Waiting game, a couple of comments and questions...

General Waiting Area
1

Hi all,

I’m TJ and I am a newbie (now there’s a revelation!).  In any case I am playing the waiting game and have waded through some/most of the forum posts in addition to the FAQ and Newbie guide.  I have a couple of comments and/or sugestions if anyone may be interested.

  1. Newbie quiz: In a word, YES (If you have not implemented this yet, I will be happy to post my answers in a reply—both real and funny).  After playing other, similar, but far less complicated games…this should be a mandatory entrance criteria.

2.  WOW, what an FAQ and Newbie guide (kudos), very detailed and thorough…I could see how this might be considered daunting to some, but to those who have played other “similar” games this is GREATLY appreciated.  I would say you’d have to be an idiot to not read this as a newbie, but I have seen this demonstrated elsewhere ad nauseum.

There were a couple of comments in the forum by Brenda in the Newbie questionare post, that I particularly liked:

a: “Maybe there can be a “pretend” stable that the Newbie has to do things in.”

This would really help “see” the functions of the game.  I don’t think you even need to make a fake stable per se, so long as you could show me exmaples (e.g. screenshots, example sheets, or detailed explanations with calculations as in the OUTSTANDING claiming guide).  I don’t think this is critical so much as an extension of the completness of the guide.

b: “Mentoring”
Oh, my----ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY!, as was mentioned in that thread there are many things to be done in this game that are subjective and that would really help steer me/others in a “better” direction sooner rather than later, adding to our enjoyment of the game.

  1. I found a way to set my “home track” before really doing anyting, or having an official stable.  Given the apparent importance of this detail to expense in shipping and such, I would take away this option until a stable is activated (it seems that script modding could support this based on other mods listed in previous posts).  I mean I’m cool with my selection and all, I am just suprised that I don’t see more “I screwed up my home track selection-how to fix” posts.

5.  The one thing I am not feeling completely clear on is the activity points:  Does a Newbie, like me who is joining mid-season have the capability of accumulation of points, and at what rate during the partial 1st year?  I think I can guess the answer here, but I didn’t see it spelled out so clearly as for the rest.

  1. I found a typo in the FAQ under Starting out/Stable Location: Where should I build my barn?

forgive me if this has been pointed out already…but I don’t want a home track that’s closed to several tracks…lol

7.  Can somebody throw me a bone and give me a few bloodlines to start researching?..I think get the D/I and rating system (platinum, gold, etc.) I’m just looking for a few starting points, some favorite bloodlines to start investigating here, before I just wholesale throw myself into the database.

In any case, sorry for the rambles.  I look forward to playing with you all…

TJ @ Portland Farms

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Welcome to the game :slight_smile: I have a feeling you will go far…

I just wanted to touch on bloodlines a bit… Take a look at The Black and Highland Raven lines. Those are definitely a given for me. Favorites depends on person to person, though.

Good luck!

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Hey, TJ!  I remember you from WR.  :slight_smile:  Welcome to FF!

Great points.  My life is totally crazy right now (new job, horse shopping, horse selling, etc.), but I do plan to implement all of your suggestions soon.

I do plan to add to/overhaul the FAQ, and add a “How To” that will replace the newbie guide (along the lines of the claiming guide, but for more stuff, and ideally with lots of screenshots as well).  Saying that and finding time to do it are two different things, of course. :wink:

Point 4 - d’oh!  I thought it was setup so that you can’t select a track until you have an active stable, but I’ll check on that.

For point 5, you do not get a partial year.  You get 365 days from the date you joined.  So it doesn’t care if you join mid-season.

Bloodlines - Highland Rogue, What’s It Worth, Planet Hollywood, and pretty much all the real-life famous studs are good places to start.  Apologies to any pretty studs I forgot on that list, but those are the main bloodlines that people seem to go “ooh, a _____ baby!  I want!” over.

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most of the  activity points are explained here

as for how the year works… you will get full points for 1 full calendar year from the time your stable is approved… and each year on your anneversary date it will go down to the next level.

bloodlines I’d like to add Cross Roads…

5

finalfurlong.org/breedrankings.php - The breed rankings page actually lists all the Platinum/Gold/etc ranked horses.  It’s useful for mare lines in addition to the stud lines. :slight_smile: 

finalfurlong.org/studstat.php - This has all the studs and you can sort by various % (winners, G1 winners, SCers, etc).  There are quite a few newer studs who are looking pretty sharp.  One thing to keep in mind, the race code changed in 2011 FF time and horses got new stats and existing stats may have changed slightly.  So keep an eye out for studs who’s progeny have done a lot better/worse since the code swap. 

Good luck! :slight_smile:  Sounds like you’ll be beating existing players in no time with the research you’ve done/are doing.

6

Hey thanks all! great suggestions on lines and clarifications on the activity points (when I reread the activity pts section, it makes more sense). I got my homework done, so now I get to oogle lineages all day…yippie  :astonished:

Shanthi, I remember you too…and I didn’t want to bug you with email, cause I know you’re busy…But, holy cow girl did you do a good job with this!  I’ll send out an email later this week to you and Cat, catch up and all—>gosh I missed you guys!

I remember you talking, well more like patiently explaining the nuances of some of the program issues with SD to me, just before you left over in WR land.  I also remember you (and Cat) speaking of what you wanted to do with this.  I almost joined once before, while you were “spinning up the model” so to speak in quick time, but life got in the way. In any case, I can’t believe that you did all this and did it this well…don’t take any of what I posted above (or any other time for that matter in the future) as a now thing…shoot, players here are lucky this exists compared to the alternatives…mods/adjustments can always wait.
I am very excited to finally be on my way…insert your own sinister giggle here