The following may be a way to continue playing HI2 and HI1 past the removal of Flash support from browsers at the end of 2020.

Flash Workaround

   Please note! Anyone who had an account on HI1 with a similar username and password as HI2, should change their password ASAP. We are sorry for this trouble, but some folks had nothing better to do than cause havoc. We are assuming the login/password info on HI1 will not be secure.

HI2 is unaffected, unless your username and password are similar, then the hackers could gain access to your account here.

Thanks and sorry for the trouble.
We are going to be working our best to restore HI1.

   Thanks to everyone that participated in the 2020 Fan Art Contest.

Everyone that submitted artwork has been credited 500 mobia or a month sub on HI1/2. It was all very creative and fun to look through! The various media is great. Socks and Chocolate and more! We did not bother trying to rank or sort in any way. It was all good and some real talent in the submissions!

See the submissions for yourself here:http://horsesareawesome.com

Thank you to everyone that participated!
-Joe, Miranda and team

   To celebrate our One Year Anniversary for HI3 and give folks a fun distraction, let's have an art contest! Devs will select winners based on several different criteria, from most original, to happy feeling, etc. So selection will be slightly random but will favor effort and creativity.

Rules:
A) Make something inspired by the world of Horse Isle.
B) Any thing that can be captured in a digital image.
C) Submissions must be all age appropriate.
D) New artwork created BY YOU for this contest.
E) Single submission per person.
F) By submitting you are giving Horse Isle full permission to display and use the image.

Awards:
A) Top 25 (or more) submissions rated through an unscientific yet unbiased manner will receive 500 Mobia (or a month sub on HI1 or HI2.)
B) Winners (or more) will be featured on the all Horse Isle websites.

Submit via Email by JUNE 6th 2020 to artcontest@horseisle.com :
A) Player Name
B) Which Game: HI3 / HI2 Eternal / HI2 LifeCycle / HI1
C) Title of art if one
D) Attach a jpg or png of reasonable size (<1mb)

   Votes have been tallied. Thanks to those who participated. Your in-game donations have now determined our real-world donations. Based upon both games' wishes we're giving $1,500 to Doctors Without Borders, $500 to World Wildlife Fund and $500 to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Thanks to your continued interest and support of Horse Isle!

Vote tally below:

Life Cycle: 2019 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 465
Union of Concerned Scientists: 214
Doctors Without Borders: 760
Scholarship America: 353

Eternal: 2019 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 1160
Union of Concerned Scientists: 1723
Doctors Without Borders: 2937
Scholarship America: 931

Have a Happy New Year everyone!
-Joe and Miranda

   In just a couple days we will total the in-game donations to determine which charities and how much interest there is in the various donation options. So, donate quickly if you want to influence the real-world donations!

In order to donate, go to a Community Board in any City Hall and click "View/Make Charity Donation".

Have a Happy New Year!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Happy summer to those in the northern hemisphere!

New breed: Cubano de Paso is roaming the jungles of Horse Isle now.

New companion: Young Elephant

New NPC Adventures:

Four quests

Quiz

Adventure Maze

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   In a few days we will remove the HI3 new account  protections on existing HI1 & 2 playernames.   Please be sure you have registered an account even if you are not playing yet,  but would like to reserve your account.  (Mac users, etc)
Thanks!

   (BETA IS NOT OPEN YET)

In preparation for HI3 Open Beta, if you want the same playename as HI1 or 2 we have setup a way to update your emails for protecting those names.
By entering the email you will want to use to signup, that email will have to be used to gain the playername.
IF different people have the same name on 2 servers, it's whoever signs up for open beta first that gets it.

If you want the same playername as your HI1/HI2 account: (you must be logged in):

HI2e: https://hi2.horseisle.com/www/reservehi3.php

HI2lc: https://hi2lc.horseisle.com/www/reservehi3.php

   Thanks for everyone's patience!!! We're hard at work on Horse Isle 3, but we haven't forgotten about you. Here's a few new things.

New breed: Egyptian Arabian

New tack set: Carousel Tack

New NPC stuff: Five quests, one quiz, one bonus. If you are a subscriber, you can grow some of your own food now!

All arenas that previously required a minimum of 3 players to compete, will now only need 2.

Thanks everyone!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Votes have been tallied. Thanks to those who participated. Your in-game donations have now determined our real-world donations. Based upon both games' wishes we're giving $2,000 to Doctors Without Borders, and another $2,000 to World Wildlife Fund. Thanks to your continued interest and support of Horse Isle!

Vote tally below:

Life Cycle: 2018 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 500
Union of Concerned Scientists: 52
Doctors Without Borders: 500
Scholarship America: 375

Eternal: 2018 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 1163
Union of Concerned Scientists: 235
Doctors Without Borders: 1180
Scholarship America: 367

Have a Happy New Year everyone!
-Joe and Miranda

   At the end of the month we will total the in-game donations to determine which charities and how much interest there is in the various donation options. So, donate quick if you want to influence the real-world donations!

In order to donate, go to a Community Board in any City Hall and click "View/Make Charity Donation".

Happy Holidays to all our players!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   New breed: Black Forest Draft Horse

New companion: Basket of Kittens. The crazy cat lady starter pack!

New quests: Six quests. A couple of which are quizzes.

Tweaks and additions:

Global chat is now brown.

Fourth club bonus now requires 35 million points instead of 50.

You can now ask MrHammerPrice for a different horse, for a fee.

There are new books in the library. Fans of Horse Isle history will find them especially fascinating.

GlacierTon Inn has some jobs that could use doing.

Enjoy and thanks much for you patience and continued support!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   It's been a toasty summer for those of us in the northern hemisphere. Hope everyone in summer is staying cool!

New Breed: Waler.

New Companion:Potoo

New Quests: Three new quests available

New Chat: Global Chat!

This is only available when there are fewer than 50 people online.

It is only accessed via the shortcut, /g or /global

Muting Area Chat will also mute Global Chat

New Content/Tweaks:

There is now a 12 hour option in the auctions.

Horses are now listed in alphabetical order by name when trading or leasing to another player.

Clubs can add a Fourth Bonus that will be activated at 50 million points. Club owners can choose their new bonus by going to the main Club page.

A lot of new books were added to the libraries, with one book containing a hint about the location of a new bonus.

Several new NPCs were added, including a cat who would love to nap in front of a fireplace but might need some help.

Enjoy and thanks much for you patience and continued support!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Hopefully spring is finally starting to show up for those of us in the northern hemisphere! Here's a few new things to enjoy.

New Breed: Carolina Marsh Tacky

New Companion: Huskies have been added. There are four color variations!

New Quests: Twelve new quests available. Ten of these quests are interconnected and a bit more challenging. Good luck!

Bug Fixes:

Wilding update to Premium Wilding now fixed so you can't end up with two rump pets.

Miscellaneous typos and those weird little things that tend to pop up fixed.

Thanks and enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Happy New Year! Check out a couple new additions!

New Breed: British Appaloosa is now roaming around.

New Companion: The colorful and quirky Monal.

New Quests: Three new quests

New content and bug fixes:

One Esroh will now sell Esroh talismans for a cheaper price compared to the other Esrohs.

One of the liveries needs some help! Find out which it is to get some extra side money for jobs done.

Want to beef up your chemistry knowledge? Take a couple quizzes to learn something and earn a little extra money.

You can no longer take more than $2.1 billion out of the bank since the max amount of money allowed on hand is just over that.

SilicaDragget no longer hangs around when you bring her back to her mother if she was on a horse at the time.

Carrier Pigeon's back button is now working.

Payment limit for experience contracts greatly increased.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Votes have been tallied. Thanks to those who participated. Your in-game donations have now determined our real-world donations. Based upon both games' wishes we're giving $3,000 to Doctors Without Borders, and another $1,000 to World Wildlife Fund. Thanks to your continued interest and support of Horse Isle!

Vote tally below:

Life Cycle: 2017 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 131
Union of Concerned Scientists: 52
Doctors Without Borders: 232
Scholarship America: 42

Eternal: 2017 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 205
Union of Concerned Scientists: 152
Doctors Without Borders: 900
Scholarship America: 106

Have a Happy New Year everyone!
-Joe and Miranda

   At the end of the week we will total the in-game donations to determine which charities and how much interest there is in the various donation options. So, donate quick if you want to influence the real-world donations!

In order to donate, go to a Community Board in any City Hall and click "View/Make Charity Donation".

Happy Holidays to all our players!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   October's game update awaits checking out!

New Breed: Dutch Tuigpaard sightings reported!

New Companion: Chinchilla!

New Quests: 5 New Quests Added

New Content/Tweaks:

Mail notification is now bold if you have awaiting mail upon login.

Playgrounds are now playable.

Added low detail Tardisian Barn and Diamond Barns.

Esroh Talismans are cheaper (mostly)

There are some NPCs around that will now purchase specific items from you.

MadamSweetLace (and LadyRibbons) now have a job for you.

NPC "ads" now show up on all community boards. This shows non-quest things available for some NPCs.

Thanks much!
-Joe and Miranda and Team.

   Horse Isle 1 went live 10 years ago today! HI2, 7 years ago! Thanks for your long lived enthusiasm for this unique community and creation! We have added a few new things, and a few tweaks to slightly improve the game.

New Breed: Iberian Warmblood

New Companion:Tiger Plushie Added

New Quests: 6 new quests available.

New Content:

Tardisian Barn Added. (Holds 10 Horses, It's small, but bigger on the inside)

Diamond Barns Added. (Holds 10 Horses, for those who want spatially standard arrangements)

Burgundy Polo Wraps and Halter added to be crafted

Top Lists Added: Lucky Finds, Horse Finder, Janitor, Boat and Wagon Trips

Beeswax recipe added

More encyclopedias added to peruse

Game Tweaks:

View all art now available if player has profile art. Shows all approved art that player has created.

You got mail now in bold

Adventure mazes are now cheaper and there is now the option to play for free (for no reward)

Groom All added

Pet type now shows when selecting a pet for trading

[Sub] and [NonSub] display before an ad up for moderator review, so that rules dealing with subs can be followed.

New experience contract amounts added (2000, 3000, 4000, 7500, 25,000, 50,000, 75,000 and 100,000)

No longer increment loss counter on arenas with entry of just a single player (practice arenas)

Thanks Everyone! Hope you enjoy.

Happy Decade Anniversary
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Some game tweaks and additions to spread around the isles!

New Companion: Irish Setter

New Breed: Irish Cob

New Tack!: 5 new sets of embroidered tack added! These sets are craftable.

Bug Fixes/Tweaks:

A New Quest has been added

Daily Horse buy limit is being increased to 5.

Foreign isles feature some additional plants

A rascally chair moved.

Enjoy!

   Due to abuse by some players, we have had to add a new restriction. Players will currently only be allowed to adopt a max of two horses from the livery each day. This number can be easily changed in the future.

I'm sorry to those players this affects that have not been creating issues. Hopefully we'll be able to increase the max number of horse adoptions soon.

Also, a new update will be coming relatively soon! Thanks for your patience!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Happy New Year! Hopefully it's starting out well for everyone.

New Breed: Sugarbush Draft Horse can now be found roaming the isles.

New Quests: 4 new quests

New Tack: There are now white versions of English and Western Tack available to purchase.

New Companion: You can now have a Dragget Kit join you on your adventures! However, you can only get one from her mother for a deposit. I also wouldn't advise selling or trading her as you would make a Dragget mother very angry! I'm sure her mother would take her back though if you or your horses ever tire of her.

Listed Arena Changes:

Competition starts sooner

Required participants down from 2 to 1

Experience payout pretends you beat at least one player

No purse payout if doing arena by yourself

New Content:

More encyclopedia volumes have been added for more information about your companions.

There is now an NPC that will buy Giant Pollen from you.

The Inn in NarrowTon is now giving out orders of food needed that any player can collect for them.

A new counter and rewards has been added to track how many orders you fulfill for NarrowTon Inn.

The Esrohs have a secret for you! You must have completed the quest for Zeus though before you are able to find out what this secret is. Good luck!

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Votes have been tallied. Thanks to those who participated. Your in-game donations have now determined our real-world donations. Based upon both games' wishes we're giving $3,000 to Doctors Without Borders, and another $1,000 to Union of Concerned Scientists. Thanks to your continued interest and support of Horse Isle!

Vote tally below:

Life Cycle: 2016 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 127
Union of Concerned Scientists: 135
Doctors Without Borders: 256
Scholarship America: 26

Eternal: 2016 votes
World Wildlife Fund: 741
Union of Concerned Scientists: 810
Doctors Without Borders: 1000
Scholarship America: 381

Have a Happy New Year everyone!
-Joe and Miranda

   In roughly a week we will total the in-game donations to determine which charities and how much interest there is in the various donation options. So, donate quick if you want to influence the real-world donations tomorrow!

In order to donate, go to a Community Board in any City Hall and click "View/Make Charity Donation".

Happy Holidays to all our players!
-Joe, Miranda and Team.

   A couple little new things. Hopefully a little something for everyone.

New Breed: The Spanish Mustang is now wandering the mountains!

New Companion: Reindeer Calf!

New Quests:

3 new quests added

1 new NPC adventures that do not give quest points, but are repeatable.

New Books: Have you ever wondered about those companions you have? There are now encyclopedias on any bookshelf where you can read about the various companions that are available. More will be coming.

New Tack: Two new Saddle Blankets were added. One is designed with a cat pattern and one with a dog pattern.

Enjoy!
Joe, Miranda and Team

   Winter is coming! But not yet.

New Breed: Estonian Native Horse!

New Companion: Dung Beetle!

New Quests: Six new tasks await.

New Content:

Adventure map awards increased.

Added $1 million and $5 million donation options for clubs.

Turkmenian tack set added.

Hope you all enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Welcome to a nice proper game update everyone! We hope you Northern Hemispherites are enjoying summer!

New Breed: Marwari!

New Companion: Little Chipmunker!

Game Tweaks/Additional Content:

Black and White crafted Saddle Blankets added

More hair, skin and eye colors added

Buddy chat, Club chat and Mod chat slightly darker.

New Quests:

4 new quests added

2 new NPC adventures that do not give quest points, but are repeatable.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda and Team.

   We have been trying to get a new HI2 breed for a very long time. Happy to finally be able to bring one in! We also will try to get them out more regularly again now!

New Breed!: Plateau Persian!

New Quests: 4 new quests to pursue.

Bug fixed: Stuffed animals instant half-bond now working properly.

As soon as we can get our hands on a new breed, we will update again ASAP!
In the mean time, enjoy!

Thanks,
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   A tiny update to mark the anniversary of the Horse Isle games. Just a couple minor things. Hope you all have a good day!

New Companion: Teddy Bear

Stuffed Companion New Functionality:
When a stuffed animal is partnered with a horse it's bond is instantly and permanently set to half maximum.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed occasional bug when upgrading wildling pets to premium

The recently added colored saddles now have stats fixed.

