 Original KoniBob ᴵᵐ ᴿᵉᵃᵈʸ~ |🌈| 🏳️⚧️▲🏳️🌈| Why are people
June 22nd, 2025 4:45:54pm
590 Posts |
Hey there HP! I want to apologize for my delay in getting back to you all from the November 2024 Embassy Survey. My RL got super SUPER busy, and honestly, until the 2025 comments, it had fallen so far back on my back burner that it was a ghost of a memory. I am truly sorry for getting so far behind on it. I thank you for being understanding. I am going to do my best to respond to all of the concerns brought up both in the 2024 survey strictly for embassies as well as the 2025 survey that had a lot of embassy feedback. Alright, so below is the 2024 Nov Embassy Survey questions. The first feedback question was “Should we allow each embassy owned by the same player to be linked to their main account, or should we keep them linked to the individual breed account?“ 
23 players responded with a clear majority that all embassies should be linked to a main account vs the account that the animal is trained on. This will be how we link them going forward. If you would like us to change your linked Embassy to another account, please message me and I will get that changed asap for you! The second question was: “What kind of mix would you like to see for Embassies?” 
This one was a bit more split with 2 being tied for ‘first’ place in a sense. We of course can’t have it both ways, unfortunately. There are 2 ways we can handle this. A) I can re-do this exact question on a poll and allow 1 week for responses. OR B ) we can add the corresponding groups together which would be as so: Red and Blue (2 total embassies, but either 2 horse or 2 dog breeds) and then Green and Yellow (4 total with a mix of 2x each or 4 of one or the other or any mix adding to 4). This would make having 2 embassies the winner, but you’d be allowed to have 2 horse or 2 dog embassies. If there is an overwhelming response below for the poll option, (more than say, 10 players) I will go ahead and create that poll. The next item on the list would be “What incentive would you like to see for Ambassadors? (Example, having an active Embassy for xMonths and receiving a free Cash Store Item etc)” There were a lot of good ideas here. I will Copy and Paste them below. I will say that I do like a lot of these ideas! Some of them will be more difficult to do, but I’d be up for working them out. I’ll certainly get an Achievement made up for owning an Embassy! I love that idea. I’ll look to see if we can code in HPB (like 1 per month or so) to them as well and maybe look at adding points or store pairs for bigger milestones such as 6mo or 1yr etc.
Points, breeding boost, cash store items, store pair of embassy breed with points, anything really to help better the breed or keep the interest going
Having an active embassy and receive a free cash store item, but perhaps also have the option to run official 'embassy raffles', which run automatically through the site, and the winner could get a store pair with 200k points or something, this just helps getting new breeders maybe?
Expanding on the idea of cash store items, could there be a review of Embassies say every 3 months and embassies that have been active within that period (i.e. making a dedicated and evident effort to increase the visibility of their breed, even if there is minimal uptake - given that the playerbase is relatively slim) recieve a reward, similar to how engagement in forum activities is counted up and rewarded on a quarterly basis? I've really enjoyed running the Lusitano embassy at points and have routinely made a real effort to increase the breed's exposure on HP by training up embassy horses and using Mango's prism generator to give each horse individual genes which I *then* convert into uniquely coloured linearts. It's a lot of work, and as much as it is nice to see people enjoying the pretty linearts and being interested in starting or increasing their Lusitano herds, there really isn't a lot in it for the Ambassadors themselves. Which, tbh, is why I've done less of it this year. To make an effort like that - or to run contests or put on acitivites as ambassadors who do not use photoshop may do - takes a lot of time and effort that many either don't have, or would rather spend more productively. An increase in player engagement within the game is never a bad thing, and I think that having Ambassadors who are motivated to try and push their breeds will help with that engagement. But if you want to encourage ambassadors to really put the work into their embassies, we kinda need to get a little something in return every now and then, otherwise there just isn't much point beyond it being nice to hold the title of 'ambassador'. Likewise the monthly 'embassy spotlight' that showcased one particular embassy breed and gave out store pairs with (I believe) 100k points of said breed was a really nice touch.
The below are my responses to your responses to: “What do YOU want to see happen with Embassies?”. My responses below were written up prior to the above writing, so read this with that in mind!
