For the last week, we've been evaluating all of the breeding statistical information since the first of the year. We're very satisfied with the number of new horses that are being kept because of all the new tournament options, including insta and restricted tournaments. We've also noticed a significant increase in breeding and, at the same time, a significant increase in the bigger breeders stating that it's harder to find top-quality horses.
As I've said in previous posts, there is a rotation of the breeding pairs. This is to prevent an over-abundance of exceptional horses when the breeding pairs are found. Once a hot breeding pair is found, depending on a combination of time and the number of high-quality horses bred, the breeding pairs will then rotate once again. For the newer or novice player, this program works fine, but for the big stables, it's frustrating - especially when, in the beginning (last March), once the hot combinations were revealed, the sharp and big breeders pounced on them and were able to continuously produce, with some level of consistency, higher speed rated horses. About a week-and-a-half ago, several breeders quietly accumulated some good young horses. While they did that, once again, it forced the breeding traits to randomize. When this happens, everyone is lost and the quality of horses that are being bred definitely drops down overall. In fact, the average horse's speed rating will drop as much as 10 points the first couple of weeks after the randomization has taken place. Then, as people begin to experiment and zoom in and share information, that average speed rating continuously climbs until the point where the shifting will occur again. What is really interesting is that a lot of the races for the younger horses are much more competitive. This is probably a combination of the breeding randomization program and the new restricted tournament classification program. In fact, the statistics show that the average margin of victory in a trainer tournament race is almost half of what it was five months ago. Simply put, players are smarter, there's more places to put your horses and the breeding program has put everyone on a pretty level playing field.
With all this said and spending a lot of time looking at the data, starting next week, the following changes will occur. These changes will probably be implemented either Wednesday or Thursday. You'll know when the changes are implemented because there will be some new tools located in the community.
1. Starting next week, in order to help people find the hot breeding trends a little faster, we're going to display on the community home page the top three horses (not their names), just their speed ratings and who the owner is. So, if an owner bred 6 or 8 different pairs, you'll still have a lot of experimenting to do, but you'll be able to zoom in on the hotter trends faster. The data we will be exposing will be updated daily, so the best three horses bred on Monday, the owner's name and speed ratings will display all day Tuesday. For example, if I bred the best horse today, tomorrow in this special new tool, you will see "Puddles SR 129". It will be the player's task to either get the information from the owner (if he's willing to provide it) or research it by checking out what they bred.
2. Hot Breeding Trends - The formula for randomizing the breeding trends, starting today, will no longer be randomized as often as they have been. In other words, the trigger point that normally would force another randomization of the traits has been raised. That in conjunction with visually showing the owners of the best bred horses of the day will lower the pain when breeding and increase the chance of finding a better horse faster. So, when hot pairs are found, the opportunity to get good offspring from them will last longer. As I said, this has gone into effect today and will become truly noticeable over the next week or two as players zoom in on the breeding and begin to discover what's hot and what's not.
3. I've always said that we want to offer entertainment to all levels of players. We now do that with insta-tournaments and restricted tournaments and other cool features. But, we also need to remember that it's the paying players that support everything and allow even the free players to enjoy our game. And, when presented to me that way, it made me realize that those players need additional benefits, even beyond those you receive by becoming a VIP. Paying members of our community will be given an increased chance of generating a higher speed rating horse than our free members or those who enjoy the game but don't contribute. This doesn't guarantee that a paying member, or the biggest paying member, will have the best horse. All of that still comes from the breeding program. At the end, anyone can get a superstar - free players or paying members - but paying players will have an absolute increased chance, using a mathematical formula, to produce with some increased frequency, a horse(s) with higher speed rating figures. Not only will this be obvious to paying members, but VIP paying members even more. The way I'm now looking at it is - my team and I are putting in all the time and the cash paying members, especially the VIPs, are standing behind us saying keep going.
