Game updates/2022-02-01
Upcoming Update News: Feb 1, 2022
The next update is in final QA testing and we expect it to arrive tomorrow (Wednesday), possibly being pushed to Thursday if there's a late problem. Here's some info about the update.
If you have a backer-package that includes a horse+riding skill+saddlebag, you'll be able to redeem that benefit in the next update.
If you don't have a backer-package, you'll be able to buy a horse in-game in the next update. The trainer is in Eltibule and it costs 6000 councils to get your first horse, so if you need to save up, start now! (Alternatively, you can save 3000 councils by doing a dangerous favor for an NPC.)
All horses in the next update are of the "Proto Mount" variety. These are svelte all-white horses, a little on the easily-spooked side, but pretty fast. When horse-genetics are added, these horses will receive arbitrary genes, which may affect their appearance and behavior to some extent.
Players in an animal form can't ride horses in the next update. However, they can access the saddlebag even when not on the mount, so there's still some benefit. (Animal forms will eventually have a travel mode, but we haven't decided how it will work yet.)
To help us test the mount system, all players will receive a bundle of basic horse tack. There's also a new crafting skill to make higher-quality tack.
For those wondering, the new crafting skill lets you create saddlebags that are superior to the ones that come with the backer-package (at high level). But it's a great starter saddlebag.
The horse-related backer packages will be retired in a few months. We'll keep selling these until we're ready to sell some new packages with different features in them. (We're still discussing what those features would be. Maybe an "Orc Pack".)
Addendum: if you have the "Thoroughbred Breeder" package which comes with two "high genetic-quality" horses, that redemption is NOT in the next update. We'll add that when horse genetics are done. You can safely redeem the horse tomorrow, and you'll still get the two "high-quality genetics" horses later. So basically you get a free bonus horse.
