Game Idea

[Isabelle]

Hi everyone! I brought this idea up to Snowy and she likes it, and suggested I see what everyone else thinks as well. I decided to just copy the message I sent her rather than retype this all. So please feel free to reply with your comments

Hi Snowy, I had been thinking about an idea I had for a couple days now, and I thought that I would suggest it to you. My idea was having on my stable lands like a land preserve or something for wild Thoroughbreds. Then two times a year, like in January and in July, we would have a round up. Members could rpg or not, that would be up to them, we could even do a group rpg round up. Anyway, we could use the stallions and mares for wild card breedings in January. We would have the basic info of the horses with tags and such that their bloodlines could be tracked so it wouldn't be all random.

This could add in a feel of surprise and new bloodlines, and give newer members access to free breedings, I've seen some worried about being able to breed because their horses are not high level/created. We could of course have limits to how many breedings each member can have, and randomize the order in which they can pick out their breedings to make it fair. It might even be fun if I randomized the foal stats gender, height, and color

Then in July instead of breedings members could come and adopt the foals, yearlings, and two year olds to help them start some prospects and maidens. Again there would be limits to the amount, maybe two per member or something. I was thinking too about having a wild horse registry, that way foals that weren't adopted who grew up could go on to be breedable horses later on. Does that make sense? This could also be a chance for members who have horses that don't sell or members who fall inactive would give those horses a place to go.

Anyway I'd love to do something like that and I'd take care of everything, and it would be totally optional for members to participate in. I would also try and keep it pretty low scale, since of course we don't want to have a gazillion horses. So let me know what you think Thanks for reading this I tend to get pretty chatty when I get an idea! lol

[Deleted]

Isabelle, I truly think this would be a great idea.

[Kenren]

<sub>I mean, I think it's fun as a wild card thing or whatever, but it's not very realistic. In real life, high class Thoroughbred racehorses obviously don't come from a wild herd - even if you did magically find a purebred TB in the wild, there's no way it could compete with the carefully honed, genetic speed of modern racehorses.

Everyone's really open with some pretty good studs. Maybe you can't breed to the top studs with created mares and such, but you can get some pretty dang good horses. And even if you don't have the mares for a quality breeding, you could always pair up someone else's mare and stallion. I only joined in 'September' in the game, so it's not like I've been here forever. If you're online and active and talking in the cbox, you can finagle some extremely sweet deals and foals. And putting all of those things aside, created horses and even horses from unproven sires and dams have done extremely well. As long as you put the work into them, you can get some pretty good results. Look at Red Herring - he's at the top of his game, and he's created. A number of my horses are created and they've done great so far. But yeah, if you look through open studs and aren't sure who would be open to breeding to a created mare, message them. I, for example, have The Innocent Skier that I need to put up for stud. As a freshman sire, I'm open for him to be bred to created mares. You just have to be proactive, and you can get some great horses out of it. Nobody here is unfriendly if you just talk to them about it.</sub>

[S u N f r O s t ~]

I have to say that I'm with Kenny on this one. I like the idea of a more creative way to put in some bloodstock, but it's not hard to work with what we have, and I don't see a demand for this game to occur. I wouldn't mind if it was implemented, and I might even participate, but I don't see a need for it, you know what I mean? It's not a bad idea though.

[Isabelle]

Kenren/Frosty-This wouldn't be just a wild horse thing, they would be horses that we know are Thoroughbreds and perhaps even have bloodlines within the game, not like mustangs, it would be a controlled setting. Almost like putting out to pasture the retired racehorses, but letting them form their own herds and live naturally. Not everyone has to participate, and this idea would work more for the horses are not top class. I don't know how important being absolutely true to life you and other members want the game to be, that's why we're asking. This is a sim game, and I think it would be a lot of fun to have something like this because you don't see it in real life. A big reason why I play games is because we have the ability to do something like this, and that is what I love best about games

I do understand that you plan every breeding to the letter to try and make the best racehorse, however even doing that has it's wild card moments. You can't plan for everything, and adding this into the game might even bring in some fresh members who might want to start with maybe four to six of the 'wild' bred horses rather than creating, especially those who are new the racing scene and trying to work out how the game operates.

When I first started this game six months ago I had a terrible time, there were zero horse sales and I still haven't really found any big sale threads on here or the wire, so I created my first four. I still only had those four until last week when Frosty gave me two broodmares, and I was able to breed two foals who I'm very excited about. This is my first breeding season, and it seems that already all the stallions are booked, and ones that aren't I don't apply for because I know they are too good for my horses. In some ways I feel I am still really struggling, but I'm trying really hard and implementing this type of horse program would really help me, and possibly other members too who do not have established bloodlines or options for buying/breeding.

