#SSO new player character

[penname-artist]

Star Stable Changes Forever Tomorrow

Yeah yeah it's a Star Stable post, which is way outside my norm, but I wanted to talk about it dammit!

I've been really closely following the updates of the game for the last couple of months, waiting on this day when we get our new player character models. And, well...I've got some things to say about it right out of the gate.

We'll start with the good ones I guess?

the animations for the new characters are nice. They're smooth, they're readable, I like that we can blink and move and open our mouths now, that's a nice touch. Overall for their new animations they look fine.

The modelling they've done for the hands and feet are really nice, I look forward to wearing full gloves for the first time ever, as someone who religiously wears the fingerless gloves because I hate anything other than that

I am immensely excited about the hair styles they're going to produce; the colors are bright and inviting, the styles are clean and unique, and the longer hair styles will be getting a possible new rig in and of themselves to flow behind us when we run or while riding. I may live my life in a pixie cut but that doesn't mean my character has to, I am here for the big flowy hair!

A lot of the new clothing options that they seem to be coming out with alongside or right after the release of the new player models looks very detailed and appealing. We've had these already for a little while I think, but with the new models I think they're going to take this to the next level. I'm especially noticing this in the shoes, have y'all SEEN the new boots? Very happy to see this upgrade, I look forward to the snazziest of attire.

Okay. And then the faults. I wanted to make sure I made a good amount of praises before I started on my criticisms, because I didn't want to outweigh it too heavily. But the criticisms are many.

The body types feel unappealing to me, entirely. I do appreciate their inclusion of more body types, but in doing so they seem to have completely forgotten the existence of both skinny people and curvy people (and I am unfortunately both petite and hip-ish, which makes me feel kinda weird having a thin-ish but entirely flat-bodied model as my only option). Even the larger body types, with their modifications, feel odd and off-putting to me, I'm just not sure how to place them. It still feels like they've just taken sliders and made various parts of the body wider, but without adding any real definition to those areas or any types of changes to incorporate how a larger body type will move or carry weight differently. I understand their limitations, but I still feel I'd rather have less body type options with more attention to detail than more body types with less. It's a quality over quantity type of thing.

The FACES, as well. In nearly every face there's something off about the size and shape of their cheeks, they're large and puffed and pushed out ridiculously far. I have maybe one facial type that I kinda-sorta like, but all of them just do not appeal well to me, they feel oddly proportioned in the cheeks and it's constantly bugging me.

People have been mentioning this all over, but the body styles they've gone for do make the characters look significantly younger now, even though they're taller. They have very rounded and undefined shoulders, they're baby-faced, they have soft edges in all their limbs, and absolutely zero shape in their torsos. Hell, even the largest available body type scarecly does, which feels frankly insulting, that these characters shouldn't be allowed to have even the slightest indication of boobs. Or thighs, hardly. I understand not wanting to sexualize your new character models, but nobody was sexualizing the ones we've had for the last decade, and taking that away now when we were so used to it for so long is going to be weird and off-putting for a lot of people.

What I said about the animations in mind, I still don't believe we're entirely ready to release this character update. Yes, it's coming tomorrow. But I have already seen our previews and I'm scared that the game is going to instantly have three times the amount of bugs, TEN times the amount of ill-fit problems, from everything to feet not going in saddles to the horrific dance sequence issue. Just LOOK at this:

I feel like the team could have at least waited to get these other important and possibly game-breaking animation issues remade before their initial release, but I'm so used to SSO jumping the gun on their projects that at this point, I can't even be surprised. I expect at best for tomorrow to be slightly buggy and mostly okay, but probably not a good quest day, and at worst for the game to crash (which I think they're preparing to handle, given the release is on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday. Do we all remember the time the physical servers exploded? YEAH, I'm prepared to see THAT happen again.)

Overall, while I am - and want to be - excited for this massive update, I still cannot help but feel the team is making too many extreme changes with too few quality tests to feel comfortable handling. It's severely rocking the boat of the entire game and playerbase, and I cannot be the only person desperately pleading for them to give us SOME semblance of nostalgia to keep. The lack therof is driving away so many veteran players, and it's going to keep driving even their newest people away if all they do is make massive changes to everything all the time. I'm telling myself this is just growing pains, and that once they're satisfied with the style they want, we'll have a semblance of peace again with the feeling of familiarity.

Until then, brace yourselves for impact, everybody.

This has been my SSO rant, I will now crawl back into the depths of my fandoms. Farewell and til the morrow, fans and freaks.

-Pen

[natduskfall]

m i t o s i s

[bellassoblr]

okay, byyyyyyeee~

"Hey, Fire."

"Yeah, Bella?" "You know I won't be here the next time she logs in, right..?"

"Uhh... Yes you will?" "No, like... I won't be the same." "Oh. Geez, that's dramatic, girl."

"Shut up, I'm serious! After this update I won't be me anymore!"

"What, because you won't look the same? Neither do I, comparing to 10 years ago, am I not Firegirl?" "Wh- ... I mean... I guess you are." "As I am still Firegirl, you will still be Bella Highgirl." "... But...

"... I suppose you're right, in a sense. But I still don't want to go. Change, I mean." "That's fair. Change is scary. I would know.

"Sometimes change is necessary for things to keep moving. To keep the waters flowing, lest it turns spoilt in its stillness."

"Yeah, yeah, you melodramatic horse. I just hope she feels the same."

"..."

"I'll still miss this." "As will I, Bella."

[nuggetland]

But- whatever

[centeris2]

What people think I mean when I say I miss the old SSO: 4 polygon graphics, low texture world map, janky animations and models, original character designs, honestly idk

What I actually mean: SSO's storyline before it went through several years of retcons and rewrites, deviating from the original Starshine Legacy games and Star Stable quests I played.

