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Equintium Turns 5 on April 22nd! Friday July 30th, 2010 10:27 pm  |
Frequently Asked Questions I. GENERAL GAME QUESTIONS Do I have to pay real money to play EI? What is the difference between player points and user points? What are egg points? How do I make money? How do I become a moderator? What do "TC" and "SC" mean? How do I upgrade my account? II. HORSES How do I get a horse? How often do horses age? How old does my horse need to be in order to show? What is the difference between the two stat levels on my horse's stat page? What are brands? How do I find a farrier, vet, trainer or boarding stable for my horse? I just bred my mare. How long do I have to wait before I can breed her again? Can I have an animal that isn't a horse on EI? III. SHOWING How do I create shows? How many shows can I make? What is the difference between Arena, Private, and Equustium shows? How do I know what level to make my classes? How do I enter shows? What are Special Shows and how do I enter them? What are Club Shows? What time do shows run? IV. ITEMS What are items and what do they do? How do I buy items? How do I know what stat the items will increase? How do I use the items? Why can't I access the Rare Item shop? What are Rare Items? Do I have to put tack on my horse? The shops don't have the items I need. How do I find them? V. GENETICS What are genetics? What is gene strength? Do all horses have genetics? Can my horse's genetics be improved? What is the difference between gene strenght and my horse's traits? How do I get a higher gene strength? How do I clasify my horse for breeding? What happens when my horse becomes a "breeding" horse? How many points and stats do breeding horses get? What are breeding points and sales on my stable page? Why do I have to wait until my horse turns 5 to breed it? I. GENERAL GAME QUESTIONS Do I have to pay real money to play EI? No, anyone can play the game for free. However, you have the option to upgrade your account to Titanium status and that does cost real money. Titanium players recieve some benefits that basic players don't have. What is the difference between player points and user points? You recieve player points when you enter your horses in shows. Titanium players can trade player points for user points, which can in turn be traded in for other things. What are egg points? Moderators award egg points to EI's friendly, helpful, law-abiding citizens. You can earn egg points by doing good deeds or just following the game rules. Do not ask for egg points or bribe other players into hinting to moderators that you deserve them, as you will most likely have one taken away from you (yes, it is possible to have negative egg points). Just be patient, and a moderator is bound to notice your good behavior sooner or later. How do I make money? You can also make money from the entry fees you set on your own shows, and your horse will earn winnings from the shows you enter it in. You can sell unwanted items in your personal shop. If you have left over classes in your shows, you could sell them. Finally, if you have a talent for photo manipulation or working with HTML codes, you should consider offering these services to other players, as many players will pay a decent amount of money for quality work. How do I become a moderator? Occasionally, the Grand Council decides to elect a new moderator, in which case the current members of the Council will either A) choose and elect an active player who they feel will be good moderator, or B) have an open application process that will be announced on the News page. In the second case, most players will be eligible to apply for an open moderator position and the Council will choose the applicant who they feel will best fill the position. What do "TC" and "SC" mean? Good question! You may see “TC?” in other players’ names and this, quite simply, means “trade classes.” In order to do this, you may send the player a message, and in it, state which classes you need for your horse, and how many you can trade that day. In other words, if you are a basic and have one account, you can trade 10 classes of any discipline a day, and end up with 50 classes for your horse if you trade them out. If the player you ask has your classes available, you simply make the classes they ask for, and they will make yours in return, and everyone’s happy. “SCing” is selling classes, and you just message the person asking how many classes of your discipline they can make for you, and how much money their classes will cost you. I would advise reading the person’s page first for details, because most of the time, they will have information including prices somewhere on their page. Unfortunately, this can get expensive, so if you think you may need the money for other things, stick to trading. For more information about shows, see the following section. How do I upgrade my account? All of your questions about upgrading can be answered here. II. HORSES How do I get a horse? You can buy a new horse that is 3 years old and starts with 0 points from the game store by clicking the Horses link and then clicking Buy a Horse From the Store. You can also search for horses that other players are offering for sale. How often do horses age? Horses age once a week on the day that they were born or created. For example, if you buy your horses on a Tuesday, it will age every Tuesday. How old does my horse need to be in order to show? Horses must be 3 to start showing and automatically "retire" after the age of 21. What is the difference between the two stat levels on my horse's stat page? The higher number shows your horse's total combined stats, while the smaller number shows your horse's total discipline stats. Each discipline has three stats that contribute to it. For example, if your horse specializes in endurance, its primary stats will be speed, stamina and strength. What are brands? Brands are little marks that go beside your horse's breed to let other players know where the horse originated. It will provide a link back to