A few additional minor tweaks.

Happy Birthday Horse Isle!
-Joe and Miranda and Team.

   We know it's been a while since the last update! Between working on some HI1 updates and our main horse artist not being able to work temporarily, the content updates have been delayed. We will continue to try to get more content asap. Thanks for your patience! We have not forgotten about you :)

New Companions!
A cute Red Panda and a colorful Atlas Moth are now available to pair with your horses.

New Quests: 7 new quests to pursue.

New Wildling Upgrades: The 6 Wildling companions can now be trained to be Premium Wildlings at a certain NPC!

New Tack: Colored versions of the Finely Crafted Western Saddle can now be made.

As soon as we can get our hands on a new breed, we will update again ASAP!
In the mean time, enjoy!

Thanks,
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   The bug update a couple days ago introduced something else we had been working on that it sounds like some of you have found!

Timbuktoo Isle is now available and accessible! Unfortunately, the only way to get to the isle is to be shipwrecked! This means you can end up on that isle while taking any rowboat, and you never know when it will happen. Once there, you can leave immediately, or wander around and explore until rescuers show up 15 minutes after you arrive. Make the most of your time!

-Joe and Miranda

   We are doing a reset to fix a bug that has started causing problems for some longtime players. It was breaking quests for those players so was crucial to get the reset done even though we don't really have any new content.

We do have one new quest that is now available and there were a couple other small bugs that have been fixed.

Hopefully we'll be able to do a proper reset soon.
Thanks for your patience!
-Joe and Miranda

   The end of the year snuck up on us, but we've gone over the votes for last year. Life Cycle donated $383 million and Eternal donated $3.228 billion! Between the two servers, the top ranking charities were World Wildlife Fun and Doctors Without Borders. Because of this, Horse Isle has donated $2000 to each charity!

Hopefully everyone's new year is starting out well!
-Joe and Miranda

   We are working on a fun game update. It will add a bit of occasional adventure to the monotony of boat travel around HI2!

We will also be looking at the end of year donations so use your in-game money to help direct where you'd like Horse Isle's real world money donations to go! Go visit a city hall near you!

Happy Holidays!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Sorry for the lack of updates. Miranda has been working basically seven days a week since August doing research on raptors during the fall migration here in the northern US. The season is winding down, so she should have a bit more time and will be able to get back to adding some content. Thank you for your patience!

New breed: Campolina is roaming the isles.

New companion: Three different colors of standard Poodles are now available.

New Quests: Two new quests (one leading to a fun surprise)

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   New Breed: Anglo Arabians are now roaming the isles.

New Companion: The colorful Chameleon will help keep those pesky flies away from your horse.

New Quests: Two new quests have been added.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Hopefully those in the northern hemisphere are enjoying some warmer weather and I know many are getting out of school! Here's a little update.

New breed: Hokkaido Ponies are now running around in the mountains.

New companion: An adorable Civet companion can now be added to your pets.

Quests: Two new quests are available to complete

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   New Breed: Swedish Warmblood can be found wandering the isles now.

New Companion: A feisty mother and child Ring-tailed Lemur companion is now available.

New Quest: One new quest.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda and Team

   New Breed: Budyonny can be found wandering the isles now.

New Companion: A cute, striped Okapi Calf.

New Quest: One new quest.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda and Team

   This is an announcement that Horse Isle's Composer, Joe Schwebke, has taken it upon himself to remaster all of the Horse Isle Music. He is planning on producing an HI1, HI2 Vol 1, and HI2 Vol 2 album.

His effort includes re-recording at high quality, tightening up some arrangements and smoothing out the combinations of some tracks. He also wrote up some liner notes for every track included in the album.

Recently he has finished the HI2 Volume 2 album and it, along with HI2 Volume 1, is available for purchase at BandCamp for those of you who want HIFI versions of the music.

Band Camp Link for Album: http://horseisle.bandcamp.com/

Thanks! And yes, we are working on getting proper updates out soon!
-Joe

   Hopefully everyone had a great holiday season and you're now looking forward to the new year! Here's an update to start it off.

New Breed: The Tersky is now wandering the isles.

New Companion: A giant Saint Bernard can now be a friendly friend for your horse.

New Quest: One new quest to keep you a little busy.

Additions:
The max length of classified ads is now 150 characters.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Happy New Years!

Your 2014 donation choices are in. Total donations on Eternal were $988 million and $359 million was donated on LifeCycle. Eternal's #1 donation was World Wildlife Fund followed by Doctors Without Borders. LifeCycle's #1 donation was Scholarship America followed by Doctors Without Borders also. Therefore, the $5000 donation was split up with $2000 going to the World Wildlife Fund, $2000 going to Scholarship America and $1000 going to Doctors Without Borders.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!
-Joe and Miranda

   in roughly 24 hours we will total the in-game donations to determine which charities and how much interest there is in the various donation options. So, donate quick if you want to influence the real-world donations tomorrow!

In order to donate, go to a Community Board in any City Hall and click "View/Make Charity Donation".

   Whew! We've been trying to get this update out sooner. Personally, Miranda and I have been busy working on helping to start a local MakerSpace in our town. They are fun, collaborative workshops with tools and tech for members to use. You should definitely see if you have one in your own home town. They are a lot of fun. We mean to spend more time and effort on Horse Isle's continued development ASAP. Thanks for your patience!

Now, UPDATE:

New Breed: Norwegian Coldblood Trotter

New Companion: Fast and Fanciful Frilled Lizard companion

New Quest: A New Quest added.

Additions:
New feather decors that are craftable.
Turkey and Blue Jay Feather mane decor added.

Stay Warm! (For those of you in same geo-weather-predicament as us!)
-Joe and Miranda and Team.

   The Server Host is going to work on HI1 Server for a bit.
Hopefully not more than an hour.
-Joe

   A late, early fall update.

New Breed: Georgian Grande is now roaming the isles.

New Companion: A small, friendly looking Scottish Terrier.

New Quests: Two more quests added.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   This is an announcement that Horse Isle's Composer, Joe Schwebke, has taken it upon himself to remaster all of the Horse Isle Music. He is planning on producing an HI1, HI2 Vol 1, and HI2 Vol 2 album.

His effort includes re-recording at high quality, tightening up some arrangements and smoothing out the combinations of some tracks. He also wrote up some liner notes for every track included in the album.

Recently he has finished the HI2 Volume 1 album and it is available for purchase at BandCamp for those of you who want HIFI versions of the music.

Band Camp Link for Album: http://horseisle.bandcamp.com/

Thanks! And yes, we are working on getting proper updates out soon!
-Joe

   A simple summer update:

Breed: Mongolian Horses!

Companion: Musk Ox Calf!

Quests: Two new quests added.

Bug Fix: Skittish horse over 1000xp no longer kicks you off upon cave entry.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

    The first three players on Eternal to have and hold the three distinct critters were:

#1) Comet +1 Super Horse Token

#2) MapleLeaf +1 Super Horse Token

#3) Miko +1 Super Horse Token

We hope you guys had fun with it! The critters will remain obtainable only by the rare wild horse. (1% of wild horses can have one of the 3 critters.)

-Joe & Miranda

   Welcome to the newest additions as of today:

New Breed: Mangalarga Marchador Might Move Mysteriously.

New Companion! Cha-cha-chia!

New Quests: Two additional quests.

Second Wildling Contest!: You have a chance to gather all 3 of the NEW wildling companions. The first 3 players on each server to have and keep all 3 NEW wildlings (not the horsefly, firefly or moon moth) will receive a Super Horse Token. (Message support with exact subject: "I have all three wildlings.")

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   The first four players on Eternal to have and hold the three distinct critters were:

#1) Huntress +1 Super Horse Token

#2) LittleMoon +1 Super Horse Token

#3) OlympicRun +1 Super Horse Token

#4) MustangLegends +1 Super Horse Token

(Why four instead of three? - One of the players was discovered after we awarded 3 winners because they did not properly title their message.)
Since it took us a bit to close out the contest, we've given runners up each an identity token to sell or use.

#5) TwoFourSixEight +1 Identity Token

#6) SkyrimDovah +1 Identity Token

#7) Mustaches +1 Identity Token

#8) Aureate +1 Identity Token

We hope you guys had fun with it! The next update the critters will be properly named and appear listed in BBB but they will remain obtainable only by the rare wild horse. (1% of wild horses can have one of the 3 critters.)
-Joe & Miranda

   EDIT: Closed! All of a sudden a bunch of players (7) unfortunately only the first 3 win. Results to follow!

The challenge to find the three different critters of unknown origin wandering Horse Isle is still open. The first 3 players on each server to collect all 3 and message support with subject: "I have all three critters" (and then retain them until we verify and judge winners) will get a Super Horse Token.

Good luck discovering the origin of these sneaky critters!
-Joe & Miranda

   Happy Birthday Horse Isle! Hi1 is 7 years old! Eternal 4, and LifeCycle 2.5!
Thanks to everyone who has taken part in making this a rewarding adventure for all.

New Breed: Maremmano

New Companion: Egyptian Mau! (pretty kitty)

New Quests: 3 new quests available.

Secret Challenge!: There are reports of 3 different little critters of unknown origin wandering Horse Isle as of today! The first 3 players on each server to collect all 3 and message support with subject: "I have all three critters" (and then retain them until we verify and judge winners) will get a Super Horse Token. This will be a very difficult challenge and will probably take anywhere from a week to a month! Good luck discovering the origin of these sneaky critters!

Misc Changes:
y to ies on an automatic breed display list.
Ranch store club bonus fixed.

Happy Birthday!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   See below for results of the horse picture contest, along with a Game Update!

New Breed: Eriskay Ponies now wander the lands!

New Companion: Baby Cow! Highland Calf added.

New Quests: 3 new quests.

Helper System: New Quizzes are required to be passed to help improve helper's helpfulness :)

New Horse Picture Puzzle Levels: 9 new Slider Puzzles and 27 new Jigsaw Puzzles

Bug Fixes:

Fixed 2 Player Co-op half-payout Bug this time. for real.

Crafted Western Saddles made slightly larger.

A few other minor fixes.

---

Photo Contest Results
The following 36 photo contest winners are all receiving a Horse Token(now) along with having their submitted horse photo in the game.

Eternal: RoanyPony, AstroLove, WickedDream, HardRawr, Queste, AbacoBarb, Lunar, Hurt, LazyQuarterHorse, CallaLily, RockyIsMyLife, Petcaretaker, PureCharm, LittleMoon, CrystalWish, UnityPancake, ImShady



LifeCycle: CurlyCube, SilverTea, BarrelFreak, FerretWrangler, JuniperGreen, MidnightFoal, Volatile, Sunsets, IvorySteed, RedMare, Creeper, TruthSeeker, Gallifrey, Shooter, Yumpy, Unsung, SkyChampion, BrightLights, MyHorseMoose


Thanks go to everyone who submitted photos 200+! We could not use all of them, and selected based on variety and how well the image fits the puzzle game format.

We hope everyone enjoys this update!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   We are no longer taking photo submissions. Thank you so much for all the photos sent in. Once we've had time to sort through them and choose which will work, we'll post the results here.
Thanks again!
-Joe and Miranda

   Update: We're receiving quite a few photos. We'll keep accepting photos for until the morning of the 19th (approximately another 36 hours). Thanks for all the submissions!

----------------------------
We are planning on adding more of the puzzle games that used your horse photos, however to do this, we will need more horse photos!

If you want to submit a photo, here are a few rules:

The photo must be yours and of your horse. Only the horse. No people should be in the photo.

It should be at least 800x800 pixels.

If you currently have a horse photo in the game, please do not submit a photo for this contest.

You are allowed only one submission.

The players whose photos we chose will receive a Horse Token. Please send your photo o xxxxx. All emails should include the following.

1) SINGLE image attachment (JPG/PNG/GIF/etc - Please no BMP or anything over 1mb).
2) Your Playername/Game (HI2:LifeCycle,HI2:Eternal) you would like the Horse Token on.
3) Horse Name
4) State that you give us full and permanent rights to use the image in any way.
5) Have a parent state you have permission or state that you are an adult. Please do not lie about your age. If you do we will be forced to ignore/delete your submission.

Thanks! We look forward to seeing the photographs sent in.
-Joe & Miranda

   UPDATE (2pm): Appears to all be working fine now..
----
UPDATE (noon): If you get the "Sorry" PayPal error upon trying to add an item in shop, PayPal is working on this. Some people will not encounter it. We will update once PayPal fixes the problem.
----
OLD (7am):
We are currently having issues with PayPal, so payments cannot be accepted at this time. We are working hard to figure out the problem and will hopefully have it fixed soon.
Thank you for your patience.
-Joe & Miranda

   Update: Quick reset so that Persephone's Cornucopia will now work as promised.

Lots of little tweaks and some good additions for you today! We hope you enjoy!

New Breed: Franches Montagne! Somewhere.. . .

New Quests: 4, with one of them being an Esroh Bonus Quest!!

New Companion: Aardvark! Run ants, RUN!!

Arenas:
Startup timers reduced for most arenas. People have been complaining of the delay being too long before the action starts when busy. The timers have all been changed as follows:

45 seconds for barrel racing.

90 seconds for Cross Country.

60 seconds for all other arenas.

Training Counter:
Unfortunately we need to reset the training counters after fixing a couple of bugs. So they will be reset as of today. No longer counting no-gain contracts. Also fixed the auto-expiring contracts to credit appropriately.

New Tool: Portable BBB now an option for on-the-go reference.

Various Changes:

Allow sending mail to yourself for mailing lists, etc.

Improved forum topic count accuracy.

Prevent null-named horses.

2 player minigames properly pay out all the time now when one person has completed and other hasn't.

Allow sorting by breed while looking at another player's horses.

Reformatted viewing other player's horses sort options.

Fixed pet ownership removal after short sales.

Demeter bonus leveling delay minor bug fixed.

Now if we could just thaw out soon. (Northern USA - brrrr)
Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Update: Short sales now adjust your horse count correctly.

We hope everyone enjoys this new year! We've managed to add quite a few little tweaks here, we hope you enjoy. Thanks to BrightLights for bringing them to my attention as usual.

Account Deletions: First off, a policy notice. We've started cleaning out old unused accounts. Any accounts left unplayed for 1 year and NEVER subscribed will be deleted. Anyone who has ever used a sub token is protected from this current policy.

New Breed: Corn on the Norman?

New Companion: Stinky Kitty!

Short Sales: You can now instantly sell a horse to the foreign bidder at auctions. This option will earn you 1/2 the normal price. But for those in a rush, it's now an option.

Trainer Rating: Added a 'Trainer Rating' to player profiles. It shows the number of successful contracts over the total contracts, and provides the percentage. So, 4/5 (80%) would mean the player successfully completed 4 of the 5 contracts they have finished. So they failed to meet the goal on one of the contracts. NOTE: This will only count from Today. It only tracks once completed either successfully or failed.