(So much has happened and it's been 10+ years since I started I don't remember the story anymore. What's the intro sequence say now? I know they redid the intro quests but not I'm spending $70ish rebuying (and replaying) the game. What quests have been removed that I still think are canon because how I would know they've been removed? What's even the story sequence anymore, I see people 'breaking the order' of quests on accident? Do people still do any Druid rep via druid training? Is there still rep grinding with closing Pandoric rifts with the shadow vacuum thing? What about those Pandoric Energy Reading dailies where you used the rune wand and it was kind of musical?? Do the Kallter get mentioned or are they 100% gone? I don't know and I shouldn't HAVE to make and buy a whole new account to find out and understand what is going on in the story!)

God I wish this game would be released as a Single Player Story game so it was a complete package when it was finished. Because I'm sure once the story is done and cleaned up it'll be okay, or at least on par with the Starshine Legacy games' storyline (which let's face it, were pretty bare bones, they didn't have much budget/resources to do much)

[cass-windfeild]

Star stable Creepypasta: Staring Horse

At last, my sso creepypasta is complete! Sorry it took a while, work and Halloween preparation got in the way. But, as promised, it is ready for Halloween!

As stated before, this isnt going to be anything spectacular. Ive never written anything horror related before, and while I tried to do my own thing, I was mostly inspired by creepypastas like Ben Drowned, Sonic.exe, and lot of WildCraft creepypastas Ive been listening to. Its also mostly just a very edited first draft. This was more or less a test of my skills.

As a warning, there is no gore or blood in this, however there is a description of a pretty messed up horse model that may or may not be considered body horror, as well as mentions of a possible mental break? Not 100% sure, but I want to cover my bases.

Without further adieu, enjoy.

And Happy Halloween!

I've never really been obsessed with video games.

That's not to say I don't like them, or even that I don't play them. I game quite a bit in my free time, from action packed first person shooters, to emotional story driven games, even relaxing farming and life simulators. I've always tried to be open to all kinds of games. However, the issue is I never seem to stay interested. I tend to hyperfocus on specific games for weeks, even months at a time, and then, eventually, I just put it down one day, and don't come back. I just tend to lose interest, be it in the story, the mechanics, the characters. I just get bored and move on to new things.

Except for one game.

Star Stable Online. An open world MMORPG horse game where you can create a character, buy horses of varying breeds, coat colours, and patterns, train your horses in races or a variety of other disciplines, talk with friends, join clubs, dress up your character and horses, and complete story quests to save the world and learn about the island. Everything an equine crazed individual like myself could ask for in a horse game. Out of all the games I played in my life, Star Stable was the one that seemed to have a constant grip on my psyche.

It started out as just a way to finally unleash my love of horses, an obsession that had started as a child and only increased in my late teens, without shame or judgement. But over time, it became so much more. It became my comfort. My way to cope with all trials and tribulations of everyday life. No matter how mentally straining school was, how exhausting work was, or how bad my mental state was at any given time, so long as I had wifi, my laptop, and the will to stay awake into the dead of night, I had my escape. I could let my mind wander to a world where I wasn't alone or stressed. Where there was no homework that made me feel like I was going insane, no entitled or argumentative customers, no overbearing managers. Just me and my horses exploring the island of Jorvik, saving the world from evil organisations and dark magic, and living peacefully, knowing the real world couldn't hurt us here.

At least, until recently.

In the game, there are certain areas of the game that are closed off, having both invisible and physical walls around them to prevent players from getting in. They're either areas that aren't done yet, or ones that just never ended up opening up. Not that that stopped anyone though. If there's any area people know they're not supposed to go, they're gonna do everything in their power to get there. This is usually done through knowing the layout of the land, knowing what steps to take, and, often, getting a bit creative. There's countless tutorials online of how to get into closed off areas. Some are no longer working due to patches in the game, but finding one that still works is never too difficult. On days when there are no quests or special events, and training starts to feel repetitive, I've taken to testing these glitches and seeing just how efficient they are. I've glitched into Ashland, Devils Gap, Marchengast Castle, Cape Point, the typical areas that seem of interest to players. I even started trying the techniques in other areas to see if I could glitch myself somewhere no one had seen yet, though my efforts have so far seemed to be in vain.

Late one night, I was attempting to glitch into Mystic valley, like I had before, in hopes of getting some nice photos. I jumped out of the Secret Stone Circle and fell into the purple haze as usual, when I heard a familiar whinny, followed by a black screen with the text “Your horse was badly hurt.”. Great. I must've messed something up, I figured.I waited for my screen to return, expecting I'd be transported back to my home stable and have to start the glitch all over again. But to my surprise, when it did, I was in the Mystic Valley, as though I'd successfully made the fall, only, the area was now covered in a thick fog, like when you entered the Mirror Marshes.

I suspected that it was a glitch, or maybe the area had been updated. Hoping to find something new, I rode around a bit, checking all the edges and open space of the area. But after around 15 minutes running around and bumping into invisible walls, I still found that everything seemed normal. Just the same old rolling hills, sparsely placed bushes and trees, and occasional unfinished textures. After a while, I grew bored, and just started looking for some nice photo spots instead. But as I rode past an indented area in the mountain, I saw something I hadn't before. Something white amongst the trees and shrubs that was just barely visible through the fog. A horse. A grey horse with a black mane, standing perfectly still near the base of the mountain.

I had seen plenty of unused or work in progress models hidden in supposedly unreachable areas to keep them out of sight from players, and although I'd never seen one in Mystic Valley before, that's what I suspected it was. Possibly a new NPC horse or even an unreleased breed or colour the developers had been testing. I tried to get closer to see it better, but was blocked by an invisible wall that hadn't been there the last time I visited. Of course, they had to block off the most interesting thing in the area. I tried a few times to pass the wall, but no matter the angle or area, my horse halted and reared in refusal. I was giving up hope of getting any closer, so I resorted to just taking a photo and zooming in as much as possible. I got off my horse in the slim hope that I could get a little closer for a better angle. Only, this time, the wall didn't stop me. My horse couldn't pass, but I could walk on foot as close as I wanted. It was odd, but I wasnt about to question it.

