The Bazaar is Back!

Star Stable has been giving us notices about our computer's operating system not being up to snuff for quite some time. Recently, the message got even more dire: that we could no longer play the game at all with our operating system after March 6. 

That was our motivation to finally update Milton (Mom's laptop) to Monterey. It took several hours, but Milton did it. Way to go, Milton! We're all very happy not to be saying goodbye to the game just yet.

We haven't really noticed any improvement in gameplay itself - same bugs, same jerky graphics, same turbo fan - but so far the weekly updates haven't been nearly so long and painful.

Here are some screenshots highlighting our recent Star Stable exploits.

Clara, Des, and Atlas on a scenic cliffside path on their way to Crescent Moon Village

Bees swarming... again. Even worse, this time, they were terrorizing village residents!

Clara eventually calmed the bees down with a special sugary concoction.

The cause of all the mayhem was this very large spider, Alberta, who is acting abnormally aggressive.

These guys sure are brave! Hopefully we can figure out why Alberta's acting strangely soon.

We also got to hang out with Linda and Alex a bit more. We're currently looking for a way to get through the gate to Scarecrow Hill. No luck yet.

In other news, Star Stable's bazaar has briefly returned! Four horse breeds are being offered at a discount for one week only, and we really like three of the four.

From left to right, they are the Morgan, the Lipizzaner, the Jorvik Friesian, and the Belgian Warmblood.

Let's start with the Jorvik Friesian, the most deeply discounted breed of the four: from 950 star coins to 570 star coins (380 star coins off). They are cute, have abundant hair, and look happy, plus they come in several spotted coats. Our favorite is below.  

The downside of these guys - in our opinion, anyway - is their somewhat awkward, stiff gaits, especially in their back legs. The hair leaves much to be desired when in motion as well: very clumpy. 

Hence, while we like Jorvik Friesians and wouldn't be opposed to owning one, it was our last choice of the four.

The remaining three breeds all have more streamlined animations. Coming in third place for us is the Belgian Warmblood, which has been discounted from 850 star coins to 595 star coins (295 star coins off). Their coats and gaits are fantastic. It'd be hard to choose our favorite, but the palomino below is really great.

We've admired other players' Belgian Warmbloods ever since we started playing the game, and we think it would be really fun to own one. We do technically already have a warmblood (Frosty the Jorvik Warmblood), but while we love him dearly, he does not have the elegant, sporty look of a traditional warmblood.

What dropped them into our third place ranking is how much they throw their heads around when idle: very distracting, and it makes them seem less endearing.

For obvious reasons, we're all big fans of the Morgan, especially Bethany. They were on sale once before early on in our Star Stable experience, and we were all quite tempted. We don't remember what the sale was back then, but this time around, they've dropped from 850 star coins to 595 star coins, the same as the Belgian Warmblood.

Again, it would be really hard to choose a coat color, but I'm especially fond of the buckskin sabino, even if it isn't a traditional Morgan color.

There's not really anything we dislike about the Morgan's animations. The only thing we aren't thrilled with is their faces - something about them is just less pleasant than many other Star Stable breeds.

That leaves the lovably stout Lipizzaner. They are less than a year old on the game. Hence, they are still the most pricy: normally 950 star coins like the Jorvik Friesian, but only discounted to 665 star coins (285 star coins off).

They are our clear favorite of the four discounted breeds, so we're pretty sure it's a Lipizzaner that's going to become our horse #8. We know we want it to be a light gray, to fulfill our white Baroque fantasies, but we're still torn between light gray and fleabitten gray.

The name's proving to be challenging too, since we want to keep the alliteration alive for at least one more horse... and also not repeat any first letters we've already used. Will it be Cloudchaser, Ghostglow, Pepperpirate, or Snowsecret? Those are the best ones we've come up with so far. We'll let you know in our next post!

Happy Anniversary

We recently celebrated our 1-year anniversary of joining Star Stable! (Our first Star Stable screenshot - see below - was taken on 2/5/23, but we think we actually created our account on the 3rd or the 4th.)

We've come a long way in a year! We've unlocked most of Jorvik, progressed through 17 player experience levels, and are much less apt to get lost. Clara has been transformed from cartoony to Sims-esque and usually rocks glasses now. Our once-lonely 12-stall stable is now a bustling home to 7 special equines.