Good Samaritans: Feel free to feed any old horse you like now. Just cause it's nice to keep them guys well fed.

It Pays To Help Out!: Two player minigame quests can now be replayed for half bonus by someone who HAS completed it as long as the partner has NOT completed it yet. So 2 players who have completed, get nothing. But, help another player and they get full bonus, you get half.

New Quests: 3 Quests. One was a doozey. Miranda lost some hair over it.

Hope you enjoy the additions,
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Votes have been tallied. Thanks to those who participated. Your in-game donations have now determined our real-world donations. Based upon both games' wishes we're giving $2,000 to Doctors Without Borders and another $2,000 to WWF. So you're both helping the people of the Philippines recover and keeping an eye on the polar bears! Thanks to your continued interest and support of Horse Isle!

Vote tally below:

ETERNAL: 2013 votes (2012 votes)
World Wildlife Fund 640 (422)
Doctors Without Borders 591 (200)
Union of Concerned Scientists 374 (50)
Scholarship America 143 (36)

LIFECYCLE: 2013 votes (2012 votes)
Doctors Without Borders 50 (12)
World Wildlife Fund 39 (8)
Union of Concerned Scientists 26 (2)
Scholarship America 7 (12)

   We will tally up the HI2 Donations soon! (in the next couple days) For any one that wants a say in where the Horse Isle Donations go this year, please be sure to contribute at city hall charity donations ASAP!

Thanks to all of you for making Horse Isle a fun place to be :)

-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Working on LifeCycle.

Tried to do a software update to combat some "bugs"..
But it crashed the whole system.

Please be patient while we repair!
No eta on repair. Could be half hour or 12.
Thanks for your patience.

   We're in the midst of the holiday season! Everyone buckle up!

New Breed: The Appendix Quarter Horse can be found roaming the isles.

New Companion: Six different colors of calves.

New Quests: Three new quests.

Changes/Fixes:

The mail should sort properly now.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   We woke up to the sky falling for us! (First snow of the season, yikes!)

New Breed: Far off adventurers have reported sightings of Cape Boerperds!

New Companion: Cymbal Monkey toy added!

New Quests: 1 new quests available.

Changes/Fixes:

Mailing money to single person allowed if exact change in pocket now.

Arena pre-completion-exit bug fixed, may disqualify better now.

Added current rump art sale price reminder in management view.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Fall it is already! Too soon!

New Breed: Kerry Bog Pony roaming the isles now!

New Companion: Pallas Cats added!

New Quests: 4 new quests available.

Ranch Tweak:
Ranches can now be buddies/clubbies only in addition to just private. ANY MODE other than Public will disable ranch store listings and is less friendly. We recommend leaving it public unless you have clear reasons (Club meetings, etc). Keep clicking the toggle to cycle through all possible modes.

Changes/Fixes:

Couple minor Club Token interface bugs fixed.

Classified ads limit not enforced against rejected ads.


Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Just a few bug fixes and a couple new things for this reset!

New Breed: Nez Perce Horse

New Companion: Toy Wolf

New Quests: Four new quests added.

Bug Fixes:

While looking at other players' horses, they are ranked correctly.

The multi-mail cost bug fixed.

If you are not subscribed yet have Ruby Slippers, you will be jumped to the nearest town.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   We hope you enjoy the latest changes and additions to Horse Isle!

New Breed: Sicilian is roaming the isles.

New Quests: 3 new quests available.

Golden Players:

Medallions now deteriorate 10% (rounded up) on the 1st of each month. An alert and an offline message is sent to each player owning medallions informing them of their new quantities. Players with just a single medallion, will not lose it. Everyone is affected the same by this. Remember, it was put in place as a way to allow newer players a chance to compete in the future, while still allowing those who have invested a lot to maintain their position.

Horse Browser:

You can now list your horses by experience.

Other player's horses are now sortable by a few methods.

Added Genetic Markings to bottom of profile: fs=front socks, bs=back socks (0=none, 4 is highest) Markings are genetic content, not always shown in a particular breed. There will be no support or explanation with this feature as it is not "perfect". It is just included for those few who have desire for it.

Multiple Recipient Mail:
Horse Isle now supports copy-pasting in a player list for your newsletters, clubs etc.
Cost is 3x more than normal. Also added support for a few small quantities of items to send via postal. Please note that in multiple mailing your gift is sent to EACH player, so a $100 gift will cost $1000 if you send to 10 players.

Arenas:
Disconnects and closings of an arena after it has begun will now be treated as "Did not compete", lessening the rewards, and giving no exp. We realize that occasionally someone will get disconnected by chance during an arena, but there is no way we can tell the difference unfortunately. This is to make sure no one abuses the arenas.

Lots of random stuff! Hope you enjoy some of it.
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Fixed the following issues with Golden Player System:

Horse bonus properly applied for those not in top 50.

Language improved in Players -> Golden Player list to make it clear that anyone tied with 51st place will not receive Golden Status. You must have 1 more medallion than the player in 51st place. Otherwise, players 45-105 could all be tied and get Golden Player status.
So there are at most 50 Golden Players, sometimes a few less if players are tied.

Proper number of current medallions shown at bank.

These warranted a quick update.

   The following should be a nice big economy boost and fun competition system. We're taking the Super Player system, and converting it to a Golden Player system with much more point and benefit. Changes detailed below with a couple additional updates!

Golden Player System:

Super Players will be renamed to Golden Players

%10 monthly medallion reduction (rounded up). So, 19 will sub 2, 22 will sub 3, 3 will sub 1 monthly.
Benefit: acts like an optional tax system, and takes a bigger bite out of the richest.
Note: June 1st WILL NOT be "taxed", but plan on the 1st of each additional month being "tax day".

1 additional horse slot for every 2 medallions you currently have.
Ex: A player with 40 will have had 20 extra slots. At end of month, they lose 4 medallions, and so then only have 18. (Until they re-invest 4.) Works for those not in top of list as well and for non-subscribers.

Golden Status is top 50 rather than top 25. Top 50 are recognizable by golden name rather than black. Same glows for all so that you can still tell status. The only change is that non-subs will have a black glow rather than white to aid in contrast.

Top 5 Golden Players receive the golden aura as well. Some people thought the aura was overbearing, so now it's just a very rare and less intrusive decoration!

Golden Players (Top 50) receive Ruby Slippers tool while Golden Players. They return you to ranch from anywhere! Upon exiting ranch you will be dropped off at a random major city port. If you do not have a ranch, they are of no use. SHIFT+F6 is a shortcut.

New Quests: One new quest.

New Companion: Baby Penguin!

Peak Isle Earth Quake: Peak Isle Cavern has been really shaken up. Adventurers will find it more difficult to navigate now.

We hope this helps Eternal with good economic competition.
Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   We worked on adding some new features this month and some needed fixes. Hope you enjoy!

New Breed: An Abaco Barb has been spotted recently within the borders of our world!

New Companion: Overo Foals have been added in a variety of colors.

New Quests: Four new quests added.

Super Players!:
As players are successful in Horse Isle, they end up with disposable money. We've added $1,000,000 medallions for purchase in the banks. The top 25 purchasers of these receive a golden aura around themselves! Super player status is lost if someone else bumps you back down to 26th place, etc. Medallions serve no other purpose in the game. Click PLAYERS to see a current list of Super Players. This may also help the economy as a whole a little bit. Good luck to all of you who decide to jockey for a position on the Super Player List! We may add additional benefits in the future to being on this list, but currently it's just the golden aura.

Horse Tags Tweak:
In order to provide a more selectable behavior for different types of horses:

'Competition' horses no longer appear in Training Lists.

'Non Competitor' horses now appear in Training Lists.

Changes/Fixes:

Bonus Arenas will no longer pay out bonus to those who do not complete the arena.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Wow, we received over 250 fan art submissions! It was very difficult to select through them, and we will not claim to have done it based on any exact science. We certainly left some wonderful art out. So, mostly we looked at each art submission based on a bit of chance, on uniqueness, on effort, and on whether it was Horse Isle specific. In any case, here are 68 creations that we selected and gave out free Horse Tokens for. But just know that we enjoyed each and every submission.

You can see the art submissions from all three years at: www.HorsesAreAwesome.com

Thanks for sharing and enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Thanks for all the wonderful fan art! We are not taking entries anymore. We will be taking some time over the next few days to choose which will be posted on the fan art page. We will do a new News posting once we have chosen.
Thanks again!
-Joe and Miranda

   We did this back in 2009 and 2011 and it went really well. We decided to hold another fan art competition this year to see if anyone has been doing Horse Isle related art recently.

So, until April 28th, anyone who has drawn, crafted or created something inspired by Horse Isle may send in a copy of it to xxxxxx (NOT Support). Include your playername, which game you're playing (HI1, HI2:LifeCycle or HI2:Eternal) and age in your email.

Soon after April 29th we'll select some based on effort/creativity/quality and some randomness. Those we select will all be featured on a fan art page, and those players will receive a free Horse Token.

Only ONE entry per player. Please only send something original that you created. Be sure to email in before April 28th. By emailing us the art, you are giving us rights to publish the material as well. (We will not post ages with playernames.)

You can see the art from 2009 and 2011 at http://www.horsesareawesome.com/

Thanks
-Joe and Miranda

   A welcoming spring update. Hope you enjoy!

New Breed: Datongs now wandering the isles!

New Companion: Baby Polar Bear!

New Quests: 5 Added.

Misc Changes/Fixes:

Time in Peak Isle mine (beyond the gate) now restricted to 60 minutes per day, with a maximum of 20 minutes per trip. This does not affect quests on or in Peak Isle.

Added Shopowner Professionals Club Bonus - Doubles the Ranch Shop Quantities. Existing clubs may have their secondary or tertiary bonus' changed to this, but not their primary. Club Owners may make a support request.

Added 2500,5000,10k exp training contract options.

1exp training lease display bug fixed.

Enforced 3 classified ad maximum.

Flower Isle Inaccessible area now accessible.

Camargue head gear fixed.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Welcome to February's Game Update! Brrr... Frozen pipes in our area of the world.. Hope yours is warmer!

New Breed: British Spotted Pony Spotted!

New Companion: Ragdoll Cat

New Quests: 4 new Quests

Misc Fixes/Changes:

Eternal: Last Pet NEXT button fixed in BBB.

Back button on ranch trainings set price fixed.

Many other minor fixes.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   We have been having increasing issues with Role Playing and Multiple Accounts. Please take some time to go over the Rules and Detailed Rules so you don't end up with violations or banned from the game.

Role Playing
We have made the rules more specific for role playing so there is less confusion. The main thing to remember is Horse Isle does not endorse Role Playing. This means no advertising of any kind. Please take time to go over the Detailed Rules if you are a player that feels you must role play on Horse Isle.

Multiple Accounts
We continue to have problems with players having more than one account. The inability for players without a subscription to be able to trade has made it much harder for players to cheat using these accounts, however, it is still taking up a large amount of our time.

Please remember that players are allowed one account and only one account. If we find players that have more than one account, the accounts will all be banned and could all be deleted.

If you are ever banned, please click on the Help at the top of the page and contact us. DO NOT simply create a new account.

Thanks
-Joe and Miranda

   Hello everyone!
We hope 2012 was an overall good year and that 2013 will be one for sure!

Your charity designations across LifeCycle and Eternal servers totaled as follows:

430 votes for World Wildlife Fund.

52 votes for Union of Concerned Scientists.

212 votes Doctors Without Borders.

48 votes for Scholarship America.

Per these votes, Horse Isle has donated $3,000 to WWF and $2,000 to Doctors Without Borders! So, your gaming has aided endangered animals and people around the world :)

Have a happy new year everyone!
-Joe & Miranda

   The following lists all of the updates to Horse Isle this month.

New Breed: Salernitano may be discoverable within the lands of Horse Isle.

New Companion: What's black and white and huggable all over? Dalmatians!

New Quests: 4 new quests

Zeus Tokens: You can now start receiving Zeus tokens again if you had previously taken the money. You just need to buy back the Golden Apple from Mr. Fiduciary.

Hope you all enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Happy Thanksgiving for you new-worlders. Welcome to this month's game additions:

New Breed: Russian Heavy Draft now discoverable!

New Companion: Gobble Gobble!

New Quests: 6 new quests added.

Misc Changes/Bug Fixes:

Other misc minor fixes.

Enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   This update took longer than it should have, but unfortunately the celestial lining up of a handful of planetary bodies induced electrical perturbations into the network stream which... meh.. Actually, no excuses :)

New Breed: Welsh Mountain Pony

New Club System Additions:
Secondary and Tertiary Club bonuses added. Requires point goals to activate. The Secondary bonus is activated for all members upon the club reaching 250,000 points. The Third bonus doesn't come until a difficult 5,000,000 points is earned. The third bonus is likely unreachable for many clubs, but the secondary bonus should be within the grasp of many.
Club owners will be able to select the additional bonuses prior to the club actually being able to use them. There is no changing these, so choose wisely! Owners can select the new bonuses from their club page.

New Quests: 5 new quests added.

Misc Fixes/Changes:

Removed bonus SFX when a non-point bonus is awarded (tracker)

Fish item now has fish icon

Removed facial decor from Lightning Bridle for better fitting

Cutting arena bonus added to Camargues.

Fixed helper review questions marked as helpful to not be re-evaluated, thus gaining 2 points rather than properly just one.

Fixed actual ranch building sales to back to 75% recovery, again.

We hope you enjoy!
-Joe, Miranda and Team

   Some of you are back to school now, good luck & work hard!
The following are some additions the the game made this morning.

New Breed: Westphalian newly discovered!

New Quests: 5 new quests available.

Game Changes:

removed full-price selling of ranch trainers now.

other misc minor tweaks.

We hope you enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   We continue to have problems with players having more than one account. The inability for players without a subscription to be able to trade has made it much harder for players to cheat using these accounts, however, it is still taking up a large amount of our time. Time that should be spent elsewhere.

Please remember that players are allowed one account and only one account. If we find players that have more than one account, the accounts will all be banned and could all be deleted.

If you are ever banned, please click on the Help at the top of the page and contact us. DO NOT simply create a new account.

Thanks
-Joe and Miranda

   The following lists what's included with today's game update:

New Breed: Spotted Draft Horse now available. Big and pretty. (May run slow on some computers, but worth it.)

New Companion: Two Plush Esrohs. One standing and one lying down. Since they're just toys you won't find them in a pet store, but sold by an NPC.

New Quests: 4 new quests added.

Misc Fixes:
Horse Feed Community board listing fixed.
Many other misc minor things.

Hope everyone enjoys the remainder of summer! (For you northern Hemispherians.)
-Joe and Miranda

   Hello all! We have made a few changes and additions to the game. We hope you enjoy them.

