Thread: The Horsefields Derby

Is it just me or is it really hard to find these gates during the session play race.

I just failed cause I couldn't find the 7th gate in 10 seconds and now I have to wait two hours to try again. Seems a little harsh.

I had no problem with the derby or the watering the horses. My problem is I am not being offered any of the other horse quests for the deed.

I had no problems FINDING the gates. My problem was the mud. :P Made it with 4 seconds to spare.

As to being offered other quests - I think it's one of those things you have to wait a few hours for. *shrug* I couldn't do anymore quests last night after I finished the first session play with the horse, but then this morning when I logged in, there were two new quests for me.

Originally Posted by Sam6284

I had no problems FINDING the gates. My problem was the mud. :P Made it with 4 seconds to spare.

As to being offered other quests - I think it's one of those things you have to wait a few hours for. *shrug* I couldn't do anymore quests last night after I finished the first session play with the horse, but then this morning when I logged in, there were two new quests for me.

Is there some way NOT to get in the mud? I have yet to even get close to finishing. It doesn't seem to matter where I run, I always end up in the mud.

After my first mud, it was fairly easy to avoid them and get to the gates on time. But I do agree that the failure cooldown time is extremely harsh.

Where do these horse quests start? I have not gotten any ingame mails about them. Are they a springfest thing, or a Rohan thing?

Originally Posted by Aedon

I had no problem with the derby or the watering the horses. My problem is I am not being offered any of the other horse quests for the deed.

I think it was mentioned that you are alowed 2 a day, and they are at random, like the skirmish side encounters. Every day, you will get 2 quests at random, and eventually be able to finish all 9. (or whatever the number is)

Originally Posted by redwoodtreesprite

Where do these horse quests start? I have not gotten any ingame mails about them. Are they a springfest thing, or a Rohan thing?

If these are what I am thinking, it is the horse session play quests that are only availble if you preorder the Legendary edition of Riders of Rohan.

Originally Posted by Ellis

After my first mud, it was fairly easy to avoid them and get to the gates on time. But I do agree that the failure cooldown time is extremely harsh.

How do you avoid them? Are you just supposed to not step on the brown muddy looking areas? I was running in the grass the whole time and for the whole race I had the speed debuff, I never could get it to go away.

You can practice the course at 21.5 S, 51.1W in eastern bree-fields. I still seem to have a hard time getting around the mud on the 6th gate. Now that I have practiced the course a few times on my horse I am hoping I can do better at it next run!

Save your horse sprint for the 2nd half of the race where there are more mud puddles to negate the effects of the 30% slow for the latter part of the race. You'll be fine!

... perhaps I should have looked at my skill bar, didn't notice a sprint skill and beat it the second try without it. To those having troubles with being on the grass and still getting the slow: the mud piles have a large radius

Originally Posted by Sam6284

I had no problems FINDING the gates. My problem was the mud. :P Made it with 4 seconds to spare.

As to being offered other quests - I think it's one of those things you have to wait a few hours for. *shrug* I couldn't do anymore quests last night after I finished the first session play with the horse, but then this morning when I logged in, there were two new quests for me.

As I understand it, they are dailies ... and only a few of them are offered per day.

And I want to sing the praise of whoever designed "Herding to the Trollshaws." Is it all right to talk about it now???




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Lots more fun than being a chicken.

Eglerio!

Wow didn't realize the timer started before you clicked the horse so i stupidly took time to READ the quest. >_< shame on me. JUUUUST fell short. well 2 hours to wait.

If it helps at all, the radar and your map both show the next gate... So on the map it's a ring icon, on the radar there's an arrow pointing in the right direction. I relied on that initially.

The mud is easy to avoid if you zoom out a lot and pitch your camera angle just right. Some of the mud patches are a little wider than they seem at first, but zooming out helped me a lot.

I was able to finish it with like 30 seconds to spare and I ran into mud two or three times... so it's definitely doable even with a few screw ups.

What I don't understand is that the horse that bestows the quest says you have FIVE minutes to complete it. As soon as I accept the quest, however, the timer starts at TWO minutes...

let's assume it takes 2 minutes to go from combe to the horsefields. (I don't know what that quest are about since i don't have Rohan yet but it makes sense)

I guess my practice runs paid off! I was able to do it last night (without any speed buffs) with a minute and 9 seconds left.

