robust working build. We completed the working build first based on member feedback, it is a wonderful horse but to me it just didn't feel like the Akhal-Teke I wanted to see in the game and I didn't think those who liked the more elegant version would enjoy it either. So we created a second version that was the same art just more refined.

Yes, you have to buy them separately. I don't think they should be priced that way but I don't have the ability to offer them any other way. We made sure BC subs were out before the two Akhal-Teke breeds so you could access them both at a discount.

The Akhal-Teke (L) works only for light-boned horses. The Akhal-Teke (M) can be used on light or medium horses. You can also use the ATM for your riding horse/pony stallions and the ATL for the mares if you want to have some gender variation.

Light

Medium

The traditional cob was a delight to work with though. I know some people wanted a version with the mane not covering the eyes. We decided not to do that because 1) it is the only one we have like that and it is nice to have a version that way and 2) all these BCs have been designed so that the manes and tails can be placed in front of or behind the horse. It is just waiting on the tack editor updates to allow you to make that edit. We have no big projects for next year just polishing and updating what we have with a huge focus on the editor. We will try and get mane/tail ordering to happen sooner rather than later.

If you have a BC subscription you can already use these breeds. You can also unlock them individually if you prefer that way. ENJOY!

*Just a minor note, the sheaths escaped my notice. They aren't right on these. They will be updated.

11 new Breeder Clubs for the new year!

Ammit — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 05:45:39 -0800

I have removed the Appaloosa, Fantasy Open, and Dense Pheomelanin clubs and replaced them with split versions. These three clubs were the largest in the game and splitting them triples the number of LB spots for these categories.

Appaloosa has become Appaloosa -/-, Appaloosa PATN1/- and Appaloosa PATN1/PATN1.
Dense Pheomelanin has become Dense Pheomelanin EE, Dense Pheomelanin Ee, and Dense Pheomelanin ee
Fantasy: Open has become Fantasy: Open EE, Fantasy: Open Ee, Fantasy: Open ee.

I have also added in Belton and Tiger Eye clubs!

If you had horses in the old Appaloosa, Fantasy Open or Dense Pheomelanin clubs you will need to reenter your stock. I looked into the feasibility of moving the horses for you and it really wasn't doable.

Don't forget there is a --REGISTER ALL-- option in the drop down so you don't need to enter your horses one by one in the club.

If you have won trophies in these past clubs the club name on the trophy might say Ee or PATN1/-. Not a bug just part of the process of splitting the clubs.

Heads up on sales items with the new shopping cart

Ammit — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 07:53:24 -0800

In the past, you could add items to your shopping cart and buy them after the sale expired. That is no longer possible. With the new system, you can add a sale item into your cart but if the sale expires before check out you will get an error message and the item will be removed when you go to check out.

We need to add some functionality to the cart so you can see how long you have left to make a purchase and remove those expired sale items before you get to that stage. Right now it is rather misleading. Sorry about that. We just haven't gotten to that part yet. I just wanted to make sure people were aware that this is now the new system was working and that it was intentional.

We will try and get sale expiration countdowns working in the cart soon.

All RGS genes are now available for celbration month!

Ammit — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:30:02 -0800

All are available on the upgrade page.
Click here to purchase. Offer is good until the end of the month.

Pearl

Sooty Plus

White 10

Watercolor

Plaid

Satin

Ice 10

Ice 5

Splash M

Mushroom

Dense Pheomelanin

White 3

Kit M

Sabino 1

Sabino 2

White 8

Gulastra Plume

Kit Promoter

Snowflake

Ice 1

Ice 2

Ice 3

Ice 4

Ice 6

Ice 7

Ice 8

Ice 9

Ice 11

Ice 12

Ice 13

Ice 14

Axiom Nexus

Axiom Red

Axiom Blue

Axiom Green

Axiom Wrong Warp

Chinchilla

Rainbow Riot Thunderstruck

Rainbow Riot Nacre

Non-Dun 1

Ice 15

Tiger Eye 1

Tiger Eye 2

Onyx

Ice 16

Kit Promoter 2

Chocolate

Dun Factor Promoter One

Rainbow Riot Paintbrush Cool

Rainbow Riot Paintbrush Warm

Rainbow Riot Paintbrush Prism

Sunshine

Snowdrop

Dun Factor Promoter Two

Ice 20

Shatterglass

Halo Varnish

Pangare Plus

Rainbow Riot 2 Toner

Rainbow Riot 2 Ink Spot

Appaloosa Spot Regulator 1

HMGA2 Height Regulator

Splash White 3

Ice 17

Ice 18

Ice 19

Gray Reduction

Platinum

PDR Belton Spotting

Jewel Box

Rainbow Riot 2 Void

Mushroom, Gulastra Plume, Snowflake, Dun Factor Promoter One, Sunshine, Snowdrop, Splash White 3, PDR Belton Spotting, are the random genes of the day!

