The Titans' Challenge - new Black Market item

Howrse have introduced a new Black Market item called the Titans' Challenge.

It is a bit of a twist on a Horn of Plenty, as the Titans' Challenge allows you to win gifts for your horses but you have to take a bit of a gamble.

The item costs 2 passes. When you purchase it, like a Horn of Plenty, it takes you to a special page where it tells you what you have won. However, with the Titans' Challenge you can decide if you would like to accept the gifts you have been given or go on to the next level to try and win even better prizes.

The gifts can be anything from aging points, ranking points and equus to Black Market items.

Beware though, if you reach a level with no prizes, you automatically lose everything you already have! So decide if you think it's worth the risk or not.

Some people have managed to get all the way to level 8 where you can win a Wild horse of varying breeds.

Until 08.00 Game Time on Monday 24 September you can win a free Titans' Challenge to try for yourself - you just need to win 10 competitions with your horses.

Here's how I got on with mine...

This is the page you get at first...

...I think I'll keep going...

...still going well...

Oh dear!

So good luck - and let us know what you win!

Lucy

Apollo's Lyre

Since the new features have come in today on Howrse there are lots of questions being asked the changes.

One of the main things players are asking about is the Apollo's Lyre.

NOTE: You can no longer change your horse's Lyre by clicking on the plus symbol next to your horses name.

To change your Lyre, scroll down your horse's page and look just under where their skills are displayed. There you will see the options Animation, Coat, Landscape, Name and Companion. Click on Name and you will be taken to the old Lyre page.

Lucy

The Black Pearl

There have been a few changes to the Black Pearl and Golden Apple coats over the past week, including the introduction of some brand new items that you can submit illustrations for. Here's an overview of how the Black Pearl now works.

The Black Pearl now lets you submit illustrations for Golden Apple coats (as before), Helios's Ray (backgrounds for your horses' pages) and the Horn of Gold (coats for the companions).

The Black Pearl costs 2 passes and you need 5 karma points to be able to use it.

Creation of illustrations

To create a new illustration, you can use any computer graphics editing software such as Paint, Photoshop or Gimp. You're not allowed to just submit a photograph - it must be an illustration or drawing and it must be your own work - don't copy it from anywhere or you risk having your account suspended. Make your illustrations as life-like or imaginary as possible.

If you're not sure where to start, many Howrse players provide outlines of horses (line art) that they've given their permission for other people to use and submit as coats. Check out the Black Pearl - free line art forum post if you'd like to use one. So you could start with of these and just colour it in any way you like!

To send your illustrations, you must use the templates provided by Howrse:

• for the Golden Apple
• for Helios's Ray
  • A black frame marks the position of the horse to help you position your landscape properly
  • The frame and the horse it contains must be erased before you send your illustration
• for the Horn of Gold
  • The top frame is for the awake Companion
  • The bottom frame is for the sleeping Companion

Your image must be placed on the transparent space on the provided template. You must not change the size or format of this template.

Make sure you follow Howrse's instructions or your artwork may not be accepted. You must save your work as a .PNG file.

Publishing your illustration

Now, when you send in your illustration via the Black Pearl, it won't be published right away.

Firstly, Howrse will check it to see if it meets all the criteria for submission and then it will be sent to the Creation Space for other players to vote on it.

If your illustration wins the vote then it will be published on all versions of Howrse at the end of the month (including the different language versions). You will also earn passes as your illustration is used by players - see our post on the Creation Space to learn how much you can get.

If your illustration doesn't win the vote then it will appear again in the Creation Space the following month to allow players to vote for it again. If after 3 months, it still doesn't pass the vote, it will be removed.

If your illustration doesn't get voted on to the game then you will get back the passes you spent on the Black Pearl. However, if your coat isn't accepted because it doesn't fit Howrse's criteria - which can be found on the Black Pearl page you won't get your passes back - so be careful!

Good luck with your illustration submissions and let us know how you get on.

Lucy

Poseidon's Pack

Well as it's now 2011, we thought we'd kick off the New Year with a look at the new Poseidon's Pack. Now, essentially, this new tack pack is designed to replace the Centaur's Pack (for Western competitions) and the Atalante's Pack (for English competitions). Here's how Howrse describe it:

During each storm, Poseidon sheds some scales that are preciously kept to make magical saddlery items.These saddlery items offer a great amount of Poseidon's power to the horses bearing them. You horse owns tack that offers the same performances in Classical or in Western competitions.

To be able to use this Pack you horse must be over 3 years old.

So, the Poseidon's Pack is the new tack pack for every competition. So exactly what benefits does it bring to your horse? Some pretty good ones actually. Here's the list:

• Poseidon's Horseshoes - Speed +12
• Poseidon's Bridle - Stamina +12, Dressage +12
• Poseidon's Saddle - Gallop +12, Trot +12, Jumping +12
• Poseidon's Scale - Stamina , Speed, Dressage, Jumping, Trot and Gallop - ALL +5

Now we've heard that if you add Poseidon elements to a horse with Atalante's tack, the Poseidon elements replace the Atalante ones. So you don't get an Atalante's Saddle AND a Poseidon's Saddle. Pity though.

So, whether you're training or entering your horses into competitions, the new Poseidon's Pack looks like a must-have item. And we're pretty certain it will soon be available to buy in the Black Market, rather than having to dispatch reindeer to the North Pole to get one!

Patsy

EDIT May 2011 - The Poseiden's Pack is still not available to buy from the Black Market for passes. You have to win them in HoPs or other promotions.

Boreas's Lunge

Lots of exciting new developments on Howrse right now. We'll be covering all of them in the next few days. But we thought we'd give you some info on one item which has raised a lot of questions in the forums - Boreas's Lunge.

So what is it and how do you get it?

Well Howrse describes it like this: Boreas's Lunge is a very handy object that you can use to improve the performance of the horses in dressage competitions. It brings excellent bonuses.


Obviously with the new dressage competitions coming (more about those soon), the Boreas's Lunge will by a handy little item to have to improve your horses' skills.

However, it can't be bought with passes at the moment. You can only win them as part of the new dressage objectives which end on October 13th. We'll talk all about this in another posting.

Back to the Lunge then. Here are the bonuses it gives you:

• Dressage: +6 %

• Galloping: +8 %
• 
  
• Trotting: +8 %

So get yourself entered into those dressage comps and let us know if you manage to get a Boreas's Lunge.

Good luck!

Patsy

EDIT May 2011 - The Boreas's Lunge is still not available to buy from the Black Market for passes. You have to win them in HoPs or other promotions.