HGG Community Forums

On Aug 29th (the end of this breeding season.) I will making it so you can no longer hold more then 10 million hbs at one time (actually 9,999,999).

Who will this change affect?
The vast majority of our players will never see this 10 mill cap, but a small percentage of our users already have more then that. Some much more. This change will directly affect .74% of our players. And it is a big change so I will do my best to explain why this change is happening and what is being done to make the transition as fair as possible.

Why is this change happening?
In the past we had a show system where you spent money on entries to win money in payouts. This was a very stable way to run a game economy because the ratio of money in to money out was very controllable. It was great for me. It was however VERY difficult to learn how to master. Our new show system is much easier and better for our members but worse for me. Once a horse earns a point that point will pay out for the rest of it's life with no extra effort or expense. This is like printing money and printing money always leads to inflation.

Why is inflation bad?
With inflation the value of each bit of currency (in this case the hb) become less and less as time passes. In games similar to ours, it is common to see newly created horses being worth nothing. They can hardly be given away. While super horses will be so valuable that only the ultra elite can afford them. Often with almost no in between. Games with economies like this are unstable, unfun, and unfair.

How do I know this change needs to happen now?
Since the day the game was created I have been keeping a close tab on our economy for signs of inflation issues. Over the years I have implemented changes such as money bleeds like damages, and money sinks like more expensive breeding options and buying things with ivs. These things work for small adjustments but the new showing system has surpassed what small adjustments can account for. Watching the sales lists and breeding list is showing a growing trend in all or nothing values, and the numbers of users with massive cash reserves is becoming too large. The time to act is now before it becomes a problem and hurts the playability of the game.

Is this change unexpected?
No. From the day our current showing system was put into place I knew it would in time cause inflation. A check on how much you could earn from showing was ALWAYS coming, I just did not know what form it would take until now.

What other options is there?
There are several ways I can limit the inflation. I could return the game to a money out money in system like the old showing which would get rid of showing bonuses. To me this is the WORST idea. I could reduce the amount of money you could earn by having a hard (max amount) limit on the showing bonus or a soft (diminishing with scale) limit that reduced the amount you could earn as you bonus got bigger. This would work but I think it punishes players for investing lots of time and money in the game. I don't believe in punishing my most engaged players. I could put in a mandatory bleed. This would be things like a fee for having a big stable or a charge for having to much cash. I personally think that is confusing and again punishes people for playing the game well.

Why is this the best option?
Of all the options available to me this is the only one that does not punish people for playing the game well or limit the amount of money they can earn. It only limits how much they can sit on. A user could theoretically have a bonus of 70 million hbs per week (because of a switch to daily payout see below), spend all their hbs every day on game play and/or IVs. They would need to own about a quarter of a million horses for that to happen. I don't think anyone is going to hit that cap. It's large amounts of stagnant money that cause problems with game economies and unbalance them. As long as cash is moving we won't end up with the poor and the ultra rich. A 10 mill cap forces players to move that money or they lose out on bonus.

With this system there is no limit to how high players can get their bonus. The only limit is on how much you can horde. A player who spends their money regularly will not be affected, only those who are earning more then they can spend. The cap strongly incentivizes spending and converting to IVs. That gives ME more reason to give you fun things to spend those IVs on.

What will happen if I ALREADY have more then 10 mill hbs?
If you already have more then 10 million hbs you should start converting your extra cash into IVs, until you are under 10 mill. All super funzy stuff to buy from the game will happen in IVs not hbs so there is no reason to hold it as cash.

What if someone does not see this/convert to ivs in time?
I willing be adding an alert to the game that will tell a player they have more then 10 mill that will link them to this post. There will be about 5 and a half weeks for people to convert their cash to IVs. After the 29th I will convert all the extra cash held by players above 10 mill into ivs and then bring them under 10 mill myself. No hbs will be deleted, I will make sure they get converted so no one loses their savings.

What will I be able to do with those IVs?
In September we are going to have a week long festival of crazy things to spend those IVs on. Including pastures for that week only, and a special fantasy gene for that week only. I have a few ideas in mind and will be looking for more ideas too. Long term I also will be adding in many "status" items to purchase to burn IVs on like metallic body paint for your horses and other fun items.

What happens if I earn more then 10 mill hbs?
Any income earned that goes over 9,999,999 from any source (sales, breeding, showing etc) will simply vanish from the game. It is the players responsibility to keep an eye on their income. If anyone is earning money so fast that they can not keep up with all the millions of dollars they are raking in the problem would be how much they are making not this new system.

Can extra income be auto converted into IVs?
No, cash moves around in hundreds of places in the code. Trying to do that would be a nightmare, prone to all sorts of bugs. Again if you are making money so fast you can't notice earning 10 million I need to tone down how much you make.


I ran out of room on this post. More to follow!