New Breed: Argentine Polo Ponies have been sighted recently wandering the lands!

New Quests: 4 Quests added.

Game Changes:

Prevented bonus arenas from being selected same in a row.

City Hall horse for-sale lists now support VIEW buttons.

Ranches now auto-fill water containers if you have water tank or Dionysus completion.

!ART added to the player commands list.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   There were a few annoying bugs left roaming around the last update, So we decided to get a minor update done. The following are changes:

Misc Bug Fixes and Additions:
Added re-picking random art theme if same occurred in last 30 contests. (3 months)
Added additional art themes. (nearly 300 total now)
Fixed ranch building sale price listing to show proper selling prices.
Some minor quest bugs fixed.
Eternal: Fixed practice arena paying out exp on Eternal again. (Live Fix a couple days ago)

-Joe and Miranda

   Welcome to summer all! (Northern Hemispherians at least)

This update aims to improve arena participation somewhat. We've made several changes towards that goal.

New Breed: Irish Sport Horse may be discoverable!

New Quests: Three additional quests.

Arenas:
Added a 'Bonus' Arena System. When you login you will be told the current Bonus arena. (Changes with World News Events.) When players participate in Bonus Arenas, the following extra is paid out:
Listed Events: 200% entry fee. (Earn $ even if you get last place!)
Group III: 200% entry fee.
Group II: 100% entry fee. (If you lose, it costs nothing.)
Group I: 50% entry fee. (Losing hurts less.)

We also lowered the "impossible" jump in the Jumping Arena so that it's possible to complete with a great horse.

Practice arenas are now limited to 4 of each type per ranch. For the time being, you can sell them at full refund so that you can decide which to sell. In roughly a week we will force-sell any remaining practice arenas over the limit (full refunds).

We understand this may upset players who were "making a living" as exp trainers but this was needed especially on LifeCycle where the exp provides a breeding bonus and was just a little too easy to achieve.

For those who will claim this is unfair because others have horses with high exp gained through this, well, the rate that those high exp horses will keep gaining has also gone down. In the end, it just makes competitions a little more competitive for exp earning again.


Let the competitions begin anew!
-Joe and Miranda

   HI2 has been live for 2 years now! HI1, 5 years! We thank all of you for your continued enthusiasm over our unique horse worlds. We would not be here without your support.

We've tried to add a big fun new feature to HI2 this update. Art Contests! More details below, hopefully many of you will take part in them, anyone can win!

New Breed: Peruvian!

New Companion: Baby Panda Bear! D'oh!

New Quests: 5 new quests added.

New Art Contest System:

The contest is a continuous,repeating cycle: 24hrs of entry time, 24hrs voting, 24hrs results, repeat.

Art system is accessed via the !ART command from anywhere. This is used for voting and for viewing results.

During entry, a random art theme is selected. Anyone who has an art kit may submit a free entry.

During voting, everyone may vote on all the submissions, giving each a score between 1 and 5.

Results are determined by the highest averaged scores for each submission. The top 25 get a cash award ($25k for 1st, $1k for 25th) And the top 5 have their art shown on results page.

Previous contest results are reviewable from the City Hall board.

Three new awards have been added which are earned by accumulating "Score" points from your rounded average score (+1 to +5 for each contest).

Other Additions/Fixes:

Art Kit bugs fixed - 'SAVE' button now ends the current polygon before saving to make sure it's included. It also updates byte count upon UNDO's.

Artist Club now also gives a small byte-max bonus as well as double art spots (1000B vs 800B) to all members.

Non-Subs: $50k Max ranch store purchase limit can now "bank" up to $150k (3 days) allowing for bigger purchases from ranch stores.

Special "Holiday Horse Color" available when it's your birthday.

MrFixer in GlacierTon is now a Tool Shop.

Other misc minor bug fixes, etc.

We hope everyone enjoys aspects of this update.
-Joe and Miranda and Team

   Sorry about the last 4 hours... Server took a nap. All is back now, We'll Extend everyone's sub on Eternal 6 hours for the trouble.

   Here are the latest changes and additions.

New Breed: Groningens to be discovered!

New Quests: 7 new quests available.

Eternal Specific:
Roan foal companions added.

Game Tweaks/Fixes:
Dionysus' Bonus improved slightly. Now you will get 1/2 water/feed filled even without a tower/silo at your ranch.
Fixed exp contract awards to award.
Switched to rounding down after all horse-count calculations, rather than rounding down after club and then pitchfork separately. (Rare cases may have room for another horse.)
Trolg cave titles now include isle/tunnel/cave location.
All previously new rose decors changed to craft plans instead of jewelry plans.
Additional Misc bugs.

We hope you enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   This update includes many bug fixes and minor improvements.

New Breed: Thessalian!

New Companion: Platypus, your friendly Australian Monotreme.

New Quests: 4 new quests available.

Esroh Pitchfork: New Tool available!
It is very difficult to obtain. But once you do, this tool provides for up to 25% more horses! Good luck!

Full STAT Training Contracts:
An addition to the existing experience contract lease system has been added. The bottom option in the Exp quantities is a Full Stat Training contract. Works just like Exp Contracts. If the Trainer does not complete, they only get paid for the portion they completed minus 10% of the total contract value.
Note that full training requires a long time. We recommend selecting the 6 week training period for all Stat Training contracts. Trainer can always cancel early if they finish early.

General Game Changes/Fixes:
Horse Capture: Fixed swamp stuck-issue, helped horse "breakout" when it gets stuck. Also added horse resting period/stance for a minor tweak and variation to game play.
New colors in Rose Bud Decor for horse manes. (+ new craft plans)
New colors in Rose Decor for horse manes.
Desert Racing bonus added to Turkoman.
Fixed bond and affection resets after horse sells in auction (New bug introduced last update).
Tweaked tack fitting on Warlander.
Alter Real light dapples are now contained within outline.
Fixed hole in bird and cloud problem in SameSame game preventing clickage.
Katmino bug for non-perfect screen display ratios may be fixed.
Vole hole sfx bug fixed so it goes off client sfx volume.
Counters Double-checked and awards handed out if any due when you view your misc counters.
Consuming minor bug at inns fixed.

Whew! There you all go, Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   There has been a lot of confusion lately over what types of ads are allowed. Since classified ads not only get more expensive as more are posted, but also everyone is subjected to them, ads that are not at all related to the game are no longer allowed. This means random messages sent via the classified ad system will be considered spam and should be rejected. Also, remember that all rules apply to the classified ads. This means they must remain all age appropriate and no using the classified ad system to get around another player muting you.

On a side note, many players lose helper points because they accepting ads that are against the rules. The main one is that players may not advertise parties or anything going on at someone else's ranch. All ads for a "ranch party" must be done by the owner of the ranch.

Please see "Advertising" in the Detailed Rules for more information.

Thanks
-Joe and Miranda

   This update has a lot of tweaks and additions. We hope you enjoy.

New Breed: Morab! Keep your eyes peeled for this long-awaited beast.

New Lands Accessible: Reports are in that Peak Isle is accessible.

New Pet: Koala companion added. Unfortunately, cute though it is, it won't work on large breeds, such as the Shire. Well you just won't be able to see it.

New Quests: 4 new quests available for the adventurous among you!


Misc Fixes/Changes:
Tweaked platinum barns to allow for 8 rather than 7 horses!
Skid Boots have been changed to being only on the back. This forced the craft plan to be altered and they are now worth less.
Leather Open Front Boots have been changed to being only on the front. This forced the craft plan to be altered and they are now worth less.
Double tail on Dapple Rose Grey Standardbred fixed.
Planet game question with two possible answers made more specific.
Fixed hole in bird in SameSame game preventing clickage.
Fixed several pets "Next" Button linkage in BBB.
Fixed bug preventing k suffix at end of profile lines from passing filter.

Lots of tweaks and minor fixes. Hope everyone enjoys the additions. Have a great day!
-Joe and Miranda

   Just a note to all. We have added a section under "Stuck" in the Detailed Rules. Please take some time to go over this.

The main thing to remember is it is against the rules to get yourself stuck on purpose. This not only causes confusion and problems with other players, but it wastes the time of the moderators who take the time to rescue those players.
Thanks
-Joe and Miranda

   We didn't get as much new content added as we would have liked. Ended up spending more time on tweaking LifeCycle than expected. Today's game additions listed below:

New Breed: Jutlands! Jutting around the lands...

New Pet: Falabella!

New Quests: 2 new quests available.

Tweaks:
Base number of classified ads increased before price goes up.
Misc fixes.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Welcome 2012!

We, as all of HorseIsle members made some end of year donations again. HI2 Eternal players directed $2,500 to Scholarship America through the online donation-proxy system, to help kids get to and stay in college. For HI1 we also renewed our $2,500 sponsorship of Colorado Horse Rescue horses. So there went a portion of your game purchases towards caring for actual horses and education.

Have a happy new year and thanks to everyone!
-Joe and Miranda and Team

   FURHEAEFH BHGTHG UB UQNHHN CQFUQH . BUJLFA THQISGH IC IOHa JPUQ OCGBHUBFH VHXBUIH IC DHI LGCLHGFA NUGHEIHN IC UI! VHFECJH PDPUQ RCG IOH BHECQN IUJH

Hint: First word is 'LifeCycle' :)

---

UPDATE: LifeCycle is online. Visit www.HorseIsle.com to get the splitter page if interested.

   Update: Doing a quick second bug-fix reset. Fixes the following:
Zeus tokens usable on all horses again.
Zeus tokens give +4 on Grades, and max out at 100 rather than 25
A certain preview of LifeCycle Server now properly hidden.
Fluting in major town Isles is prevented with this update as well now.
Thanks for your patience!

---

Happy winter holidays everyone! Many of you may have heard the announcement through the Game forums about a new server we will be putting online in the next few days. This will be a clone of this game, with all content identical, except for aging and breeding game-play mechanics added. Horses WILL die on that server, so it will not be for everyone. This server is gaining the designation "Eternal" because the horses here, live forever, while the new server will be suffixed with "LifeCycle". All players who choose to play on the new server will start from scratch. Nothing is transferable. However they may play on both if they like, maintaining their "Eternal" horses. We have yet to make the full announcement concerning the LifeCycle Server. That will be coming within the next few days. Going forward, both servers will get identical game updates at the same time, and we expect Eternal to remain the more popular server.

New Breeds: Three lovely grade horses! A Pony, Saddle, and Draft horse all come in tons of colorings. These horses are great pools of genetic diversity. Unlike all other horses, these have genetic stat ranges of +/- 100 rather than 25. Though, they still won't be better than most specialized breeds at their respective tasks.

New Companion: Squirrel Monkeys found with some happy horses!

New Quests: 4 new quests added

Misc:
Additional Holiday Colors available on the appropriate dates.
Haldo Who? and There's Haldo! Awards added.
Minor bug fixes

Hope you all enjoy the update, and just in summary, NOTHING will change on this server, other than we will start referring to it as "HI2:Eternal".
Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Temporary News:

Doing a quick game reset to fix some new custom-reply quest bugs introduced last reset.

Really couldn't wait until next update.

Thanks for patience.
-Joe

   Today's game additions listed below:

New Breed: Przewalski's Horse out and about!

New Quests: 4 additional.

New Minigame: Where's Haldo? Compete with your friends in this 2 player challenge.

New Pet: Camel Calves!

Premium Pets: All pets may be purchased in Premium version where they all have equivalently huge stats. This allows for stylized purchasing. All Premium Rump Pets provide 9% bonus, Middle Pets provide 18%, and Large Pets provide 26%. Purchasable from a WAY out of town pet shop.

Bug Fixes/Tweaks:
Additional upcoming Holiday colorings added.
Zeus tokens blocked from leased horses.
Greys added to Kinsky that were previously missing.

UPDATE: Secondary reset to fix custom-npc-replies, etc.
SECONDARY UPDATE: Also tweaked some pet prices/stats to be more in-line with originally planned pricing.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Be sure you didn't miss yesterday's news post concerning the fan-art contest. Here comes another big game update, quite a few exciting new features to be found!

New Breed: Kinsky now discoverable in the lands!

New Companion: Young Kaspers. They aren't bought through pet shops though!

New Quests: 4 new quests available

New Job Minigame: SameSame click-on-the-scene-differences job available.

Horse Avatars: You can now preview Horse Avatars in the BBB! :)

Holiday Horse Colors: Around certain holidays, horse owners may purchase a temporary holiday coloring from a certain NPC. This affects the avatar only, but can be a lot of fun to be riding around with crazy colors. These only last 24 hours per purchase.

Client v1.15 Changes:

• LONG HIDE button, hides all other players for 100 times longer than the other hide player button. This is useful for navigating busy places, etc. It does not affect others in anyway.
  
• CLICK TO WALK setting option. Enabling this will allow you to click somewhere walkable on screen and the player will try to walk there, as an alternative to arrows when preferred. Note: It's a bit buggy, but as good as it will be, so use it or don't.
  

Bug Fixes/Changes:

• Cream Crochet Bonnet sew plan added.
  
• Ranch Trainer List will finally not show private ranches.
  
• Username changes will protect the previous name from others taking the name for up to 7 days. This prevents confusion if someone grabs a previously held name the next day, etc. Also those who buy identity tokens could switch back to old name within 7 days if needed.
  
• Block ranch training purchase when owner modifies price.
  
• AutoReply bug fixed.
  
• Prevent hearing buddies when personally muted. They still hear you, however. If you actually don't want to be buddies with someone, remove them as buddy rather than muting.
  

We hope you enjoy these various additions. Happy Fall!
-Joe and Miranda

   Wow, we received over 500 fan art submissions! It was very difficult to select through them, and we will not claim to have done it based on any exact science. We certainly left some wonderful art out. So, mostly we looked at each art submission based on a bit of chance, on uniqueness, on effort, and on whether it was Horse Isle specific. In any case, here are 86 creations that we selected and gave out free Horse Tokens for. But just know that we enjoyed each and every submission.

You can see 2009's art and this years submissions at: www.HorsesAreAwesome.com

Thanks for sharing and enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Thanks for all the wonderful fan art! We are not taking entries anymore. We will be taking some time over the next few days to choose which will be posted on the fan art page. We will do a new News posting once we have chosen.

Thanks again!
-Joe and Miranda

   We did this back in 2009 and it went really well. We decided to hold another fan art competition this year to see if anyone has been doing Horse Isle related art recently.

So, until October 15th, anyone who has drawn, crafted or created something inspired by Horse Isle may send in a copy of it to xxxxxx (NOT Support). Include your playername, which game you're playing (HI1 or HI2) and age in your email.

Soon after October 16th we'll select some based on effort/creativity/quality and some randomness. Those we select will all be featured on a fan art page, and those players will receive a free Horse Token.

