```fix
Hellow everyone!
```
**We've been impressed by the number of questions you all had for our game dev team!** It took us some time to read them all, classify them, and choose the ones that sounded the most relevant to us... for this first batch of answers!

We are thrilled to get to answer your questions. Through this initiative (*and the ones that are coming!*), we would like to strengthen the special bond that already exists between you, our loyal players, and us, the game dev team.

For this first session of answers, we decided to focus on some hot topics that have been discussed a lot lately. Our goal is to give you some insights into our project strategy and the future of Howrse. In order to best answer you, some questions have been combined into one big topic. The following answers have been divided into **five sections**:

⭐ A quick update about the** rewarded videos** on the classic version;
⭐ **Trophies & collection**;
⭐ **Communication** with players;
⭐ **Interface and user experience**;
⭐ **Vision of future**.

If you don't see your question answered today, rest assured, **it still lays safely by us**, we will do our very best to answer a maximum of questions in the following months.

We enjoyed answering you, and hope you will appreciate our answers. To recognize the different teams who answered the questions, we will be using the following emojis:
� Producing team
� Game designers
� Programmers
�️ Artists
�️ Community Developers
☎️ Customer support

**So now, enough talking, let's get to the point!**

Happy reading!
Your Howrse Team



```fix
Rewarded videos & bug resolution process
```
__**Are some bugs going to get fixed anytime soon? I haven't been able to play the rewarded videos on my PC in months.**__

� ☎️ Yes! We have a whole bug-tracking system that enables us to report bugs to the programmers and fix them as quickly as possible. We fix them all week long to optimize your gaming experience. In recent weeks, for example :

� We fixed an issue that prevented players of the Italian version from cancelling cow farming in their equestrian centre.
�We added a warning when a Solar System Starry Aura is replaced by a Wind Starry Aura.
�We have corrected an interface issue that prevented certain actions in the equestrian centre.

We carefully study all the feedback you send us via the https://support.owlient.eu/ platform. If the issue raised cannot be solved directly by the person replying to you, it is passed on to our technical team, who will prioritize it according to the level of impact (How blocking is the issue? How many players encounter it? etc.). Depending on the level of priority, the problem will either be corrected directly on the current version of the game, or it will be dealt with by our teams in one of the next game updates

Regarding the rewarded videos, we are aware of the current limitations of what we offer. Until we find better browser-based alternatives, we've decided to restrict this feature to the mobile app only. It's technically more and more complicated to offer videos on a web platform, so we're finding it difficult to offer something. For the time being, we have no plans to work on this issue.

```fix
Trophies & collections
```
You had **a lot** of questions about this precise topic. We have read them all, and instead of picking a couple of questions, we decided to answer them as a whole, to try to cover all your interrogations. We hope our answer will help you understand our intentions and the reason why we are changing these features.

� Our initial goal with the Trophies & Collections redesign was to separate gameplay feats, such as winning competitions or completing contests, and the various collections one can pursue in the game. We wanted to prevent you from losing trophies you had already earned. We also wanted to make them more motivating by adding rewards for completing them.

We are still standing by this design; however, it seems like we underestimated your attachment to the visuals attached to each trophy and your ability to share that information on your player sheet.

We heard your feedback and are working to make both things come-back in the game as soon as possible.

We are also working on these topics:

� Increasing the quantity of new trophies that we add to the game related to other features besides contests & divine horses.
� Creating collections for Golden Apples and Helios Rays.
-

```fix
Communication with players
```

__**You recently sent out a survey to players to get feedback on the game and what the player base would like to see as possible changes or future features. Is there any plan in place to increase transparency regarding this feedback and how these suggestions are being evaluated or addressed?**__

�️ We understand you are curious about the survey data, and we might work on a new format to share with you some insights and data we collect from them! Surveys are the best way for us to collect your feedback and have a clear view and understanding of your expectations. But this is not the only system we use to know more about your expectations; we are also constantly reading your messages on our social networks, right here on Discord, or on the remaining forums. Once collected, the communication team classifies your comments and passes them on to the appropriate person or team.