It takes me forever to load into the session play so I am not sure when the timer actually starts but when I finally load in I have a little over 2 minutes when I start. I immediately rushed the horse, hit accept and started running and didn't hit any mud this time!

I noticed the timer running on mine as I was reading the quest, so I just hit accept real quick and took off. I hit the first mud puddle and realized it slowed me down, so I did my best to avoid them. Still hit a couple of the others, but I did manage it. I just don't know why the timer starts at slightly over 2 minutes when it says you have 5.

Wow failed the quest yesterday log on today to try again once the cooler finished and i cant do the derby quest anymore. its no longer there. Anyone else have that?

The Horsefields derby is very easy to do when you know how!

That said, I have encountered some issues with that daily:

• My first attempt at derby - went in straight line to what I thought was a gate included in the derby (7th or 8th - I forget which) as it appeared I was going to correct gate - I was not. It turns out that (in fact) the gate to go to is not straight ahead but off to the right. Thanks for the great player consideration there TB! (Yes I failed that run!)
• My second attempt at the derby was failed for not getting back to quest giver in time - could have used a heads up message there TB as I was continuing to next gate - but got none. As it happened I figured that out by looking at quest 'menu' and got to the quest giver horse with about 12-15 seconds left but when I clicked to turn in quest it failed me!
• On my third attempt at the derby, I completed it easy. I went back after TWO HOURS and tried one of the previously failing characters and completed the derby again. (Not in itself an issue as such - do read on!)
• On the other failing character, I thought I would log on and do the derby and maybe have to wait a few minutes before retry. HOW WRONG I WAS! The timer is still at 1hr 59m - two hours HAVE passed in real time though.

My two main concerns on the Horsefields derby are these:

• The TWO HOUR wait to retry is far too harsh and should be dropped altogether or reduced to a maximum of thirty minutes.
• Someone at TB needs to look at the timer reset (retry) issue and make sure it is corrected.

NOTE: The derby 'targets' did not show as a 'ring' or 'arrow for me either!

On a general note; when I first started "Horsing Around" and "Discovering The Descendant" I truly thought that it may be a bit of a 'slog' but fun nevertheless. I am now thinking that both deeds are hardly fun at all because:

• The repetitive nature (could have been a better quest line) is terribly boring.
• The ridiculous "2 a day and that's your lot".
• We are going to need to spend many days at Hengstacers (that is fine for my level 75 hunter that can easily 'port' to other areas but not so 'fun' on other characters that can not do so)

EDITED - To tidy up.

Originally Posted by semjaza

If it helps at all, the radar and your map both show the next gate... So on the map it's a ring icon, on the radar there's an arrow pointing in the right direction. I relied on that initially.

The mud is easy to avoid if you zoom out a lot and pitch your camera angle just right. Some of the mud patches are a little wider than they seem at first, but zooming out helped me a lot.

I was able to finish it with like 30 seconds to spare and I ran into mud two or three times... so it's definitely doable even with a few screw ups.

+ rep and thanks for the great tip about the radar, that's what really helped me in the end.

On The Horse-fields Derby

1. Preview the track once or twice, walk around, look around.
2. Think outside the box; maybe go left around that boulder, jump the fence, go under that tree...
3. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Not necessarily the fastest, but the shortest.

LOL found the Derby Easy failed first attempt as I read the quest info at start
then did not realise the direction to the first gate at first finished with seconds to spare
the old stallion said I Passed but then I did not click Finish quest before time ran out.

Only had a 5 minute cool down haveing failed I believe the 2 hour is only for succesfull completion.

Second attempt had over a minute to spare as I knew where the gates were and did not re-read the quest info just accepted and off I went. Never once hit mud did not even realise they were slow down spots.

Found this Quest Dealing with the Old Stallion Challangeing the New Horse in town More Cute then Challenging.

Only One of 9 to go Worse for Wear hope that comes up Next.