I started approaching, but the closer I got, the more I realised how odd this horse looked. It didn't look like any breed of horse in the game, or like any breed I knew of. Everything looked… wrong. Like a bunch of different horses merged into one. Its legs were thin and long like a saddlebred, but its body was thick and wide like an ardennes or Jorvik wild horse. Its neck looked like that of the friesian, but it was bent down at an odd angle, like its head was being forcefully pulled against its chest. Its long, dark mane looked twisted and tangled, like a longer version of the mustangs. But what was the most disturbing was its face. It looked like it meant to be shaped like an Arabian, but the eyes were all… wrong. They were angled far more forward than they should have been, placing them more on the front of the face than more to the sides. Not only that, but the eyes themselves looked inverted, making it appear as though there were instead two hollowed out sockets in their place. Even the shading made it seem as though that was the original intent. Everything about this horse was downright creepy. Why the hell would SSE make something like this?

I decided to take a picture and see if anyone online knew anything about this eerie horse or if they had any idea why it looked like this. I pressed the photo button, but the second I entered photo mode, the horse vanished as though it wasn't even there. Was SSO so determined to hide this thing that they even hid it from the photo mode?

Not wanting to leave without evidence of this thing, I resorted to screenshots, taking a few photos before clicking out of the game to check the folder. But when I did, what I saw made no sense. In every screenshot I took, I saw my character, the area, the fog, even my own horse in some shots… but not the NPC horse. How was that even possible? The screenshots weren't in game, they should have just captured what was on the screen. I clicked back to the game to try again, but completely froze.

The horse had moved. It's neck twisted at a harsh angle, as though it had been broken in half. Its previously hollow indents of eyes now had two small pinpricks of light at their centre, barely big enough to make out. And with those tiny dots that made up its eyes, it started.

It started at me.

Not my character.

Me.

Have you ever had someone stare at you so intensely that, even if you had your back to them, you could feel it? Like an almost primal instinct kicks in to warn you that there's danger and to prepare to defend yourself. The moment you notice, you get this split second where your body freezes up, and everything around you goes numb except for that feeling of a pair of eyes. That's what I felt when I saw that things eyes staring back into mine through my computer screen. Those hollow eyes felt as though it was staring straight through to my very soul, making my blood run cold. I wanted to move, to scream, to  do anything, but I felt frozen in place, as though that things cold, unblinking stare had me trapped. As I stared, I began to hear the faintest sound in the back of my mind. Almost like a raspy, gargled breathing. The longer it stared, the louder the sound got, slowly becoming the only thing I could hear. As though, even without moving, it was drawing closer.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I managed to snap out of my frozen state, quickly slamming my laptop shut, not even caring in the moment if it broke. The second I did, everything stopped, and I found myself gasping for air despite not even realising I had been holding my breath. My eyes flickered around the room, instinctually looking around the room for danger. After a few minutes, I managed to calm myself down a bit. My body trembled as I became drenched in a cold sweat, and questions ran through my mind faster than I could even process any kind of answer. 

What the fuck was all that? Why did it feel like that thing was actually staring at me? Like it was actually in my room?  What was that messed up breathing sound? Why was that disturbing thing in a game targeted at kids? What the hell was going on? The questions, as well as the lingering adrenaline and paranoia of what just happened, kept me up the rest of the night. My eyes cautiously scanned the darkness, as though that thing would creep around the corner at any moment, until sunlight finally poured in the windows of my room.

I went about my day in an exhausted haze, still mulling over what happened as I tried to find a logical answer. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Was it a glitched horse model? Or a new scare tactic to keep people from glitching into areas they weren't supposed to, like the old anti-pirating screens of old video games? Maybe even an early model of a new Halloween horse? But why was I so freaked out by it? It was just a pixelated horse in a video game, but when it stared at me, it felt so terrifyingly real, like it would crawl out of the screen or even like it was already in the room with me. Maybe I was just tired from staying up late so often, and I was starting to become paranoid because of it?

The more I thought it over, the more I managed to convince myself. Of course it wasn't staring at me. It was probably just a glitch. Just a bunch of pixels on a screen. It wasn't real. Hell, maybe it wasn't even as scary looking as I thought. My brain was probably just experiencing hallucinations from lack of sleep. That had to be it, right?

Besides, even if that thing was real and as scary as I thought, I wasn't going to let it stop me from playing my favourite game.

That night, after I had dinner and finished my homework, I turned on my computer (which, thankfully, was not broken from the rough treatment last night), and logged on to Star stable again. As I waited for the site to load, I couldn't help but wonder. What if it was real? What if I loaded into Mystic Valley again, and that thing was still there? What if I froze up again? I pushed the feeling away. I had already left the lights on to ease this ridiculous fear, I wasn't backing down. It was just a stupid creepy horse in a video game. It was fake. I was safe. The game opened with the familiar welcoming ring, and I was thankful to see I was back in front of my home stable, and there was no glitched NPC horse anywhere to be seen. I sighed in relief. It was all just in my mind.

I spent the next few hours training my lower level horse, completing race after race as I made my way across the map like always. I even competed in a few championships, despite being one of the only people online at that time of night. However, I couldn't shake this eerie feeling. Everything was normal, but I kept feeling as though I wasn't alone. Like there was always someone or something watching me from just out of my line of sight, and whenever I looked around, it would disappear. I tried to ignore it, telling myself it was my imagination or that I was still just anxious from everything.

At around 4 am, I had finished all the races and decided to call it a night. I called for pickup, and went to enter my stable. But after a few seconds of loading, I noticed something. There was no image of Maya walking through the stable to take care of the horses. Just a pitch black screen with no text. At first, I thought my computer had frozen, and I begrudgingly waited for the “Star Stable.EXE has stopped working” pop up. But, after a minute or so, the loading finished, and I was standing inside the stable. Only, my horse was gone. All of my horses were gone. Was my game crashing? I looked around briefly before clicking the stable button to see where my horse went. 