We are working way ahead of the events. To give you an example, the game designers' team already knows what they want for Winter and is working on the 2024 events! That is one of the main reasons why you don't necessarily see the changes you request appear immediately in the game. Everything you say is, however, recorded, and the game dev team always tries to implement the relevant features you might request when there is a small place for them in our timeline.

-

__**Why do you keep the Discord server in English only?**__

�️ The main purpose of this official Discord server was to offer a safe discussion space for all of our Howrse players who lost the access to their forums. The decision to have an English-only policy is primarily aimed at ensuring effective communication and moderation.

We understand the frustration some players might feel, when it comes to write in a language they don't fully master, and are aware that it might sometimes be difficult to clearly express their mind. We have worked and are still working to find a solution that could suit the maximum number of players. Not only that, but we've looked into Discord translation bots, and were not fully convinced by the ones we tried.

**Tl;dr:** The Discord server will remain in English, but we are looking into solutions to allow you to write in your native language <:OwWink:913735381483155476>

-

__**Will you make a holiday workbook for the 2023 summer period, like last year on Facebook?**__

�️ We are so thrilled to see that you liked our previous holiday activity book, we've put a lot of effort in it. In case you hadn't seen in yet, the 2023 edition is already out and ready for you to complete! You can download it right here:

EN �� - https://howr.se/EN-HolidayActivityBook2023
FR �� - https://howr.se/FR-CahierdeVacances2023
DE �� - https://howr.se/DE-BuchMitFerienaktivitaten2023

Don't hesitate to share with us your progress right here on Discord, or on the other social networks with the hashtag #HowrseSummer!

-

__**Will you be more clear regarding the creation space? How does the voting process work?**__

�️ First, we’d like to remind you that the selection of creations is done manually. We don’t automatically pick creations based on the votes. However, your votes are central in the system. For each category, **we always start at the top of the votes, and we then filter** some creations based on multiple criteria, which we are happy to detail here.

� Does the creation respect the **Black pearl rules** (https://howr.se/BlackPearl_Rules)? We check for plagiarism, fan art, unauthorized use of art line, photos and so on.
� Does the creation have unwanted traces, halos or stains that could damage its representation in-game? **Kind reminder to our talented creators: please check that your creation is properly cropped and clean.** If it isn’t, we won’t select it.
� Does the author already have an entry in this month’s creation space? As most of you probably noticed, we select **one entry per player** to give a chance to everybody.
� Is there a suspicion that the creation was made by AI? If there is a strong one, we won’t take any risks.


The votes are the first thing that we look out for when selecting creations. If the community placed a creation on top of the votes, we have no reason not to select it. We have a team specialized in detecting plagiarism and compliance with the Black pearl rules.

Once again, the selection process is manual, so mistakes do happen, and your tickets help greatly with fixing that. Don’t hesitate to use our customer support if you see a recent creation breaking the rules!

Lastly, we’ll take this opportunity to inform you that some categories are not as filled as we would like them to be <:OwSad:1122864616112926771> For example, **very few players are submitting unicorn donkeys, winged donkeys, winged unicorn donkeys. We also have a shortage of winged draft unicorns, draft pegasus and winged unicorn ponies**. We would happily take more of these creations to keep the creation space as diverse as possible!



.-

```fix
User interface & user experience
```

Again, we had quite some questions about the interface and some improvements or new features you would like to see us implement to improve your experience. It seemed a bit superfluous to get back to every questions asking if we would or not implement this feature, or this one, or this one, or... You get the idea! So we prepared again a big answer that - we hope - covers as many questions as possible.