Anyway that is the gist of my argument for the pro side

[S u N f r O s t ~]

Hmmm. Isabella, it's always better to ask rather than to assume your mares aren't good enough! In the past I have gone out on a limb with new members and let them have breedings to truly great stallions, or even set them up with a really great foal of some sort. Always ask! It's tough to break into the ranks here, true, but I'd rather you ask xD

You do bring up some points about getting horses from somewhere else. It's kind of like having a sale of creates like we sometimes to, like the one we had on TW a couple SIM years before. If people believe this option is just too unrealistic or something, would an okay compromise be having create sales or other such sales?

On the subject of more new sources for bloodlines, I will be trying to have foal crop sales next year. This season all of my broods are a bit booked up so I was avoiding it, but I am planning foal crop sales in the future, and if I am hopefully others are too. There are plenty of options...you could even give your create a backstory of being from wild bloodlines. Pulling in Ripley's creates again, she gave Cross My Heart the backstory of being from a kill auction and Red Herring from Arizona. You could always develop history like that into your creates.

I'm just coming up with random ideas now xD

[Kenren]

<sub>And as for sales, there have been a number of phenomenal ones, both from downsizing and from reclaims. Probably over half of the horses in my barn are from these sales, most taking place on TW. And like I said, I've only been here for four game months. You just have to keep an eye out for them, since there really hasn't been a shortage. I've even had to take in more horses than I necessarily planned to because they'd otherwise be deleted.

I really believe it's how you play things, not the bloodlines you have. My creates have done very well, and I think it's just being here and active and talking about them and getting opinions and just overall getting their names out there. And also not expecting to be great right off the bat. A lot of the members have been here for a long time, so new members aren't necessarily going to beat the best horses after just a little bit of time. I'm included in this - I'm fighting my way up too xD</sub>

[Isabelle]

I dunno I just liked my idea It's okay that you don't. We'll see what some others members think about it.

Frosty-See the problem for me about asking people is that I have social anxiety disorder and depression. For the past year and half it's gotten so bad that I can barely go to a store for ten minutes. People have done really mean and bad things to me for a lot of my life, so to protect myself my mind has made me scared/nervous about approaching people with things that are yes/no or in some way dependent on someone else so that I don't get disappointed or find cruelty as a result (since most of my life it has always ended badly, even simple requests). So it's really hard for me to ask people for breedings or sales because I get scared that they will be mean or make me feel bad for asking It sounds unreasonable especially for an online game, I know, but I can't help it. I'm working with a therapist to try and work through stuff, but it's a long process. So anyway that's also why I turned to you for help with pairing up mares and stallions so that if you thought the match could work it would be less likely for me to suffer another failure. Again it sounds unreasonable but my poor mind is just trying so hard to protect me. It took me several days to get up the courage to ask Snowy about my idea, so I'm trying to improve because at least I did ask, right?

[S u N f r O s t ~]

I did not know that Isabella. Considering that, you've made some fantastic improvement then by asking Sarah and then asking everybody. We'll do nothing but applaud you for that If anybody here on GHF or TW is ever mean to you in any way, you are always free to approach me or other members straight off the bat for help. We'll straighten it out It's not unreasonable because you have a psychological condition. Don't worry about sounding that way.

As for what Kenny is saying, she is correct! Just getting your horses' names out there, talking about them and hanging out a lot here can land you some great deals that may not otherwise have come your way. You see, showing up here often shows serious interest in staying on the sites. Us senior members get annoyed with reclaiming all the time, so the more active you are the more likely it is that you'll get offered some sweet deals

I'm all for waiting to see what others think of this idea.

[Isabelle]

Maybe we could tweak this idea if it doesn't really fly, in such a way that I could make it like The Wire but instead of racing it would be like a breeding center solely for the use of GHF/TW members. It could have it's own co-registry with here and I could even start it out by buying breeding stock from here to use there rather than making unraced horses. Maybe from that I could try and have some open and closed breeding horses that would help add in some fresh bloodlines and have some yearly foal sales after the breeding season. Would that be a more appealing idea? In that way the horses would be track raced with in-game bloodlines before they came to the center, and really in reclaiming sales a lot of those horses could transfer to the center if they weren't taken, then horse deletion wouldn't really be necessary since the center could house pretty much any number of horses.