[UPDATE] Ask your questions to the Howrse team!



HellOw,

Despite our two first batches of answers, a lot of questions remain unanswered. Let's fix this with a new Q&A session!

From 25th March to 1st April, we invite you to ask your Howrse-related questions in the #game-dev-qa channel in Discord!
When joining the Discord server, you’ll need to click on the horse emoji to access all of the channels.

During this period of time, you will be able to ask and vote for your favorite question(s). The 20 most popular questions will be sent to our team, who will answer them!

▶️ In case of equality between several questions, the questions will be selected according to their chronological order of publication.
▶️ The Howrse team reserves the right not to answer a question, even if it is among the most voted by the community.

How can I ask my questions?

If your question hasn’t been asked or already answered by the game dev team, you can submit your question by writing it in the #game-dev-qa channel;
You can ask as many questions as you want, but only write one question per message.

Please know that the team will not be able to answer questions asked in the forums, unless they have been re-posted by someone in the Discord server. If you do not wish to join the Discord server, you may use this topic to present your questions and request Discord users to forward them onto the dedicated channel.

Before you post your question:

✅ Make sure your question has not been already asked.
✅ Make sure your message only includes one question. If you want to ask another one, write another message.
Your question(s) must be about the game: features, events, team, etc.
Your question(s) and phrasing must be respectful and comply with the Discord server rules.

What is not allowed?

No chit-chat will be allowed in the game-dev-qa channel. You can talk about the Q&A session in this topic or in the #game-dev-discussion Discord channel.
Off-topic questions will be moderated. This place is meant for you to ask your questions to our game dev team, messages about sanctions, or support tickets are not allowed.
Links and pictures are not permitted.

How can I vote for my favorite questions?

✅ If the :OwThumbup: emoji has not been added yet under your favorite question(s), add it to vote for it.
✅ Make sure to use the right emoji: other emojis will not be counted for the final vote.

FAQ

When will we get the answers?
Our game dev team is very busy working on different features of the game. However, we will do our very best to provide you with the answers within the next two months.

How can I make sure that my question is not off-topic?
As long as your question is related to the game itself, and not about a sanction, it will not be off-topic. You can discuss your question with other players here or in the #game-dev-discussion discord channel. If your message is moderated, our team will do its best to provide you the reason why.

Who will answer our questions?
Depending on the question, you will get an answer from the members of our Game Design, Art, Producing, Programming, Customer Support, or Communication team.

My question was very popular, but not answered by the team. Why?
The team reserves the right not to answer certain questions, even if they are very popular. The Ubisoft policy, or even the secrets around the game unfortunately do not allow us to answer all your questions.

To sum up

WHEN? �

March 25–April 1st, 10 AM (Paris time) → Ask your questions.
April 1st-April 3rd, 10 AM (Paris time) → Vote for your favorite questions using the :OwThumbup: emoji.

WHERE? �

� Ask your question in the game-dev-qa channel in Discord! Don't forget: One message = one question. Ask as many questions as you want!
� Discuss the different questions asked or the format of this new Q&A session in the game-dev-discussion discord channel or right here in this topic.

We look forward to hearing all of your game questions!

The Howrse Team
EchOw
  • Posted messages: 453
  • Karma: 10 points
  • Page:
  • 1
So, if we don't use Discord, we here, on the actual game itself, cannot participate in the vote for a question already submitted, because we can't even SEE IT, and we have to beg someone who has a Discord acc to submit our question here for us to be transferred to the Discord server. (at the very least YOU should provide that service). WHY? Why would you set up something so important to ALL players when the majority of players can't be involved ?
I know many more people who straight out REFUSE to use it than l do who actually have an acc, infact l only know 1 person who has an acc, that speaks volumes to me.

WHY is the game itself being pushed into the background for these unsafe 'outside' sites? What is wrong with our in-game forums?

l've had a look on the Howrse Discord server and l was disgusted with the foul language used by one player on their profile, what a wonderful experience for kids default smiley (o) That was more than enough for me to never look at it again, besides the fact its un safe, particularly for the vulnerable younger sector of our community.
You seem hellbent on forcing us to join Discord, but not this Black Duck!


▶️ The Howrse team reserves the right not to answer a question, even if it is among the most voted by the community.


# And if this is the case, why would we even waste our time participating?


I apologize for the length of my Question, but l feel strongly about keeping the game on the gamedefault smiley ;)
Josey jojo
  • Posted messages: 1,417
  • Karma: 10 points
[quote=1396002627][author]Josey jojo[/author]So, if we don't use Discord, we here, on the actual game itself, cannot participate in the vote for a question already submitted, because we can't even SEE IT, and we have to beg someone who has a Discord acc to submit our question here for us to be transferred to the Discord server. (at the very least YOU should provide that service). WHY? Why would you set up something so important to ALL players when the majority of players can't be involved ?
I know many more people who straight out REFUSE to use it than l do who actually have an acc, infact l only know 1 person who has an acc, that speaks volumes to me.

