The Ranch of Rivershine News

Hi Ranchers! 🐴🍀 I'm really excited to share with you all the first content update for The Ranch of Rivershine! This update allows you to catch wild horses, build new upgrades such as training arenas, a retirement pasture and a competition board, along with many other fixes and quality of life improvements.

It's the perfect time to dive back into Rivershine or build your ranch for the first time!

[h2]Wild Horses[/h2]
It’s time to saddle up and chase wild horse herds! You’ll now be able to see them roaming the trails around Rivershine… Get ready to catch them!


First, the park ranger will send you a message to build wild horse pens on each of the trails. Once built, there’ll be a chance for wild horses to arrive on those trails every day. If wild horses are present, the ranger will send you a message to let you know… And it’s time to set out and find them!


Once you encounter them, the wild horses will be scared and run away from you. To approach them, you’ll have to chase them from horseback and guide them into the round pen. They’ll settle down once they enter the corral, and you’ll be able to take a closer look…

Befriend the wild horses by petting their head, and then inspect them from all sides. This allows you to see the wild horse’s coat, gender, and skill level. You can corral and inspect as many wild horses as you like, but you can only choose one to bring back home, so pick wisely…

Luckily, a new herd will pass by the trails in a few days!


[h2]Horse Coats[/h2]
Wild horses have a chance to feature exclusive coat colors and patterns. You'll be able to find a unique type of coat on each trail, so make sure to catch horses everywhere you go! For example, here are the unique splash patterns you'll be able to find in Lupine Meadow...


I’ve also reworked and expanded on the previous pattern types, so you’ll be able to find new variations of appaloosa, tobianos and overos. Here's a quick look at what these new patterns look like!






[h2]Training Arenas[/h2]
New training arenas are available to purchase from the trainer’s store! These arenas are designed to improve a specific skill, such as speed, endurance or jump. Each of them can be built and upgraded twice to train your horse even further daily.


To train your horse, simply bring them to the arena and pass through the training checkpoints at the correct gait. Your horse will quickly improve their skills, but the arena can only be used once per day!


[h2]Retirement Pasture[/h2]
Since it’s been a much requested feature to keep more horses, I've added a new pasture on the ranch! The retirement pasture allows you to keep horses you’ve grown attached to even if you’re done training and competing with them, without occupying a stall in your stable. Of course, you can always take them out of retirement and bring them back to your stable if you change your mind!

The retirement pasture can be built and upgraded twice to keep up to 16 horses. While horses are retired, they can’t be interacted with, but they also don’t need to be cared for… So you don’t have to worry about feeding or brushing them!


[h2]Competition Board[/h2]
Finally, I've also added a competition board that can be built on your ranch! This will allow you to register for competitions from your home and easily change between horses to compete with.


[h2]Change List[/h2]
For more information, here’s a detailed list of the changes and bug fixes included in this update!

[h3]Coat Colors & Patterns[/h3]

• Added 14 new cream coats colors.
  
• Added 10 new splash coat patterns.
  
• Added 8 new sabino coat patterns.
  
• Added 4 new tobiano coat patterns and improved the older ones.
  
• Added 5 new overo coat patterns and improved the older ones.
  
• Added 6 new appaloosa coat patterns and improved the older ones.
  
• Added 20 new face markings.
  
• Changed how the face markings are inherited so that foals inherit a marking more similar to their parents.
  
• Reduced the chance for horses to have a badger or bald face marking.
  
• Adjusted the bay and roan coat colors.
  
• Fixed the silver gene inheritance.
  
• Changed how the flaxen and silver genes work to be more realistic. Chestnut horses now can’t have silver hair, only the bay and black horses can. Instead, all chestnut horses can now have flaxen hair.
  This won’t impact current silver chestnuts in your save file, and they will stay as is, but no new silver chestnuts will appear in the game. However, as I had to change how the flaxen is applied to horses, horses who previously had the “Flaxen Chestnut” coat will change to a new coat called “Sandy Chestnut ''. While I try my best not to impact current coats, it happens from time to time during Early Access as I update different systems. I hope you’ll still like this new chestnut coat, and you’ll now be able to find more variations of flaxen horses!

[h3]General Changes[/h3]

• Changed that horses lose a potential point if they spend the night in the pasture. If they’re kept in the stable, their potential doesn’t go down.
  
• Moved the location of Liam’s house.
  
• Updated the map icons for better clarity.
  
• Added map icons for the training arenas and the fertility pasture.
  
• Improved the collision detection to interact with horses.
  
• Reduced the price of the Pine Forest and Crystal Lake trails.
  