What I saw made my breath catch in my throat. In place of every icon that was meant to be one of my horses was instead replaced by that same, deformed face of that horse, staring back at me with those dark, soulless eyes. And where my horses names should have been, was instead my name. My real name.

How was that even possible? I never used my real name anywhere on star stable, or anywhere online for that matter. I exited the stable menu, and there it was. That mangled, horrifying thing standing in the stable aisle staring at me. I felt my body tense, but I refused to let that thing trap me again. It's not real, I told myself. It's a glitch. That's all.

I pressed the exit button to quit the game, but nothing happened. I kept pressing, but no menu appeared. I started to panic as I heard the distorted breathing begin again, and as it did, I watched in horror as the horse's jaw slowly unhinged, stretching down towards the ground, revealing a set of sharp, fang-like teeth that lined its jaw. I felt its eyes burn into me, like a predator sizing up its prey before going for its throat. This wasn't in my head. This wasn't just a glitch. Whatever this thing was, it was real, it was sentient, and it wanted me. I kept clicking every button I could think of to get the game to close, but still, nothing worked. Even when I finally had enough and slammed my laptop closed again, I could still hear those tortured breaths getting louder and louder in my head. I covered my ears and closed my eyes, begging it to stop, to just go away, but still it persisted till I couldn't even hear my own panicked heartbeat over it.

I was about to scream out of pure fear and desperation when all of a sudden, it stopped. Just as quickly as the breathing had begun, it stopped, leaving me in the silence of my room. I sat motionless for a few moments before slowly opened my eyes, tears threatening to fall as I looked frantically around the room for any sign of danger, but all I saw was my lit bedroom and my computer all but tossed off my lap, teetering near the edge of the bed.

Was it over? Was that thing gone? I sat as still as possible for the longest time, as though waiting for something, anything to happen, but still, nothing. After what felt like hours, I mustered up the courage to reach for my computer. I had to know. Just a quick peak to make sure it was off and that that thing wouldn't come for me. Slowly, I lifted the screen, just enough that I could see the light of the screen.

Nothing.

Inch by inch, I opened the laptop fully, only to be met with a black screen. A sigh escaped me as I confirmed the computer had powered itself off after being closed. So long as I didn't log on to the game, that thing couldn't possibly get me.

But as moved to close it, my eyes caught sight of my reflection in the darkness of the screen.

And I saw it.

In the reflection was that long, grey, mangled face with its dead, hollow eyes staring motionless at me from the shadows, its jaw still unhinged like a snake.

The next thing I remember was my parents rushing into my room as I screamed bloody murder, thrashing violently as I tried to get away from that thing. They practically had to restrain me to get me to finally calm down. I cried in their arms as they frantically pushed for answere to figure out what had happened. When I tried to explain, they chalked it up to a night terror brought on by stress. The more I tried to insist it was real, the more they assured me it wasn't. I only stopped insisting when they started suggesting getting me psychological help and the idea that I was having a mental breakdown. I knew no one would believe me. Even if I got proof, what could they really do about any of this anyway?

It's been months since I last played Star Stable Online. Even the thought of logging on makes me feel anxiety build up in my chest. I want so desperately to have things back to the way they were. To just log on and forget the world again. And yet, I know that I never will. That thing didn't just  traumatize me. It stole a part of me. It stole my comfort. My escape from the world. It stole that sense of peace and safety, a part of me I will never get back.

What's worse, it stole my sense of reasoning. I tried researching what I saw and asking around the community. I even emailed Star Stable Entertainment themselves, just hoping for any kind of answer, and still got nothing. I dont have an explanation for what happened or why it affected me so much. 

I can't explain why it chose me, or how it was able to do what it did. 

I can't explain why I still see it, or why it almost appears to be getting a bit closer everytime I see it in the corner of my eye. 

I can't explain why every night since, the moment I start to fall asleep, I hear those same, horrid, gasping breaths in my ears, getting louder and louder. 

And, no matter how hard I try, I can never explain why Ive started feeling a cold rush of air run down my neck in time with each breath.

[northberg]

sso insta post: 🥳 it's our 12th birthday! we made you guys a busy month-long festival and seven cute new ponies based on player feedback 🥺👉👈

the comments: 🙄 i hate this game where are the free codes? why not another free horse? i want 300sc? i hate the new characters? i want new quests? every update is worse than the last? if i don't get what i want im quitting your game. also you should work for free

[bugslaststraw]

So because someone (@theblabarmy hope it's ok to tag) wanted to know. Um. I should make a self indulgent post about my brainchild on this blog. I guess. I have a side blog for her/sso related stuff (@vilda-ravenhill) but still. Hey.

So to preface Star Stable Online is an open world mmorpg about being the Chosen One horse girl who has to fight the bad guys. It's badly written but unfortunately really well concept'd. Got some good art direction. About half the character designs are ass and the other half are genius. Sometimes for the wrong reasons. The gameplay is fine. The fandom does nothing but complain and the creators are so sensitive that they keep listening to bad complaints just because they sound angry. It's got one hundred thousand lore retcons. There are books. The book lore doesn't match the game lore. It's a weird game. I've loved it since I was in like fourth grade and trying to survive being bullied so it's definitely special to me anyway ok more under cut this is long

It gets weird when it comes to the plot though. Cus, well basically it's like this: the whole plot takes place on a fictional island called Jorvik. Somewhere between Norway and England. Its its own country. Its rural and there's like one mall on the whole island. And on this island there are druids that know like actual nature magic and shit? And there's a nature goddess called Aideen, and she has a prophecy that four girls and four horses, called the Soul Riders, are gonna save the world or whatever. These Riders change with time when they get old and die and have to find new ones, but the Soul Horses reincarnate for some reason? Like they can remember their past lives and shit.