��
__**User Interface Improvements**__
About the questions regarding possible improvements to our website interface: each new design for one of the pages on our site requires a considerable amount of work. This is why we must balance working on interface upgrades with working on new content for the game. We have decided to focus on quick wins for the interface, while dedicating most of our dev team taskforce for new content. For example, if we ever wanted to release a "dark mode" to our site, we don’t plan to work on it in the coming months.

__**Black Market Items availability**__
You’ve asked if we could make some items available for sale in the shop: Some of these items are too advantageous for being on sale constantly. We try to make them available regularly as reward in contests, be ready <:OwWink:913735381483155476>

-
__**Unicorn breeding**__
A few players expressed frustration over the chance to breed unicorns. We will work on a mechanic to improve these chances.

__**QoL / User experience improvements**__
Many questions regarding the addition of filters in searches, redirections and other "quality-of-life" improvements. We added many of these suggestions to our (already extensive) list of improvements to work on. As for the UI improvements, we have to balance working on these upgrades with working on new content for the game. We will do our best to allow as many improvements as possible to make their way into the game.

-

```fix
Divines & vision of the future
```

**__Are there any plans to bring back a fair and even rotation of divines? There are divines that haven't been brought back in 3+ years, while others are back yearly, or multiple times per year.__**

�� We are still committed to releasing new divine horses and creating new divine series as it remains one of your favorite elements in the game, as we noticed in the results of the survey we sent a few months back. However, we are not satisfied with the fact that these horses are only interesting because of the rewards they provide and by the current limited availability of older divine horses.

We are currently working on a few things to:
> Make these horses more interesting and fun.
:> Find ways to make older divines available to purchase more frequently for you to be able to complete your collections.

You will be able to see the beginning of these improvements quite soon, so stay tuned

**__Howrse, I love your game! Are you planning on shutting it down anytime soon? That would be heartbreaking, Ngl.__**

� And we love it too, very much! For now, there is absolutely no plan to shut down Howrse. Quite the opposite, actually... We are very, *very*, impatient to present you the changes brought to the features we previously launched, but also the new content on which we have been working on for some months now...

We know that some of you are worried about the future of Howrse, and especially the players on our smaller versions. Don't worry, we have **no** plan in closing any of the versions of the game!

Mais faut voir. Le point sur les créations me paraît intéressant tout de même !

Une refonte des trophees, travail sur les naissances de licornes, plus de filtres de recherches, travail pour faire apparaitre les vieux divins plus regulierement pour completer les collections et autres

On vas continuer les nouveautes plutot que de se concentrer sur les problemes deja existants sauf en second plan

et pour les trophées j’espère vraiment qu’ils vont pouvoir étoffer avec du gameplay vraiment élevage notamment !

Y a Pluie ce week end merci seigneur (et les deux mythologiques feu + le coq noir là)

Pluie et 3 mythologiques

Pas de mode sombre en vu

Encore une fois, nous avons eu pas mal de questions sur l'interface et sur certaines améliorations ou nouvelles fonctionnalités que vous aimeriez nous voir implémenter pour améliorer votre expérience. Il nous a semblé un peu superflu de revenir sur toutes les questions demandant si nous allions ou non implémenter cette fonctionnalité, ou celle-ci, ou celle-ci, ou... Vous avez compris ! Nous avons donc préparé à nouveau une grande réponse qui - nous l'espérons - couvre autant de questions que possible.


**Améliorations de l'interface utilisateur**
Concernant les questions d'améliorations possibles de l'interface de notre site : chaque nouveau design d'une des pages de notre site nécessite un travail considérable. C'est pourquoi nous devons équilibrer le travail sur les mises à niveau de l'interface avec le travail sur de nouveaux contenus pour le jeu. Nous avons décidé de nous concentrer sur les gains rapides pour l'interface, tout en consacrant la majeure partie de notre équipe de développement au nouveau contenu. Par exemple, si jamais nous voulions publier un "mode sombre" sur notre site, nous ne prévoyons pas d'y travailler dans les mois à venir.