• Added cucumbers, pumpkins and pears for sale in Aisha’s store.
  
• Translated all new content to French.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed various issues with the mane and tail not growing correctly or saving and loading the wrong hair style.
  
• Fixed a bug where the horse coat description wouldn’t update in the auction house.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could collide with foals before they were born.
  
• Fixed a bug where selling a horse in the auction house could then cause multiple horses to share the same stall.
  
• Fixed a bug where young adult horses would have the wrong hairstyle after growing up.
  
• Fixed various typos and updated descriptions to fit the new content.
  
• Changed the auction house horse for sale list to exclude horses that can’t be sold.
  
• Fixed the sand and dirt sound effects in Lupine Meadow.

[h2]What’s Next?[/h2]
For the next content update, I’m planning on adding a new villager and opening the saddlery in town! You’ll be able to purchase new saddles, blankets and bridles… I might also add other accessories for your horses to wear!



Thank you for following the development of The Ranch of Rivershine!

Éloïse

Hi Ranchers! Here’s a quick patch to fix some of the coat issues that have come up in the last update.

Horse Update

• Fixed a bug where silver horses bought at the auction house wouldn’t keep the silver hair after being bought.
  
• Fixed a bug where breeding horses of different coat colors always created bay foals.
  
• Fixed a bug where the mane didn’t update correctly when horses grew from foal to young adult.
  
• Removed the ability to cut a horse’s hair outside of the stable.
  
• Removed the ability to cut a foal’s hair.
  

Hi Ranchers! I’m very excited to share this update which includes new coats and improves on the genetics system. You’ll find new coat colors, both available in the auction house and from breeding your horses, and the ability to change your horse’s hair. I’ve also fixed various bugs and added some quality of life fixes. Here’s a full list of the changes!

Horse Update

• Implemented that the horse's mane and tail grows over time.
  
• Added an option in the horse care interface to cut your horse’s mane and tail.
  
• Added new color variations, for a total of 16 new coat colors.
  
• Updated the genetics system so that horses inherit coats with a combination based on the coat color (bay, chestnut, black) and the coat type (base, dun, roan).
  
• Added a text box containing the horse’s coat color and pattern information.
  
• Changed the silver gene so that it can be applied to all coat colors.
  
• Updated the leopard appaloosa pattern.
  
• Added that horses with the leopard appaloosa pattern can’t have face or leg markings.
  
• Reduced the chance that horses will have a pattern in the auction house.
  

I’ll be doing another coat update to improve all coat patterns and add more pattern variations.

Stall Update

• Fixed a bug that prevented assigning a young adult horse to a stall, even though empty stalls were available.
  
• Fixed a bug that made young adult horses take over a stall that was already occupied.
  

I believe most of the current horse management bugs are due to horses sharing a stall, and all the pregnancy issues, foals following a horse that isn’t their mother etc. all come from there. Fixing bugs that cause horses to share a stall (like the ones mentioned above) at the source should prevent issues like that from happening in the future. Make sure to review your stable manager at the entrance of your stable and move your horses to their own stall if they’re sharing the same one!

General Update

• Added that the guide arrow automatically changes color depending on the season.
  
• Fixed a bug where horses could turn in a circle while jumping an obstacle.
  
• Fixed a bug where multiple days could be skipped when going to bed.
  

Balance Update

• Reduced the cost of the fertility pasture.
  
• Increased the auction house bidding difficulty.
  
• Removed the daily potential loss.
  

Thank you for your patience while I work on Rivershine! ❤️ I'll soon start creating the wild horse update which will be released later this summer! ☀️

Hi Ranchers! Here’s a second patch to fix the most common issues and balance requests that have been reported since the launch.

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where horses wouldn’t be led or listen to your whistle in Crystal Lake.
  
• Fixed a bug where only 4 plots appeared instead of 6 for the last farm upgrade.
  
• Fixed a visual issue where the appaloosa patterns could appear blurry in the auction house.
  
• Fixed a bug where you wouldn’t have the right amount of horses available in the auction house the first day after loading the game.
  
• Fixed a bug where the player’s hair color would reset to brown on load.
  
• Fixed a bug where the player’s name wouldn’t be displayed correctly in the character customization interface.
  
• Fixed a bug where horses could be misplaced after upgrading the stables.
  
• Fixed a bug where the riding camera mode would change if you pushed into your horse before mounting.
  
• Balanced some of the competition time requirements.
  
• Reviewed issues that could cause the player to fall through the ground or the level not loading correctly.
  
• Reviewed the issue that would make the controls stop working if you stopped in front of a jump.
  
