EQ Economy and Weekly Allowance

Pretty hard for showing to be your main way of income when it's actually a money loss for a long time. There needs to be an alternate income to tide people over until their horses have the stats to win.

I have heard literally no one suggest that anyone should be at the top of the A game in a day, or that they don't want a challenge. There's a difference between a game being a challenge, and there being pitfalls that are easy to fall into but extremely difficult to get out of.

I am ignoring the extra division solution for two reasons. One, once you're in the hole, you aren't going to have the money to buy that division. And two, no new player is going to lock the game, wait several weeks, and then remember to come back. They're going to move on to the next game, that gives them something to do from day one, even if it's a small something.

I think plenty of people, even people who have real life money, are likely to get themselves in trouble starting this game. Once they know the economy, yeah, they will be responsible, but it takes a while to figure that out, and there are many ways to ruin the game for yourself before you hardly get started. It's very easy to overbuy horses, when you don't realize how hard it is to make money showing at first. When you don't realize how important upgraded tack is, or how expensive it is to upgrade. It takes a while to figure out how the stats work, and why you shouldn't just start breeding as soon as the horses are old enough. And people will figure it out by trial and error.

The continuing success of the game relies on new players being able to survive the trial and error process, while making the game interesting enough from the beginning to catch their interest, and challenging enough in the long run to hold their attention. That's what puts money in a game owner's pockets. That's what keeps a game vibrant and healthy.

Then clearly, I'm a minority in that I pace myself when I first join a game and make sure that I don't overspend.

Last edited on 2016-02-19 at 20:25:53 by Kuk

At the end of the day, this is a game. A fantastic, wonderful game and community that Abbey put together.

But a game.

It shouldn't feel like a chore to people just starting out and aren't invested in it like current members are because people are spouting "work".

New members aren't looking to have 1,000+ stat horses in a week. They just want to get to know the game and have enough of a cushion to make preliminary mistakes in spending.

Good point Rey! I have like 2/5 or 3/5 tack on my Lippis and I bought them as three year olds and began showing them right away at the 100 stat point, and they have been placing 1-3 in every single show ever since I first started showing them. One tip would be to show horses in shows with the lowest amount of entries if you want them to win money and stats. That's what I've been doing and it's been working out really nicely.

And you definitely can win with low-stat horses and bottom-level tack, but it's sporadic, and depends a lot on how full the shows are. On my other two accounts, my low stat horses win sometimes, but they aren't nearly breaking even to cover their showing expenses. My least-successful account relies almost entirely on the fountain to stay afloat.

I'm wondering if it might be helpful to create a database where the basic prices of things could be kept. For example, how much money does it take to purchase and completely upgrade a set of tack? How much money does it take to maintain a horse for a year, or for a lifetime, with feed and daily treats? If that kind of information was tabulated and made prominently available to new players, it would give them the tools they need to make an educated start at the game, even with the economic system as-is.

I like Confessor's database idea, even though I'm not new and don't necessarily need that information, it would be nice to know how much everything takes. It would definitely be helpful for newer players too.

Argent use to do excel sheets like that... Seemed a bit of overkill at times. Someone can go ahead and get started on that... Lol

You guys could always start up that mentoring program again for newbies. Make it a member group or something even. Then you can help the newbies figure things out/help them figure their way out if holes they dig themselves in, etc.

I'm gonna run an experiment. Because I honestly want to know how difficult this will be to do. I'm gonna use my spare account Ferrule to see how hard it is to start out.
This account is at player level 1 0% experience and I will be giving it a starting fund of 50k (which is what I believe the old starting fund was). I will NOT transfer any money over there or update the account. Let it begin!

*Edited bc I realized that the link was leading to my main account home page lolz

Last edited on 2016-02-20 at 22:48:52 by Aɢʟᴇᴛ

I'm excited to see that experiment Aglet!

About the mentoring thing, I had a club in progress on the old EV that was exactly for that purpose, but everything got wiped and I wasn't smart enough to save it :/ I have a club I'm remaking on here for that exact purpose, I just wasn't sure if it'd be worth it to go public with it!!

I'm sorry if someone already mentioned this, but the way the new show levels/grades work means that low-stat horses aren't at NEARLY the disadvantage that they once were. It used to be that even G1 horses were non-competitive until they hit 250 or so stats (and sometimes not even then.)

Now, the Novice 1 shows are designed specifically for those 100 stat stores, up to (I believe) 150 stats? And horses automatically start showing at the level appropriate for their stats, without working through the lower levels first. So new stores are never going to have to compete against the 300 or 500 stat lined horses.

Even if you enter your new horses right off the bat, they're only going to be competing against other horses of similar level.

If they aren't placing, it probably just means that they were competing in very full shows (since shows can now have up to 50 entries, I believe.) You could try putting them in shows with the lowest number of entries, if you're able to.

I'm not 100% sure the economy is working ideally, and it's clear that Abbey is still tweaking some of the systems to try and improve it. However, it's not fair to say that you need high-statted horses in order to compete in shows, because the new showing system was partially to prevent that very thing.

You don't need high statted horses to compete in shows, but you do need to compete in shows to get high stats.

Also, everything else being equal, the horse with the upgraded tack will win. It makes it very difficult for new players to break even and make back the cost of the show. You can do it if none of the other horses in the show happen to have upgraded tack, or if you are on the upper end of allowed stats for what the show requires, and the opposing horses with the better tack are on the lower end. In general, you will lose money showing when you start out.

But if you don't show, you don't progress, your horses gain stats at an absolute crawl, and you don't level up, and a lot of really helpful game mechanisms rely on your level.

I am interested in your experiment, too, Aglet. Though, at the same time, you have the benefit of figuring out the new system on an account with more leeway. But it will be a good picture of what happens on new accounts in a sort of best case scenario.

I'm more worried about the new people who start out without a clue, and end up getting themselves into a real bind before they have the chance to learn the ropes. I'm concerned that, once you mess up, it may be nearly impossible to recover and learn from your mistakes.

I'm kinda interested in how hard it would be to start as well.
Maybe I'll make a side account just to try it.

I've never had money issues since I've sold art, and I realize I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am not so soon after joining the game if I didn't - that being said, before I started selling art (or even noticing the forums) I was doing okay with my couple of horses and playing the games daily. Not making a killing by any means, but feeding/treating my horses. I'm gonna try it with a testing account, just to see how it works.


For those that beta tested, did you guys get a certain starting amount? I know the game changed a lot in the time you guys started to when it was open to the public, but if all the people beta testing started from scratch, new members could do it to. Again, if they started from scratch, I'm not sure, haha.

We all had a starting amount of 50k I believe and it got to the point where Abbey had to give us more money to beta test. However, that was in 2014 and the game was not anywhere close to what it is now.

The "stores don't place" went around back when too.. I had store minis. 55 starting stats(vs horses with up to 125 starting) and I made money.