I just went into the rabbit hole that is the dosage information on a horse’s hypothetical mating page. I’ve never used it before of even heard of it, so I’m intrigued to learn if it should have any effect on the way I play the game or if it’s just a fun, shiny stat that I can glance at every so often.
So I’m wondering: do you all use dosage for your breeding/racing plans at all? If so, how important and accurate do you find it? Do you use it in stallion selection? Or when you consider buying a horse?
Any insights that you are willing to share would be greatly appreciated!
I have definitely looked at in over the years for both breeding and selling determination and have found that high numbers do seem to have an effect.
However, the trick here is it’s all based on crosses that have previously occurred and performed in the game. If a cross hasn’t been done before AND performed enough to register a statistic, then numbers are automatically going to be low because there’s limited data. Similarly, created horses have no pedigree to contribute to the dosage calculations. For instance, my horse Awwshescute is a MSW but because she’s by created parents her dosage is 0 across the board (system can only look at the foals of the direct sire/dam and how they specifically crossed with one another…which would have been just the subject horse). But if I look at 3rd/4th gen horses their numbers should be more reliable.
There are also back end numbers in the code that determine a horse’s performance so we never have the full info if a horse will be a champion or a dud. This is just a potential sneak peak indicator.
Basically I look at the dosage out of curiosity and if the numbers seem particularly attractive I might use those numbers when debating between 2-3 studs for a mare. But I absolutely don’t use it as a rule.
Interesting to hear I’m not the only one who’s never noticed it before!
The concept seems pretty simple at first glance as far as I understand: a horse’s ability to handle various distances is estimated by the influence of it’s pedigree (in RL it’s sires, but I saw a post that in FF it’s all horses). So the numbers should give an indication at which distance a horse might excel (speed vs stamina).
It also makes sense that it only works for those horses with a few generations above them, as only they have a pool of relatives that the data can rely on. I looked around a little and I have a feeling it seems skewed towards speed in FF (B & I) as there’s many horses scoring high there, but few horses with points for the stamina categories (S&P).
It’s too late for me to incorporate it in this breeding season, but I’ll probably experiment with it in terms of entering horses that I find hard to figure out based on their dosage.
Really neat that we have this in FF, whether it works or not. The numbers nerd in me is very happy to experiment with this as yet another feature of trying to run & breed good horses.
Actually, she’s by a real life stud and they do have dosage calculated on pedigreequery, Animal Kingdom’s is: DP = 2-0-6-0-0 (8) DI = 1.67 CD = 0.50.
Would be cool if those were also in the game!
I just use it as a suggestion who might be a sprinter or a stayer, and try to breed matching parents if possible.