This was the second to worst option.

We wanted to keep the horses, primarily for their looks.  Now we have to buy their appearance with real cash.

They're doing so poorly with all the garbarge they're releasing, and their killing of content is driving players and payers away.  Now they're stooping to this level to shake some money from the tree.  Just gross.

Soon, any meaningful progression in this game will cease to exist.  Makes me excited to play.  Yep.

Bad play, PA.

Very bad.

Update: My t4s and t5s were converted to pure black t6s. But...

=> My t1s no longer exist.

Can anyone else confirm the same?  Because I suspect that it's everyone, and probably t2s as well, and this is not "submit a ticket", this is a system wide problem with this update.  Or just very, very poor communications.  

And also, there was no "compensation".  If I knew they were "removing" any of these, I was prepared to imperial trade them.  BUt now they are just plain gone.

Wait so some horses were still deleted after all? But... Surely this was a mistake. It specifically says Tier ONE - 5 would be turned into T6. Unless something was miscommunicated (well flat out lied) this has to be a bug of the conversion right...? Erg this is so messy ._.

As I did not have any T1s or T2s I can't confirm this for myself :c I only had the one T4 and he turned into a T6 with minimal issues as far as I can tell atm... 

Somehow I just knew...with PA's track record of screwing us over...

So my beautiful t5 quarter horse got changed over to an ugly t6 model. The ugly black horse (the same model they use for the green horse). They really want us to spend real money don't they (for horse appearance change coupon). Wow.

And why would we do that? So they can change it to t7? So we'd have to get yet another coupon until they change that over to t8?

Screw that. Yeah looks like my horses are going to be stabled for a long time.

On top of that, our 'new' t6 is glitchy now. Doesn't show the horse unless you take it out...

They legit wanted to give you silver but you guys made threads so now they gotta hear yall complain twice. Sure they should of let you select the appearance too idk if there was a way besides them giving coupons which some would've just hoarded cuz most probably aren't this attached.

They should have just left it alone. But Pearl Abyss seems incapable of doing that. They just keep taking things away. And the reason for that is, is to make it easier for them to maintain. They keep downsizing so they can put less and less (money, time, and resources) into this game so they can focus on their other games. The only thing they do on this game (besides taking things away) is recycle outfits and classes, slap some fresh paint on it and call it 'new' for a quick cashgrab. As well as blatant money grabs (such as this one). 

I like how people that just wanted to keep their horse (the way it was) are made out to be the bad guys in this. This was a forced change. Meaning it was a change no one wanted. In order to try to find compromise, people were like 'ok, can you at least upgrade them to t6 (while keeping their current appearance) rather than just delete them?' That was the major reason for players wanting to keep their low tiers (besides attachment). They liked their looks. Pearl Abyss however did it half-assed. They upgraded them sure, but with an ugly model so you're forced to buy a coupon if you wish to use that mount. Or cover it with armor or a costume. I feel like this was a way for Pearl Abyss to kind of 'stick it to' these players. Like, 'you guys wanted them upgraded to t6, here ya go. Enjoy.' 

It's not about silver (that we would have recieved had Pearl Abyss gone with their original plan) it's about principle. 

Can confirm that the very T1 horse I was almost desperate to save from deletion has completely disappeared :( Sent a ticket and already got a response (asking for more info) so we'll see what they can/will do about this problem (boggles the mind as to how they managed to 'accidentally' delete two whole tiers of horses)

The strange thing is, they could have easily done exactly what people wanted. They've done it before.

3F (A Tier 3) is currently a T8 appearance in the game since I returned. So it is not out of PA's ability to have changed those horses to T6 without altering their appearance. Maybe in the case of the 3F it was different since it wasn't a specifically "owned" horse but instead them pasting an existing skin onto a later tier. But I just don't see why this wasn't something that could have been done with the owned horses too. Was it really out of their control to be able to copy over all of the existing data of a single horse onto a higher tier variant of that exact appearance? If their system was able to read that mine had an appearance change already and was successfully able to copy that over, why wasn't it able to read the existing patterns in the same sense. (I guess this might come down to how their system reads appearance, the difference between a real pattern and an appearance changed one). Or is having done any of that too much work and they didn't have the time to do it?

If they had given more warning than 5 days... people could have given feedback sooner and a less hasty compromise could have been created. And some people may not have sold their horses off already as they wouldn't have been as rushed to handle it themself. All and all, it's very sad and unfortunate all around. Some people (myself included) it worked out more or less for. But for a lot of people this has been handled devastatingly and pretty heartbreakingly too.

Many people have still lost their horses. Whether it was the fact the appearance is now blockaded by a paywall. Or they sold off their horses after the first announcement, unknowing there was even a chance of saving them.

Some have lost their horse entirely… as I still don't understand what became of the poor T1s and T2s........ I’m hoping at least that one is just a bug that they can resolve but… It may come down to each person who had this issue having to manually send in a ticket one by one and having them personally restored :c (If that is possible).

Not going to happen. Buisnesses seldom buyout other buisnesses with the intent on rebuilding or renovating it. More often than not it's to tear it down in order to build something new to take it's place. It's the same in the gaming industry. 

The only way that would happen is if someone played this game since the beginning was rich and bought the rights to this game with the sole intent of restoring it and improving it. Someone that's been with this game from the start and is passionate about it's lore and seek to improve it while keeping with the original lore and ideals. And rather than removing things, they improve it and build on it. Expand. 

So to sum up: It'd have to be a very rich hardcore gamer that's played this game from the beginning and wants to see it improved. Wants to rebuild it, rather than destroy it and build something else in it's place...

But I've yet to see that happen...