your stable. Choose your brand carefully, as you cannot change or remove a brand once it has been put on a horse. How do I find a farrier, vet, trainer or boarding stable for my horse? Go to The Center --> Player Resources. I just bred my mare. How long do I have to wait before I can breed her again? You must wait at least 14 days between breedings. Can I have an animal that isn't a horse on EI? No. There are other animals on EI which are created by Atomic for himself and others who help out on the game. You will never get an animal if you ask for it. III. SHOWING How do I create shows? On the showing page, there is a link that says "Start a Show", click that and create a show. Go back to your page, and click on the show to add classes. How many shows can I make? Basic players can make up to 2 shows each day. A Titanium player can make 5 shows each day, unless the player chooses the job of Show Manager, meaning that they can make 2 extra shows daily, called Equustium shows. What is the difference between Arena, Private, and Equustium shows? Arena shows can be created and entered by everyone, and private shows can only be created and entered by Titaniums. Both Arena and Private shows can have a maximum of 50 classes each. Equustium shows can only be created by Titaniums, but can be entered by anyone. Equustium shows can have a maximum of 100 classes each and also award more points than Arena and Private shows. How do I know what level to make my classes? Go to your horse’s page, click on the Stat Points link, and find the number of stats for the specialty, not total stats. For example, if your horse has 1000 stats in western, you would make sea horse level western classes. How do I enter shows? First make sure your horse has seen the vet and farrier for the week, and is 3 years old or older, but not older than 21. After you know how many stats your horse has in its specialty, you go back to the showing page, and search for classes with the discipline and stats your horse has. A page will come up with a list of shows. Click on a show, scroll to where your specialty is, and click on it. From there, you will see your horse on the column on the left. Click the enter button when your horses name is on the drop down menu. Then go to the next class. Repeat this process until you enter as many classes as you want. What are Special Shows and how do I enter them? Every now and then Equintium holds Special Shows. They will have stat, breed, and discipline requirements, along with age requirements. To find the Special Shows, go to The Center --> Special Shows. There you will find a list of all available special shows. Keep in mind, because of the higher payouts and higher points awarded, the entry fees can be quite expensive. What are Club Shows? You can find the club shows the same way you get to the special shows. The club shows are listed on the left side of the page. They also have higher entry fees, but not as high as the special shows, and they award points as well as money. They also have stat, breed, and specialty requirements. What time do shows run? Shows begin running at 3am Equintium time. It takes a little while (more than 5 seconds, less than 90 minutes) for the shows to run completely. During this time, the game may run slower than normal. IV. ITEMS What are items and what do they do? Items are things such as saddles, bridles, brushes, et cetera that can increase the stats for your horse. Different items have different values and help to increase different stats. How do I buy items? In order to buy items, you must go to the Shops. To get to the shops, you can go to The Center --> Shops, or you can click the Shop icon on your homepage. On the Shops page, you will find shops for Feed, Health, Training, Equipment, Collectables, and Rare Items. Click on the shop you want, and there will be items in the shop for sale. Prices are listed under the item picture and description, as well as how many of said item are in stock. To purchase the item, simply click on it and it will be added to your inventory. How do I know what stat the items will increase? You won't until you buy the item. It adds an element of surprise. Once you get the hang of the items, you usually know which items increase which stats. Once you purchase the item you want, click on the inventory link from your home page. Scroll down and click on the item. On the item’s page, it will tell you how many stats you will receive, the type of item it is, the strength (how much it will raise or lower the type of item), it's rarity, and if you have used the item already. It will also give you a drop down menu with a list of your horses to use the item on. You can also sell the item in your shop. Just click the button that says "Put in your Shop.” Then, click on the Your Shop button and set the price for the item as you see fit. Why can't I access the Rare Item shop? This is a perk of being a Titanium; only Titaniums can access the Rare Items shop. What are Rare Items? Rare items can either be purchased by Titaniums, or given by the trainer. They generally give higher stats than regular items. Do I have to put tack on my horse? You don't have to put tack on your horse if you choose not to. The stats your horse receives from equipment are given to the horse just like any other item, and they do not aid in upping your stats everyday, so adding tack does not give you any more of an advantage than the other items do. You want to put the right equipment on your horse though. For instance, if you have a dressage horse, do not put a western bridle, racing saddle, and family horse bit on it. The shops don't have the items I need. How do I find them? From the Shops page, there is a link that says Search Shops. You can type in the item you are looking for in the box, and click Search! The search engine will bring up a list of shops that sell the item you are looking for, and for what price they are selling the item. You will note that prices are listed from cheapest to most expensive. Make sure you type the item name exactly how it is spelled or it could