Only ONE entry per player. Please only send something original that you created. Be sure to email in before October 15th. By emailing us the art, you are giving us rights to publish the material as well. (We will not post ages with playernames.)
Here's the link to 2009's fan art winners: http://hi1.horseisle.com/fanart/

Thanks
-Joe and Miranda

   New Breed: Java Pony is now running around.

New Pet: Tobiano Foals. There are nine different color variations!

New Quests: There are four new quests.

Bug Fixes/Tweaks:
Grullo was missing from the Mulassier. That has now been added.
Broken Sandcastle on Boot Isle can now be completed.
Broken Tree Tent on Boot Isle can now be completed.
Flaxen Liver Chestnut Sabino American Saddlebred now accurately named.
Mangoes now know when you have too many already.
When a Moderator mutes a player, an abuse report is automatically sent.
Trades not accurately saying what was traded is fixed.

Hope you enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Here we go! A nice big update for our valued players! Everyone should definitely find something in here interesting. Let's go through the features:

New Breed: Mulassier now roams!

New Companions: Rubber Ducky and Wallaby.

New Islands: 9 new islands discovered in Horse Isle!
Snowflake, Square, Vapid, Monkey, and Boot each a different terrain type.
And 4 new West Mountain Isles with cave systems: Sheer, Precipice, Ridge and Peak.
There is no known route to Peak Isle at this time however.
Previous Mountain Isles are now referred to as East Mountain Isles.

New Minigame: Cookie Cutters, those who play(ed) HI1 will remember this geometric coding game. 15 of these quest minigames to be found.

New Minigame Instances: A bunch of new puzzles added for the new islands.
1 Trollger Labyrinth
1 Volehole
2 2-player Rabbit & Turt
5 Sandcastles
3 Hudokus
1 Tree Tent
2 Timelines
3 Word Searches
7 HARD! Katamino games.
There is also a place in Dryton where you can practice the Horse Capturing Minigame now, without the difficulty of finding wild horses.

New Quests:
11 new normal quests available.
One new Esroh Bonus Quest. For those that want a *LOT* of work, and have 80% minigames complete and Zeus, go for a chat.
Three bonus toggle pad puzzles await discovery and examination as well.

Bug Fixes/Tweaks:
Fixed misspelling on "Millennium Fields" art on ranches.
Added consolidated login/out notification system, where players will only get a single notification with relationship priority being buddies,clubies,mods.
Blocked showing private/disabled ranches on the horse and pet community board lists for real this time.
Added a "View Moderators Online" player list.
Alpha Sorted the Players in area/Buddies online/Clubbies online Lists
Additional limit of 1 ads chat every 30 seconds, reset upon new zone, not counted if no one hears.
Removed wanted, horses -- Added horses for sale, horses wanted, competitions to classified ad system.
Block sending chats to no-one (empty area, replace with message) prevents clearing of typed chat text.
Horse fluting bugs fixed.
Fixed chat smilies to properly allow when within a sentence. "test X.X test"
Added a 250 shares limit to stock purchases.
30+ minor, teensy bugs fixed.

Whew. Hopefully that will give you guys some stuff to explore and do. Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   This is a quick bug-fix update.

Recently some networking issues have crept in due to changes in a previous game update. These have caused some blocked logins and slowdowns at times. Hopefully this morning's reset will fix these. I have done several server resets over the last few days to attempt to track the problem down.

In addition a dozen or so other minor server bugs have been fixed.

We are still working on a good, proper game update for maybe a week from now.

-Joe and Miranda

   We are returning home in a few days after a long time of backpacking around Oceania/Asia. While we tried to work as best we could on new content, we did not usually end up with enough time to accomplish all that we wanted. So over the next couple weeks, we hope to catch up on some needed Horse Isle updates. Thanks for your patience.

We just added a "Most Charitable" top-list. This shows who has donated most to the in-game charities(at town halls). These charity donations will directly determine where our real end of year donations go. Also the more popular it proves may also encourage us to donate more.

Have a splendorous day!
-Joe and Miranda

   Been a while since our last update. We are still traveling Southeast Asia while trying to work. Sometimes the internet is rather troublesome. Thanks for your patience.

New Breed: American White now available in the lands!

New Companion: Fennec Fox!

New Quests: 3 New Quests.

New Minigame: Math Maze, a two player race to the finish.

New Awards: Added 8 awards, 2 for each of the 4 competitive minigames. (chesroh, triple gems, tictactoeton, math maze)

Other Tweaks/Fixes:
Updated to client v1.12 to allow mods to PM players even if they have muted pm's.
Private ranches properly hidden now off board lists.
Token source list should now properly work.
Horse 'fluting' should now work properly on all islands.
Plaid Blanket added.

Hope you enjoy,
-Joe and Miranda

   They are back online now, but we apologize for the temporary down time. We have fixed the minor problem that arose so that that issue will not surface again.

We will extend subscription times equivalent to downtime.
Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   We apologize for the bit of a large gap since the last update.

New Breed: Dales Pony may now be found in the Land of Horse Isle.

New Pet: Swan companion added.

New Quests: 6 additional quests added.

Game Additions:
Gription shoes added to MarshTon farrier.
Increased ranch-prevent-selling-quantity-ranch trainings to 10k from 1k.
Added 3 exp contract completed awards. (Only awarded if applicable after a canceled lease.)
Added HI2 Donation Determination Points - $1m each, will directly determine the actual end of year real-world Horse Isle 2 donations.
Added 3 Donation Awards - HI2 Donation directors will earn these.
Blocked arena podiums a little better to help prevent crowding.
Alpha sorted breeds in community hall source-list.
Divided items into categoriesin community hall source lists.
Hid disabled/private ranch store items from displaying in community hall lists.
Removed 'tropical' from breed terrains completely.
Pastel Pink Crochet Bonnet craft plan created.
NarrowTon mayor will now send a player back to Welcome Isle if the player didn't complete MrWelcomer's quest.
Super token video added to web site how-to videos.

We hope the changes are helpful!
-Joe and Miranda

   Sorry! Server decided to take a nap. Woke it up a few hours later..
We will credit everyone's subscriptions for the possible]y lost game time.
Thanks for your patience!

   Due to the difficulty of knowing what a person can handle and/or follow through with in regard to various training jobs they may take on, we have implemented some changes that should make experience training by non-owners fairer and safer. See Training Systems below for details.

New Quests: Eight New Quests!!

New Breed: Standardbred now roaming the lands!

New Tokens Available:
Due to demand, we have added the following additional tokens available on the SHOP page:

IDENTITY TOKEN $3usd: Provides one additional name change. To change your username with the token, click USE on the token in the game, then go to your Account page and click the Change Username option.

SUPER HORSE TOKEN $15usd: Additional benefits beyond normal horse token include:
Better Gen stat range options (+0 to +25) or (+5 to +15)
Option for an all-round average personality (4-6 for all)
Ability to preview exactly how the horse will look before accepting, so that one can find a horse with preferred markings.

New Training Systems:
Ranch Trainers Sellable: Ranch Trainers may now sell their extra sessions to Ranch Visitors for whatever price they desire. They may also keep a certain quantity for themselves. No need to Lease a horse for stat training anymore! A list of Ranch Trainers is now available at the Community Board; just visit a Trainer's ranch sign to buy.

Experience Training Contracts: The Lease system now has additional options, which when used, will make exp training safe for all. The horse Owner specifies how much Exp they want, and how much they are willing to pay for this in total. If the Trainer agrees (make sure you think the terms are fair!) the payment is held in escrow until the trainer completes training, or otherwise cancels/loses the lease. Payment is made up front, but held from both parties until the lease ends. Trainer receives full payment if the system determines that the full amount of Exp was added. If the full contract was not completed, System determines the percentage that was completed, reduces it by 10%
and then pays Trainer, refunding the remainder back to Owner. For example: Contract is $100,000 for 100 exp. Trainer runs out of time after only 70 exp trained, which is 70%. 10% penalty applied earns Trainer $60,000 and Owner gets $40,000 back. It might sound a bit complicated, but just know that it will fully track the experience and make sure the money is paid when earned or returned when not, and that is what helps to make everything fair.

Group III Arena Tweak:
Reduced to needing just 2 players to start an event.

Public Service Announcements:
Moderators may now post PSA's to everyone online. These are meant to be instructive and helpful, and not often enough to prove annoying. They will appear at the left hand chat as green text 'PSA from Jor', etc.

Misc Additions/Fixes:

2 new horse blankets added, one craftable, one store bought.

Added some additional Lease term options (30min, 3hrs, 12hrs, 2 weeks)

Added City-hall top 100 cheapest ranch trainers with availability list.

Added random sorting to website top-lists where many scores are tied.

Pop up horse profile after either horse token used.

Affection resets to 500 upon horse ownership change.

Switched broken bonus Apollo record to different track.

Added contract jobs in-progress listing to HORSES display.

Ranch Pets when sold will now have their owner timers reset properly.

Upgraded practice ring from 2 to 10exp/all horses/day and pro from 4 to 20exp/all horses/day to give the building a little more reason to exist.

There should really be no reason to plain lease anymore except for just fun. Any stat training, use the Ranches that sell trainings. Any Exp training, use a contract to protect both of you.
Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Horse Isle: Legend of the Esrohs has been live for one year as of today! To celebrate we have added a special world news event that occurs on May 4th's, and some other game updates for today. Thanks to all of you for enjoying Horse Isle with us.

New Breed: Turkoman wandering about!

New Quests: 3 new quests, and possibly some additional Esroh content for those that have completed Zeus.

Other Game Tweaks/Additions:
Spin, Glower, Throw Pie, Nicker Socials added.
Upon capturing a horse, the horse profile will now auto-pop-up.
Decay isle stumps are now searchable... not sure if any reason to, however.
Added a list of clubbies offline and time as such.
Plus some other minor fixes.

Hope you enjoy,
-Joe and Miranda

   We have carefully considered altering the rules for the rumpart and have decided to now allow fanart of copyrighted characters, etc. This is a common exception in practice to US copyright law and should add more creative options for players.

Please realize that if we should ever receive a complaint from the copyright holder, the art will be removed immediately without compensation for whatever the player paid to have it approved or put up in the rump art store or applied.

That said, all other rules still apply. Art must be age appropriate, not violent and not contain any words that are not in the dictionary. Logos for websites will not be allowed. Art found to not be following the rules that are approved, will be removed immediately or the player that created it may be asked to delete it.

Hopefully this helps clear up some confusion.
Thanks
-Joe and Miranda

   We did a bunch of hopefully helpful game tweaks and additions. Should be a little something for everyone in this update. Hope you enjoy!

New Breed: Percheron now discoverable!

New Quests: 11 new quests added.

Ranch System Additions:
A new Huge Isle option, Decay, has been added. This is strictly an aesthetics option as it lacks the daily production of the others.
Upgrade versions of all gardens and several other producers have been added. They are exorbitantly priced however.
Platinum barns have been added, but at 10x Gold Barn cost, and only allowing 2 additional horses, they will likely not be showing up at a ranch near you soon.
Added ability for ranch owner to remove individual retired horses by clicking them.

Club System Additions:
When club news is posted, members receive notification of the headline online or upon login.
When clubbies login or out other members receive notification.

Simple Fishing System:
The simple ice-fishing holes in arctic may now be used.
With the addition of fish, 6 new recipes and 5 items have been added.

Game Fixes:
Vet Info screens formatted to 2 lines to make sure prices shown.
Client v1.11 updated to fix moderator accidental muting.
Muting area chat should no longer mute ads chat, as they should properly be separate now.
Thoroughbred avatar colors fixed.
Empty Canteens and Empty Pails can now be sold back to general stores.
Flipped level 5 crafted saddle pads so they fit properly.

Whew! We hope you enjoy the additions!
Thanks go out to the quest writers who assist in testing and update suggestions.
-Joe and Miranda

   Sneaking in many changes here that do not require a whole server update. Hopefully these changes improve the competitive atmosphere for the game. It is difficult to tweak things this late "in the game" but hopefully most players will find some of these welcomed.

Top List Additions:
Top Wild Horse Wranglers
Top Quizzers
Top Treasure Hunters
Top Arena Competitors
Top Arena Wins
Top Job Worker
Top Advertiser
Top Mail deliveries

In addition a new top list for every breed detailing the top arena winners has been added to the bottom.

Arena Tweaks:
Group I and Group II have both had their entry fees halved and their experience payout doubled to encourage participation in Group II.

Thanks,
-Joe and Miranda

   Let me first say that what happened in Japan, and is still happening in Japan, is absolutely terrible and devastating. That said, if players want to help support Japan, the best way is to find a place to donate, such as the Red Cross. We understand players wanting to create rump art in support of Japan, but please refrain from doing so.

By creating a rump art saying basically, "Buy this rump art to show your support for Japan!" you are gaining in-game profit from a tragedy as it does nothing to actually help Japan. I understand you all have your hearts in the right place, but please refrain from putting any more of this type of art in the rump art store as I will have to take it down. A number of players have been offended by it.

Thanks much.
-Miranda

   Oh boy, hope we don't lose more of you adventurers! Apparently some more caves, deeper and treacherous have been discovered. Do be careful while exploring!

New Breed: Hackney!

New Quests: 1 new quest added.

Caves: 3 Additional cave systems added.

Other Game Tweaks:
Moderators given ability to rescue "stuck" players (GRAB)
Moderators given ability to temporarily help a player (GOTO, and GOBACK)
Moderators given power to individually BAN an exceedingly inappropriate player (Last resort)
Various minor typos, etc.

-Joe and Miranda

   We are currently visiting the grand country of New Zealand (hope all of our Christchurch players/families are well). So this update is on Wednesday back for you slow pokes in the US, as it's Thursday afternoon here :). Regardless, hope you enjoy the additions.

New Breed: Calabrese now may be wandering!

Quests: 7 new quests available.

Game Tweaks/Fixes:
Added a players-per-arena-room listing to the PLAYERS tab.
When Club-chatting, you will no longer "hear" a personally muted club member.
Added a big, red, current violation display when logging in if you have current violations.
Rose Dapple Greys and Rose Greys are now correctly called Dapple Rose Grey.

Helper Points
When and how helper points are removed has been added to the Help Center under: Support -> Helpers System -> Can I Lose Helper Points?
If you are a helper, please take some time to go over that. We will be more actively removing points for mistakes when reviewing art and ads from now on.

-Joe and Miranda

   Here are some game additions and tweaks for today.

New Breed: Dartmoor Pony possibly wandering the world!

New Quests: 4 new quests added.

New Companions: White Foals and Black Foals can now be found in select pet shops.

Game Changes:
Offline arena-win messages should now be delivered.
Changed horse shoes with stat bonuses to provide full bonus until shoe is down to 0, rather than a partial bonus equal to the wear percentage.
Fixed dictionary additions update to actually run each night now, rather than waiting for resets.
Added classified ad pre-posting rules warning.
!TooCrowded, will only send those given the 2 minute warning to prison if still in area.
Help chat coloring changed to gray (for less confusion with mod speak).