__**Disponibilité des articles du marché noir**__
Vous avez demandé si nous pouvions mettre certains articles en vente dans la boutique : Certains de ces articles sont trop avantageux pour être en vente en permanence. Nous essayons de les rendre disponibles régulièrement comme récompense dans les concours, soyez prêts


_** Élevage de licornes **__
Quelques joueurs ont exprimé leur frustration face à la possibilité d'élever des licornes. Nous allons travailler sur une mécanique pour améliorer ces chances.

__**Améliorations de la qualité de vie / de l'expérience utilisateur**__

Beaucoup de questions concernant l'ajout de filtres dans les recherches, les redirections et autres améliorations de la "qualité de vie". Nous avons ajouté bon nombre de ces suggestions à notre liste (déjà longue) d'améliorations sur lesquelles travailler. En ce qui concerne les améliorations de l'interface utilisateur, nous devons équilibrer le travail sur ces mises à niveau avec le travail sur de nouveaux contenus pour le jeu. Nous ferons de notre mieux pour permettre à autant d'améliorations que possible de faire leur chemin dans le jeu.


Les divins et vision du futur


**__ Existe-t-il des plans pour ramener une rotation équitable et uniforme des divins ? Il y a des divins qui n'ont pas été ramenés depuis plus de 3 ans, tandis que d'autres sont de retour chaque année, ou plusieurs fois par an

. de vos éléments préférés dans le jeu, comme nous l'avons remarqué dans les résultats de l'enquête que nous avons envoyée il y a quelques mois. Cependant, nous ne sommes pas satisfaits du fait que ces chevaux ne sont intéressants qu'en raison des récompenses qu'ils procurent et de la disponibilité actuellement limitée de chevaux divins plus âgés.

Nous travaillons actuellement sur quelques points pour :
> Rendre ces chevaux plus intéressants et amusants.
:> Trouvez des moyens de rendre les divins plus anciens disponibles à l'achat plus fréquemment pour que vous puissiez compléter vos collections.

Vous pourrez voir le début de ces améliorations très bientôt, alors restez à l'écoute

Et nous l'aimons aussi, beaucoup ! Pour l'instant, il n'est absolument pas prévu de fermer Equideow. Bien au contraire, en fait... Nous sommes très, *très*, impatients de vous présenter les changements apportés aux fonctionnalités que nous avons précédemment lancées, mais aussi les nouveaux contenus sur lesquels nous travaillons depuis quelques mois déjà...

Nous savons que certains d'entre vous s'inquiètent pour l'avenir d'Equideow, et notamment les joueurs de nos versions plus petites. Ne vous inquiétez pas, nous n'avons ** aucun ** plan pour fermer l'une des versions du jeu !

Ils disent, en gros, qu'ils sont au courant que ça ne marche pas mais que c'est dur de trouver une solution sur la version web et donc qu'ils se contentent de privilégier l'appli. En gros, y'a un soucis, on el sait, mais pas grave vu qu'on a l'appli (oui ce sont mes mots mais je le comprends comme ça). Est-ce que c'est vraiment ça ou est-ce que j'ai mal compris vu que c'est en anglais ?

Integrer des videos ca peut etre tres complique, en gros pour le moment c'est trop complexe de les integrer sur la version web donc iels les ont desactives sur web le temps de trouver une solution viable

Perso je ne vois pas grand chose de positif dans les réponses. C'est du "on y travaille" bien vague, rien de concret, pas de timeline en vue. C'est le genre de réponses auxquelles je m'attendais, beaucoup de mots pour ne pas dire grand chose au final.

Le coq me fait de l'oeil mais d'un autre côté, chaque année il était au BF à un prix raisonnable donc il n'est pas insensé de penser que cette année, il y sera encore. Je n'ai pas envie de mettre 6000 pass si c'est pour l'avoir à 2300 pass au BF x)

Visiblement, vous avez été entendu les fan de Pluie
Bon courage d'avance :")