So there's this hippy nature cult around Aideen where some of the druids are devoted specifically to her and to training/protecting the Soul Riders, and they're called the Keepers of Aideen, okay. And each Soul Rider has a unique power with it's own symbol so there's like the Star rider the Sun rider etc and they do different things.

But as it turns out there's a secret second prophecy that says there's a FIFTH rider who's like super duper important and knows all FOUR magic circles and that's the player character. Who. Turns out. Is also reincarnating? Like you meet your own previous reincarnation in game and it's the dead mother of a character you already know. Star Stable is bad until it suddenly makes a U turn and does something really clever and there's so much potential and that's what drives me insane.

And there's also this other dimension called Pandoria? And it's got people in it too but Pandorians can't survive on earth because they're dearly allergic to time, yes, literally to time, and humans who stay in Pandoria for too long get very sick and their magical ability goes haywire. There's a pandorian on Jorvik who has created a bubble where time doesn't exist, and he just hangs out and occasionally tries to kill you.

There's also an in between void dimension full of literally nothing that you have to go through to get to Pandoria. Like it's The Void it's The Nothing it's The Fog. There are these magical trees that grow on Jorvik but that reach all the way into Pandoria through The Void and they've got a whole root system there. You can apparently get lost in The Void and never return. It's actual Limbo and it just hangs out there.

Oh and lets not forget the evil counter-cult masquerading as an equally evil oil company (sso has an environmentalist message) that have four DARK RIDERS and DARK HORSES and DARK EVIL VERSIONS OF THE GOOD MAGIC like Dark Sun and Dark Star I shit you not, and they worship an evil chaos god called Garnok who is Literally Just Cthulhu, and their leader is a little too into it for some reason, and also witches exist and they're sometimes evil sometimes not but also they're always evil but that got retconned because star stable is not a good game and keeps contradicting itself and never does anything with its potential or characters or story because it's bad okay holy shit Tumblr doesn't like it when I write this much text hold on I'm gonna continue in a reblog

[i-rate-horse-games]

rating Star Stable Online

Star Stable Online is a MMORPG! its plot seems to get pretty wild!

upon discovering that Fish was an option in the drop down name creators, i cackled with joy. this is Rusty Fishfish and Futurefish

our goal in this world was to become Fish. one glorious leap into the ocean showed us that it would be harder than anticipated, due to having taken a ‘dangerous’ fall. luckily it doesn’t seem like horses can be injured, even though the screen flashes red if you trip while jumping. 

i joined right after the new character models became available. i think they’re pretty neat! some of the body types looked androgynous to me, but the game calls you a girl regardless. but you can still buy facial hair in the shop!

the world is a nice size! it’s scaled small enough that you feel like you’re going places even when your horse is physically moving a little slow, and the world is big enough that there’s plenty to explore while still being small enough that you see other players going about their lives pretty frequently. 

speaking of other players! shout out to @ro-sso for warning me to never open the global chat. i did! i asked how to get hay after very rapidly forgetting what i had just learned. three people told me it grew on a farm. i said Ok. when i did find the hay (in a shop) i told the chat i had been betrayed and bamboozled and they said “BAHAHAHAHAHA”. later i used the Say chat to ask for help finding a championship that was starting soon, and everyone nearby was very helpful. you win some you lose some

quests seem to be the biggest part of the game! they’re how you get player and horse exp and level up and get better stats for competing. a lot of the quests i did felt very tedious. lots of riding back and forth and delivering messages and so forth. the worst ones involved herding horses that kept splitting into smaller groups and running around a mall doing errands for a sketchy guy. my favorite quests were the ones where i got to open my backpack and drag a tool onto something, which felt like playing Nancy Drew. there was also one where we got to follow the visible smell of pumpkin pie on a trail to a little cottage, and it was nighttime so there were cricket sounds as well!

there’s so much love and soul packed into this world! there’s a pony who was elected mayor! there’s a pirate themed race that has music just similar enough to the Pirates of the Carribean music to remind you of it while also remaining distinct! there’s a riding club that “wears pink and not only on wednesdays.”! there’s a girl with a pet owl named Toby who says “Even though he blathers about it, Toby loves bugs.” there’s vague sounds of people talking in areas with lots of NPCs! there’s a kid with a hot air balloon who takes you up to the cloud kingdom! he has a pet frog who can ride on your head! there’s an emo electric violinist who was really funny! you can get a kitten for your saddlebag! the music is pretty decent!

the clothes very strongly remind me of being 12. something about the slightly awkward way the clothes fit is nostalgic. there were also lots of flower crowns for the summer solstice!

a huge point for this game is that it has its own pride festival!

there’s just something about going to a new place and seeing rainbow flags everywhere, especially after the horrors of horse isle 3. i hear this game also has canon lesbian characters! this does make it even funnier that all players are assigned Cowgirl at login

the one thing that really surprised me is that if you play without a membership, you are apparently trapped in a demo version, and the rest of the game is locked behind a paywall. this sprang up on me after i started running out of quests. the game told me to level up to unlock more main quests, but the only way to get player exp was to do quests, and i pretty much ran out. this concept is really foreign to me, since every game like this that i’ve played before, the membership made your life much easier and more posh, but free players could still get a lot out of the game. games like club penguin, pixie hollow, animal jam, etc. it’s only about $5 a month, though, with a permanent membership option for over 50 dollars. i have not purchased it, but if I ever do, i will update my rating. :)

while googling the above problem to figure out what was going on, i learned that there's no level cap and there's seasonal events that give EXP, so even if you've finished the whole game, there can still be players more powerful than you with better stats dominating the competition. that seems ! a little rough! they also said that after you beat the game, there's not much left to do. hopefully the fun part is the journey and not the destination!

all in all, though, we did it. we became Fish.

and that makes it all worth it.

i’m rating Star Stable Online 4.5 out of 5 stars!