Do not try to read anything into this post too deeply. It is exactly what it is - nothing more; nothing less. Over the last month, I've really started to see the community grow and really can now visualize what a great place this is and will be. More and more people are spending more and more time and some more money, and those resources will play a factor in new features, enhanced programs and all-around better customer support. That's valuable. In no means, does this mean that paying members are guaranteed monsters. What we will guarantee is that there will be a stronger return for quality horses on money spent. The level of that quality still pertains to the right breeding pairs and a little luck.
In addition to this, I've been talking for the last few weeks about our new bonus program that pays community points based on your stable earnings. This program is just about complete and will go into effect, hopefully the first week of March - but, like you know, with technology, things are always hard to predict. We're still dealing with little bugs from the new insta-tournaments. As you obviously know from the last few days, we've had instances with insta-tournament overpayments and we've now discovered an issue with the new horses - FN, PN and NN - that have the ability to run more than 3 insta-tournaments in a year. That is not supposed to happen and will be fixed by Monday. Once we continue to work out these little issues, it will allow us to roll out the next new group of features.
That little teaser I gave last week on something big that was soon to happen is probably going to happen this upcoming week and I look forward to making that announcement.
- Puddles
I honestly don't think providing these tips is a good idea, its easy enough to just go look at someone's stable and see what they are breeding if they are posted with just breeding a horse with high SR, i think that's just not a good idea, you are making this too easy Mike and that will just have me demading 2million points on a monthly basis cause my stable is too big and there's not enough decent tournaments out there to have a chance to break even. This to me is taking a step back, Mike i know you try your best to help the players base out even when you do not respond to a post i know you are tuned into it but you can't let this happen.
I have a few ideas how to make things better, now this is just my opinion...i do think the game needs to be a LOT more friendly to the new / smaller players, when they join and try to get a handle on the game its kinda difficult to say here is your new horse because what are the chances of them really breeding a decent horse well except for Xrays and his fantasy horse, once these players breed that new horse and its no good where do they go from there?.
1. mentors needs to be more aggressive, i dont know if its possible to have a PM sent to new players with a list of mentors who are available and maybe vice versa...mentors soon as you see new name just check out their stable / profile and start a conversation or just shoot them a PM let them know you want to help, this way new players can be told about the claiming tournaments because they do have a better shot at getting something decent there than breeding.
2. when someone new signs up for membership a few more points should be in order, 25k plus a new horse to get them started, they can use that 25k for 2 claimers plus entry fee to tournaments or vet that new horse they bred, its pointless to just hand them a horse and it comes back 80's 90's sr...have give a solid start to new players.
3. breeding, NN should go back to the old price its just the right thing to do, players should have the choice to go PN or FN after finding that combo, was pointless to raise the prices for NN and that is whats really causing the problems in game right now, we as players would not mind finding those combos ourselves but NOT at the price those NNs are now...this would fix the issues at hand, its hard for people to pay 25K + 17k which = almost $5 for each time they try a single combo, that's asking too much in my opinion, now would i go all out if i found that combo and it's hot , yes i would PN FNs you name it but to throw $5 in the ring and not being sure is really hard to keep up.
4. I have had 3 people in the last 2 days asking if i knew any hot combos because they do not have the $$$ to search, 7 people with low profiles asking if i had any decent horses to put in claiming races so they have a chance, i started doing it but greed got the better of some, i told someone today (a mentor) who has a student who wants to claim but dont want to throw their points away if i had any decent horse so they would have a chance. I told one to make a post about it asking for the bigger stables to take it easy, i am not sure if anything can be done to limit the people who can claim on some levels.
sundown
Maybe we will just display the speed ratings and not the owners name . Let's get feed back from the community on what to display.
I think showing the top breed SR numbers for the day make sense in one way or another .
I don't begrudge the VIPs the advantages that they have, but I'm not sure that making it statistically harder for non-VIPs to breed fast horses is going to do anything but frustrate non-VIPs. It's already statistically harder for us to breed a faster horse, because the free game only lets us try once a month, unless we actually spend money on the game to buy points. We can't experiment like the big VIP stables can. If buying points still doesn't get us an even playing field in the breeding shed, it may be a disincentive.
