Wednesday, August 30, 2017

We've got to stop meeting like this...

Ever since Bethany's birthday, we've been hanging out on the Marshy Isles. To tell you the truth, we haven't done much on HI2 lately besides occasionally using the flute - it's been extra busy around here. Things should be calming down some now, though. *Sighs.* It's always a bummer when summer comes to an end.

Yesterday, Orion and I visited Gas Isle to use the flute. On our quick sweep of the island for wilds, we came across this:

A perlino Florida Cracker, the breed and color of Bethany's dream horse! We all kept our fingers crossed that it would be a mare with good stats!






Well,




we




were....







thwarted on both counts.

It turned out to be a +2/6 stallion whose stats add up to a mere +5. Oh, HI2, why do you taunt us so?

I figured I'd let somebody else use the flute after that because I was feeling unlucky. Julie and Xia took over and fluted this:

We knew that avatar instantly: grey Camargue. (Of course we would. For anyone who doesn't already know, we have two of them in our herd already. Long story.)

Julie switched to Mistral, the first of our two +6/6 Camargue stallions, for one more screenshot. Yep, they have identical avatars, of course.

Would this be +6/6 grey Camargue stallion #3? 







It would




just figure, 




wouldn't it?









Almost! Just one strength stat point shy.


And now let's compare him to the other Camargues, Mistral and Murphy.



Mistral: 
  • is the tallest at 13.3 hands
  • has lighter/shinier hooves than the others
  • lacks his supposedly "bald face." 
  • has a stat total of +67
  • is as intelligent as Camargues come


Murphy:

  • is the shortest at 13.0 hands
  • has a smattering of dark specks on his coat
  • has a stat total of +71
  • is the most naturally agile of the three



Here's the new guy again. He:

  • is 13.2 hands, an inch shorter than Mistral and two inches taller than Murphy
  • has a stripe that shows up. Yay! 
  • has a stat total of +76 (the same as Cheeto's. What a coincidence!)
  • is as fast as Camargues come. (Well, he will be once trained.)

It doesn't seem fair to pass this horse up when his stat total is higher than both of the 6/6ers. Likewise, it doesn't seem fair to pass Cheeto up when his stat total is the same as the Camargue's. Great. Just great. Thanks a lot, Gas Isle. XD

Sunday, August 13, 2017

New Sub: +5/6 Mare Approved

PepsiSummer is back in the saddle again on HI2. (Actually, she usually rides bareback, but you know what I mean!) Good thing too, because it was my birthday this past Tuesday! 

We've already come across some noteworthy horses since we activated our new sub token last Saturday.

Our first flute with the new sub was this philosophical Lipizzan mare. I couldn't find her capture screenshot even though I'm almost positive we took one, but her avatar is what you'd expect, white. Here she is up close:

Mom really likes Lipizzans in real life, and while I'm not a huge fan of their HI2 artwork, I agree that it's a really cool breed. Those stats may look promising at first glance, but sadly they only add up to +40. No pretty white Lipizzan mare for us. We named and surrendered her, as is becoming our custom with "nice but not quite nice enough to earn a spot in our herd" horses.


On the day before my birthday, Lily fluted this beautiful Grade Saddle Horse mare:

Too bad this horse didn't come a day earlier! I'd have had the "prettiest birthday flute" prize in the bag for sure! If her personality had had a more interesting label, we'd have wanted to keep her for our Millennium Fields. 

On my birthday itself, Edoras and I made our way out to Gas Isle to use the flute. Because come on, how fun would it be to have a 6/6 birthday flute from Gas Isle? And of course I wanted to be on marshy terrain, just in case my dream Florida Cracker happened to show up.

Nope. Instead we got this pony:

Another mare with 5/6 positive stats! This one's only add up to an unimpressive +38, though, so I can kiss the "highest stat birthday flute" prize goodbye. At least her body is brown like the horse on the calendar page...
... and they both have some white feet. The similarities pretty much end there. XD

On Thursday, the +5/6 stat mare trend continued. Julie and Fanta fluted another nice bay pony.

This one's stats added up to +68, the highest we've seen so far with the new sub. We named and surrendered her, so I hope somebody found her and took her home!


And finally, here is +5/6 wild mare number 4, Felicity and Caraway's flute from yesterday:

Wow, even the brown ones are stunning! Her stats only add up to +48, though, so she is bound for the livery too. 

In addition to all these tempting 5/6ers (and that beautiful 4/6 GSH), I also noticed a very tempting horse for sale at a ranch store this week. She's still there now. *Sighs*

If she was light gray or perlino, I'd have overlooked her <80 stat total and insisted on dishing out the big bucks to take her home. She's so close to being my dream horse, and she is totally pale enough to be a Coquina! *Sighs again* I will resist, though, as hard as it is. *Goes to stroke Edoras's long, wavy mane.*

In other news, 
is still hanging around. I'm beginning to think he isn't going to leave... but I guess we'll have to wait and see if we can convince Lily of this...

We've also finally named the two back-to-back 6/6ers.

Meet Lucchese, named after Lucchese boots. He's from Boot Isle, after all.

The Gypsy Vanner was way more difficult to name for some reason. In the end, Julie decided to go with Araceli (pronouced "Are-uh-SAY-lee"), a Spanish name that has a pleasing ring to it but also seems to fit a proud horse who thinks she knows everything. We'll probably call her Celi for short. 

It's so good to finally have them named! No more staring at two "6/6 Wild Horse"s at the bottom of our horse list!

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Just Looking

Our yearly subscription to HI2 expired a few Thursdays ago, the 20th of July. I kept us playing up until about 20 minutes before it expired, so at least we ended it strong!