Ammit — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 05:30:01 -0800

These are available today only on the upgrade page.
Click here to purchase.
Mushroom

Gulastra Plume

Snowflake

Dun Factor Promoter One

Sunshine

Snowdrop

Splash White 3

PDR Belton Spotting

Breed Characteristics Subscriptions have arrived!

Ammit — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 07:56:14 -0800

Find them on the Upgrade page under "Upgrades" just below premium subscriptions.

What are they?
Breed Characteristics allow you to alter the appearance of your horses by applying the characteristic traits of real-life breeds. You can change the look of any horse you own, and modify your personal breeds to apply BCs automatically. Subscriptions unlock all the BCs currently in the game, even limited edition BCs. With approximately 6 new Breed Characteristics being added every year a BC subscription represents a significant discount.

Limited Edition BCs
Some BCs are limited edition like the Infernal that came out this year. Once that is removed from the unlock page on Dec. 1st the only way to get it (if you missed buying it) will be via a subscription.

What happens if it expires?
You are already allowed to own horses with BCs you do not own. If your subscription expires all the edits you made to horses will stay. However, your breeds will revert to the "National" BC. That means you will no longer be able to create new horses with those BCs, or breed foals with those BCs. It will not change all your horses to the National BC unless you go in and update your breed or horses yourself though. You get to keep the edits you made until such time as you change those horses' breed characteristics.

What about the BCs I already purchased?
Any BC you already own will behave exactly as before, and will still be owned by you if your subscription expires. It won't alter your breed settings either. Only BCs you don't own will get reset. So if you love the Polish Arabian and always want your breeds to STAY Polish Arabian but want to play around with some other BCs too then your best bet is to buy the BC you love and have a subscription for trying out other ones.

Can we buy them for other players or try it for a month?
BC subs will work like the new premium subscription system. If you want to buy it for another player or buy a few months at a time you can. That ability will be out probably tomorrow. We decided it was better to get this out today and get those out as a pair tomorrow since they share a lot of workload for us.

Congratulations to all of our year 44 breeder club champions.

Ammit — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 06:00:01 -0800

HuntAndJump.com would like to congratulate all of our year 44 breeder club champions.

Subscription Prices Have Increased to 9.50 per month - Switch and get 5 free BC tokens!

Ammit — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 09:11:30 -0800

Why is the price increasing?
I did a detailed write-up here. The short version is inflation and server costs have gone way up but our prices have not we have to adjust our prices so we can keep paying the bills.

What if I already have a subscription?
If you have a subscription created at the 7.50 price you can keep it as long as it keeps running. Your price will not change. If your subscription gets canceled or fails for any reason though you will have to switch to the new subscription model. From today on it is impossible to create a new subscription at the old price for any reason but as long as your 7.50 subscription keeps running we will honor it.

We would love it if you switched to the new subscription system!
If you can afford it, we would love for you to cancel your old subscription and make a new one when it expires. It not only helps us out a ton, but it also should be a more reliable and easier-to-manage system for you. The new subscriptions will be managed entirely on HuntAndJump. No more fighting with PayPal to cancel subs. Everything will be much more streamlined.

To switch please cancel your subscription (see below), wait until your current premium upgrade runs out, and then create a new subscription at the new price on the upgrade page.

Thank you gift
If you have purchased 6 months of premium upgrade out of the past 12 months you will be rewarded with 5 free BC tokens (worth 25 USD) as a thank-you for your continued support of the game and for being an awesome member.

A few notes
You can no longer purchase a subscription for other players. Subscriptions will be locked to the ordering account to prevent problems between users and to make sure our system can properly manage your sub. You WILL be able to buy a premium upgrade for other users (or for yourself) as a stand-alone purchase instead of a subscription. This functionality will be out in a few days. It's pretty much ready to go but we want to confirm the sub version is working before running that out.

Also, subscriptions are not part of your regular cart and can not be combined with other purchases because of the way our payment processor handles subscriptions. But stand a long premium upgrade purchases will be able to be added to the cart.

If you have any questions or run into any issues please post them below and we will resolve things as quickly as possible. It is a holiday in the US so if we don't reply today we will first thing tomorrow.

Step By Step to change to the new price
1) Cancel your premium subscription on Paypal. You must cancel to proceed.
2) Wait until your premium runs out. This may take up to a month
3) Once you no longer have a premium subscription create a new subscription.

Congratulations to all of our year 44 Stallion Futurity champions.