I got lucky and had some successful students through the mentor program, so I'm in better shape than most of the small fry, and I actually bought some points along the way, so I'm doing okay, but I sure would like to know that the next time I go to breed some horses, the breeding pair I choose won't statistically get me an even smaller chance at a speedy horse.
There would be no more of a disadvantage for non-VIP's . Infact they would have a better shot because the hot pairs would stay hot longer .
Read the post again you will see how I stress no disadvantage for non vip's . If a non vip found the right pair they would be rewarded .
Thanks ,
Mike
I tend to agree with Sundown.
If the aim is to level the playing field for the new players, then amp up the the promotion of the mentor program,
Mentors can point new players in the right direction. But giving everyone the keys to the breeding shed is, to me, counterproductive. I don't think VIPs should get a break in the breeding shed,either.
Breeding is luck of the draw, and if you can afford more shots at it,then your luck increases. That should be advantage enough.
I think listing the highest SRs born each week is not a bad idea, just don't list the owners name. It makes breeding to easy.
But listing the SRs might just quiet down the talk that breeding quality has decreased. Which I don't know if it has, because I just started breeding a couple of months ago.
Look at what happened last week with new player, Suncity. Everybody and their brother jumped on that combo.
On one hand it levels the competition, but on the other hand it cheapens the impact of a Superstar,the race records and the esteem and lure of making it to the breeding shed.
So list the SRs, but not the owner's name.
JMHO,
Vasdefiness
I read it again, and ended up a little confused. But then I normally function a little confused. Whatever the game is, it is, and I will play accordingly. It's been a lot of fun so far, too much actually, and I expect that to continue.
Carry on!
By the way, the weather here is spectacular, 45 degrees and sunny, unseasonably warm for here. I took time out of fantasy horses to play with my real horses, and remembered how blessed I am to be able to have them. Riding a real horse while snow slides off the arena's tin roof is actually more exciting than my fantasy racehorse winning my first trainer game blue badge! (the real horses tend to go sideways a bit when the roof says "Whumph!")
By the way, do HRF staff get vacations? Do your eyeballs ever get rest from the computer screen? Best wishes to you all.
posting a sr is pointless, some will say it was just put there and will prob back fire...you are taking the fun out of it, just remove the prices of the NN back to what it was.
sunnyd
Even with the added sneak peak there still is the luck of the draw.
Come on people,It's breeding for a "Chance" at a super horse,not breed a super horse.
Things are fine the way they are now,but if you want MORE people breeding,this should up the anty
Cha-ching!!!
Socialism,here we come
Sundown is totally right,drop the NN prices and let the searching begin
-MoTron-
Why is posting SRs pointless? It might shut up the whiners! LOL, just kidding Sundown.
Also, leaving the hot pair, hot for a longer period of time, I don't understand either.
To me breeding is like playing the slots. Sure,you might run into a machine that's hot, but it's not
going to pump out jackpots all day long.
The pairs should randomize at a quicker rate. I understand that some of the bigger stables might have 20+ horses over 130.
Good for them, but if you leave the hot pairs hot, longer, the bigger stables will have 50+ horses over 130.
It defeats the purpose.
Vas, leaving it up longer will only make bigger stables more powerful, why should i stop if i keep hitting 130s?, as far as posting SRs i have to be honest i would be one of those saying "Puddles trying to *&^%#@ with my head again, that SR is a lie"
Sunnyd
Yes, please don't show the names of the people who bred the three best horses yesterday. It will dilute the pool and result in huge numbers of good horses. That's not like real life at all.
Also, are you serious vasdef? If the bigger stables have 20+ horse over 130, I think I'm just going to quit. I have bred exactly 2 horse of 130 or over since the trainer game came out.
