Horse World Online is excited to announce a significant update to its horse artwork and genetics system. This comprehensive overhaul introduces new artwork for all horses, expands the variety of coat colors and patterns, and enhances the realism of horse genetics. The Adoption Centre has been restocked with nearly 3000 new horses, featuring the updated artwork, ensuring a fresh experience for all players.
This extensive artwork update, which began over a year ago, represents a major milestone for the game. Every facet of the horse artwork has been meticulously revised, including the rendering engine responsible for displaying coat colors.
Updates and Refinements in Progress
While the core update is live, a few aspects are still undergoing final adjustments. These include minor modifications to the base model and mesh, identified during late-stage testing. Specifically, the throatlatch area on heavier horse types, the angle of head-to-neck attachment, foal and yearling tail positioning, and the belly area on pregnant mares are being refined. The positioning of saddles may also be reviewed in the coming week.
Furthermore, the planned expansion of facial and leg white markings is still in development. While the art for facial markings is mostly complete and requires revisions for better contouring, leg markings have yet to be started. These features are a priority and will be integrated into the game as soon as possible.
Enhanced Color Genetics System
A key feature of this update is the introduction of over 20 new genes influencing coat colors, significantly increasing the diversity and complexity of horse appearances.
Coat Color Variations
- Color Shades: “Red” and “Black” coat shades are now distinct genes, allowing for the combination of the lightest red and darkest black shades within a single coat.
- Red Modifier Gene: This gene now affects all coats, regardless of mealy effects. It slightly desaturates the coat and shifts the hue towards yellow.
- Dun and Silver Tint Modifiers: New shade modifiers for Dun and Silver flaxen/mealy allow for tinting dun effects from white to yellow, and silver dapples from white to cream.
New Dapple Patterns
- Sooty Dapples: These can now appear in a small, condensed form, in addition to the previously available larger dapples.
- Silver Dapples: Now available in both larger and smaller sizes and can appear in various areas of the coat rather than covering it entirely.
- Mealy Dapples: New mealy dapples can appear along the edges of mealy effects, available in both sizes.
- Roan Dapples: These have been added but can only be unlocked through specific crossbreeding combinations.
Silver and Suppression Gene Modifications
- Silver Modifications: The silver gene has been updated to allow for a variety of expressions in silver-black coats. A new gene modifies the rate at which silver coats fade, adding individual variability.
- Suppression Genes: Two new genes can suppress sooty and flaxen effects, with suppression potentially limited to the body, mane, tail, or any combination thereof.
Additional Coat and Marking Features
- Mealy in Tails: A visual effect resembling mealy extending into the tail edges has been implemented, genetically linked to mealy but visually distinct.
- Fading Black Coats: Black coats can now fade to mimic sun-faded appearances, with variations in fading patterns.
- Dun and Non-dun1: Non-dun1 has been added, potentially causing coat fading and primitive markings. Dun now features a new primitive marking that softens the edges of the dorsal stripe.
- Mane Frosting: The chance for mane frosting has been introduced, with dun coats showing the strongest display, and buckskin coats also capable of frosting.
- Coat Thickness on Muzzle: Coat thickness around the muzzle now varies by breed, with desert breeds having thinner coats and heavier breeds having thicker coats.
- Tiger Eye Gene: A second tiger eye gene allows for blue eyes on single-cream coats like Palominos, requiring careful observation of other traits to distinguish from cremello.
- Grey Transition Effects: Eleven greying genes have been modified to extend the duration of grey transition effects in coats.
New Hair Genes and Renderer Status
Six new genes have been added, focusing on mane, tail, and feather growth. These genes adjust growth rates, with two specifically related to tail style and length. Manes and tails can now grow independently in length and thickness.
The rendering system is currently experiencing a backlog of 10 to 25 minutes due to the high volume of players accessing the updated horses. This may result in placeholder images appearing until a horse’s coat is fully rendered, especially during breeding or at certain age stages. The development team is monitoring the situation closely and plans to expand server capacity if necessary.
In addition to artwork and genetic updates, six new conformation shapes have been added, further enhancing the diversity of horse appearances.
