Controversial suggestions, opinions needed.

[BlackOak2]

As I play the game, I encounter more and more weird places where interface should be improved.
The first one I'd like to mention is competitions. Given that I have a stallion I'd like to enter in all lvl 1 competitions, it's not possible to sort competitions out by gender. Geldings do not exist, but there are competitions made for them and I have to check every single one before entering. Seriously?

Same one for breeds. There are tons of breed-specific competitions and no way to sort them out.

I'd like to have the gender-restricted option on the competitions page as well. Especially when we get more players and many more competitions made.

Do you visit the competitions page from the horse's profile? If you go through there and then run a level 1 search (or run any style search), it will only bring up valid competitions that YOUR horse is qualified for. It automatically drops any breed-specific that your horse isn't, and any under or over age that your horse falls outside of, including height restrictions and sex. If you only ever enter competitions through the competitions, drop-down menu (on the sidebar), yes, it's annoying sorting through them, but most often when I'm entering just one horse, I'll use the horse's profile to open the competitions page (the button is on the same bar as the 'competition record' title). It does make things just a little more streamlined.

[Farant]

I'd like to have the gender-restricted option on the competitions page as well. Especially when we get more players and many more competitions made.

Do you visit the competitions page from the horse's profile? If you go through there and then run a level 1 search (or run any style search), it will only bring up valid competitions that YOUR horse is qualified for. It automatically drops any breed-specific that your horse isn't, and any under or over age that your horse falls outside of, including height restrictions and sex. If you only ever enter competitions through the competitions, drop-down menu (on the sidebar), yes, it's annoying sorting through them, but most often when I'm entering just one horse, I'll use the horse's profile to open the competitions page (the button is on the same bar as the 'competition record' title). It does make things just a little more streamlined.

I checked the horse's profile and yeah, this is neat. But I still think that more options on general page would be good.

Also, why don't make tagging and messaging more efficient? Right now it's so basic that finding a player is a real pain if he didn't post on the forum. It's kinda weird to not be able to message any player you want, it's a multiplayer game after all.

[BlackOak2]

I checked the horse's profile and yeah, this is neat. But I still think that more options on general page would be good.

Also, why don't make tagging and messaging more efficient? Right now it's so basic that finding a player is a real pain if he didn't post on the forum. It's kinda weird to not be able to message any player you want, it's a multiplayer game after all.

I would like a little easier way to finding players. Unless you know the name, or unless they make a description for their farm (and I really haven't tried using that search option), it is rather difficult finding certain people, regardless of if they posted on the forums or not (notwithstanding those that are regularly active in the forums).

I think the biggest help, at least from my point-of-view, would be making a search for not only breeds of horses that aren't for sale, but from the other side, search and list owners by selecting a breed of horse currently alive on their farm. With the option to list it in reverse or forward order to the number of the breed currently alive on their farm.

Personally, I think that would open the scope up for us the most.

[Farant]

I would like a little easier way to finding players. Unless you know the name, or unless they make a description for their farm (and I really haven't tried using that search option), it is rather difficult finding certain people, regardless of if they posted on the forums or not (notwithstanding those that are regularly active in the forums).

I think the biggest help, at least from my point-of-view, would be making a search for not only breeds of horses that aren't for sale, but from the other side, search and list owners by selecting a breed of horse currently alive on their farm. With the option to list it in reverse or forward order to the number of the breed currently alive on their farm.

Personally, I think that would open the scope up for us the most.

Well, what would you do with players who breed sport mixes or even grade horses? This is a good idea, but it won't solve the problem directly. Even if you know that this player has the horse you want, if you can't reach him, it's useless. We need system of free private messaging for everyone, not just for premium accounts. Right now it's hidden behind a paywall, so to say, and it directly affects people's experience not in a good way.

[BlackOak2]

Well, what would you do with players who breed sport mixes or even grade horses? This is a good idea, but it won't solve the problem directly. Even if you know that this player has the horse you want, if you can't reach him, it's useless. We need system of free private messaging for everyone, not just for premium accounts. Right now it's hidden behind a paywall, so to say, and it directly affects people's experience not in a good way.

We can get in contact with any player on HWO we want, right now. As long as you know their name, you can do a ping already, regardless of if they have previously posted on the forums or not. And the only exceptions to this is that if they haven't, they'll need their post approved, alongside with being underage. One-sided conversations are notoriously hard to maintain if there are questions that need answers. But even with the underaged group, they'll still be subject to certain rules, regardless of if they have access to PM's or not (I do not know how far or entirely what admin has it set up for, however).
Here's a clear response that might need being repeated: the underaged group that is under COPPA or similar restrictions, WILL still get pinged and still has access to read the forums. They just can't necessarily respond.

Plus, on HWO, grade is still accepted as a type of breed and if the search-for-breed on the farm or member directory was set up as pure or not-pure, just like our sale and stud options are, then you'd still get mixed and part breed returns.

Don't get me wrong, I'm nominally agreeing with you, not arguing with you.

But I don't agree with making PM's available to everybody. Although I still have mixed feelings about it, even now I still get the random 'Hi' with nothing else in a PM. What is that? Just a random hi from somebody that has little to no contact otherwise, then when you reply back, 'what is it you would like?' you get no further response. I am one of those that don't like blind contact with no purpose. But that's besides the point. Keeping the PM to only upgraded accounts does have a ton of benefits, but it also has a ton of negatives, one of them is requiring you to be upgraded to view any PM's.
My vote on the PM's on upgrades only, has been and will remain as upgrade only.


Admin, if you're reading this, can you answer if our COPPA restricted players have access to and can respond via PM, if they are upgraded?

[Tom]

COPPA users can't use the PM system.

[BlackOak2]

Thank you, Tom.

So even if we had PM available to everybody, COPPA would still not allow us to communicate privately, regardless. Even now, our COPPA and similarly restricted players cannot access it.

So my point is that even if we were to vote on and it gets added to the game as an 'everybody accessible', it would still not be available to a portion of our players. Thus still defeating the purpose of your desire to communicate with anybody on the game freely at any time.

But I suppose COPPA falls a bit outside of your consideration toward making things a little easier to communicate.

[Farant]

Thank you, Tom.

So even if we had PM available to everybody, COPPA would still not allow us to communicate privately, regardless. Even now, our COPPA and similarly restricted players cannot access it.

So my point is that even if we were to vote on and it gets added to the game as an 'everybody accessible', it would still not be available to a portion of our players. Thus still defeating the purpose of your desire to communicate with anybody on the game freely at any time.

But I suppose COPPA falls a bit outside of your consideration toward making things a little easier to communicate.

You're right, I don't even consider age restriction since I am way past that restriction myself. I'm just thinking that if people mean business they'll find a way to communicate, so pushing forward in that direction is simply waste of time. Points that I've stated in the beginning are far more important and pressing than PM.

[Farant]

Btw, I ran into same odd thing two times in a row. You know there are competitions that only one of your horses can enter, but they are still on the list when I try to find competitions for other horses, and I can't get rid of them. Tbh, if would be good if they disappeared from the list.

[Tjigra]

Btw, I ran into same odd thing two times in a row. You know there are competitions that only one of your horses can enter, but they are still on the list when I try to find competitions for other horses, and I can't get rid of them. Tbh, if would be good if they disappeared from the list.

I am all for this. Competing in endurance (single entry event), I keep running into myself all the time and it is rather annoying having to close that error message all the time. For the time being I've assigned levels for certain horses, but still keep running into myself when a horse upgrades to a higher level and there are still older competitions that hasn't yet run, but has another of my horses already entered.