★★★★✬

please feel free to submit horse games or ask me to reevaluate! next up is Alicia Online!

[doveshovel]

anon is right, more hunter lore.

he's very fun. love your ideas.

Do you mind if I ask what goes on regarding all the magic stuff? Is he Aideen-adjacent or just kind of vibing? Somewhere in-between? I know there's some drama going on with Sabine 🤔

I wasn't expecting my guy to get this much attention, thank you guys!

Going to be completely honest here: I'm a very new player who only really started playing SSO in January of this year, and took about a month's break from the main quests in March. As a result, I've almost definitely forgotten a lot of important lore surrounding Aideen/soul rider magic, and don't have many of the magical shenanigans in Hunter's story fully thought out :'))

But! It has definitely been on my mind. Hunter's specific role among the soul riders + his relationship with the different circles of magic are works in progress so here's what I've been working with so far!

(Content warning for some (pink) blood in image!)

Lately, I've been messing with the idea (just for fun) that Hunter's a conduit for Aideen, rather than a descendant or reincarnation. He has almost no magical power of his own, and relies pretty much entirely on the whims of an incorporeal, deity-like being to perform any kind of soul rider magic. Essentially, he gets partially possessed every now and again when what remains of Aideen's soul decides that it would be beneficial to the fate of Jorvik and/or its inhabitants. During this "possession", Hunter functions as a point at which her soul (which I think was supposed to be scattered among the horses, people, and nature of Jorvik? correct me if I'm wrong. Hunter's lore google doc is in dire need of revision and organization anyways) can condense enough to produce magic from any of the four circles, and create the illusion that he's the mystical fifth soul rider.

Other bits of this idea from the google doc:

The four runestones in Valedale respond to a concentrated "presence" of Aideen, rather than to Hunter himself.

He's aware of this. Aideen's not of this world in cannon (emerged from a falling star), and practically dissolved into the entire island of Jorvik. Containing even a fraction of her soul in a human body is a jarring experience that can cause a lot of issues for the "host" ranging from minor side effects (cold sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, muscle aches, mild nausea, etc.) to more severe (short memory gaps, nosebleeds, migraines, loss of consciousness, insomnia, severe nausea, visual disturbances and/or hallucinations, auditory disturbances and/or hallucinations, etc.).

Maybe losing so much of his memory and original personality in the process of getting to Jorvik counts as losing part of a soul? So it creates a kind of "empty space" that Aideen's own soul is able to fill whenever she so chooses, and that's why Hunter works as a conduit/vessel, rather than a reincarnation. Idk. May have to workshop this.

The soul riders, valiant reincarnations of previous soul riders. +This one guy who has a weird thing with the local deity

Hunter and Aideen have a similar relationship to roommates who butt heads frequently but have no intention of leaving to seek a better roommate. but in Hunter's brain/soul/body. Bodymates. Soulmates (derogatory) (not romantic) (not platonic either). Symbiotic relationship. Both parties benefit and Hunter recognizes the necessity of it for saving Jorvik but he's still having a very bad no good time with the side effects, and he's still mad at her for letting him die.

This is the idea that I like working with the most so far, but I'll update y'all if there's something better in the works! :^D

As for Sabine: I was in a weird headspace while making that little comic of Hunter and Sabine up in Dinosaur Valley. At the time, it was just intended to be the end of Hunter's story. He'd be a spooky character who haunts the forest up in the valley as a ghost and that's that. Maybe the world's doomed by Garnok now, maybe the keepers find someone to replace him. Hunter doesn't know, he's dead on a mountainside and doomed to spend eternity wandering in search of an escape from Sabine.

A couple weeks after making that scene, I decided I didn't want that to be the end of his story. Just because it's kind of sad :( As much as I delight in making Hunter's wildly out of place string of crimes for a backstory, and making him experience endless horrors, Star Stable's very much a happy game for me. It's something I couldn't afford as a 10 year old but desperately wanted, and bought for myself with adult money a decade later to live out some old horseboy dream with beloved pixel horsies. :) To end my first (and so far only) player character's story there feels like a disservice, so I've got that scenario tucked away as a sort of AU/alternate timeline thing. It's still very fun to draw and think about because I love giving characters horrors to experience, but I want him to keep going on horse adventures in Jorvik :D

I decided that he does in fact die there in the Hidden Valley though. Not many people can survive that kind of thing after all. Aideen, however, decides she doesn't want to lose her vessel just yet, and Hunter's resurrected through a combination of the power of horsies and friendship Aideen's connection to the star circle and WizardEgg's (Starter horse) Starbreed magics. Magical resurrection results in the ability to channel more of Aideen's magic, but also the worsening of side effects, and a glowing star-shaped scar on his forehead that appears when using said magic.

^Old doodle from when I was playing around with negative side effects of magic :)

The whole scene creates a point of tension between he and Aideen. Hunter thinks Aideen could have done more to prevent it, and isn't particularly fond of the new, worsened magical side effects. Aideen isn't mortal and so doesn't think the way mortals do. She sees her vessel as having gained more power, and knows he'll come to understand the value of that power in the future. She's right, but he's still going to be mad about it.

As for Sabine? Hunter's still scared of her! Her and all the dark riders! They're spooky 👻 and he's a bit of a coward! Hunter lost a lot of his nerve/confidence with his memories during the boating incident, along with coordination and a couple other odds and ends.