Mike, I respect how much work/time you are putting into this for horse racing fans to have a fun and great game to play, the best horse racing game there is for sure, but please do not post the owners names and what SRs horses they bred. There should be more privacy than that. If someone is spending hundreds of dollars to find these hot combos and great horses, then someone who's not spending nearly as much can just copy you and jack all your horses from that combo which took you a lot of time and effort and money to find.
I really don't like the idea at all, don't even post the SRs it's pointless. I think you should just bring the old NN prices back, 20k for NN horses, 10k for vet visits for NN horses, there were no added benefits for NN horses yet the costs for them raised. Please bring back the old prices.
The breeding program needs to be adjusted so people who are spending big money get a return, spending $300 at a time and getting nothing great in comparison to the money you spent is not a good feeling and that's not what should happen.
With the old prices, the money spent on breeding is more worth it, 5 horses for 100k, vet visits being half cost it's a fair deal.
That's the great thing about the blogs and forums.
We all get a chance to voice our opinions.
I agree with you 99.8% of the time.
NN prices should go back to the old price,for example.
And we agree that leaving the hots longer will make the Bigs even stronger.
But I don't see the harm in posting birth SRs for the week as long as it's anonymous.
It just might act as an incentive for more breeding.
And to suggest that Puddles would mess with our heads. Really?
You've known him longer than I have,but.......come on,man! Really?
This is where that .02% comes in.
Nothing but Love and Respect,
Vasectomy Deferens
Socialism is right Motron. I just don't know what to think about this whole thing.
I believe I understand what you're trying to do, but not sure this is the best direction. Why don't we just give the new members the Hot-combos. Chances are they'll get a better horse to start off with; Chances are mentors would engage the newbies far more, and decline their request far less. I really like what happen to Suncity. He got the keys to the holy grail and the bigger barns where able to swoop in and finish off the combo, but not before a new member, maybe a few drank from the golden chalice. You just would have to stop the duplicate account ordeal.
I don't like the thought of showing the high SR for the day. I would prefer to know when the combo has changed and/or the combo has been breed to today.
~~~~~~~~
May they all come home safely!!!
this will be quite long, but hey, i enjoy my racing, so sit back, light one up if you please and feel free in commenting. ;)
id agree with sundown that giving visibility of data isnt the way to go. it takes away some fun from following stables and assessing breeding trends. granted, the site probably knows which players are locked in and are trying to reach out to the more casual player, but i think displaying the data would be more damaging to locked players than beneficial to the casual player. horse racing is a sport of kings and if you think your going to waltz in and grab a bargain overnight, then your better off scanning the january sales - this is a sport, pastime, hobby or even addiction for the savvy player.
sundown #1:
i think the mentor programme needs to looked at. i see quite a few mentors which probably have little business being mentors. i think puddles posted recently on it regarding length of time served in order to gain mentor status. im all for that - perhaps some other criteria can be added - a separate conversation. i like your agressiveness on the mentoring side, but you have to be careful, as new members need to be treated carefully in order to retain and gain financial positivity from them. some people just like to be left alone - some like to interact - its a tough job to find new member persona - going-in all guns blazing doesnt always garner what you hope.
sundown #2:
i agree with giving new members more free stuff. theres going to be a figure which represents fall-off or retention - its likely to be weighted towards fall-off, so the sites freebies would be just domant inside the site - for every new player which is loaded with freebies, theres likely to be a lot more who walk away after a night or two. Plus, the actual number of players who cash out to prizes is likely to be very low. Pride in winning and being top of a leaderboard drives online egos very well.
sundown #3:
i cant comment too much on this as when i joined it moved to NN, PN and FN. I done the math on how many breeds and vets i could do prior to the introduction and it did affect my figures on my first batch, which wasnt a great feeling as it hit me for a 25% reduction. from a traffic gaining perspective, i think you make good sense in lowering the NN breeds back to the previous level - as this is where its likely new players will breed at - perhaps HRF could give new members a few bonus cards so to speak - such as 1xfree vet or 1xperformace report on anyones horse. new member incentives is an interesting topic and probably deserves its own thread where the site garners info from signups and assessing their expectations and other related topics.