WHY is the game itself being pushed into the background for these unsafe 'outside' sites? What is wrong with our in-game forums?

l've had a look on the Howrse Discord server and l was disgusted with the foul language used by one player on their profile, what a wonderful experience for kids default smiley (o) That was more than enough for me to never look at it again, besides the fact its un safe, particularly for the vulnerable younger sector of our community.
You seem hellbent on forcing us to join Discord, but not this Black Duck!


▶️ The Howrse team reserves the right not to answer a question, even if it is among the most voted by the community.


# And if this is the case, why would we even waste our time participating?


I apologize for the length of my Question, but l feel strongly about keeping the game on the gamedefault smiley ;)[/quote:0]

I agree Josey Jojo like I have a account but whats the point in asking a question if other people wont vote for it at all and a good chance other people will ask what you might want to ask as well, but I do very much agree it should be on the game and not discord for the questions
Tara224
  • Posted messages: 752
  • Karma: 10 points
I have a question if anyone could be bothered asking.

Why are so many important game related discussions and information hosted off the actual game site? How is it fair/convenient/useful/better than discussing in the already EXISTING forums???
luinlote
  • Posted messages: 760
  • Karma: 10 points
I did some hunting around on the discord and seems to be because not all versions have forums, they're hosting it on discord that in theory everyone can use.

I proposed the above 3 questions (into one simplified question) for you lot but I doubt it'll be chosen, they're very pro-discord on there
EA81
  • Posted messages: 29
  • Karma: 10 points
I would like to know when they are going to lift the restriction on the phanes egg - surely the gp levels have progressed far enough by now?!
Probably not a very popular question default smiley :p
(I am one of those who won't use discord...)
gaff
  • Posted messages: 1,608
  • Karma: 10 points
Well,how ridiculous. I'm not on discord and don't plan on joining it. Ask and answer questions here instead, it makes much more sense!
legz
  • Posted messages: 334
  • Karma: 10 points



HellOw,

The Q&A session is now open on Discord!

Head to the #game-dev-qa channel to ask your questions to the Howrse Team!
Don’t forget to click on the horse emoji in server-rules to access all of the channels.

We’ll see you there!

The Howrse Team
EchOw
  • Posted messages: 453
  • Karma: 10 points
gaff wrote:

I would like to know when they are going to lift the restriction on the phanes egg - surely the gp levels have progressed far enough by now?!
Probably not a very popular question default smiley :p
(I am one of those who won't use discord...)


Looking at the questions on discord that has been asked and has been voted for 19 times so there is a chance it could be answered

I will also add if its allowed to Im happy to post in the discord questions anyone has if they dont have/use discord and am then happy to post the answers in here if its allowed of course
Tara224
  • Posted messages: 752
  • Karma: 10 points
Thank you, Tara224!
gaff
  • Posted messages: 1,608
  • Karma: 10 points
The Devs' Q&A Answers have arrived! You may use this topic to discuss the answers given by the Devs' in the latest Q&A session.
EchOw
  • Posted messages: 453
  • Karma: 10 points
For those who don't use discord, here are the 20 (plus an extra?) most voted Q&A posted on discord. Direct copy and paste added into spoiler banners so it's not as long.
If this is not allowed, then admin can remove. But why such information wouldn't be allowed on the main site forums would seem fairly odd to me.

___


1. There are now a lot of Trophies listed on the Trophies page and more being added all the time. Are there any plans to redesign the page to make it more usable/easier to navigate? e.g. ability to bookmark trophies you are working on, hide trophies you aren't interested in etc.
Click to display
Yes, we are currently reworking the Trophy page to make it more usable, but all the functionalities you mention might not make it into our redesign.


2. Are you ever going to return to the preview for Helios Ray, as in, getting to see how it looks on the actual horse page before applying it?
Click to display
We will seriously consider it.


3. Are we ever going to get more trophies for regular gameplay objectives?
Click to display
Absolutely! We are planning to add more trophies regularly, as we've done recently, and we'll keep adding trophies related to different aspects of the game.


4. Can you change the BMI selection default from passes to items that are in inventory (if you have it)?
Click to display
Yes, we will address this issue.


5. Are you thinking about ways to make the dragon divines nicer to take care of?
Click to display
This is not planned right now, but given the number of votes, we'll consider it and see how we can change it.


6. Why does the game continuously add animations that are not affected if you select the "turn off animations" setting?
Click to display
For gameplay and technical reasons, it is not possible for us to turn off all animations in the game. However, rest assured: Animations in Howrse don't come near the threshold putting people suffering from epilepsy at risk. We will be more specific in the option panel allowing to turn off animations and specify that it only applies to non-gameplay animations.


7. Is there going to be a repeat event of the one to remove horses from the game anytime soon, but with a better concept?
Click to display
This is not planned right now.


