New Howrse features February 2012

It has just been announced by Ow in the Events forum that there will be a series of new changes launched tomorrow - Wednesday 8 February 2012. Some of these we already know about - the proposed karma changes for example but there will be plenty of other new features too.

The new features have already been implemented on UK Howrse and the various other servers so we're assuming that the same things will be happening on international Howrse. Read below to find out more about the changes due to happen. These are lifted from the Change Log Page on UK Howrse, so they might not be identical on the international version but we're pretty sure most of them will be.

Western Riding

• Western competitions have been introduced in the game
• Your horses must now have a speciality before they can take part in competitions. The competitions your horses can join depend on what their speciality is.
• Your equestrian centre has to be specialized before you can organise competitions. The types of competition you can organise depend on what your equestrian centre's speciality is.

Changes at the Grand Prix

• The winnings given to the 5 best participants in each Grand Prix competition have changed:
1st = 40 x Diamond
2nd = 20 x Diamond
3rd = 10 x Diamond
4th = 5 x Diamond
5th = 2 x Diamond

• If you have access to the Grand Prix, you can now join both Western Riding and Classical Riding competitions at the Grand Prix

A completely revamped karma system

• All players start with a maximum of 10 karma points that they can lose if they don't follow the rules.
• By losing karma, you can be refused access to certain features like the forum or sales. Find out more
• You can win back 1 karma point every 30 days you log in, as long as you have less than 10.
• Your old karma points have been converted into gifts

Hidden bids

• Pegasus Account members can now create hidden bids in auctions. Every hidden bid costs 1 diamond and lets you bid on a sale without other players seeing your bid. Find out more

More advantages with diamonds and passes

• A new pack is being offered at the black market: the Bonus Pack
• You can now buy certain bonus items with diamonds:
◦ Golden Spurs
◦ Daphne's Laurels
◦ Seahorse
◦ Boreas' Lunge
◦ Eolus' Wind
• Griffin and Phoenix companions are now sold for diamonds instead of passes, and at a lower cost
• It's now more profitable when you credit your breeder's reserve or your equestrian centre reserve, and when you credit ageing points with diamonds and passes
• You can now use passes to buy diamonds
• Note that diamonds can no longer be traded with other players

Unicorns more valuable

• Unicorn bonuses have gone from +6 to +15 in dressage
• Unicorns now earn you 1000 Equus every time you send them to the Safe Haven

And also...

• You can now rename horses, give them affixes and move them to a different breeding farm, all at the same time using the link: Modify Profile
• Your horses' results in competitions page has been completely redone
• The riding school page has been removed. You'll find info on lessons in your equestrian centre office
• The My Account and Edit My Account pages have been merged
• Red excellence stars now count for 10 green excellence stars on horse pages
• There's no longer any limit to the number of items you can have in your inventory
• Bonus items now appear in the Bonus tab on horse pages, and not in the items box as before. You can now give your horses bonus items by clicking on the Give a Bonus Item link in the menu on their page.
• The Sapphire divine horse now offers one diamond or 1000 Equus based on its age in even/odd months, rather than even/odd days as before
• Greyfell divine horses' health can now increase when they are immortal

There are also a series of new Western Objectives which relate to you entering the new Western style competitions. These earn you gifts including a new breed of horse on the UK version but we'll tell you more when all this has been confirmed on the international version.

Happy Howrsing,
Lucy