[toruq]

im sending u these ones specifically bc i know ur less connected to ur mc than to anne muhahaha >:333

12. What does your character look like? Which hairstyle and make up do you prefer on them?

13. What is your character's name? Do you wish to change it, if the function ever makes its way into the game?

14. How do you dress your character? Do you coordinate the outfits between Rider and Horse?

and if u feel like it im curious about these:

23. Which Druid Circle do you prefer? Is there a reason for your preference? Is it tied to the Soul Rider of the Circle?

20. What part of the Main Story is your favorite?

11. How many horses do you own in total? Did it use to be more, or are you still missing a few?

04. Which Horse was your first purchase? Do you still own that horse, and what did you name it?

05. Which Horse is your favorite? Do you own said horse, or are you simply dreaming of buying it?

juni you must hate me or something

under the cut because there's so much to answer (mostly about my mc that i neglect so hard)

12. What does your character look like? Which hairstyle and make up do you prefer on them?

ok, here is ida. i draw her based on the old player model but in the new player model she looks a bit different. I use this chunky highlight hair because it somewhat hides the fact that her ears stick out now when wearing a hat/helmet (this pisses me off the most about the new characters). but she used to have this black hair, and of course dark eye makeup. it's a lot like what i do irl

13. What is your character's name? Do you wish to change it, if the function ever makes its way into the game?

Ida Riverwood! I don't ever want to change it. I actually really like it and I'm surprised my kid self was smart enough to choose that

14. How do you dress your character? Do you coordinate the outfits between Rider and Horse?

you can kinda see how i dress her in those pics of her, usually a dark color scheme and yes I coordinate it with the horse. I actually dress her in a lot of sweaters and typically with proper breeches and tall boots and helmet as if it were a regular english outfit irl. I occasionally dress her and her horse in western gear, or use streetwear if she's off the horse

23. Which Druid Circle do you prefer? Is there a reason for your preference? Is it tied to the Soul Rider of the Circle?

you may be surprised, but I like the moon circle just a smidgen more than the sun circle, though they are in close competition. I just love the aspects of both of them, visions & teleportation. I find it so interesting and quite applicable to real life, at least personally, because of how I experience life with PTSD. it is easy to convey my mind through comics about the powers of these circles.

20. What part of the Main Story is your favorite?

oh my, if you can count the storyline in SSL as a predecessor to SSO, i would say Anne's first trip to Pandoria to save Concorde. in SSO, it's surprising but seeing Anne without saving her must have been my favorite. I was disappointed with the actual saving Anne quest, but seeing Pandoria for the first time in SSO was an experience I won't forget, even though I prefer the atmosphere of Pandoria in SSL

11. How many horses do you own in total? Did it use to be more, or are you still missing a few?

oh my. 64. I once sold the green whinfell because i found it so ugly. But I felt so bad and rebought it a year or two ago.

04. Which Horse was your first purchase? Do you still own that horse, and what did you name it?

this little POS, Carrotwinner. I still have him. pic taken just now

05. Which Horse is your favorite? Do you own said horse, or are you simply dreaming of buying it?

can you logically ask me this question Juni?

just kidding, my favorite (purchasable) horse is this little guy, and I'm so lucky to have him. I think he was either the second or third old fjord I bought, and I have three. the white one, and orange thing I also have.

[jorvik-gazette-archive]

Kyomi and Brittany made in sso’s new player character test

[dizzysnowbully]

Destructive Criticism in the SSO Community

I have noticed the increasing amount of destructive criticism in the SSO community since the character update. It is clear the majority of the player base does not understand what constructive criticism is, and how it is harmful.

A quote from an article on thriveworks.com  

“...constructive criticism uplifts, offers suggestions, and even provides possible solutions, destructive criticism is cutting, derogatory, and sometimes even mocks our failures.”

Everybody believes that Star Stable Online is a huge company, and that they should be held accountable for their poor management of the game. However, destructive criticism insults the recipient and offers no solutions for improvement. No matter how large a company may be, this type of criticism is unhelpful and overall unnecessary. 

Image credit:  Jayne Pritchard@SlinkyScience·Oct 13, 2020

More importantly in regards to the character update, by insulting the larger body types and particular facial features (ie. hooked noses, large lips) whether directly or indirectly is an outright attack on real people that have those characteristics. It has gotten to the point where people are being bullied over their CHARACTER’S APPEARANCE both in and outside of the game.

If you love this game so much but consistently attack the team at every opportunity, do you really love it at all?

I am an older player. I have been playing Star Stable since 2013. The character update is LONG overdue, and I am happy to see how much care and consideration they put into it. It is clear they wanted to be inclusive and provide a diverse range of options. It is a shame the player base had such a vile reaction. That is not denying the fact that there are issues. 

Now, I am no video game designer BUT I do know a thing or two about website design and I know from experience that code never just works. At this point bugs are expected especially with such a large and important update. 

Opinions are NOT constructive criticism. Personal opinions on the body types have no real value especially when y’all know good and well they said they would add more. Some players to simply call the characters “ugly” and not explain further because they don’t have a reason.

Artists that are familiar with the basic elements and principals of design understand the new characters are not poorly designed. The original character models were not badly designed either for that matter. They were simply outdated. 

With that said let me address some of the complaints that have nothing to do with the design aspects of the characters:

Addressing Common Complaints:

The characters are too big? No. They aren’t. You are just accustomed to looking at a toothpick. The models have been scaled up to better suit the environment. You will get used to it.

The characters are too fat? Well it’s a good thing pixels weigh absolutely nothing.

There aren’t any skinny options. I want curves. COPE. There will be more body types released later, and if that really bothers you I think you should get a life and find something else to worry about.

I don’t like the giant facial features and hooked noses. They aren’t FOR YOU. Pick a face that doesn’t have them. There will be more added later.

Why couldn’t they just release it all the first time? It was stated in the news/blog they have to release it in small portions so not to overwhelm the toasters that some of y’all play on. Also this update has been highly anticipated and in this day and age of Tik Tok kids are too impatient to wait another year.