My sisters were ready to ask Mom to buy another subscription token already the next day, on Friday night, but I convinced them to be more practical about it. In just a few days, the humans were leaving for a week of vacation. My sisters and I were going to be camping in the backyard (weather permitting) and enjoying the Nala-free house while they were away. Since we wouldn't have much time for HI2 that week, it seemed like a waste to start a new subscription. At my urging, we decided to wait until afterwards so that we could get maximum enjoyment from it. 

Obviously, without access to our ranch, we were so over our horse slot limit it was ridiculous. ("You have the following horses (123 of 7 max):") We were stuck on foot, hence we didn't even leave the Narrowton library when we visited the game on Saturday.

Of our current 122 horses, (the 123rd is that Franches Montagne who is not staying), we have 79 HI2 breeds represented!

Since we were in the library anyway, my sisters and I looked through the BBB at the breeds of horses that aren't already represented in PepsiSummer's herd. I seriously doubt we will ever have a horse of every single breed on HI2, especially since we have allowed ourselves to have so many duplicates of breeds. (Our biggest weakness seems to be the American Paint Horse... we have 5 of them!) As you probably know already, we tend to add horses to the herd based on stats, not on breed. Still, just for the fun of it, we each selected 4 breeds we're missing that we especially like (no repeats allowed).

Bethany's picks:

The Alter Real
a dapple gray
There are usually a few Alter Reals near the top of the list in the livery, but we've never seen a high stat one there. I've always really liked their profile artwork. So classy!

The Estonian Native Horse
a chocolate sorrel
I wouldn't call the artwork of these horses very flashy, but I think they have a quiet, subtle beauty that makes them hard to resist. They come in a ton of fun colors, like this chocolate sorrel.

The Haflinger
a flaxen sorrel
These flaxen chestnut horses are stunning both in real life and on the game. A riding ranch in our area used to have a couple of real Haflingers, so it would be fitting to have one in our herd.

The Rocky Mountain Horse
a black silver dapple
High-stat RMH's seem pretty hard to come by on HI2. I think this is a shame, because this is such a cool breed, and HI2's RMHs seem so steady and alert. Something else cool about them is that both mares and stallions have manes lying on the right sides of their necks, going against HI2's usual "left side for stallions; right side for mares" pattern. I'd especially love to have a silver dapple RHM in the herd, since this is how I picture them in my head.

Felicity's picks:

The Argentine Polo Pony
a dun roan overo
a bay manchado
I love these sporty-looking "ponies." In addition to lots of cool solid colors, they also come in pinto patterns and even the rare manchado pattern.

The Norman Cob
a dapple rose gray
I soooo want a big, clunky Norm someday! <3 Thank goodness that all of HI2's Norms have such beautiful undocked tails.

The Sugarbush Draft Horse
an amber champagne snowflake
While the conformation of HI2's Sugarbushes seems a bit off to me, I think they make up for it with their wide range of fun colors and their awesome appaloosa spots. The snowflakes are my favorites.

The Datong
a silver dapple black spotted blanket
It's a shame we let our one decently-statted wild-caught Datong go. These guys are really cute, and how cool is it that they get nubby little horns?! I'd be happy for one in any color, but of course I've chosen to show you one with spots.

Julie's picks:

The Ardennais
a dark strawberry roan
We had a shot at adopting a roan 6/6 Ardy stallion from the livery once. *Sighs* I wish I'd insisted on snatching him up when we had the chance. They look so gentle and huggable, and I love that they come in roan! <3

The Standardbred
a lilac roan
HI2's Standardbreds have way more attractive artwork than the artwork of its fellow racing breed, the Thoroughbred. As good looking as they are, they don't seem to be very popular on the game. Even though the breed has been around the entire time we've been playing the game, we've never come across a nice one for sale for less than millions of dollars. That doesn't stop me from checking the livery, auction house, and ranch stores every now and then. 

The Spanish Mustang
a dun frame overo
This is one of HI2's newest breeds, and from what I can tell they are quite popular. I can totally see why, and I'd like to give a big virtual high five to whoever created their artwork. So pretty! I doubt we're ever going to find a nice one of these for sale anywhere within our price range, but maybe someday we'll get lucky in the mountains and catch that special one...

The Grade Saddle Horse
a champagne manchado
Even though these horses, like Grade Drafts and Grade Ponies, generally have underwhelming stats when compared to HI2's purebreds, I've always really liked their artwork. They come in pretty much any color and pattern you could want. The one pictured above is one of my personal favorites. If we ever find a GSH with good stats for a Grade, I will insist he or she stays. <3

My (Lily's) picks:

The Anglo Arabian
a dapple rose gray overo
Well done, Anglo Arabian artist! I can totally see both Thoroughbred and Arabian in these athletic, spirited horses, and in my opinion their artwork is superior to both parent breeds. I especially like that one tilted back hoof. My favorites are the pintos, but I'd be delighted with a solid-colored Anglo too.

The Plateau Persian
a dapple palomino

These horses are so cute, and they even look like they're smiling. What's not to like? Since we hardly ever find desert-terrain horses, the odds of us ever finding a nice wild one are not so good. Maybe someday, somewhere, we'll get lucky.

The Danish Warmblood
a perlino
This is probably my second favorite warmblood breed on HI2 (the Hanoverian is first. Love ya, Forte!) I like the alert, friendly expressions on their faces, and their bodies look sleek and proportionate. All the colors are great, but my personal favorite is the perlino. 

The Irish Cob
a rusty gray
Our list wouldn't be complete without one of these new, awesome horses! Even though all my sisters like the breed too, I was able to claim it for this post because my last name is Irish. Irish Cobs come in a wide range of fun colors on HI2 and can be pintos besides. We hope that once the breed has been around for a while, we'll stand a better chance of finding a nice one for sale somewhere within our price range. Of course, we'd welcome a nice wild one too, but what are the odds of that?