thanks for bringing your thoughts to the table sundown, i think you got a start to a nice framework which can be tweaked. :)
mike:
grab a beer. down it. grab another. what a week you must have had.
im all for giving vips an edge, after all, they are paying for the service you provide, and are likely to expect more. that said, you need balance - so perhaps an option would be to introduce a 'breeding boost' option when breeding. much like its costs vips less to vet a horse, the breeding boost could be cheaper for vips. this way, it gives casual or non-vips the option to 'boost their horse' during the breeding process. heck, we got mr needles for the vet - my first thoughts are for 'mr raines' - its a play on the reins of a horse and the character memphis raines from gone in 60 seconds as played by nicholas cage - which works well on the boost and the speed angle.
motron:
your jokes were funnier last week. ;)
everyone:
remember, its a tough balancing act the site has to do. no doubt, puddles and his team have a vision of where they wish to take the site. community feedback is essential to giving the people what they want. however, sometimes their vision isnt what the people want, and that can be a mighty tricky situation. you cant please everyone - so who do you please? bottom line...its a tough balancing act and one which most people probably dont have balls to do. kudos to the site and all involved for putting up with our banter and cheekiness.
thanks for reading, comments welcome. im off to train a monster i just breed. ;)
I like the idea of posting the high SRs bred each day (not the owners' names though).
It would show me that the breeding has or has not been downgraded and probaly shut me up.
It might even get me breeding again.
I stopped breeding because of the higher prices (and the "seemingly" lower quality offspring) so I agree with those that are asking for $2 NN horses & $1 NN vet bills. What we have now just seems like pure greed (note: I wrote "seems like") as far as the NN horses go.
Let me suggest again that the horse prices be adjusted as follows...
NN - $2 (vet $1)
PN - $4 (vet $2)
FN - $8 (vet $4) (note: I raised this one from last time.)
Those prices are just my opinion and I believe much more breeding would occur if those prices were used. I really believe HRF's revenue would go up and stay up with those prices.
There are those players who will call me a whiner, but I am actually trying to help the players and HRF!
Dusty
I don't mind the idea of posting the top three SR's of the day, but I would not include the trainers name. The thing I don't like is the hot combo theory. Everyone ends up with horses that basically like the same things, which causes plenty of tournaments of other surfaces and distances to be cancelled. As for the price of NN's, they can enter more tournaments now than they could before the nominated horse's were introduced. My beef is vetting an old version horse and paying now time prices. That I don't get at all.
Go what ever way the community wants to go I for one can learn to adapt to any game plan.My question is why are the HOT COMBOS always the same few horses over and over I mean how many Dr Fager offspring do we need ? When was the last time Round Table or Seabiscuit were hot ? ....Stan
I haven't been a VIP very long. I haven't the time for a mentor. It seems to me that the "hot pairs" in breeding should be more random than "hot". I have bred approximately 10 horses. I have one with a 114 sr, A couple in the 80's the rest in the 90's and low 100's. I have vetted all but the 114. Everyone that was vetted went down in SR. Why should we vet a horse? I have raced in a few tournaments, trained my horses accordingly, probably wrong, lol. This is a fun game but is dominated by all the top stables. Not complaining but stating a fact. This is the way it should be and is the way it is in real life. I would like to see traing in mock races actually be effective or show an improvement in the SR. If you teach a horse to start out fast , it should actually work. Or train it to be a sprinter , according to its lineage. I understand that super horses are bred, but it would be nice to see the SR go up if a horse is trained. Maybe even pick a jockey for a fee. I would like to see the small stables get an average horse once in a while from breeding or training. Also I don't mind spending the fee each month for entertainment, the time I have to play this game is spent trying to get 6000 points everyday, and keeping the 5 horses I have in hay and competing in tournaments. I realize I keep myself at a disadvantage by not having an mentor, just the time is not available. I don't have alot of money, but have purchased 100,000 points before just to purchase 2 horses and vet them only to find I have 2 horse that have a 90 SR. Just thought I would give an opinion. Best of Luck to All.