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Apparently non-mods were still able to ban, oops. So we are doing another quick update here.

Quests: 3 new quests added.

Misc:
Non-mods may not ban others finally!
Show-all club news now should show 100 rather than 50 posts.

Being Banned
This has always been a rule, but we decided to make it more clear in the Rules and Detailed Rules. Please see the Detailed Rules under "Banned" for more detailed information.
In general though, if you are banned, whether permanently or temporarily, please do not create a new account or log onto the game using a different account. If you are banned, it is for a reason and you are not currently allowed on the game. Please contact us using the Support Issues under the Help button to discuss the ban.


PSA: When traveling on the cheap, beware of hostels with a hole in ceiling above your bunk, as an 8 inch long, venomous centipede may drop down in the middle of the night and bite you in your sleep... End of Public Service Announcement. (Based on recent personal experience.)

Thanks,
-Joe and Miranda

   Couple of bugs needed quick-fixing, so reset quick just now.

1) Zeus needed a little "work". those who completed, but did not fully, please speak with him again.

2) Normal players could use moderator BAN command. protected this ability and will unban any banned players found in log.

Thanks,
-Joe

   Bunch of big additions here. This update completes the core game quests, and several big tweaks.

New Breed: Pony of the Americas!

Esroh: A king among Esrohs may grant those very few who can qualify an audience. As well, once he has been appeased, he just might produce something amazing for you for the most outlandish cost imaginable. :)

Zeus Tokens: These are not purchasable, rather those who have completed Zeus in a certain way, while subscribed, will earn one every 2 days. These tokens allow anyone possessing them to raise a single genetic stat one point permanently. Only up to 25 tokens may be ever used on a single horse. The token is single-use and may be traded, but understand what you are getting. These will become less rare as more players complete Zeus. (Or should I say "If" more players complete Zeus.)

New Quests: 3 additional quests added.

Client Update to v1.10:
Minor networking/server speedup.
Removed console logging for players for a "teensy" speedup.
Added a client at-midnight wrap server time back to 0 for proper time display.
Added a completely-remove-and-build-new-chat-boxes-when-clearing-them on the Settings menu to clear out bolds, etc.. for sure.

Other Game Tweaks/Fixes:
Swapped Plains and Lance Isle in boat transport list.
Added arena chat player-mutes support.
Added Inventory maximum trade prevention when trade would exceed 250 quantity.
Fixed several bridle/pad fittings on horses.
Tweaked how large pets fit behind the horse for many breeds.
Blocked personally muted players from going to your ranch.
Can not save edited art as a new art if over art max.
Made interest pay out limited up to the first 250M of bank balance. (still get interest, just not any faster whether 250M or 1B in bank)

This concludes the core of HI2. We will still add content, but this is probably the last large update. Thanks to everyone who worked hard on completing HI2 and you the players as well who kept us going! Hope you enjoy!

-Joe and Miranda

   I need to briefly take the server down for some "Clean up". Just to keep everything running smooth, etc. This may take 10-30 minutes to complete and get the server back online, so please be patient.

UPDATE: This was completed about 25 minutes later.

    2011 is here! Horse Isle would like to thank all of you for 2010. We were able to continue supporting Sky and Fiesty at Colorado Horse Rescue for another year at $2,500. We were also able to make a $5,000 donation to help support Przewalski's Horse Conservation among other animals through the World Wildlife Fund. So, take pride in the fact that some of your membership went towards caring for very real animals.

Way to go!
-Joe, Miranda, and all of the Horse Isle Team.

   This is a quick Holiday Update! We just did a game update a few days ago including the Hanoverian, 3 new quests, and some new horse hats. This update adds a few quests that should sneak in before holidays are over.

Quests: 2 new quests added.

Decay Isles: You may notice places where Kaspers have rested on decay isles. Sometimes this leaves behind some strange dust. No real known value to it at this point.

Have a great day!
-Joe and Miranda

   A few game updates are explained below:

New Breed: Hanoverian!

Quests: 3 new quests added.

Decor: Some stylish and unique new horse hats available! Find them in the various tack shops.

Other Updates/Fixes:
Tweaked bridle on Irish Draught to hopefully fit better.
Fixed Missouri Fox Trotter face marking problem and mane problems.
Cheap tack is now proper color while riding.
Mods may PM players who have PM's muted or the mod muted now.
Mods not subjected to area chat quantity restriction.
Various other bug fixes/tweaks.

Reminder: Please remember that you are not allowed to advertise things going on at another player's ranch. This also means if you are able to review the ads, that you REJECT any ads that don't make it clear that the player is advertising for their own ranch.
This is directly from the Detailed Rules:
"7] No advertising for gatherings happening at someone else's ranch. You may only advertise for things happening on your own ranch. When you advertise for an event at your ranch, be sure your ad states "at my ranch" or something else that indicates the ad and ranch belong to the same player, so it will be accepted by those reviewing it."

Hope you enjoy and your winter holidays (Northern hemisphere at least) are swell!
-Joe and Miranda

   New Breed: Missouri Fox Trotter possibly wandering about.

Quest Minigame: Keep an eye out for poor Mr.Salmon, he could surely use your help.

Quests: 4 new quests available.

Arena Tweaks: Group II and Group I (the top two) have had their experience payouts increased roughly 30%.
Those that paid out a base experience of:
2exp, now pay out 3exp.
3exp, now pay out 4exp.
6exp, now pay out 8exp.

Other Updates/Fixes:
City hall public ranch list just shows a random 50 ranches, rather than huge list.
Fixed enforcing limit of 2 help requests per 10 minutes.
Fixed retired horses to be deleted upon selling a ranch.
Fixed a bug with the Horse Injuries award not getting counted.
Fixed Nimble Bridle bit to actually go through mouth now instead of cheek.
Moved big pet back on Knabstrups.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   This update includes a large ranch tweak. It was a compromise providing two different desired abilities, so hopefully you enjoy it. Just be sure to understand its limitations!

New Breed: Warlander!

Millennium Fields: Level 8 ranches may now build the Millennium Fields! These allow permanently retiring some of your horses (15 for tiny ranch up to 55 for huge ranch). These horses will rest (unmoving) at a particular spot on your ranch viewable by visitors. NOTE: This deletes the horse, you cannot ever ride it, etc. again. Retired horses will permanently disappear if the field or ranch is ever sold. Only do this with horses you no longer want and do not want to sell! (addendum: Retiring a horse removes it from any top-lists as well, as it is removed from proper game)

Quests: 12 new quests added.

Website: We added an alternative link for the rare player that has trouble logging into the game, with it stopping at the geometry or game data phase. Normally the game loading issues require a cache clearing, but for some people it may be a networking issue. The link at the bottom of the login page: [ Load game with ports swapped if constant login problems ] May allow those people to successfully connect.

Misc: Other minor fixes.

Hope you enjoy,
-Joe and Miranda

    This applies only to those people who have tried using the HI2 referral system to earn some free game tokens (and those that may want to). See your referral info under SHOP -> Referrals near the bottom of the page on this website.

I just noticed today that the referrals system broke a few weeks after it was built, limiting the number of referrals that were actually recorded. I feel pretty bad about this, hence why I'm sharing. I have no way of tracking down who was referred by whom, but managed to find a count of the number of players referred by certain players. Any player that referred more than a few accounts was given 5 horsebucks (same token value as $5, equivalent to 5 of your referee's buying a month sub). If this was you, you will see this shown on the referral page along with a way to cash them in for game tokens.

For those that tried the referral system before, and did not see any effect, hopefully now after a few days you may earn some horse bucks if you take a try at it again.

Again, the referral system is a simple web-link that you can share on your blog/forum/with friends that will then credit you 1 horsebuck for every month sub and 8 for every year subscription that those players end up purchasing. And now it should all work proper. Click SHOP above, then click Referral Program down below for more information.

Now, how about we get back to work on a fun game update coming up soon...

Thanks!
-Joe

   Today's game changes detailed below.

New Breed: Dutch Warmbloods have made their way into the lands!

New Pets: Dun Foals added.

Quests: Four new quests added.

New World Events System: World Events are similar to Random Events, except everyone offline or on, is affected by them. Most are positive, some are negative, over time it should average in everyone's favor. Only a single World Event will be in effect at a time. So, say the one which increases wild horses was the last world event, this will remain until the next world event, which takes $1k from everyone. World Events will take place every 15-30 hours. You can see the latest World News under PLAYERS. Also, major player events will be tracked and reported from now on, under PLAYERS as well. Anytime someone earns bareback, or completes Zeus (not available yet), they will have that accomplishment reported there.

Tweaks and Fixes:
Up to 2 wild horses now added each minute (1 before) if the total 'out' is below the max.
Arenas which recently bumped from 2 to 4 base exp, will sink back to 3 for better balance.
Desert Race entry fee is halved.
Cross Country Entry reduced 33%.
Barrel Racing Entry fee reduced 25%.
Groomers fixed to each charge a differing, lower rate, rather than all charging 2k.
plus other minor fixes.

Hope you enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Don't forget, Horse Isle has a referral program, Click SHOP, Then Referral program at the bottom for more information. If you run a website, have a blog, or have forum friends, you can post a link to Horse Isle which will track sign-ups to your account. When those players buy subscriptions with real money, you will earn a fifth of that amount to redeem for your own desired tokens. See all the details at the bottom of the SHOP page.

Thanks!

   Friday Night Fright! Yeti Caves!? Do be careful out there!

New Breed: Caspians may be out and about!

Quests: 5 new quests await you.

Ice Caves: These appear to be accessible now. Of course, would not recommend it!

Shipwreck Isle: Arg Mateys! Finally got some proper art for thems!

Other Updates/Fixes:
Special tools with no price are not shown in BBB anymore.
Ads chats now includes (sub) (non) playername suffixes depending on sub status.
Added a riddles-answered counter to each riddle box attempt. so you know how many are left.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   UPDATE: Server was down longer than anticipated, we will credit 12hrs subscription extension later today. Thanks for your patience!

At midnight server time HI2 will be taken down for testing for an hour or so.

A week ago we upgraded our Server Setup for a good permanent setup, and apparently the huge new server is glitching, as it has shut-off twice since then (Once earlier today).

So, The hope is they can track the problem down tonight and fix it.

Then hopefully we can be rid of hardware issues for a bit!

-Joe

   A Few minor game additions and tweaks for you this afternoon.

New Breed: Haflingers? Really? Where?

Quests: 3 new quests added.

Tweaks and Fixes:
Group I Arena events are preceded by a fancier double trumpet startup effect.
If player logs out/not in area, arena entry will be marked Did-Not-Compete -- they will get 0 exp, and the competitors exp will not be raised by their entry. Money payouts will remain as was.
Jumping,cutting,reining,jockey,draft arenas pay out double experience now.
Beauty Arena Tweaked to pay out half experience.
Added a swampy capture mini-game terrain.
Fixed the recent tropical/beach capture game showing on many isles instead of more specific ones. (OAK for example should NOT be a beach capture anymore)
Bunch of misc typos fixed.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   UPDATE: Server Transfer complete!. (Took about 35minutes).
Everything should be as it was 35 minutes ago, you should notice nothing different.
Thanks for patience.

UPDATE: May begin at about 7:30am server time (in an hour.)

I will likely be transitioning HI2 to a different set of physical servers sometime in the morning. Be prepared for up to an hour or two of downtime (hopefully less).

More details will be posted here as the time approaches.

Thanks for your patience.
-Joe

   New Breed: Tennessee Walking Horses have been spotted within the borders of Horse Isle! Keep an eye out!

New Pets: Several Bay foals added.

Esrohs: From the abyssive* depths beckons a tridential* quest of epic massivity*! Best of luck to those unrelenting travelers! (* yeah, yeah, i know.)

New Quests: 3 additional quests added.

Bug Fixes:
Tweaked Barren Isle lighthouse to make a bit more unique.
Iota Isle double-sparkle decor fixed.
Kicked off horse now if you cancel a horse lease while riding same horse.
Many typos etc.

Happy Adventures!
-Joe and Miranda

   Some new additions today, detailed below.

New Breed: The Icelandic may now be found if you enjoy chilly climates!

Lighthouses: For maritime safety, Lighthouses have been erected around Horse Isle lands. A new minigame quest involves helping with the optics, not an easy task.

Quests: 3 new quests added.

Bugs fixed/Changes:
Rump art sizing revised on all breeds, usually slightly larger.
Two new Hard Logic Grids added.
Morse code fixed to only play sfx after win, and at proper volume, and much smaller load time.
Added a craft preventer if maxed out on the crafted items.
Fixed club quit text to show 50% rather than 25% point refund.
Rebuilt sand castle art to hopefully speed up game. Added holding-SHIFT support to rotate backwards.
Fixed postmaster award to be properly handed out.

Rule Reminder
If you are going to train horses for others, please read the Detailed Rules regarding this topic very carefully (Rules -> Detailed Rules -> Training).
If you promise to train a horse and take payment before the training is completed, then you fail to complete the agreed training, you must give back ALL the money paid. If you do not that is considered stealing.
We have been wasting far too much time dealing with this. Anyone found not completing their end of the deal will be dealt with harshly.

Thanks,
-Joe and Miranda

   This update includes a new two-player quest minigame, buddy-up!

New Breed: Ardennais recently discovered!

Trollger Labyrinth!: New two player quest minigame. Good luck with this original puzzler!

Quests: 7 new quests added.

Bug Fixes/Changes:
Original BGM added to Hudoku.
New trollger cave discovered.
Blocked sending classified review requests to helpers who are not subscribed.
Mailboxes checked to make sure all had names and location.
Fixed horse details owner prefix to being empty when horse not currently owned.
Misc other fixes/tweaks.

Hope you enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   A few strange things have recently occurred in Horse Isle! The following lists some of these!

New Breed: Rocky Mountain Horses have been spotted! Keep an eye out for these.

Esrohs: A devious and daunting dilemma surely descends from doing the dreaded deeds demanded from a newly reachable Esroh.

Hudoku!: New wooden Hudoku posts have been found scattered in a certain under-explored terrain! Wonder what they could be all about?

Quests: One additional quest.

New Features/Bug Fixes:
Horses browsable NEXT/PREV at arena competitions.
Horse Owner shown at top of horse profiles.
Welcomer mail ah-hem.
Show pets now when a horse has one and is leased.
"Check your mail" suggestion at login to actually mean you have mail now.
Lots of typos, minor fixes.

Quick Rule Reminder:
Please remember that you are not allowed to advertise for things happening on others' ranches. If you have a party of some sort happening at your ranch, you may advertise it and should say "at my ranch" in the ad so those checking the ad know it is following the rules. This rule can be viewed in the Detailed Rules under "Advertising".