Ammit — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 06:05:01 -0800

HuntAndJump.com would like to congratulate all of our year 44 Stallion Futurity champions.

Congratulations(?) to all of our year 44 Backwards Breeder club champions.

Ammit — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 06:01:02 -0800

HuntAndJump.com would like to extend dubious congratulations all of our year 44 backward breeder club champions.

Backwards Breeder Club Champions

Worst Producing Stallion

Champion: Kh Hold My Beer owned by Khisanth
Reserve Champion: Kh Halte Mein Bier Ey owned by Khisanth

Worst Producing Mare

Champion: Kh Wrath of Rocky owned by Khisanth
Reserve Champion: Kh Wisconsin Belgian Red owned by Khisanth

Lowest PT Of the Year

Champion: Kh Cheeky Weasel owned by Khisanth
Reserve Champion: Clone 2657539 owned by Khisanth

Write the Akhal Teke breed description, win 5 BC tokens -Winners have been selected!

Ammit — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 07:41:09 -0800

We are in need of the breed description for the AT. I need TWO descriptions because this breed will have two variants. A lighter racing-type build, and a medium weight more working-type build. These will be called Akhal Teke (L) and Akhal Teke (M). The descriptions can be very similar or unique.

I need a roughly 250-character-long blurb about the real-life breed (about 3 sentences). It must be between 200 and 300 characters long. This is strictly enforced and I will toss out anything less than 200 or more than 300 characters.

Please use a Character Counter to confirm your length before posting.
https://wordcounter.net/character-count

-To enter simply post your description(s) below. ou can enter as many times as you want.
-I will only be picking one winner across all three servers. (1 winner total) The winner will receive 5 BC tokens to unlock a new breed characteristic of their choice.

Here are some prior examples to help you understand what I am looking for.

"The Saddlebred has a well-proportioned and muscular body with a deep chest, strong shoulders, a long, arched neck, and refined straight or slightly concave profile. Their short back leads to a level croup with high set tail, and long and sloping pasterns give them an animated stride."

"A beautiful combination of refinement and power, the modern Friesian is an ideal sport horse with warmblood-like movement. They have long legs and a high, noble head carriage with a calm and expressive eye. Their thick, wavy mane and tail and feathered pasterns add to their majestic bearing."

"The Suffolk Punch has a powerful, arching neck; well-muscled, sloping shoulders; a short, wide back; and a muscular, broad croup. Legs are short and strong, with broad joints; sound, well-formed hooves; and minimal feathering on the fetlocks. They tend to be shorter but more massively built."

Historically a cavalry steed, the Polish Arabian is more athletic and functional in form than other Arabians. They are smaller with a short back and long, arched neck. The head is refined yet broad, adding to their endurance, with a straight or slightly dished face, flared nostrils, and large eyes.

The Pura Raza Española is the traditional horse of Spain and was the favored war mount of knights and nobility across Europe. This extremely agile breed now excels in classical dressage. They have compact bodies with powerful hindquarters, handsome arched necks, and a kind yet dignified expression.

Most distinguishable by their ample feathering and thick, flowing mane and tail, the Traditional Cob is both flashy and practical, stocky yet elegant, with a straight profile and kind eye. Originally bred to pull caravans, they have an easy temperament and can also be ridden for pleasure and show.

Game News 11/16

Ammit — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 04:51:40 -0800

Hey all, just wanted to give you all an update on what's going on behind the scenes with a few things

Subscription Price Changes
We have this work pretty much done but Haystack is leaving today for a massively deserved 4-day vacation. We felt it was better not to rush this out the door. Prices will increase to 9.50 next week.

The price change only impacts new subscriptions. This does mean if your old sub stops working for any reason you are sorry out of luck and will have to switch to the new price. However, any account that paid for 6 months of subscription at the old price will get 5 BC tokens as a thank-you for switching the first time they sign up for the new subscription.

Also of note once the change happens you will only be able to buy subscriptions for your own account and no one elses. The risk of problems happening with a subscription model for someone else is too high. Instead, we will be offering an option to buy premium upgrades for 1 or 3 months without a subscription. The price for this will be 10.50 a month or 31.50 for 3 months.

BC Subscription
We will also be adding a secondary type of subscription you can purchase for 8.50 a month. Breed Characteristic subscriptions will grant you access to all the BCs in the game and all future BCs as long as your sub is active. We plan to be putting out 6 or more BCs per year so this works out as a significant discount. Plus it is a great way to try out BCs without committing to the 25USD price tag for one.

You will still be able to purchase BCs outright for IVs or USD.

December Event
This has been a really hard year for our family in part because we have been working our butts off, and also dealing with a number of health and house challenges. Frankly, we don't have a ton of bandwidth for a big shiny event this December. I hope you can afford us some grace next month. We will do our best.