I am no match for your wit
This just in...
The prices for the NN horses are Non-Negotiable
-MoTron-
Sorry,i just had 2 root canals yesterday and the 'Perks' are getting the better of me
-MoTron-
I believe hot combos should be scratched. In my opinion it should be a completely random breed of say 5% really good horses 10% Good horses 70% in the mid range 100 -119 then 10% bad horses AND 5% really bad horses. This should be totally random and regardless of the pairs.
The pairing should be more of an indicator of the types of attributes an offspring will inherit. There are so many fantastic horses in the breeding shed and its a shame that some of the greatest ever horses are rarely bred from.
This means then that there is a good High chance of a big breeder picking up the top horses because he breeds more often, The horses will all run different styles (nearly all my sprinters run exactly the same) . The lesser breeders will have a chance of a big horse but the % chance will be more fair.
I think it would be a much more exciting breeding program if the pair you breed did not lessen the chance of a good horse.
Also the instas are great but there should be a small profit from entry fee when a horse is claimed. IE if it cost 7500 then your horse is claimed you should get 10000 back. NN.
We pay 5k extra breeding NN for no benefit. When you told us about the new prices there was the pretence that more prizes would be available. This is the truth of it 1. You can enter an insta but you will probably lose your NN for less than the entry fee. 2. The number of horses has risen but the tournaments are not filling. The prizes seem a little less, the VIP seem a lot less. The NN is not eligable for the Jackpots so you are paying 5k more for less benefits.
I agree that PN and FN should be able to win more points and therefore cost more just not sure why the NN price is as high as it is?
New players need access to a couple of reasonable horses as without that it will not give them more encouragment to get futher involved in this great game.
I love this game and I think that Mike has done a fantastic job. But you are pricing out to a degree the newbies.
I also think that you should create a better reward for the mentors as they are the ones who are building the new population of players. Ie scrap the 45 day pay deal if some one wins and give them a substantial bonus for bringing in a member who is still active 3 - 6 months down the line.
Again Mike thankyou for all the hard work you put in. I hope we can all continue to help make this the best game on the net full stop.
Steve...
I was going to say the same exact thing...... I think you are right about not having the hot pairs and having a percentage of what kind of horse your going to get no matter which pair that you breed... also the fact you said of the offspring carrying more of the parents traits.. breed two dirt sprinters and your chances of having a dirt sprinter is better.. not guarenteed but better... and if you breed a marathon turf horse to say a dirt sprinter well you could have the traits more random as to do with what the foal will like ect...
As to do with new players... I am almost completely 100% certian that I wouldn't be here right now playing this game.. if I didn't get Forever as my first horse.... I have to give a TON of credit to new players who get a crappy horse.. with no money to vet ect.. and yet they stay around.. I have helped SO many new players start out and help them get their first horse and have them tell me they got a 82sr horse or lower... what do you really say to that?... "well your horse is crap and your **** out of luck, cause you can't afford to vet and your going to get slaughtered if you enter any races... "? In a way I almost don't want to help new players out because they usually get crappy horses.. because they are so happy they have a horse which I know is crap and I feel sooo bad for them... and the hardest part is being honest with them that their horses are crap.. especially considering I got an amazing horse for my first.... what if you made it so that a new player getting their first horse wouldn't get a horse under say a 110sr?....