Shows: Adding shows to embassies will lead us down the road to Associations that we had pre-2016. Associations previously had Shows, Private Chats, Registries, and memberships. They were removed due to inactivity/disinterest. HOWEVER, looking at the 2025 survey thread many players hinted that moving toward Associations would not be a bad thing to bring back. This is something we are actively looking into now, along with a few other suggestions that were brought up on that thread. Incentives: High-point store pairs, cash shop items, HP supplied prizes etc. These are all great ideas! I -do- like the idea of giving Ambassadors incentives for running them! However, the suggestion to have HP supply some of the prizes takes away from the point of Ambassadors running the embassies vs just the game staff running them. Giving Ambassadors rewards every quarter or so is a great idea and I love it. Maybe a high pointed store pair each ‘generation’ timeline? I also really like the Achievements too! Maybe a “1-yr” “2-yr” “5-yr” etc? Layout Generator: This is a GREAT idea! The coding is certainly wonky on the back end of things. There is a forum post about this that explains how to modify the coding as needed to get it to work in the meantime! Allowing Multiple Ambassadors for the same breed: It was always in my head that Ambassadors were one person. I’ve seen in a few responses that Partner accounts want to become Ambassadors. As this has been brought up multiple times now, I’m certainly open to this! There were also multiple answers saying that embassies would not be missed should they be phased out. This is something we are considering with this input, and focusing more on the Club side of things! This would remove embassies completely and put a large focus on Clubs. Possibly adding extra shows, more point options, etc. Players could then run their own Embassies if they’d like via their pages in the same sense of handing out pairs for new players who are interested in the breed.
I 'd like to see breed-specifics happen! Like private shows that the embassy can set, that can only be entered by that specific breed. Maybe embassy registries. A separate bank account like clubs have, so you can have embassy funds separate, people could easily donate. Or let embassy owners give out points as prizes (obviously awarded by staff, but for breed-specific contests run by the embassy). Or maybe that could go hand-in-hand with the above -- maybe you can give embassy owners bigger prizes to hand out the more active they are? idk, just brainstorming as I type.
Everyone tends to keep a set of the breed on their mains to give away to new breeders, what if instead of having them on an account they can just be given to someone if they want to start with points on them automatically. For example, the incentive to start direwolves is they get a 5yr old pair at 500k points each.
Some incentive to make them relevant and beneficial to having a breed that falls within them. Despite serving as the central information point regarding a particular breed, they really offer very little else. I sell Embassy Animals which are public show trained for the store purchase price of the animal, with a customised image, and they rarely sell. Even the free image offer for breeders doesn't intrigue people. Maybe a points bonus for animals that have an embassy attached to them? I don't think the number of embassies held per player should be more than 1, because we already have enough embassies to support the player base, and may run the risk of creating more dormant embassies.
I would love to be able to create weekly shows! And I would love to see the Embassies be more active, but it feels as if HP as a whole has been much quieter and not much activity or interest, even in club events. It’s hard getting people interacting with the Embassies with being breed specific and not many breeders, for my Embassy at least.
More help from the game to get people interested - bold text for ads like clubs get, embassy shows, option to gift things to new breeders that aren't continuously out of ones own pocket, etc.
See above:. (Expanding on the idea of cash store items, could there be a review of Embassies say every 3 months and embassies that have been active within that period (i.e. making a dedicated and evident effort to increase the visibility of their breed, even if there is minimal uptake - given that the playerbase is relatively slim) recieve a reward, similar to how engagement in forum activities is counted up and rewarded on a quarterly basis? I've really enjoyed running the Lusitano embassy at points and have routinely made a real effort to increase the breed's exposure on HP by training up embassy horses and using Mango's prism generator to give each horse individual genes which I *then* convert into uniquely coloured linearts. It's a lot of work, and as much as it is nice to see people enjoying the pretty linearts and being interested in starting or increasing their Lusitano herds, there really isn't a lot in it for the Ambassadors themselves. Which, tbh, is why I've done less of it this year. To make an effort like that - or to run contests or put on acitivites as ambassadors who do not use photoshop may do - takes a lot of time and effort that many either don't have, or would rather spend more productively. An increase in player engagement within the game is never a bad thing, and I think that having Ambassadors who are motivated to try and push their breeds will help with that engagement. But if you want to encourage ambassadors to really put the work into their embassies, we kinda need to get a little something in return every now and then, otherwise there just isn't much point beyond it being nice to hold the title of 'ambassador'. Likewise the monthly 'embassy spotlight' that showcased one particular embassy breed and gave out store pairs with (I believe) 100k points of said breed was a really nice touch.) I copy/pasted the ‘above’ portion
It'd be nice to have breed-specific shows. I understand that this puts them in the realm of being too similar to clubs, but beyond what Ambassadors have to come up with to draw interest, there isn't very much incentive to get people interested in starting up that breed.