Hope you enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   The following game updates are being implemented today:

New Breed: Recent Sightings of Welsh Cob have been reported!

Familiar Companions Added: Inchworm, Cria, Tuxedo Kitten added.

Quests: Six additional quests added.

Classified Ads: Added messaging 2 random qualified player helpers when a classified ad is awaiting review. This should hopefully speed ad review.

Bug Fixes:
Resident Mail, prevent getting current mailbox's mail, and no more Welcomer mail.
Desert Race arena, Score now based upon a fairer method of frames rather than real-time for those with slower computers.
4 additional (missing) riddle posts added to game.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Hello all. We have been busy fixing bugs this update, not a lot of new content, but hopefully these fixes help you enjoy the game more.

Control Issues?: For those of you with arrow-key control issues, where the player keeps moving after you have let go, read this closely. This is almost always caused by flash getting overloaded with keyboard commands. When the arrow keys are held down, just as happens when typing a document, the key gets repeated over and over. If this happens faster than the frame rate, these eventually jumble-up. So, one solution is to Increase your keyboard repeat delay, which is found in the Keyboard section of most operating system's control panels. A new option is the "Coast" Feature just added. Hold down shift while you let go of an arrow key to continue moving in that direction. This will allow you to keep moving without holding the keys down. If you need to stop, or need better maneuverability just use the arrow keys like normal. Used in place of holding down the arrow keys for longer travels, this should help with the control-lag.

New Breed: Dole added to game!

New Quests: 5 additional Quests available.

New Award: Pony Express.

Many Bugfixes:
Welcomer Resident mail no longer given out, existing ones removed.
Word search better fits/shows longer words.
Surrendering a horse with tack or a pet blocks from now on
The clear chat's hopefully clear the bold/coloring that sometimes retained.
Fixed Desert Race to show 5/5 orbs when opponent players have completed them all.
Fixed Mailing a simple letter to cost advertised $100 rather than $250
Fixed construction minor win bug
Plus many more misc typos and minor fixes.

Thanks!
Joe and Miranda

   Some longstanding bugs fixed along with many new and unique additions in this update.

New Breed: National Show Horse

NPC Mail Delivery: Encounter a mailbox with its flag up? You may take the mail, and deliver it to the proper mailbox within 24hrs, earning $1000. Not much, but a fun distraction while traveling. Carry up to 5 letters at a time. Current letters carried show up under QUESTS main button.

Helper Reviews: Classified ads switched to require 100HP to review. Rejections require a reason to be entered now, to block accidental rejection. We will now be enforcing a system of HP removal/halving when something rejected/approved inappropriately. Be CERTAIN to read the detailed rules and understand them prior to reviewing artwork or ads! Thanks for your help!

Horse Profile Viewer Background Colors: You can now set a custom background color for each of your horses under their PROFILE settings. Let the color coordination begin!

Quest Minigame Added: Word Search. Find them hanging on resident's walls.

Quests Added: 3 new quests added.

Big Bugs Fixed:
Pet noise volume properly set to current SFX volume when viewed.
Trading/Leasing a horse dismounts you if on it.
Pitcher Isle view/communication issues should be fixed.
Beauty arena steward less blockable.
Many other misc smaller bugs/fixes.

Hope you enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   This update includes a lot of moderator and player-helper improvements, we still have additional work to do to clarify rules and policies, but these additions should help smooth things.

New Breed: Oldenburg added.

Esrohs: Rumors are circulating of yet another Esroh guardian allowing passage.. This Esroh may involve the toughest challenges found in the lands as of yet.

Quests: Several new quests added.

New Craftables: Marshmallows, Doily sew pattern.

Mod/Helper Changes:
Player helpers may review classified ads at 50pts, Artwork at 100pts. Any helper that incorrectly reviews something may have half/all of their helper points removed, and if done purposefully, even more extreme measures. We greatly appreciate helpers helping, but please understand what you are doing :)

Detailed Rules: Detailed rules link added to Rules page. These are followed by us in handing out violation points, etc. (Which are listed on your account page)

Bug Fixes/Changes:
Katamino should play correctly for all now.
Added sub: or non: prefix to helper questions to show sub status
Fixed tree-tents to not allow side-by-side tents
Many Top-lists added (chesroh/distance traveled/club donaters)
Minor other changes/fixes.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   We have been trying to keep to an update once/week, but were unable to get everything "squared away" last week, so this is a bigger than usual update. Hope you enjoy.

New Breed: Connemara added.

Esrohs: It may be possible that another fabled Esroh is available now. As always, surely the price for an audience is high. Good luck!

Tanagrama Added: New quest minigame reworked and added.

Katamino Added: New quest minigame added.

Quests: 2 additional quests added.

New Features/Bug Fixes:
You can now apply rump-paint to a leased horse WITHOUT existing art.
Added Garbage quantity payout upon a Complete crafting Failure of 1/10 points lost(rounded)
(mod) added to playernames in PM for mods.
Removal of trade items should work now.
Fixed mathmine job to not offer division by zero.
Added 14 day-old forum topic removal.
Fixed Irish Draught double blinking issue.
White and Black Boot constructing plan added.
Help chat auto-disabled when no longer subscribed.
Removed bridle face decoration that were not "fitting" nicely.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   The following additions and changes are being added to the game today:

New Breed: Fell Pony now discoverable!

New Quests: A couple added.

!Show/!Look redone: These commands have been changed so that !Show or !ShowAll simply grants permission to the other player(s) to !Look at your profile from afar. This fixes the !ShowAll problem where you could not look at another profile once doing that.

Club Leaving: Fixed club leaving refund to properly give 50% money back rather than 25%. This will only apply to any future leavings unfortunately.

Approved dictionary words: Removed the listing of recently approved words as it was causing more trouble than benefit. Many of the words shown were not entirely being added, etc. so it was confusing and troublesome. (Also allowed xD smiley in game.)

Bug Fixes: Fixed horses on lease not showing up when looking from the pet's perspective, in addition to a bunch of minor typo's, etc.

We have some other larger additions in the works, but are not yet prepared for them to go live. So, stay tuned for the next update for a super-mega-challenging puzzle game addition and possibly an additional Esroh Quest.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Today's various game updates are detailed below:

New Breed: Australian Brumby added to game!

New Isle: Pitcher Isle has recently been discovered! A new isle in the MarshTon group.

Client Update v1.06:
When HIDE PLAYERS clicked in settings, auto-close settings window, and last 60% longer.
Removed XD, XP Smiley replacement, plain text should be allowed now.
Pressing F6 or clicking anywhere other than on a button will close an object modifier button list.
Auto-Text-Focus on Custom-reply entry when in NPC conversations.
SFX Stopped when beginning zone transitions.

Quests: Couple new Quests.

Bug Fixes:
Arena Awards properly handed out at 100/250 now rather than randomly over a bit. (Fixed again, properly)
Fixed Apostophe's in horse names causing slash problems when horse profile changed.
Many misc bug fixes.

Rule Modifications/Clarity:
Alternative Role-Playing, while not technically against the rules will now have the following limitations, similar in objective to HI1:
No advertising allowed.
Not allowed in any "Public" Chat. (Buddy, Private, or at a Fellow Role-Player Owned Ranch IS allowed)
One of your Role-Playing members must own the Ranch you are on and chatting in.

Any deviations from this will earn violation points (visible on Account web page). Upon reaching a score of 10 violations, account may be banned.

Thanks for understanding. We are trying to strike a balance here between giving people the creative freedom to RolePlay, while respecting the common annoyance it brings to others.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   We haven't had much time to add as much content as we would have liked for this update, as we were busy cleaning up some problems.

New Breed: Finnhorse added to game.

New Plans: Simple Purple Halter and Simple Gray Halter constructing plans added.

Lucky Finds: Added more Indy Hats, Meteorites, Mother Horse Stones and Lost Dutchmen Mines.

Arena Award Handouts: Fixed a bug that made them a little un-reliably handed out. A few who are over the requirement and still have not gotten it, will find it will take a few more completions to get it, but for new completions, it should happen right at 250 arena entries, etc.

Arenas Experience: Group 1 and 2 reduced to payout same as group 3 level for all arenas. Explanation and player account tweaks explained below.

New Quest: Just a single new quest this update. Some mighty quests are still in progress.

Misc Bugs: Many typos and some other minor bugs fixed.

Finally lets make a few things clear:

#1) Never ever ever ever complete a trade that is not complete and fair. Do not trust someone that says the sub token will come in the mail system, come on a fairy later on or *ANYTHING*. Only buy what you see in front of you during a trade. And of course, no one EVER gets away with scamming players, we ALWAYS ban them/track the money, so why bother??

#2) Group I Paybacks was subverting the system and gaining experience that was not fairly earned. We did not know this was going on or we would have acted sooner. As it is, we have decided the only method of limiting this is to change all Group 2 and 1 arenas to pay out the same experience as Group 3. As well as an attempt to "fix" some of the ill-gotten gains, yet keep the system fair we will modify Horse exp as follows: Any horses with over 5000exp will have the additional experience slashed to a tenth. So, a horse with 6000 exp will become 5,100, A horse with 10,000exp will become 5,500. This will bring the stratospheric values down, while at the same time, fairly scaling all so the horses remain in their placements.
We will do the exact same math with player experience, except the threshold will be 10,000exp. So, a player who previously had 20,000 experience will find themselves with 11,000 soon. (10,000 + 1/10 of 10,000)

Please note, we verified all horses affected by this indeed gained a lot of experience through the payback scheme. Our decision to tweak the values as this, may seem unfair, but it's a good balance between A: Doing nothing and B: Resetting all experience.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Here are some changes and additions as of today's update:

New Breed: Holsteiner added.

Forums: Smileys should now work. o.o, XD, etc. I still have plans to remove that smiley from the game replacements, but that is a much bigger job.

Esrohs: Reports of one additional Esroh guardian allowing passage provided you qualify. Lets be clear here, expect this mighty Esroh to not be easy to appease. Good luck!

Quests: 9 additional quests added.

Bug Fixes:
Stopped dismounting lev 4 skittish horses in caves. (only if <4)
Fixed Aphrodite groom bonus doubling when petting (and now allows up to 1000).
Gems spread out a bit in caves.
Fixed rumppets showing under blankets on some breeds.
Normal misc typos, etc.

Good Luck!
-Joe and Miranda

   Change Username Tool: Players may now change their playername using the automatic tool found at bottom of your Account Page. Only one name change allowed per account, so be sure you need to use it and it's perfect. Unlike hi1, non-subs may use this tool as well.

Shop Additions: The following additions are all found at bottom of the SHOP page.

* Referral System: You can now earn HI2 tokens by referring new players who then buy subscriptions. See the page for all the information and proper links to use. Remember, this only earns you anything if a player actually buys subscriptions after signing up using your referral link.

* Gift Payment Link: ONLY use this for people that do NOT play the game, and still would like to buy you a HI2 Token. This allows them to pay into your account directly without logging in to your account. NEVER give this link to a fellow player in the game, you should always make normal in-game trades for tokens.

* Earn-A-Sub Program: We are offering a program for players 10-16yrs old to earn a year sub if they/and their parents cannot otherwise afford to subscribe. They can earn a sub through lots of educational effort. Please see the link at bottom of the SHOP page for further details.

Thanks for your support,
-Joe and Miranda

   Today's additions and bug fixes listed below:

New Breed: Gypsy Vanner

New Quests: Six new quests added

Low Detail Mode: Added swamp/underwater/and all 3 types of NPC low-detail version artwork packs.

18hr timeout tweaks: The max time online system has been made easier to predict with the following changes. Added a 15 minute warning prior to 18hr max online more than offline kickoff. Time remaining prior to kickoff listed under MYSELF when the time online is over 12 hours.

Bug Fixes:
Fixed losing arena entry when you logoff/disconnect before attempting to cancel.
Bee capture game, honeycomb must remain in screen area for more of a challenge.
Fixed some occasional plants from "popping" right back after being picked.
Non subscribers allowed access to Group III races like they were supposed to!
Fixed anatomy minigame from allowing clicks during lesson.
Fixed Cross Country CTRL - obstacle crash bug.

Plus many other typos/minor bugs.

Additional Notes:
We will no longer be accepting subscription move requests from HI1. HI1 and HI2 are completely separate games and systems and will now be treated as such.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Game additions, changes, and bug fixes listed below:

New Breed: Highland Pony added to game!

Adoption Center: Adopt button moved to view page, horses sorted by breed/color name, adoption messages added.

Stuck Rescue: Added a !STUCK player command for emergency use if you find yourself caught between a rock and a hard place.

Art Kit Preview: Added option of previewing your art-kit art on your last-ridden horse prior to sending in for approval.

Arena Fix: If a player disconnects prior to a competition start, but gets back in just in time, their event may still startup. If they get disconnected during the event, but are still due a last-place prize, they should get that.

Minor Changes/Fixes:
Vitamin support fixed so they actually improve horse health.
Some crosswords had missing clues added.
PREV/NEXT buttons hidden on ranch horse stores.
You may not mail someone who is personally muting you.
A couple of minigames moved more accessibly.
A couple additional quests added.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Some additions and fixes today:

Breed: Criollo added to game.

Background Music:
New Auctions BGM Track, builds with a sense of urgency.
Houses now have a unique 5 track happy BGM.
Noticed many minigames were lacking music, set background tracks for many.

Player Commands: New player commands added:
!LIST shows a help screen of commands
!ADD allows you to add a buddy from afar
!SHOWALL allows anyone to !LOOK at your profile for 30 minutes
!QUIZ works as well as !Q so you can tell people to type !Quiz

All player clothing redone: More options, clearer colors, sorted better.

Bug Fixes: Floorswab SFX behaves now. TigerTon Feed store Cheesy Adventure fixed. Fixed PlainTon Inn Crossword Puzzles. Added a gradient to two jigsaw puzzles. Fixed Belgian halter/bridle issue.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   The following game changes take effect this morning:

New Breed: Newfoundland Pony added.

Cave System Discovered!: A new cave system discovered on Alpine Isle. Caution recommended.

Subscriber Stipend: Subscribers get a free $3,000 added to their bank at server - midnight every day subscribed. This is meant to help out new players a bit and add to the value of those selling subs. (Since it's a free $90k with a month sub).

Bank Note: Exchange rate for bank notes raised from $100k to $150k. Still low enough to promote sub selling instead, but raised to follow changing economy slightly.

Club Token Sale: Club tokens reduced in price from $100 to $80. Leaving them high enough to still be rare, but maybe a little more attainable.

Bug Fixes:
Adopting a horse resets its owner-hours and bond properly.
Hephaestus Library book quest fixed for 1/8 of players who may be stuck there.
Players can now get MrBones' key back from him again after completing quest.
Some Logic Dog issues fixed.
Many other misc typos/fixes.

