Summer's Epic Finale

September's chugging right along. I figured I'd try to pull together one more post while the calendar still says it's summer. As I'm typing this, occasionally looking out the window, I can imagine it's still full-fledged summer: sunny skies, lawnmower humming in the distance, hardly any fall color yet in the leaves. Step outside, and it's a very different story. It's been struggling to make it into the 60's this weekend. Not that I'm complaining. I'll take all the 60's fall deigns to dish out.

On HI3, we've actually been seeking out those fall colors. We're trying to find an open fall forest cave, since we've read that that's where you can find coal, which is now needed to fire up our furnace. (We used to be able to use wood. Sure wish we still could.) Why do we need the furnace? So that we can burn up some kelp and make soda ash. Why do we want soda ash? So that we can bleach experimental dyes gone wrong out of our saddle pads and polos and reuse them. Right now we have more rejects than we know what to do with. (Old asparagus, innuendo, or dirt road, anyone? Didn't think so.) Could we just buy coal or soda ash in a village? Or take it even further and buy ready-made dyes, or even saddle pads and polos already dyed in colors we like? Oh, probably, but we are incredibly cheap and like to do things ourselves. No luck finding an open fall forest cave yet because we've been distracted by a new aspect of the game.

Structures called epics have now been scattered throughout HI3, and if you're the first player to come across one, you get labelled permanently as its discoverer and earn an epic token. The game has not revealed what the epic tokens will be good for yet, but it will presumably be something good.

Here's the first one we happened upon, which had already been discovered by a player named Mayonnaise:

We decided to venture out due east from our ranch, which is not exactly in a bustling area, and see if we'd be lucky enough to come across any undiscovered epics.

Sure enough, Pepsi and Ossagon did eventually find one! Hello, viking epic! 

It didn't look like much of a viking from the angle they approached it, but it does this way!

They persisted and came upon this mesa epic:

Can't remember what these were called, though. Oops.

At any rate, we found another at night:

We also rode due south of our ranch and discovered two more epics:

The panda epic is my favorite so far!

This huge gaia tree (in the background, ignore the birches) is cool too!

We may keep this going in various directions until we run into a vast ocean or quick traveling back to civilization gets too difficult, just for the fun of it.

For once, I do not have any new wilds to introduce. No, we are not exerting better self-control. We just haven't found any with high stats, noteworthy performance metrics, or amazing personalities. We did find this cool but untalented brindle last weekend, though:

I'm so happy we have Clorox, but I sure hope more great brindles are in our future!

Our newest horses (4 in Aug, 1 in Sept.) are settling in nicely, even if they don't have their own special saddle pads and polos yet. They finally have names!

Zonko has been Zonko for awhile now, as we already posted about. He was the easiest!

StarWind was renamed Lyra after the constellation:

Since we're not tennis buffs, Deuce is now Showtunes. I can't remember if we were actually listening to show tunes when we lassoed him (we do on occasion), but he is flashy enough that it seemed to fit.

Pacer is now Maral, after the Caspian red deer. Topi is quite taken with her, so it just seemed to make sense.

Finally, Brownie's name no longer makes us yawn. Since he is dun and has that spiky mane, he reminded us of Norwegian Fjords, so we've named him after a Norwegian city and fjord, Trondheim. I think it sounds like it should be the name of a kingdom in Lord of the Rings. XD

Random Name Flops

Here we are a week into September already! If only winter could zip by the same way summer does. *Sighs* Before we brace ourselves for summer's (hopefully) gradual fade, let's look back on the end of August.

While we did not find any lucky finds, which Bethany was slightly bummed about, Deuce and StarWind did still face some stiff competition. 

First to join the party was this sturdy roan taiga pony:

Aw!

Those genetic stats total 1039, second highest of any wild equine we have lassoed!

His randomly-generated name had Lily rolling her eyes, since he is lazy, slow, and not much of a jumper. I suppose the "Wonder" part is slightly fitting: we wonder why all of those high genetic stats didn't do much of anything to his performance metrics.

... I guess it's because they are fairly evenly distributed, and because he's "fun size" with such short legs.

Even though he's only 13.2 hands tall, he is similar in weight to Bumpy and Cloudburst, who are both about 2 hands taller. Hence, Pepsi can ride him without guilt, even if she does look a little awkward:

It probably goes without saying, but he'll be joining the herd. Since he was caught near Hogsmeade Village, we've renamed him Zonko, after the Hogsmeade joke shop.

This fancy, long-eared seal brown mare came on the scene next:

Her name was not nearly as amusing as that of another recently-caught wild, Britney Spurs. XD

She had a quite respectable genetic stat total of 927.

She was nice, both in terms of her performance metrics and personality.

(Nice hat, Pepsi.)

...but with 3 equines already penciled in for August, we decided just "nice" wasn't going to cut it. Sorry, Britt!

Here is #3, a cute pinto mare from the rainbow eucalyptus forest:

She doesn't have Ginkgo's forehead nubs, but she still definitely looks like she's in the right biome.

In keeping with the trend, her name doesn't really fit: we lassoed her in broad daylight.

This little mare can't turn very quickly, probably because of those lean hindquarters, but she has an unexpectedly powerful jump. Her personality is quite nice too.

As nice as she was, we regretfully decided that, like Britt, she also was not quite nice enough. She may be an inch taller than Zonko, but she's much more lightly-built, and Pepsi looks more awkward on her.

The eucalyptus forest wasn't done yet. We also found this sausage with a genetic stat total of 920:

Sorry about the girly name, buddy.

He's actually not as pokey as we were expecting - those little legs try hard. XD 

We did not keep him either, as much as he amused us. He's so, so skittish!

The game still wasn't done. Last but not least, here is another chestnut, but this one has the kind of legs Casseopia probably dreams about:

Funny how the geyser placement here draws attention to her baldness.

Her genetic stat total isn't nearly as impressive as the other wilds' in this post, but...

...she sure is speedy! Her jump power is great too, just a hundredth less than Moonglow's.

Another name falls flat. She doesn't pace.

Talk about lean and lanky! Even though she is 16 hands tall, she actually weighs a little less than Zonko! Wow! She reminds us of an Akhal Teke appearance-wise, so it didn't come as a huge surprise when the expert deemed her a "Grade Oriental Hotblood." If we keep her, which we probably will, we will likely give her a mane. I think she looks better without one than Eagle did, though.

Today, September 7, 2020, is our 1-year anniversary of playing HI3! 

We got the notification yesterday afternoon, which has us scratching our heads a bit, but we certainly didn't mind the +3000 essence coming a day early! Maybe we logged in on the 6th or something? Don't remember for sure, but we're positive that Star and Gryff did not come onto the scene until the 7th. 

To celebrate, we finally crafted Pepsi a new shirt:

Sorry it took us so long, Pepsi.

Here's to a new year of plaid!

This handsome dun wild also decided to grace us with his presence today:

His body is a shade of brown, but I'm still going to call his name a flop, since it's about as boring as they get. ;^)

His genetic stat total is far from a flop: it's just 2 points less than Zonko's!

He has solid performance metrics and an even-keel personality. We are so happy - he's a way cooler anniversary gift than essence or a new shirt. XD

There are still many aspects of the game we have yet to experience, but we sure have come a long way since we were wandering around Elder Ridge Village a year ago: slightly motion sick, horseless, terrible with the lasso, and afraid of getting lost! I sure am glad we stuck with it despite how clueless we felt back then!