bring up a completely different item. Once you decide on the shop you want to buy it from, click on the shop name. V. GENETICS What are genetics? Genetics are traits that all horses on Equintium have. There are five categories directly effected by genetics: Gene Strength, Movement, Build, Natural Health, and Character. Together, these all help to determine the traits, stat points and show points from the stallion and mare that will be passed on to the foal. The higher your breeding traits are, the better chances you'll have of more valuable foals. Players can decide how much of a role they want genetics to play on their game by being able to classify each horse they own for showing purposes (in which case you play EI the normal way) or breeding purposes (which adjust certain aspects of the game). What is gene strength? Gene Strength represents the quality of the horse for breeding purposes. The higher the gene strength, the better. Showing Horses and Breeding Horses have different values that designate them for each category. Showing horses almost never have a gene strenght greater than .55 (55%) while breeding horses almost always have a gene strength greater than .55. Horses cannot have a gene strength greater than .99. There are very few opportunities to change a horse's gene strength. You may find yourself in a lucky place on EI where you'll be able to make a slight change to your horse's gene strength, or your horse's gene strength will change when you classify the horse for breeding purposes. Do all horses have genetics? Yes. All who are 20 years old or younger as of June 5, 2008, have been given breeding traits. It is up to the owner of the horse to decide how big of a role genetics are in their playing experience: horses can be classified for Showing, which allows you to play EI the "old" way, or classify your horse for Breeding, which limits the number of classes a horse can enter, but provides much higher payouts in reproduction. Can my horse's genetics be improved? Very slightly. The goal of genetic is to get higher traits via breeding, not through paying for them in a game currency. If you decide to make your horse a breeding horse, that horse's gene strenght will increase into the breeding window (.55 to .85) and you may get a small boost in the four traits. The size of the boost (or even decline) is dependent on the quality of the stable owner who classifies your horse. Stable owners with more breeding points can potentially give more stats (randomly) when they classify horses. At birth (or purchase from the store), there is little difference between these two values. Gene strength is deteremined by dividing the total value of the horse's four breeding traits (Movement, Build, Natural Health, Character) by 80 (the highest total value of all traits together). From this caluclation (net total/80), there is an element of secrecy and randomness that goes into completing the formula to determine gene strength. How do I get a higher gene strength or traits? There are very few opportunities to change a horse's gene strength or breeding traits. Instead, you should try to breed with better-statted horses to get improvements in the next generation of horses. There are a few ways your horse's breeding stats can be improved. Taking your horse to the Breeding Center to have a stable owner convert the horse to Breeding is one way, where your horse's gene strenght will be increased to have a gene strength somewhere in between .55 and .85. If the stable owner has a lot of breeding points, they may also be able to randomly increase a few of your horse's breeding traits too. How do I clasify my horse for breeding? To classify your horse for breeding, go to the Breeding Center (in the Center) and then follow the instructions on the page. What happens when my horse becomes a "breeding" horse? When you make your horse a breeding horse, the horse's gene strength will increase to a value between .55 and .85. You will not be able to enter more than 750 classes per night, but you will receive additional perks in gaining show points. The biggest chance that will happen is that your horse will pass on considerably higher stat points, show points, and breeding traits to that horse's foals. How many points and stats do foals get now? The number of points, stats, and breeding traits given from parents to foal is dependent firstly on the classification of the parents. Breeding Stallion x Breeding Mare will yield the best results. If one parent is a breeding horse and the other is a showing horse, this will still yield good results, but not as good as having a unified breeding. If both horses are showing horses they will receive the lowest output of the three options. The actual calculations for determining these numbers will not be released at this time. One could figure it out though (so long as they account for the natural randomness that occurs in breeding). What are breeding points and sales on my stable page? Breeding points track the number of horses bred at your stable and the value of those foals. You get one point for foals with a gene strength <.55, 2 points for a gene strength between .55 and .90, and 3 points for a gene stength greater than .90. Sales are the calculation of all sales done by that stable. Their usefullness will come up later. Why do I have to wait until my horse turns 5 to breed it? Owners must choose whether or not their horse will be classified as Breeding or Showing before the horse turns 5 year old. Once horses are classified for either Breeding or Showing, they have a different set of restrictions that effect their competing and showing later in life. By waiting until the classification is locked (to either Showing or Breeding), consistency is ensured across the game for both types of horses. This also gives breeding horses two weeks to train as normal horses before the owner makes the choice to make them breeding horses, and prevents foals of horses from having a disadvantage of points, stats, traits, and other things. |
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