Wow! Thanks for sharing that with us Freehold!

That is going to make that more complex and varied. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see it too!

So... basically breeds like the Akhal-Teke with a spread of Stamina/Dressage/Jumping become more viable. Because as far as I'm aware there's no competition that runs judging on Speed/Gallop/Trot, and most horses will need the Dressage from the Mountain rides. From what Freehold is able to tell us, the XC breeds will get a massive boost because they can stick with one type of ride, while every other breed will have to do both mountain and forest to get three bolded skills and full blup.

Lovely. Time to go sell the other horses.

Right now there are 6 types of rides (7 if you include the beach rides). The changes to the rides will reduce the number to 2 (or 3)... How is that a bad thing?

There are already breeds in the game that require two types of rides to blup: Nokotas, Criollos, Highland Ponies, Knabstruppers (to name a few). That hasn't made them any less useful. Some are even Grand Prix winners and have been top of the skills rankings consistently for whole time the AU server has been running.

By your logic Haoang20082, the Western Pleasure breeds should be the most successful since they take the least effort where rides are concerned, yet that is not the reality.

Not to mention that we haven't even been able to test the way the rides work in real time yet so I don't see how you can judge the future viability of breeds or say that XC's will get a massive boost. If anything, the new ride changes will level the playing field for the majority of the breeds in the game.

There is a rumor of a new divine on the French/International servers

And Ruby there is absolutely no substantiation of that and it is nothing but a rumor.

What part Freehold?

Some one on Int said it and that it came from the test server.

Well that was untrue. I am on the test server and it is nowhere there. Now the French server is ahead of us but on any server, test including the English one there is at least an indication in the Admin's account that something coming up.

There is nothing and I refuse to recognize anything with no legitimate back up. The rumors that are abounding over several servers is so bad that now without a legitimate source it is treated as a unsubstantiated rumor to me.

I'm going to put this in spoiler tags just in case... I don't want to retype it if it gets deleted

I don't question the rides at all.

Meant to add it is the so called "new divine" I am questioning.

@Freehold, I don't think Ruby mentioned a divine?

That was star!!! Freehold.

Oh I got the wrong quote attached to the wrong person. Sorry Ruby. Chocolate chip cookies for you!

We do have to watch out for those "rumors" though.

Yeah, I didn't think it was real either. The only thing is that the image (and 2 others with slightly different content) have a legitimate URL, coming from the prepod server. These types of images are how people first found out about spring and summer. So it could be nothing, but it's nice to consider, and it's not completely out of the blue.

Here is the new page that is totally new and from where you can view your EC prestige and what gives what.

Not sure if this would require a spoiler but just in case:

The new rides sound like a nightmare.

If I'm reading it correctly, it sounds like it favours certain horses over others purely due to the skillsets.

Yes, @sasstraliss I totally agree with you. I'm not fully happy with these changes, though you can't please everyone.

I would find it purely annoying, having to complete two or more rides for most of the horses, since that takes up too much time, and BLUPping purebreds or that kinds will be extremely hard for me, especially since I'm terrible at BLUPping anyways.
I think generally the new EC changes that are coming are quite exciting, except for some parts, such as the rides (as mentioned) and the 100 boxes... Won't be getting that anytime soon.

Also, how big is a hectare? (in comparison to metres and stuff)

The only problem I think I'll have with the reserve merging is I might buy something like a shower or #3 box and then realize I don't have enough money for my horses/breeding and things like that.

I disagree. At the moment, Tennessee Walkers are far more desirable than Arabians according to skillsets. Hands up who hates doing speed rides? This will aid things, I'm sure.

OK. I've kind of been hiding under a rock for the past few months. In more precise detail, how do the new rides work?

I purely reckon that the rides are just going to help us more then not. As Ruby~ mentioned earlier, some of the breeds already require two types of rides so really it isn't benefitting any breeds in particular. These rides won't give the XC horses or TWs a boost as they already only have to complete one type of ride. These rides will just even out the advantages, and hopefully make if a tad easier.

Rules of Game Development & Feature Introduction:

1) If you have a system where particular parts of the game are harder than others where things should be equal, any action you take to alleviate this should be in the direction of an easier user experience.

Reducing the number of rides means that more breeds will be dual-ride to BLUP, and this means that people will experience a bad change. The correct way to go about it would be to either make ALL or NO breeds require dual-rides. Changing it so a few more breeds are duel ride is ridiculous, because you're not solving anything and you're simply giving into 'Perceived Mechanic Simplicity Development’, whereby developers will simplify a mechanic to make it appear easier without solving the core problem.

Without knowing the specifics of how the new rides will work, it’s difficult to say.

2) If you’re going to change something, make sure it’s going to improve the experience of users. There will always be unhappy users, but catering to the masses and in this case the majority of breeds is necessary.

Either that or they could just have modular rides that improve the skills that your horse actually needs, with same energy costs across the board. Or better yet, introduce 2 non beach rides – one for the top 3 and one for the last 3. Owlient would love that, because it means they get to simplify their game even more. (Who would’ve thought it possible!)

At any rate, let's wait and see. Who knows, maybe it's okay. All I know is there will be a lot of unhappy breeders who operate with 1-ride breeds, such as myself.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the new ride system. I absolutely, with a burning fiery passion, freaking HATE the current system for bolding speed. UGH. Just...NO! I don't think that having the system switch over will cause a major upset in the balance of the overall game; remember- a breed is only as good as the people behind it. Heck, a pony breed has the potential to be the top breed on the server, but for whatever reason nobody likes them as much. A breed is only valuable if we say it is. Really looking forward to it...might just be enough to get me to pick up my NIB Friesians again.

I've never understood why the pony breeds aren't higher than they are. On the other regional servers they're doing wonderfully. Apart from being able to take a little less food, I don't see any difference between them and the normal breeds.

It would be nice if you could do length speed rides, I will admit.