I can share with you the following plans:
-We will have herd helpers as normal though there will not be many new ones
-We plan to put out 2.5 new BCs (you will see ;)) )
-We are going to be working on a new tack pack, which may be a bit on the small size
-There will be a hide-and-seek game
-We will also have a member art contest for tack backgrounds.

Breeding Lab
I am still working on the breeding lab but unlike Haystack who can put his head down and just focus on a project I also have to keep the rest of the game running and keep our family turning over. I have constant interruptions on this one that are making it nearly impossible for me to get any focused work done on this project. This note is basically a lower your expectations on the timeline for this one. At this point, I have no clue when this will be out but just know I am working on this one the best I can.

That's all for now. Thanks so much, everyone for being amazing members. Looking forward to closing out 2023 strong.

RAoG Changes - Don't forget to get your GE entries in!

Ammit — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 06:45:11 -0800

I am making some changes to RAoG this year and wanted to give you a heads-up on what is coming.

Before any member who submitted a wishlist for level 1 of the GE or who who signed up just to receive from the RAoG was eligible to get gifts, and those who had a small enough account were eligible to receive gifts. This year forward everyone who submits a wishlist for any level of the GE or just RAoG will be on the list of people you can send gifts too. There will be no limits based on level or account size.

Along with the prior option of being assigned a random person to gift to, you will now also be able to select a name from a drop-down of everyone who can be sent something.

The reason I have not allowed these things before is it does create a gateway for possible cheating. To combat this there is going to be one more change. Gifting will no longer be anonymous. Anonymity can lead to less savory choices, so to make sure everything is on the up and up it will no longer be provided for Random Acts of Gifting. The anonymity also caused problems with receivers being able to thank the people who gave them gifts. This should make the whole process smoother.

This change means however that your wishlists will be PUBLIC. If you do not want others to see your wishlist for some reason, or simply don't want anyone to send you gifts please head over to the GE sign-up and opt out of receiving RAoG gifts.

Remember that the only way to be sent gifts is to submit a wishlist. So if you don't sign up for the gift exchange no one can send you gifts. You do not need to opt out of receiving if you don't sign up in the first place. You can still however send other people gifts via RAoG if you are qualified by having completed a prior GE.

Gift Exchange Audit Delay

Ammit — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 08:59:26 -0800

Well, I royally screwed up and totally forgot to enter the results for the gift exchange audit. Life has been nuts and I straight up forgot. Very sorry about that.

I am working on entering them today but I have a migraine right now so realistically there is no way I am getting them all in so here is what will happen.

-Exchange entries will open normally tomorrow.
-I will continue to enter the audit results over the next few days so your level might go up.
-If you want to get your entry in and are waiting on a level up send me a PM and I will find you and rush your audit result entry.
-I am going to be rushing getting these in so frankly there is a higher than normal chance of a mess up. Send me a PM if you think you have a level-up due and it's not showing by Friday.

Contemplating a change to normal breeding advice - Now proposed SBA change -Implimented

Ammit — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 11:18:11 -0700

I am looking for feedback on this idea.

A common trend is members not understanding what breeding advice is for. They want it to be either an absolute judge of quality or tell them how good the foal is for that cross. How it actually works is to compare the foal against the sire, and then separately compare the foal to its dam, and if it is a good deal worse than either it fails the foal. This means that some crosses will never produce a foal that passes as one parent always drags the quality down too far.

I think how people really expect it to work is for it to tell you if this foal is a good foal for that particular cross.

Example using completely made-up numbers:

Sire has an ability of 125, dam has an ability of 95. The average ability of both parents is 100. Foals are an average of the parents plus or minus a weighted random factor. Let's say foals can be born with an ability of 92 to 117 from these parents and that the average foal is born with an ability of 109.

Right now it is impossible for this cross to ever produce a foal that passes breeding advice because even the best possible foal at 117 (a foal massively better than the dam) does not compare well to the sire.

How I think people intuitively expect breeding advice to work is for any foal that is better than average for this cross to pass. (The exact passing percentage could be dialed in) In this case, any foal that was say 110 breeding ability or better would pass breeding advice. It would make breeding advice more intuitive and more newbie friendly, plus allow bootstrap breeders access to basic testing and not have to see that untested message constantly. (I would leave strict breeding advice alone. )

I am interested to hear what you think the pros and cons of such a switch would be.

Pearl Sooty Plus Watercolor Satin Axiom Nexus Phantom Autumn Now For Sale

Ammit — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 07:30:01 -0800

Pearl

Sooty Plus

Watercolor

Satin

Axiom Nexus

Phantom Autumn