• Changed the Crystal Lake and Pine Forest statue quests to be available earlier.
  
• Fixed various bugs where pressing pause before and after competitions would break the game.
  
• Fixed an exploit that allowed you to start a competition before the countdown ended.
  
• Fixed various villager shop exploits.
  

[h2]Settings [/h2]

• Updated the settings menu to be able to view your currently selected options.
  
• Added a setting option to control the day’s speed rate. Choose between very slow, slow, normal and fast to make the day last for more or less time.
  
• Added a setting option to limit your game’s framerate to 30, 60 or 120 FPS. If you were having issues with your PC overheating, reducing the frame rate could help.
  

For the next patch I’ll be working on issues related to the stalls, breeding and foals. It will take me a bit more time to figure out these issues so I wanted to share this patch first to fix the most common bugs that have been reported. If everything goes well we should have one or two more bug patches and then I’ll move on to working on a new content update! Cheers and thank you all

Hi Ranchers! Here’s a quick update to fix issues with the stalls, quests, competitions and the difficulty level of the game!

[h2]General Update[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where the Lake Dive competition didn’t unlock after receiving the quest for it.
  
• Fixed a bug that created the Crystal Lake quest twice.
  
• Fixed a bug where the “Red Wine” and “Gallant Deer” quest descriptions didn’t update correctly when they were ready to be completed.
  
• Fixed a bug where horses above 75% flexibility skill couldn’t be trained further.
  
• Possibly fixed a bug where you’d get stuck before a jump. I wasn’t able to recreate it on my end so I can’t confirm it’s fixed, but I found a code issue that might have caused this. Let me know if it’s still happening and I’ll look at it again!
• Added the expert cavaletti course in River’s store. More expert courses to come!

[h2]Stall Update[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where horses bought at the auction could take over an already occupied stall.
  
• Added that if a mare is sold at the auction house while she has an unassigned foal, the foal will automatically be assigned to the sold mare’s stall.
  
• Reviewed how stalls are assigned to fix various bugs related to the horses taking over the wrong stall.
  
• Added a Stable Manager at the front of the stable. This will allow you to assign your horses to a specific stall, which can be used to resolve bugs where multiple horses have taken over one stall. You’ll also be able to view all of your horses and send them to the stable or pasture from the Stable Manager.
  

The shared stall bug will not be fixed instantly by updating the game, but you’ll be able to rearrange your stable depending on the problem you were having. It’s a bit tricky to fix problematic save files in addition to preventing future bugs, but this should fix the issues you might currently be having:

To fix multiple horses sharing the same stall:

1. Look through your horse list in the stable manager and find horses that have the same current stall number.
   
2. Select “Change Stall” and assign all of the horses sharing a stall to a new empty stall.
   
3. Once all horses have their own stall number, you can rearrange the stable to your liking! Make sure they each have a unique stall number before moving them to avoid bugs.
   

To fix multiple mares sharing the same foal:

1. Look through your horse list to find all the mares sharing the same current foal and current stall number. They will all be set as “pregnant”, even though only one foal exists.
   
2. Select the mare that you want to keep as pregnant or nursing first, and select “Change Stall” to assign her to a new empty stall. This is the mare that will keep the foal.
   
3. The other mares will stay as “pregnant” for the rest of the current day but will be back to normal and without a foal the following day.
   

To fix horses stuck in the fertility pasture or somewhere you can’t reach:

1. Find your lost horse in the horse list of the stable manager.
   
2. Select “Send to Stable” and check if your horse is back in the stable.
   
3. If this doesn’t work, it might be because your lost horse is sharing a stall with another one. Make sure they each have a unique stall number to avoid bugs.
   

[h2]Balance Update[/h2]

Added a difficulty setting to choose between normal and story mode. The story mode removes the need to place first in competitions to progress. Instead, you’ll be able to instantly complete the competition quests to progress in the story line. The difficulty can be changed at any time, both on new and old saves. You can still participate in the competitions if you want to, but if not, you can make money in others ways, such as:

1. Farming and selling crops
   
2. Training and selling horses
   
3. Breeding and selling horses
   

I’ll add other ways to earn money throughout EA to help players who don’t enjoy the competitions as much, but hopefully this difficulty option will already allow you to enjoy the game! Make sure to change the difficulty setting after loading your save file for it to work correctly!

Thank you for your patience while I fixed the issues! I think this update will help with the most critical issues that have been found since the release. I’ll be continuing to bugfix the game in the next few weeks and once it’s more stable, I’ll start working on new content! I hope you’ve been enjoying your time in Rivershine!