So I’m slowly (verrrry slowly) working my way through the code required to do shipping. Then I can do race entries (yay).
Part of my slowness is a lack of motivation, though. Frankly, shipping horses really doesn’t excite me at all. And part of it is that I feel like because the rewrite will take so long (especially if I go at my current pace ), people don’t really care that much about it, which isn’t very motivating/inspiring.
So…what excites you? What would you love to see right now in the beta? (Ignoring the annoyance that, while the beta is amazeballs and majikal and whatnot, you can’t really use it “for real” because it’s linked to a separate database. )
Feel free to show some enthusiasm for…whatever. I want the rewrite to be done, but don’t really want to slog through the boring bits of code to get there.
I really hope to finish them sooner than later the mare and stallion are almost done, then the head with markings and I’m seriously thinking of drawing a foal
But, some tiny icons here and there would be doable too. Like a saddle for workout page, or a track landscape, or something like that.
Also, I don’t know if this would be any useful, but what I like on some websites dedicated to racing - horse profiles on equibase (they publish official workouts); for example, Animal Kingdom currently entered in Breeders’ Cup Mile.
I also like the header of the Belmont Stakes website - just the design.
Maybe such short comments like “came wide, good finish”, “vied inside, tired”, etc., could be automated here in the game?
Edit - one more thing that I really like! A whippet database has pedigree which displays pictures of dogs and their titles, and also location where they were bred - example: thewhippetarchives.net/details.php?id=82542
I really like the idea and the layout of each dog’s page also looks good.
I’m several steps ahead of you. Ideally I’d love foal images, yearling/gawky-something images, head shots, and possibly tack options (wraps/saddles/saddle pads/halters/whatever).
I’m not sure what you’re suggesting here, to be honest. But as I said above, please keep this as a cheerleading thread, not (yet another) suggestions thread (feel free to start other threads for that).
Ack - that gets into rewriting the race engine - yet again. It’s on the to-do list, but the last rewrite took me 18+ months. So I don’t even want to consider another rewrite of it anytime soon.
I’d love things like the jockey comments to be more useful ( “not happy with soft ground” Pulls hard" “loves being at the front” etc.) and for them to be more trustworthy. It has been said regularly that the jockey comments are not to be relied on so to me that makes them fairly worthless. In RL you would be able to see the horse and talk to its rider to get some idea of it’s abilities in ff we have to use a lot of guesswork.
I’d also like the choices made when choosing race options to have a more obvious impact on the way the horse runs. I have tried to use these in the past but haven’t seen any real differences.
Something else that I wish for on a regular basis is the ability to sort lists on more than one criteria eg sort racers by age and then by fitness or by racetrack and age. It would certainly speed up making entries!
Though I don’t know if the coding for these would be very exciting
BTW if you would like any foal artwork I could probably help out if it speeds things up. I’d happily send you some of my artwork to consider if I could work out how to send it! But not wanting to tread on toes though so no worry if you aren’t interested
I’m really excited to be able to ask jockeys certain things during workouts. For example, “Tell me about the equipment” and the jockey tells me “He dislikes his equipment” after the workout. It’ll make figuring out horses so much easier!
Also really excited for the pictures. Thank you Clicker Lab!
I’m stoked for the rewrite Shanthi. I’m sorry it’s tedious and you really don’t get anything out of it, though… I’ve never stuck with a game this long and it’s already great the way it is, but I am pumped to see improvements when they come! So thanks for the work you do when we really don’t give you anything back.
Yes, I’m looking forward to a nicer way to train. (Still need to figure out exactly how it’ll work, though ) Of course, that’s yet another thing that needs shipping done first. Shipping > race entries > training/workouts. Then something fun.
Thanks, this is exactly the sort of thing I need to hear. Not the “gosh, we don’t deserve it” (because you do - seriously some of the existing code is really old and hacky), because I’m happy to code (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing code for this game 15 years later ). I just want an instant poof to shinyness with just a bit of fun coding, not all the slogging through of adding options and testing and whatnot. Too bad there’s no poof pretty code button.
Shanthi, I’m always super impressed by how you’re constantly raising the bar in terms of FF. The game has come a long, long, long way from where it was when I first joined almost ten years ago (okay, I’m adding a couple years…but seven years, ten years…same diff.). It was a huge, exciting improvement that I didn’t have to keep my own records. Race entries and race results were completely automated. They ran on time, mostly! Exciting!
Then you decided that on-time race results weren’t enough, and changed the game to make it so that becoming successful took skill rather than just dumb luck. You added equipment, training, jockeys as factors in how a pony performed. Heck, you even figured out how to check the weather in every track every day. Holy cow!
This changes not only required you to tweak the code, but I believe you’ve done at least three, if not more, complete re-writes of the racing code to account for all these factors.
And then there are all the awesome little tweaks–like ponies not being born full-sized and pedigrees and breed rankings.
What I’m saying is that I don’t know what the beta’s going to be like, but I know it’s going to end up being more awesome than ever because you are always pushing yourself to do better. Even when it’s ready to go live, it’s going to keep evolving because that’s what you do. And that, my dear, is a friggin’ awesome personality trait.
I am also excited about the new stats. Really excited about the stats.
Glad it’s just not me! (Bit sad that I enjoy the stats/list-y type of coding, even though it’s logistically more complicated, more than something like shipping. Shipping’s pretty mundane, but figuring out a formula for determining top stallions? Win.)
Thanks for the reminder about how far the code has come, too - sometimes I get bogged down in how much I still want to do to it.
I’m super excited for the new stats and the new jockey comments and and and…everything! As has been stated, I know it’s really tedious, but the end result will totally be worth it.
I really love the idea of being able to see so much extra information without having to jump between several pages or have to write stuff down to remind me of what I’m doing. i know it must be tedious doing some parts of it (bit loke the hours i spend puting layerd backgrounds on my CP paintings) but it will be so worth it when it’s done
And part of it is that I feel like because the rewrite will take so long (especially if I go at my current pace 
)
I want the rewrite to be done, but don’t really want to slog through the boring bits of code to get there.
Ideally I’d love foal images, yearling/gawky-something images, head shots, and possibly tack options (wraps/saddles/saddle pads/halters/whatever).
Not the “gosh, we don’t deserve it” (because you do - seriously some of the existing code is really old and hacky), because I’m happy to code (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing code for this game 15 years later