Over the last year or so, we've done a lot of internal shifting of things on HP. We've worked to optimize the coding, change some things on the back end to keep up to date and running well, etc. But spending the time, money, and attention there has resulted in fewer new features for the players on HP! And I haven't been the best about updating everyone about that, so to remedy the situation, here is the list of things we are currently trying to work on.

As many of you know, we have had some issues finding someone who has time to work on programming things in large chunks, so right now, we are working on getting the bugs fixed. I will keep everyone updated on the progress of that, as well as the other stuff!

In addition, we are also working on having a fall and a spring layout background version made, so we can switch the layout up four times a year instead of just two!

This is by no means a complete list of things that we would like to do, games are always evolving. It's just a list of things we are doing right now. As always, any suggestions you have are appreciated!

Bugs

1. 
   

   We have a news post scheduling bug for mods/admins where it's posting things in a weird order.

   
   


2. 
   

   The birthdates are still weird. Any time a player edits something on their profile page, the game makes them put their birthday in again.

   
   


3. 
   

   Lost password emails don’t ever show up to hotmail/live/outlook accounts. I’m not sure if this is something that we can do anything about, because it may be them, but we're going to try!

   
   


4. 
   

   Retirement dates on horses I have commented out for now, because they were telling people that the horses would retire when they were 22 instead of 21. They’re supposed to say the date that the horse will retire, which is the day they turn 21. Dogs may also be having an issue with this.

   
   

New Stuff

Notification System - I would like for everyone to have an option to receive a notification message for certain things (and if they could pick which ones they wanted on and off on the edit profile page).

Things I would want them for would be: 

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  When someone bids on your animals

  
  

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  When someone bids on your upgrade auctions

  
  

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  When someone bids on your graphic/layout auction (maybe this should be chosen on the auction itself though, like when you make one, you can choose to “check” the box to get a notification of bids, rather than setting it as a default to get a message for all bids)

  
  

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  When your animals you have up for public sale are bought

  
  

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  When people request your private shows or tickets

  
  

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  When you get a new achievement

  
  

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  When someone signs up with your referral ID

  
  

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  When someone replies to one of your topics on the forum or a topic you’ve posted in (maybe you could subscribe to topics you’ve posted in individually by checking a box when you reply if you want notifications for it? Or maybe it should just be a box you could check/uncheck for any topic you want even if you haven’t posted but want to subscribe anyway?)

  
  

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  And then the message you get when you send/receive money or credits could also be optional in there!

  
  

Some of these do have cross-over with current messages, but I’d like it all to be in the same system where things could be turned on/off. In my mind I just see the notifications being a message to inboxes for these things rather than a separate notification box. Keeps things more streamlined, I think?

New Player Tutorial - I think it would really help us retain new players if we could have an optional walk-through when they sign up for the game. I was thinking something that once they logged in for the first time, took them to a “Welcome!” page, and the  would be sent to the store to pick an animal, and then to the animal to take it to the vet and farrier, and then to enter a show, and then to a “Yay! You’re getting the hang of it! Want to buy a Starter Pack?” page.

Other Category for Clubs - Since we took out associations, I would like to add an “other” category to clubs for all the non-horse/dog stuff. I want them to work exactly the same as the other clubs do, except with a horse AND a dog show each week instead of just one or the other. This is one of many club changes we would like to do, but it's the first step of many!

Adults-Only Forum Category - Since we have so many adult players, it would be nice for everyone if there was a forum category for only those who are 18 (based on birthdates). This way there could be a place for our older players to post memes and stuff like that which would result in a warning if posted in chat. The world is not rated PG-13, and even though HP is, sometimes it's nice to say a swear word or two, right? Right.

Bump! Sorry for the weird formatting, I tried to copy/paste.

pretty neat stuff happening!

I love it all! Especially the getting a msg for the upgrade bid and such!

Only thing I have to maybe add and I know it's been talked about before, but what about a little msg box with our upgrades? like we can put "reserved" or "waiting on tron" or whoever. Cause I know a lot of people look for upgrades and when I am, I usually msg the person to see if the upgrades are taken. idk xD

Thanks for keeping us updated on all the things you're thinking of! Helpful, as a user, to see the transparency. :)

Looking good! I'm excited, especially for the forum and the notification system!

Whoot! :D

Looks amazing!

my only suggestion is a way to turn off club messages as well! 70 spares those messages get annoying. 

I agree on the option to add a simple msg on upgrades so we can designate them so ppl dont have to msg and ask if theyre public or not

Love the new ideas and goals, thanks for keeping us all updated!

Paints since 6-8-14

 all sounds great1 I'd like the option for a small messgae in the upgrade auctions as well. As I am usually the person messaging asking if they are public or not XD

ohh i like some of these new feature. i espically like the idea of a new player tutorial -optional- Like i tried to do a video tutorial of game play for HP Helper but i cant see every new player that comes so having something like that would be super useful 

Excited for the updates!

Would it possible to have group private messages? For example, say you partner with 2 other people and want to talk about breedings?

What about a message notification 1 day before your graphic/layout auction expires?

I still vote for folders in the inbox and I would pay for them also 

Club messages and auction expiring messages are both good suggestions!

I think folders in the inbox would be good, too. I'm not sure if it would need to be a limited number you could create or not, but either way, it could work :).

Would you prefer a description box for upgrades or just being able to name the auctions? You'd have to click on it for a box, but if you could just name the auctions you could anme them for the person who they were for, or open, or instant, or whatever you wanted! Food for thought.

I really like the idea of folders for the inbox! 

Paints since 6-8-14

Either way on the upgrades, but would we be able to change the name if someone backs out of buying one?

Not sure how I feel on an adult section though ?

Idk if this will make sense haha:

but, at least for me, the spacing in the forum can be odd sometimes. Like, I'll try to hit "enter" for a line break, and it will give me that, but at 1.5 spacing kinda. And then if I go back and try to edit the post, the spacing becomes larger and almost random. It is weird and becomes difficult to create easy to read posts. Idk if this makes sense as it is late haha. Or if it is even something that can be fixed with the new programming things. Idk. Haha just throwing it out there

I know what you're talking about, overture. Same!