Howrse Basics: Mashes

Mashes are available in the store for you to buy to give to your horse in addition to his normal food. There are 3 kinds available and each gives your horse something different.

* An energy mash gives your horse 5% energy. It costs 50e.
* A caloric mash boosts your horse's morale by 10%. It costs 40e.
* A health mash increases your horses health by 10%

Health mashes can only be given to your horse if he is boarded in a stable that provides them. So, make sure you check carefully when boarding your horse that the EC has health mashes.

Note: you can only give your horse a mash every 6 months. Furthermore, mashes may only be given to horses after they have reached the age of two and health mashes can only be given to horses that are under 25 years old.

Lucy

Pegasus Account coming soon?

The Pegasus Account add-on feature is coming to International Howrse, we believe, on February 1st. So what is it? Well here's Howrse's description:

The Pegasus Account Add On
* Customised Personal Presentation Page
* Improved "My horses" Page
* The Piece of Cloud Pack
* The Item Exchange
- The Removal of The Diamond Apple
- The Removal of the Olympiad displays
- Correction on the treats for horses found on the game.
- Corrections on the co-management feature
* No more access possible to the Black Pearl for a co-manager
* No more access to the negotiation forum for a co-manager
- The cards can now be accessed via your "My account" page
- Account Security Systems.

Having tried the 'Customised Personal Presentation Page', there seem to be a few teething problems but hopefully these will be ironed out soon.

More details as we get them.

Patsy


UPDATE: We now have the costs for subscribing to the Pegasus Account once the free trials have finished:

3 passes for 1 month

15 passes for 6 months (you get 1 month free!)

30 passes for 1 year (you get 2 months free!)

Let us know if you think it's worth it and if you'll be signing up.

Diamond Apple to disappear

This article relates to Howrse.com. Well, you've probably seen the news item about this, but if you haven't - read on. As from 1st February 2011, the Diamond Apple coats (DA's) will be removed from Howrse. So you will not be able to create new DA coats from then on. So what about the DA coats you already have on your horses? No need to worry as these will remain. Your horses will not lose their Diamond Apple coats. But if you have any unused DA's - they will disappear from your stock if you do not use them by 1st February.

Howrse say that the reason they are removing them from the game is because people were having "technical" problems when trying to create the coats, saying that yhe feature isn't supported by most internet browsers. Strange, as LucyLou and I have created DA's using Firefox, Internet Explorer (older and newer versions) and Safari. Hmmm. Anyway, that's the reason they give, so it must be true!

Now some players are upset by the removal of the DA's. Others are not. Personally, I never thought they were that great. A lot of the time - the DA's either looked exactly the same as standard coats, or like the result of a fight in a wallpaper shop. On the bright side - once they disappear from the game, they may become a little more valuable. We shall see.

Will you miss Diamond Apple coats ... or not? Let us know what you think.

Patsy

Flash sales & snowball fight

This article is about Howrse.com. As always with flash sales, there are some bargains to be had. Mind you, there are some players who are willing to spend a lot of equus to get those Posiedon's Packs, Passes and Mist's. Our tip for getting a good price is to hit the sales when there are fewer players online. it's a good idea to have a look at the Howrse login page as it tells you how many players are online. Of course it depends where in the world you are, as to when is the quietest time on Howrse.

The prices in the auctions vary hugely. I've seen Passes sell for 50,000e and also 19,000e so it really is worth hanging around to see what sort of deal you can get. Mind you, the instant sales are great for buying things at reasonable prices but the sales are amazingly fast. If a really popular item like a HoP or Laurels comes up, the item is gone before you even have a chance to click on. Or maybe I'm just useless!

As for the snowball fight, I think it's a really nice idea to have this sort of thing again. It's great to be able to gift your friends, especially when you have nice friends who gift you a Piece of Cloud - like I did today. Oooh there are some lovely people on Howrse.

Good luck in the sales and let us know if you manage to get anything exciting.

Patsy

New Howrse versions opening now

As I write the new UK version of Howrse is open. Around the world players are eagerly waiting to try out the US, Canadian and Australian versions. It's strange being on a website on it's first day. It feels very empty and a little bit strange. However, they are sure to be popular. We shall see. One big new feature in these new versions, are the Quests. Essentially they are a walk-through, step-by-step guide to using the game. It's a good idea because Howrse lose so many players within the first few days, as people find the game difficult to get to grips with. This new feature is bound to ensure that they stick around long enough to learn the game and enjoy it. Oh, and buy passes too!

You can see the Quest bar at the top of the page. Once you start, it walks you through the process of looking after your first horse. There are rewards (apples, turnips etc) for achieving things such as ageing (spelt the English way now!) him and answering simple questions. It is all designed to teach new players how to look after their first foal and also about how to play the game. As I write, I'm still going through this process, so will let you know more, soon.

How are you finding the new versions? I know that many people are still waiting for the sites to open (especially the poor Australians who have been waiting the longest) but soon enough you'll all have a chance to get registered. So let us know what you think. What you like or don't like.

Good luck!

Patsy

Ocean update

Well, the skills keep on gaining. My Ocean has just 'grown up' and is now 1 year and 6 months old. His skills have increased again and are now 1707.60. However, things are still a little bit weird. I spoke to another player today who told me that their Ocean who is still only 4 months old also has 1707.60 skills! I had to check to see if it were true. And indeed it was.

So just a few days ago, there were no Oceans as young as 4 months with 1707.60 skills. We've even checked the parents' BLUP and age and Oceans with identical parental skills, BLUP and age produced Oceans with different inborn skills.

Very strange. So if you have any ideas about the weird world of Oceans' skills - leave a comment. and maybe we'll work out what's going on!

Patsy

UPDATE: As of 12 Jan - skills are now 1711.60 .....

Ocean Divine Horse

Well most of you will have seen these wonderful new Divine horses by now. They are unique in that they are the first Divine foals on Howrse. They could only be born by breeding a Snow horse with a Mist. And having looked through the Directory (on Howrse) it seems as if hundreds have been born so far.

At the time of writing, we are still a few hours away from seeing the first adult Oceans, although there have been images of them floating around the site. But as foals, there have been some interesting discussions taking place in the forums about their skills. Some people reported that their Ocean foal had 1693.20 skills when born but others had 1695 and 1696 skills. However, it was soon clear that Oceans' don't gain any skills from foal games but they do gain skills as time goes by - every two days. Some players were saying that they were gaining skills at different rates to other players. So, for example I spoke to someone who's Ocean had 1702.80 skills aged 8 months, but my Ocean only acheived 1702.80 skills when aged 1 year!

Very interesting. A huge debate took place about this and people were suggesting that the BLUP of the mare (Mist horse) was affecting the Ocean's inborn skills or that matching the Snow's top skills with those of the Mist (Mist's top skills change each day) was affecting the inborn skills of the Oceans'. But no-one could explain why some Ocean's gained skills faster than others.

Well one thing seems a little clearer now - all Ocean foals aged up to 1 year and 4 months have reached the same skills - 1702.80. Right now, we don't know if they will keep increasing but we shall definitely let you know.

I think that's enough figures for now. My head hurts!

Patsy