All 7 have been carefully picked out, fully trained, cared for daily (barring internet or game malfunctions), and given equal riding time, might I add. These are some very lucky virtual horses!

We decided to each come up with a Star Stable goal for year 2, and here's what we said:

Me: buy a halter for every horse. (Tigertin looks so cute in hers!)

Felicity: buy a third horse with spots

Julie: expand the stable at least once, so we'll have room for another 7 horses

Lily: meet the missing star riders, Lisa and Anne, officially

Will we reach these goals by next February? I think there's a good chance!

The recent game updates have been largely Hollow Woods-related. These all seem to be here to stay, so we haven't seen the urgency to go investigate Hollow Woods immediately. The snow disappeared with the 2/7 update, which seems kind of early, but I guess they wanted it gone for maximum impact of the non-wintery magical forest activities. We're slightly sad Clara is having to retire her cute wintery sweaters already, and we miss the Northern Lights. Other than that, we're enjoying everything being green again.

Goodbye, snow.

Hello, summer!

We've been getting a merciful lull in the snow in real life too. It even hit 60 degrees one day this week, which is highly unusual for Feb. in Michigan. We were also startled awake late on Thursday night to a big boom of thunder from a full-on thunderstorm. This is all largely thanks to El Niño and global climate change, we assume, but wow, so bizarre! We're diving back into the seasonable 30's for the foreseeable future, though, so our sweaters aren't going anywhere for a while.

If we haven't been out in Hollow Woods chasing fireflies and unicorns, what have we been doing on Star Stable? Well, most of the time, just routine daily races and stable chores to make Jorvik shillings, which we then spend on hay. Unexciting, yes, but we still haven't given in entirely to buying stable care with star coins and like to care for all 7 horses ourselves when we can. We have had time for some questing on weekends, though. See the screenshots below for some highlights!

playing hide-and-seek with the annoying twins: always seeking

Good thing there was a fire extinguisher! Jamie still sent out the charred baked goods.

This poor lady ended up pinned under her own cart when her horse was spooked. Even worse, her horse ran off, and her load of Jorvik root was stolen.

Clara and Brighty to the rescue! They freed Isabel and brought her home.

...then found her horse and brought him home. 

(Why is the the horse wearing a saddle and not a harness?)

multiple angry swarms of bees - what a nightmare! Clara bravely righted the toppled hive boxes while avoiding the swarms.

a much less scary task: transporting a box of swamp insect specimens for a professor to study

the New Hillcrest - South Hoof bridge pre-repair

the same bridge after Clara's repairs. This fix was a lot less labor-intesive than the fix of the bridge to the Harvest Counties

Donald, the guy who was supposed to be fixing the bridge, had a crippling fear of heights. 

Clara helped him face his fear by slowly crossing the bridge with him once repairs were complete.

He did it!

This poor husband and father had isolated himself in an underground bunker because he was slowly losing his mind after being infected by poisonous swamp water. Yikes!

The resident alchemist was able to explain:

The cure: Jorvik root. But how to get Terrance to ingest some, when his poisoned mind wouldn't let him eat it? The solution: have the alchemist put Jorvik root in lip balm. When Terrance came one last time to kiss his wife goodnight, she had slathered on the lip balm and was ready to save him.

It worked!

His wife even made amends with Isabel, since she was the one responsible for spooking Isabel's horse and stealing the Jorvik root. A happy ending for everybody!

Another lengthy quest has been trying to find and rescue Nightdust the wild Welshie and his other stolen herd mates. Long story, but Madison, the girl who's bonded with Nightdust, ended up here: in Aideen's Plaza, in the trunk of Carl's car.

Clara eventually managed to swipe Carl's keys and free Madison.

I love how we get the British English translation here, ha ha. 

Carl took off in his car - somehow he got the keys back? Madison still has his briefcase, though, and is trying without success to convince her dad to open it before returning it. (Surely it will contain incriminating evidence.) That's where we left it for now.

...and finally, two less high-stakes recent quests.

one involved attracting and then scaring away pigeons for an old guy in a park:

in another, we took this young woman to Cape West Fishing Village for shopping and then gave her a ride back to Silverglade riding arena. 

We discovered that anytime we jumped, she loved it, ha ha. Hence, lots of spontaneous jumping for no reason on the return trip.