The animations are bad. They are far more realistic and natural than the original. See no.1 

These complaints are all opinion based and have no valuable feedback. Constructive criticism looks at both the good and bad. Yes, you can like the new characters, but also not be entirely satisfied with them. In all fairness, they are unfinished (See complaints: no.5)

The overwhelming negativity in this community is going to drag us all to Hell. You simply cannot expect an MMO as old as Star Stable to not change. Look at School of Dragons for example. That game is being shut down because it could not keep up with the advancements or didn’t care to. 

In conclusion: I am tired.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. 

[thecedarchronicle]

I played through the new beginning of the game and I have to say it's much better than I was afraid it was going to be. I like the angle of MC first discovering another side of Jorvik through the Moon Circle, it feels like a good introduction. Especially since it happens right after you create the first connection with the canonical soul steed!

Except - what's the deal with seeing the Soul Riders right out the gate? I understand wanting to introduce your new players to the main characters as soon as possible, and maybe I am put off since I'm already familiar with them, but it just seems way off. Why is Lisa taking complete beginner classes at Moorland when she's already learning under Herman at Jorvik Stables? Why are all five of them so keen on befriending this random kid? I'm glad they didn't introduce more NPCs to immediately abandon but it doesn't feel like the right fit. Also, am I missing something? Why is Maya the instructor? Isn't she a stable girl trying to save up to start taking riding classes?

I'll be clear I don't want this to sound like I'm bashing on SSE. I really really like the new start of the game. I think it's a much gentler introduction and in general a way better tutorial. I actually feel like I know why the MC is here and what's going on, and as a result immediately feel way more grounded in the story. I just think their choice of characters did them a disservice.

I'm no professional writer, but I think it would have been really cool if Maya was the student learning with us. She could even be the person sharing the cabin with MC. Give MC and Maya a chance to bond as the "newbies" and become friends during the first day, and you immediately have a good reason as to why the MC would be invited into the Soul Riders' group.

Maybe the next day, after having a strange dream, Alex comes and visits Maya, and when you approach them to start the day, you overhear snippets of the conversation they didn't really intend for you to hear --- something about Dark Riders following Anne to France, and hopefully she's safe, or that Lisa just got back from tour, but she's not responding to any of Alex or Lisa's texts, asking Maya maybe Lisa's done with all the magic and danger?

Or maybe MC mentions something they see in their dream that Maya recognizes. MC overhears Maya mentioning it to Alex and realizes these two girls know way more than they let on, and later MC follows them to eavesdrop and gets the drop on the two of them + Linda saying some really incriminating stuff about the druids and Aideen, and once they realize MC is there, they finally give an explanation. It would give MC some more agency in the story, too. Instead of being told to "go here with me and you'll be given answers" MC decides to explore the underbelly of this place themselves.

Although. A really cool thing. Would be if you advanced along the main story to get to the druids and they admit to you that Fripp or whoever sensed a huge energy shift and realized someone of huge power had arrived on the island, and you find out that the entire first couple of days on Jorvik all five of them were just doing this huge undercover operation on you to figure out what your deal was. Because if I was a new player and wasn't familiar with SSO's brand of storytelling I would have been so suspicious of them the entire time.

[natduskfall]

New to SSOBLR

Hey, i'm Nat, an adult SSO player looking for moots, community, memes, art, and all that good stuff.

This is my sideblog, i interact from @obludanat

I grew up on Starshine Legacy, and I came back to SSO last autumn to look for my roots i guess. Little did I know this game would grab me by the throat. I like the story (or it's potential), and am interested in Dark Core and the more secret offscreen stuff.

My blog will contain art, memes, screenshots from SSO, and maybe some story bits and lore!

Navigation

My content

my video

my art - art that I made

my screenshots

My characters and horses

h:darko

h:hollowknight

oc:nat

Blorbo

sso darko

[centeris2]

You know, I feel really bad for the SSO writers

Not even from a "constantly changing lore, unfinished story threads, and so many NPCs good luck remembering characterization" sort of way. I mean in a meta and game writing way.

I look at the events and wince because oof, these are tough decisions. I play through the latest story quests and think about how hard that job is.

Unless there has been a staff change since I did contract work (and given it's been a while now, that is possible), it's mostly two ladies trying to wrestle with a difficult challenge:

How do you create the illusion of choice and feel of an RPG when writing a linear story with no possible deviations?

A player gets dialogue options, they are given a choice! The choice they pick doesn't matter, it doesn't change the outcome of the quest because it can't change. The story is linear. The characters ask the player for ideas, but either have to shoot them all down or the player can actually only suggest one idea.

There is also the issues of the world of Jorvik changing and not matching what the text says. The dialogue says to hide in bushes to stay hidden, but no bushes are around where the characters have been positioned. Katja and Jessica ride off on ice made by Katja, but the quests are released during winter, so the ice effect isn't visible at all under the snow textures and the dialogue about not being able to follow across a river now look very silly. A character mentions Moorland Stables getting renovated, which doesn't make sense years after Moorland's update. And so on.

And then there are events! SSO comes out with these brand new shiny models: the Dark Riders! So obviously they want to use their newest and best looking characters in events to show them off to all players as soon as possible. This makes things no longer make sense. How does Sabine know a brand new player? Why would a player recognize Katja or Sabine, who they have never met in game? There is the tug of war between "this doesn't make sense to have these characters at these events" and "these are the best looking models in the game and therefore we want to show them off", so the writers have to find a way to write these characters in and just sorta accept that the events are non canonical for most (all) players. How else would all the soul riders the brand new player hasn't saved yet be there standing around?

It's tough, it's a tangled mess, it's a balancing act with lots of other departments and needs pushing on the scales. I don't envy them and I don't know a good solution. (Short of like, releasing a single player story game for the story quests. IDK about the events, have event-only npcs? having every event have an ongoing updating story every year means a lot of time and resources is going toward just events, I can see why they would want to stop that, especially with 4 major events a year.)

Don't get me wrong, if I had a chance to do another writing or proofreading contract for them I'd do it in a heartbeat. But my god, tough job.