Crafting System Explanation and Balancing:
I would like to take a moment to precisely explain how the crafting system works from a profitability standpoint. For all of the crafting projects profit is aligned to a formula:
Profit after value of all components subtracted = $10 x CraftPlanLevel x EffortRequired

So, this means a level 4 craft will be twice as profitable as a level 2 item.
And a level 5 item is 5 times more profitable than level 1 item.

So, it is true, crafting will not make you a ton of money, but if you stick with it, you will continue to be able to earn more and more. Especially if you add in a certain Esroh Bonus, which can earn you 25-50% more.

Now these formulas do not take into account supply and demand issues. So, if an ingredient is presently hard to obtain, then it may not be worthwhile to craft that particular item. In addition, if many players need certain craftable-only items, you may be able to sell your creations for more than their otherwise retail value. But in general our attempt has been to balance all of the craftables around the single formula listed above. This allows you to be able to craft many different things being all mostly worth your time. To that end, the following many (usually minor, mostly value increasing) tweaks were made this update:

Apple treat and carrot now take 6 (was 2) effort
choco milk 3 (was 1) effort
peanut butter sandwich worth $60 (was $70)
brown sugar takes 2 (was 1) effort
1 sack of oats removed from horse candy recipe, produces 5 (was 4) candies
fried apple rings worth $140 (was $125)
lucky hay value increased by $50
Ranch wheat garden Yield doubled
Flour takes 20 (was 15) effort and gives 10 (was 1) small bags, and takes 4 (was 2) wheat Bunches
ginger snaps worth $25 (was $15)
Chocolate bar makes 5 instead of 2 and takes 11 instead of 15 effort
All Dyes Take 8 instead of 5 effort now and produce 2 jars rather than 1
Green Dye requires 1 seaweed instead if 2
Olive oil requires 6 (was 8) olives and 10 (was 15) effort
Vegetable Oil produces 2 (was 1) jars
Both icings raised $25 in value
Apple/Peach Pies raised $150 in value
Vegetable Broth makes 8 (was 6) Jars
Tomato soup Takes 10 (was 6) effort and makes 2 (was 1) Soups
Pizza effort reduced to 12 (was 15)
Pecan/Key Lime Pies Value raised to $600 (was $500) and effort reduced to 12 (was 15)
Eggplant Parmigiana Value raised $50
Vegetable Salad Value raised $10
Level 3 halters reduced in value $1300 (This was a bad value-bug)
Level 3 boots raised in value $100
Birthday candles make 15 (was 12)
Thread uses 2 (was 1) cotton boll and produces 2 (was 1)
Level 2 ribbon decor raised in value by $25
Level 3 saddle blankets raised in value $125
Level 3 saddle pads raised in value $150
most level 3 Blankets raised in value $300
Level 4 Saddle Blankets raised in value $100
Level 4 Blankets raised in value $200
Beading cord, Effort=8(was 6) takes 2 (was 3 cocoons) Makes 2 (was 1) spool
Metal Wires Effort reduced to 5 (was 8)
Amber necklace value raised $100
Black Fringe value increased $50

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   A Quick update with some Economy tweaks:

Foreign Importer: Raised their import overage cost from 10x to 100x more than base item value, So, Importer is only useful as a severe item drought last resort.

Ranch Stores: Non-subscribers may now buy Horses, Pets, and Items from ranch stores! Maximum daily transfer of money from a non-sub to subs is $50k. So, a non-sub could buy a horse for 30k from one store, a bunch of wool from another, And some rump art, provided it all totals under 50k. At midnight server-time the 50k is reset.

Job Minigame Payouts: Job minigame payout greatly increased.
$250 for Easy
$500 for Medium
$1000 for Hard
$1500 for Master

New Job Minigame: MathMine from HI1 is back, with additional devious questions. It pays out cash now like the other jobs, not rocks, so just be prepared for that.

Minor Bugs: Fixed some typos and other minor bugs.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   Mostly economy balancing tweaks and bug fixes for this update. Detailed below:

Arena Startup Fixed: If a player went and looked at another arena event(group 3) after having entered one(listed race), it would prevent arena startup.

Map All Fixed: When you are within a cave, other players will still be properly shown on your maps.

Minigames Fixed: Cheesy adventure(walking on air) and Retailer Job(work again bug) both fixed.

New content: A couple logic puzzles added, a few quests added.

Crafting:
Seaweed used instead of 4 leaf clovers in green dye now.
Producible item values dropped where the ingredients below changed.

Economy Tweaks: (Most of these are meant to balance island pickables value)
Silk Cocoon: $60 (was $25)
Marshmallow root: $30 (was $15)
Mango/papaya/Grapefruit: $35 (was $20)
Misc Flowers that were worth $250, now most are $80
Misc Flowers that were worth $150, now most are $40
Misc Flowers that were worth $100, now most are $15

Misc Bugs: Many other misc bugs and typos fixed.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Game changes, bug fixes and updates listed below:

Breed: French Trotter added to game!

Painting Minigames: Added additional instructions to some.

Rocky Isle: New expansive cave system discovered in the mountains.

Communication Glitches: Added some auto-detection of comm glitches and auto-reconnection within 60 seconds which should help with many of the comm problems that 10% of you report having occasionally.

Objects not pickable: This is related to the comm bug above, so should be reduced, but also an object will correct itself to the proper state and tell you that upon closer look, there was nothing to pick, when this rare state-problem occurs, making it less confusing.

Minor Bugfixes: 1 one-minute alert will pop up prior to the 20 minute idle disconnect. Affection horse stat properly bounded between 0 and 1000. Removed the {cp:1} in front of npc chat. Lowered maximum payout of treasure chests. Many other misc fixes and additions.

Hope this helps!
-Joe and Miranda

   Performing a quick bug fix this evening to get out an important fix as soon as possible.

Wild Horses: The exact problem was that a wild horse would only ever display in an area once. If you left that area and came back, you would never see it again. We tracked down the problem tonight and fixed it.

Ranch Stores: Also, fixed ranch stores allowing you to buy more than you could carry. Now it blocks purchases over 250 inventory quantity.

Misc: Several other teensy bugs... Like gnat-sized.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   We have made a few minor game changes this morning, detailed below:

Horse Surrender: Warns when you have tack or a companion with the horse.

Buddy Removal: The removed buddy no longer is notified.

Rose buds: Lowered their value from $250 down to $50. (Didn't realize they were worth so much. Should help.)

Underwater Helmets: Fixed to reliably show only where they should.

View profiles from afar: !LOOK and !SHOW player commands added. These allow you to look at another player, or agree to show another player your profile from anywhere in the game. Both players must enter the commands towards each other for it to work, so privacy is still retained. Just easier than traveling across the world to look at a horse for sale, etc.

Max Transfer System: Rump art will have a max buyable per day of $50k when it goes to other players from non-subscribers. This same system may be used to allow non-subscribers to use ranch stores in a future update.

Bug Fixes: Bunch of minor misc bugs fixed.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   The following is a rather large game update. We worked hard on shoring up some of the annoying areas of the game. We hope that the following changes help to make the game experience more enjoyable.

Auction Changes: Two major changes, firstly, upon a bid being placed while less than 1 minute left, the timer is reset to have 1-2 minutes left. This will prevent "sniping". Secondly, a player must bid at least 1% more than the previous bid, to prevent $1 bids. (If an auction is at $10,000 a player must up the bid over $100 more).

Foreign Importer: Hard to obtain items? The Foreign Importer allows a player to buy 20 items per day at a high price (10x with minimum $1000). This will allow non-ranch owning players to buy tomatoes, for example.

Foreign Isles: Have a ranch? Enjoy adventure? Ranch owners may now build an Adventure Kayak which allows exploration of 12 newly discovered Foreign Isles. Foreign Isles do not have any of the special features of proper Horse Isles, but they are heavily covered in resources, and a nice quiet place to escape.

New Breed: New Forest Pony added to Horse Isle 2.

Lack F7?: For those players without a working F7, an Automount button has been added to the SETTINGS menu. Click Settings then Click Automount. The settings box then closes. This reduces to 2 quick clicks from 3-4 clicks of the normal method.

New Club/Artwork: Artwork max slots upped from 6 to 10 for all art kit owners. Also added a new club type, Artists. Members of this club keep double the number of art slots. (20 currently.) Also listed all the possible club types in the BBB.

Bug Fixes:

• Found and fixed an arena startup bug that would prevent your score from being recorded if you had been looking at the map when the event started.


• Fixed a recent bug that prevented some plants from growing further.


• 100k minimum token price set for ranch stores to prevent accidental cheap listing.


• Occasional repeating buddy logout messages squelched.


• Awards now hand out upon reaching the required count, rather than +1.


• Many other minor bug fixes, improvements, typos fixed.

Enjoy!
-Joe and Miranda

   A few minor game updates today:

Awards: Added a couple of garbage collection and a new counter associated. (everyone starts at zero today)

All Players Map: Fixed yesterdays change of the showing all players. all players will just appear in the generic centers of the islands they are on. Their exact positions will not be given. (to speed up the server)

Ranches: Non-subs now properly blocked from buying a ranch. If you bought one, it will not work properly, best bet is to sell it before you possibly lose your investment.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Today marks one week of Legend of the Esrohs being live!

We have made some changes for today's update, detailed below:

Breed: Kathiawari breed added to game!

Help Requests: Reduced to 2 per 10 minutes (from 3), along with added a warning to the form to not abuse system or risk violation points. Also switched to displaying full questions in the list, rather than partials.

Geometry Login Speedup: Sped up the login stage of "Geometry" a lot.

Area Loading Speedup: Transitioning between areas sped up slightly along with reducing the occurrence of wrong-state objects. (Things that look unpicked, but are, etc.)

Rose bushes, etc: Fixed a growing glitch where sometimes things would pop right back to fully grown, etc.

Map All Players: Reduced to just show players on which island they are on, it is no longer accurate for exact positions. This was needed as it was taxing the server, and this should be more helpful than removing it altogether.

Minor Tweaks: Barrel Race timeout upped to 180 from 120 sec. Cutting arena titled as such. Lots of typos fixed. Stat Calc rounds off properly now. Removed blank line from some Horse profiles.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Brief description of minor game fixes/changes:

Low art Detail: Building indoor Low-detail art pack added. So that less loading and faster speeds indoors for those with slower computers and the low-art-detail option selected.

Piano Minigame: Fixed so that it will not start playing with accidental clicks.

Jungle Adventure Gear: Fixed so that it will not "show" after it is grabbed on low-art-detail.

Reset Rubies: Added support for Gift of a Ruby on future Server resets.

Devel Server: Finished getting a Development server up and running so that we may begin working on additional HI2 Content.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Welcome to Horse Isle: Legend of the Esrohs LIVE GAME!

We have made a few minor changes and bug fixes with this mornings reset:

Help Topics: Renamed it from Knowledge base which was a more confusing name.

Alternative Payments: Added support for check/cash/money order payments to bottom of SHOP page.

Stuck Bug: Fixed an occasional bug where a player would appear to not move while actually moving, and your tool uses would go back to the "stuck spot".

Typos: Bunch of typos and other minor bugs fixed.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Just a brief note about a few minor changes:

One Month Subs: While we do not recommend it, we added a $6 for one token to the Shop. It is recommended that you get a $10 2 pack, and use both (Then you do not have to sub again for 2 months, working out to $5/mo) Or you can sell one to your buds. There were many requests for the single tokens, But the fee's are too high for small purchases. So, this way, the player may decide for themselves which is the better deal.

The Game Forum added: Just added another forum category so that it's in line with HI1's forum organization.

Cheap Tack Moved: Plainton's cheap tack set moved to TigerTon. So you may find the cheapest tack in the game at GlacierTon,TigerTon or DryTon.

Thanks!
-Joe and Miranda

   Welcome to Horse Isle: Legend of the Esrohs LIVE GAME! Finally!

We have been online for over 48 hours now. Here are a few minor changes:

Beauty Arena: Fixed a rare locked-spinner problem.

Missing Players: Improved resilience of the occasional "missing player" on your screen. They may be often times show up within a minute of being "lost".

Reduced Growth Times: Many plants/trees have had their grow times halved. (More ripe for the picking)

Injury Odds Reduced: For players with few horses, The odds of an injury greatly reduced. If you only have one horse, It is hugely unlikely of it getting an injury.

Thanks to everyone!
-Joe and Miranda

   Welcome to Horse Isle: Legend of the Esrohs LIVE GAME! Finally!

We have been online for almost 24 hours now. Here are a few minor changes.

Bank Notes: We are now offering Bank Note Tokens in the Token Shop. This allows you to buy game money with real money. The current exchange rate is $11usd = $100,000hi2.

HI1 Subs: At this time, we will move entire (no partials) subscriptions from Horse Isle 1 if there are at least 240 days left. If you want your subscription moved, you must click HELP on the HI2 website and enter a Support Issue titled: "Please move HI1 Sub". Your HI2 account must be the same username and password as your HI1 account, or you must include total proof of your HI1 account by providing HI1 username, email address used to create the account, and either HI1 password or security answer off HI1. (This may take us up to 24 hours to get to).

Disclaimer: We have tried our best and worked very hard to try and get all the bugs fixed. However, there still may be some "Bumps" in the road. Some of the game's support features are still in development. Please be patient with us while we try to get everything running smoothly. And PLEASE enter a Support Issue immediately if any serious bugs are found, as any abusing bugs for personal gain IS cheating and an instant ban. Plus you will be helping to make the game fair for all!

Thanks to everyone who helped HI2 make it here!
-Joe and Miranda

   Welcome to Horse Isle: Legend of the Esrohs LIVE GAME! Finally!

We have worked long and hard and had the help of many great game testers to get this live.

HI1 SUBS: At this time, we will move subscriptions from Horse Isle 1 if there are at least 330 days left. However, realize it is all or nothing. If you want your subscription moved, the entire thing moves and you lose any subscription on HI1.

If you want your subscription moved, you must click HELP on the website and enter a Support Issue titled: "Please move HI1 Sub". Your HI2 account must be the same username and password as your HI1 account, or you must include total proof of your HI1 account by providing HI1 username, email address used to create the account, and either HI1 password or security answer off HI1. (This may take us up to 24 hours to get to).

Disclaimer: We have tried our best and worked very hard to try and get all the bugs fixed. However, there still may be some "Bumps" in the road. Some of the game's support features are still in development. Please be patient with us while we try to get everything running smoothly. And PLEASE enter a Support Issue immediately if any serious bugs are found, as any abusing bugs for personal gain IS cheating and an instant ban. Plus you will be helping to make the game fair for all!

Moderators: We may be selecting a few temporary moderators for HI2 to help transition us to a new Helper based system. We hope to fully transition to a new Helper based system in the future, so do not take these assignments personally.

Thanks to everyone who helped HI2 make it here!
-Joe and Miranda