I think that breed embassies could be morphed out. They don’t serve much of a purpose anymore because our player base has changed. It’s not tons of new players, young and learning about horses. It’s old OG’s running it that refuse to let the nostalgia die. We know all the info on the breeds or can easily search it. There’s plenty of animals out there to buy,breed. So the embassies pumping out animals doesn’t really hold any draw. It’s not like there’s tons of players competing for breeds if that makes sense. Additionally coding for embassy pages is a pain. They behave soooo differently from the club pages and the player pages - so that’s another reason they get pushed aside. Finally, there’s no real reward for owning an embassy or for contributing to it , owning an embassy horse etc. So hear me out… morph embassy and clubs. Cause clubs are struggling too. It’s the same handful of people running them and they don’t get much action unless it’s the mascot contest and everyone is wanting points. By morphing them together - owning an embassy/club then becomes more competitive and something to achieve. It makes it easy to have the “requirements”. Club contests can then be parallel to the horses/dogs that show on the rankings like the embassy pages. Embassy club owners can get special achievements, maybe a monthly stipend for the embassy (like how players collect monthly paychecks from the bank… embassy pages can collect too). Maybe they get a special forum badge under their name (think like the mod squad forum and how under player names it has badges or specialty things) I’m getting into a novel. Seriously, message sat and I can expand on this way better!
I like the idea of changing up the number allowed because I know some people do either horses or dogs, for example I do 2 dog breeds but right now can only be ambassador to one. There is no breed embassy for the other, but if we were allowed to have more I could have one for that one too (and I'm the only active breeder). I think it'll allow there to be more because I know there are very active people who do a lot of breeds. I do think they're helpful for people looking to get into other breeds because they can help them start out.
I would like to see them become more like clubs? Add the ability to register animals, organise shows, list of breeders and their tags, breeding goals, etc.-- Raffles? – Maybe mascot/stud/broodmare contest? Then the mascot animal can be given a little spotlight. – Challenges? For example, buy a store animal and the animal with the most points (shows only, tickets only, etc) wins an achievement and extra points? – Ambassadors should have at least 1 pair of store animals easily available for purchase/free to those wanting to start a new line. – Some embassies don’t even have ‘about the breed’ filled out. – Possibly add co-ambassadors, so it’s not all on one person to organise.
I think if there are 2 players that are working on a breed together, and they go to apply to be a breed ambassador for that particular breed, those 2 players who are doing the breed together should be ALLOWED to run the embassy together! :D
Lastly, “If we did Breed Spotlights/Embassy Spotlights, what would you like for a prize?” A lot of good ideas here. I'm thinking that we could do a “The winner can choose from” style of prizes. They’d be able to choose from: A Store Pair with 200k points, 10 HPB, Retirement breeding, or 20 permanent energy for 2 animals.
HPD or Embassy Breed pair with xxx points, Pem extra energy for 2 embassy animals, something fun! xD See incentive above HPD or cash shop item a 6 month upgrade for the account linked to that embassy upgrade time for the account it's on? or linked to custom graphic or coding, store pair with x points, HPD I'm not sure about prizes, honestly. I like how Mango did it in the past. You could win pointed stores, and you get more points if you already bred them. Maybe have it so anyone can receive a pair with a small amount of points (25k or something), raffle for more. points or cash shop Extra points, HPD, energy, private shows? I'm always looking for points on an animal so always down for that but maybe we can have a choice of options? Cash shop items / HPB. An HPD prize would be neat, and can then be applied back into the Embassy for prizes for contests and things. Pointed store pairs are a good place to start, as mentioned above. Or possibly do a monthly raffle where those who enter have the chance to win a store pair of the spotlight breed & perm extra energy for each horse, or something similar? Like a booster start-up kit for that breed. Cash shop items HPD, HPB, cash shop item, anything really yes maybe a store pair with x amount of points of that breed? Store pair with a set amount of points of that breed, like the Breed Spotlight used to be. Maybe throw in an upgrade incentive somehow? Perhaps a 50k store pair? Idk, Koni is beautiful that's all I really know. See above. n/a HPP/HPB. With those incentives there are muliple things people can do with them.
To close out, I again want to apologise that this took as long as it did. Thank you all for taking the time to go through and answer these questions and all the thought you put into them! Please know that I’ve spent the last 3 weeks reading over each of these responses and considering all of the ideas. We will be moving forward with a few of these ideas immediately and working on seeing what other ones we can add in at a later date.
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