Now as for insta tourny's.. *sigh*... as everyone says.. they are WAY over rated... the idea is nice..... but the way they are being executed is not so nice.. so you spend.. all this money for a horse with the new prices *and I agree the NN horses prices need to go back to normal.. as other people have stated the prices went up with no benefit.. I agree with the PN's and the FN's because they get bonuses*.. now you spend all that money on a horse.. and its crap.. so you spend even more money to vet... and chances are its still crap... now comes the hardship of where to put them.. ok so you decide on an insta tourny.. 7500 for a 10K tourny... if someone claims your horse.. your out about 75% or more of your money "just throwing out percentages".. if someone doesnt claim and you lose and with horses that low in sr.. there is a great possibility that you will lose your still out a ton of money... so if your not willing to take that chance your best bet is just to retire them to begin with... now I have a pretty good in the money percentage... if I start farting around with these crappy horses.. I see that percentage going down really fast.. that stinks.. Ive bred 10 horses "not a lot but enough" since this "new version" came out and not one of them do I want to keep... but yet I don't want to throw away all that money either... so I believe the insta's need to be revised.. I don't see me entering any more insta's the way they are now... another idea that might or might not work... but what about providing tourny's just for non vip's?... you could also have some just for vip's.. and some that are for all?... just another idea...
I also agree that vip's need more benefits.. as everyone says.. we do pay and help to support the game... considering that I play and have played a LOT of games.. and this one has cost me more then all of them combined... and I don't nearly pay as much as some people do..
All in all great work.. :D I love all of the ideas and how you guys definatly take into consideration what players want, think and feel.. :D great job.. :D
One thing that should happen is we should be able to see every horse that is being bred and by who, it should be public knowledge. At one time you could see retired horses but it was changed and now we cannot. This will help the smaller stables, just look at what the big stables are breeding and keeping.
As far as the NN going back to 2.00, I really do not see how this will fix things, Brian, Sundown and others have said "Why did the NN prices go up when nothing was added to their value", this is not true. NN horse are eligible for Auction and insta tourneys, this makes them much more valuable than before.
The issue right now is the big stables dominant this game way too much, I do not know what the answer is. Growth is the only thing I can come up with. The more people playing the game the less the impact the big stables have. I have a above average older distance slop horse who has sat for over 2 months because there were no tourneys. Finally a tourney comes along and i enter him. Now since its the only distance slop tourney for older horses he will get trounced by the Modgraphix and Sundowns big horses. I had to retire almost all of my older horses because there were no tourneys out there they could be competitve in. They would keep running into the same Mod, Sundown and Brian horses who would trounce them.
I also agree with Whaley, have there ever been a hot combo that did not involve Fager, Ruffian, Outstandingly, Affectionetly, Man O War. Brianshaw is the King of hot combos and I do not believe he has one horse that is not from this same 5.
The thing with no benefit for a NN is that you can enter into the claimers but you dont gain in that. If you win yes but there is at best a 1 in 10 chance of that happening. I think that if you got a little more than you entry fee back for a claim it would be better but still you cannot put a good horse in to win an insta. They get claimed and your return for a good horse is maybe a tourny win and less back than your entry fee in the first place. NN horses are not worth the increase. Thats all we are saying.
I bet less than 5% of NN's finish with a profit in their careers.
I like ssteve's idea, all sires/dams on a level playing field but each has their own unique trait they pass along, adjust the breeding program where maybe %5 or lower of the horses you breed will be very good or great horses, etc ON AVERAGE, not taking away the possibility of breeding a 130 in only 5 breeding as an example (this would rarely happen) the hot combo I think does not work as well as ssteve's idea because with hot combos, the chances of you spending hundreds of dollars for points to find the hot combos are unlikely, with ssteve's idea you spend money for points and anything is possible with any kind of combo, you just breed more to increase your chances.
I know we have thrown in a lot of ideas here, i also think the prices were pushed before the product, i mean i really don't think this price hike was timed right, prices should have stayed as is until the new features like tracks, vets, transportation and all the other stuff came available then the price increase to balance things out, keep telling people that price increase because of things to come just don't make any sense. I think taking hot combos out of the game will hurt the game's income, the point is that the game needs us to breed and just hitting on something once in a while will hurt the game because the same problems will be here, who is going to keep rolling the dice throwing 10$ on FNs if the combo is not hot, if its hot then you step it up other wise why keep throwing 10$ in the air.
