Game Designers' information about

the Ephemeral Breeds season 2

Hi dear players,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your strong involvement during the first season of the Ephemeral Breeds event. Along with keeping a close eye on things throughout the event, we took the time to read all your feedback and suggestions afterwards.

Our intention with this event was to go back to the core mechanics of the game, by focusing on gameplay based on breeding. We feel that we were quite successful in this aspect.

We also wanted to find a balance between encouraging you to play regularly during the three weeks of the event without penalizing players who joined the event later or who could not play at certain times. In this regard, we realized that there was still room for improvement. This is what we want to walk you through today.

At the end of the event, some players saved their daily EAP (Ephemeral Aging Points) and smartly played with the horses on sale to do a “final rush” over the very last days. This allowed them to overtake players who played every day. Those regular players understandably felt that their investment was not fairly rewarded.

No player behaviour is to blame here. This result comes from design choices that need to be improved. That is why we have reworked several balancing elements to limit the effect of the “final rush” issue.

We invite you to read the changelog about Season 2 of the Ephemeral Breeds event to have a summary of the following explanations. Discover the new ephemeral breed, as well as other changes made to the event.

During Season 1, the more ephemeral horses you awakened, the lower the chance to gain EAP became, until it reached a minimum value.


This reduction was meant to limit the time spent each day on the event, even if the number of ephemeral horses in the breeding farms increased.

However, many of you pointed out that you were earning fewer and fewer EAP each day, while you expected to earn more over time.


Combined with the daily increase of GP (Genetic Potential) on ephemeral horses sold on the market, this probability system made the final rush possible.

For Season 2, we have redesigned how EAPs are gained when awakening ephemeral horses, to solve these two issues that affected your experience during the first season.

From now on, the probability depends on the number of ephemeral horses awakened during the same day, and no longer on the total number since the start of the event. In addition, the starting value of this probability will be slightly lower on each new day than it was the day before.


Thanks to this double adjustment, you will earn more Ephemeral Aging Points if you use them regularly throughout the season, rather than saving and spending them all at the very end of the event.


At the same time, the GP of the ephemeral horse sold each day for Equus will increase more slowly than in Season 1 (10 points per day instead of 15). As a result, on the last day of the event, the horse for sale will reach 500 GP instead of 600 in Season 1. This creates a much larger gap to catch up if you wait until the end to start using your EAPs.

We hope that these balance changes and explanations reassure you that your time and effort in the event are respected.
If you aim to reach the top ranks, do not wait until the last moment to play.
If you join the event partway through, do not feel discouraged either: the horses available for sale are still useful for not being completely left behind. And there are still plenty of great rewards to win, even if you don’t play regularly.

Finally, please know that we will closely monitor the event, both through data and through your feedback, and we will make further adjustments for season 3 if needed.

We hope you'll enjoy Season 2 even more, and we can't wait to see what you think of our adjustments!

See you on April 29th, at 2:00 PM, Paris time.

Sincerely,
The Howrse Game Design Team