Just follow your arrow on your compass and it will lead you to each gate, and I just went straight to each one, and never hit a puddle, and finished with 40secs left not using sprint.

The quest worked fine on 3 of my six characters. On two of the others the horse would not speed up even with the boost and even though not hitting any mud puddles. Must be bugged or something there. I did manage to complete it but it was real difficult.

The first time I tried this was Sunday night and I did fine, after a friend showed me the correct gates.

I tried it twice on Wed. and failed each time. I had 20 secs to spare going up the hill to the black stallion (yes, I do hit some of the mud), but it failed me before I could even reach the stallion when I had enough time!

Did something happen to this quest since Monday's update?

Anyone else now having trouble with this quest? I wonder if I'll be able to do it successfully, the next time it comes up.

quickly click on the starter black horse and go a little to its right on down the hill thru the first gate. As soon as you get your first speed penalty sign in left hand corner click on the speed boost skill on the horse you are playing and continue to follow the radar arrow thru the remaining gates. The last gate is on the far side of a field jump the fence to get to it DO NOT try to ride around as you will not have time to complete then. You should have about 26 seconds now to race up the hill and touch the black horse to finish. I have done this on 5 toons countless times and this works....yes I failed prior to discovering this method Good Luck

Originally Posted by Loriadrel

The first time I tried this was Sunday night and I did fine, after a friend showed me the correct gates.

I tried it twice on Wed. and failed each time. I had 20 secs to spare going up the hill to the black stallion (yes, I do hit some of the mud), but it failed me before I could even reach the stallion when I had enough time!

Did something happen to this quest since Monday's update?

Anyone else now having trouble with this quest? I wonder if I'll be able to do it successfully, the next time it comes up.

Ok, the black horse, referred to as the "Master" I completed all of the gates and was given the message "Return to the Master" after doing the derby, and returned EXACTLY where I begun and there was NO MASTER to turn into. It was not until the timer (i had about 25 seconds remaining) and there was no horse to turn it in to... that definately seems bugged to me; as I successfully passed all gates and got the "Return to the Master" message, but NO MASTER to turn in to.

I had no idea there was mud. Ha Ha! I knew my horse slowed down at points but I never thought it had to do with mud. I guess 3rd time is a charm eh?

Anyone know why my Crafting skills arent showing up in my signature?

Originally Posted by Lucan_Silverstone

Anyone know why my Crafting skills arent showing up in my signature?

Because MyLotro is broken broken broken.

The puddles of mud catchment area is a shade bigger than the visual size.

Turning down the effects to reduce the amount of grass makes them easier to see.

Sprint will offset one slow comfortably but a 2nd slow will be pushing it close to time.

Other than that it's just repetition to learn the course and hope that the master doesnt go for a frolic while you're doing the race.

After all this time, this quest is still bugged...accepted the quest, started session play, spawned on the hill...no master stallion...ran to the first gate to give the AI a bump, ran back up the hill...still no master stallion...he * finally * spawned in place after 48 seconds had wound down on the timer...needless to say, I ran out of time...on the first retry, TWO BLOODY HOURS LATER...the same thing happened...spawned in session play to find myself on the hill all by my lonesome...* sigh *

It would seem reasonable to me that after 5-6 months of something being bolluxed, it might get * some * kind of attention...

I just ran the Horsefields Derby. I made it with about 20 seconds to spare but when I went to report to the master he wasn't there. He showed up about 15 seconds after the instance had timed out my 20 seconds and failed me. This is the first time I failed because the master wasn't there, but the second time where this happened. The first time he showed up about 3 seconds before my race timed out and I succeded by the skin of my teeth as a result.

This quest is incredibly frustrating. About 40% of the time, the Black Stallion doesn't appear for over a minute at the start of the quest so you burn time and fail. The last time I tried I encountered the same problem as the guy above where I had the Black Stallion appear at the start, but then I got around the course with plenty of time to spare but he'd disappeared again. He came back with a second or two to go but I didn't manage to click Finish in time.

Given there is a 2 hour cooldown, it's more than annoying. The quest itself is easy enough, it's just the disappearing Stallion which really needs to be fixed. I have 1 more character to finish this quest on but he's on his 4th try now, always the same issue.