The bottom line here is not that the breeding is harder the problem is that its just way to expensive to go looking because each time you try to hit something its $5 and 95% of the time you get nothing in return, what makes sense to me is if you hit on something then you have the choice to go PN and FN but its too costly to go looking. The player base was fine searching with the old prices, i have went through 300$ in one session and got NOTHING and i look back at how many combos i went after it really it was not many.
The players here need to understand that they need to look at what what they post, notice Aqa's post he states " 50 cents can't be that big a problem" so when you guys come here posting make sure of what you are saying...i don't think the breeding is the problem the combos are out there BUT its the cost getting there, i dont see how HRF expects a new player to dive into this the way it's set up, if this was the set up when i first joined i would have been GONE and for those who stayed stables would never be as big as they are now.
sundown
With the current prices I like ssteve's idea, because it's too expensive to look for hot combos while using $300 on junk combos and getting nothing, but if the prices like sundown said were brought back to what it was before, I like the hot combo idea. Some people think the new increases in price are not a big deal, well try it for yourself and see the return. 10k to 17,500k and 20k to 25k adds up big time when you do heavy breeding, and it was already somewhat frustrating BEFORE when you wouldn't get anything nice from the regular prices, this adds new frustration.
I have 3.5 million points right now and I'm afraid to spend it on breeding, before I'd spend up to 2 million points in a single day getting what I wanted but now it's best for me to hang on to it until someone else does the dirty work for me.
Anyways this is just my opinion, don't take it the wrong way and think I'm attacking the game if the prices stay the same then they stay the same.
Brain is sitting on 3.5 million points this is amazing, when was last time you saw him just sitting on points and this been going on now for just over a month once a shark always a shark unless you have reasons to slow up.
sundown
Hehe, I'm ganna sit on it until I reach 10,000,000 points, I think it would look cool.
Im gonna sit on my points too. Though the stable fees will soon dispose of my 25k lol
Come on Brian, make up your mind. One post you don't like hot combos, and the next post you do like them. Which is it?
You come on racodo, I clearly stated I like/dislike hot combos depending on the price. Old NN prices = I like hot combos, New NN prices = I like ssteve's idea of a even level playing field for earch sire/dam, trash hot combos because they are too expensive to find.
I hope this clears it up.
You mean 'delusional'? Lol if you're still having trouble understanding what you're reading I think I'll be able to clarify it crystal clear for you. :]
What is it with you two lately?..... if you don't stop and play nicely im going to have to send you both to your rooms... lol.. Im picking.. :D
i think some of us needs to hit the peace pipe we posted about and get back on track here.
sundown
Rofl yeah... bring out the peace pipe racodo needs a whiff... or maybe a bunch of whiffs. Or maybe a smack across the back of his head to wake him up.
lol jking.
How about back on track as in staying on-topic with puddles' post. We were all kidding here, no hard feelings.
You guys were starting to remind me of that movie "Grumpier Old Men".. lol.. Im picking.. :D
I wish the breeding program was more strategy based rather than just pulling the handle on the slot hoping to get lucky. I believe it can offer so much more. I'm not a huge fan of the Hot combos. Especially when they seemed to be limited to a few horses. I would like to breed to my favorite sire and have the same chance to have a nice horse as everyone else, instead of waiting for the hot combo to get something good. If I wanted to have a nice distant runner, I would like to be able to breed AP Indy to Zenyatta a 100 times and be able to have __% chance to get a decent horse. Currently I would get zilch. Some of the best horses that ever lived and they don't have a decent offspring to their name.
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May they all come home safely!!!
| Player's Name: | scorpion56 |
| Race Name: | Virtual Championship Derby Winners from past two decades. (90) |
| Prize amount: | $5000 Gift Card |
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