8. Will we ever see an item that would allow you to trade fragments of one divine for another? Kind of like a Themis scale?
Click to display
Again, this is not planned right now, but it's an interesting idea. Thank you for the suggestion.


9. Is there any intention to improve the communication with the player base (when there's for example an issue/bug, or when there are changes)?
Click to display
We are constantly trying to improve the communication with the player base. The Q&A sessions are an example of it, we implemented them last year when the community requested them as we thought it would be a good idea to create proximity with players.

We are working more closely with the producing and game design team to improve the general communication around new features and bigger changes to explain the reasons behind the changes so that everyone can understand them better and avoid situations such as the trophy update.
We are always in direct contact with the programming team, which can be very helpful when there are major bugs on the game so that we can keep updated.

Thanks to Discord, we can easily have direct and privileged contact with the community, and we want to keep using and growing this channel.

Our goal is to have a consistent communication while also respecting the specificities on the different versions. The discrepancies you noticed in the forums can be related to different schedules of the persons handling the forums, some specific initiatives, and sometimes just human error. Mistakes happen!

Anyway, rest assured, improving the communication with players is one of our main objectives.


10. Please do something about your partner offers. Most of them do nothing, but just take our time and ask private questions. They look like scams.
Click to display
We are aware of issues regarding the partner offers. We are actively investigating them with our external partners and will keep you updated on the progress on the topic.


11. Would it be possible to add a feature that allows us to have insight into the number of votes received for our artworks in CS?
Click to display
While we understand where you're getting at, we do not plan to add such a feature in the Creation Space.

As mentioned in a previous answer regarding the creation space, we try to take only one creation per player per month, even if there are several in the top votes, which means that if one of your creations was selected, chances are really high that your other creations were well-placed in the ranking and will have their chance in the following months.

We'll try to showcase some of the creations that almost got selected at the end of each month, as Cocow did for April, so that you can get an idea.


12. Can we have a filter for the sales for companions?
Click to display
We will look into the feasibility of adding this filter.


13. Could we ever see the Dev team use an Upvote Platform where users suggest ideas and players vote on them then Dev team responds / marks "done, working on it, not possible, etc" ?
Click to display
For now we'd rather focus on the tools and communication channels we have at hand, but that's a great idea, and we'll keep it in mind.


14. Are there any plans to increase the number of drachmas and/or obols we can currently have on hand?
Click to display
The maximum number of Obols & Drachmas you can have has recently been increased to 15. We hope you like this change!


15. What are the current efforts to attract new players to the world of Howrse?
Click to display
We understand your question about the decline in the number of new players in the game. One of the main reasons lies in the game's longevity, which has been live since 2005. With such a long history, it naturally becomes more challenging to consistently attract new players, and campaigns reactivating former players are often more effective. However, we continue to invest each month in acquisition to bring new players and are committed to continuing our efforts to maintain and grow our player base.


16. Will you give players the opportunity to vote on which divines they would like to see in the lucky items, Black Friday, and the Ascent of the Olympus in the future?
Click to display
We're considering a version of that. Stay tuned!


17. With about 300 divine horses, is it possible to make a search tool to look which horse gives which item?
Click to display
Nothing is planned for the moment on this matter.


18. Are mods getting checked for activity?
Click to display
We do check mods for activity, though not as regularly as we wish, and we understand it can be inconvenient for players when a moderator hasn't been online for a while. Thank you for raising the issue. We have started to do a thorough check on all versions.


19. Will you raise the separate the limit of 6 crops between meadows and greenhouses?
Click to display
We are already quite generous with the number of allowed crops, so can't allow this without putting our economic balancing at risk.


20. When will the old trophies return (the old design to be specific)?
Click to display
We will not be reverting to the old trophies, but we are working on a way to address the concerns expressed when we switched to the new system.


21.Are there any plans to run old events like the Plants, Potions and Treasure hunt? I really loved their concepts.
Click to display
Nothing planned for the moment on the subject.
modelhorsemad
  • Posted messages: 1,873
  • Karma: 10 points
Whoops, just seen them + more posted on on a topic above. Somehow never saw the post before. Would have saved me time copying and pasting default smiley (lol) Glad the information was shared on the forums!
modelhorsemad
  • Posted messages: 1,873
  • Karma: 10 points
@modelhorsemad, your layout of the questions and answers is MUCH easier to read than the official post. Thank you!
luinlote
  • Posted messages: 760
  • Karma: 10 points
I agree luinlote, thankyou from me too modelhorsemad, excellent job, this is exactly where the answers should have gone in the first place default smiley (y)
Josey jojo
  • Posted messages: 1,417
  • Karma: 10 points
If all that comes,out of this whole thing, is that number 4. BMI default is finally FIXED and allows the default to take from our inventory First and not our passes, l will be one Happy Little Vegemite default smiley :d
Josey jojo
  • Posted messages: 1,417
  • Karma: 10 points
  • Page:
  • 1