breeding down non-discipline stats

i'm currently on the fourth gen of a project herd, and have realized that the non-discipline specific stats haven't been decreasing as much as i'd assumed they would. i went to check the foal stat calculator to figure out what was up. 

if my understanding is correct, breeding a pair of same-discipline horses that have no treat- or training-added stats to their non-discipline base stats will result in a foal with non-discipline stats being the average of their parents' non-discipline stats. 

If my math is right, this will mean that no foal bred from post-recode foundations will ever have less than 15 non-discipline stats (since 15 is the lowest stats that a store horse can have in a given stat area). This would apply to more than just second gens, and would theoretically continue forever, with 15 being the lowest a horse without pre-recode bloodlines could have in a non-discipline area.

Is this correct? 

If so, my plans to breed down non-discipline specific stats might have just hit a standstill 0.o

No I don't think that's true

Yes, I've done the math as well using the formula behind the foal stat calculator. It is no longer possible to breed non-spec stats down to single digits. Like you noted, even if you never increase the non-spec stats over a horse's lifetime with careful treating and schooling, the resulting foal will still have an average of its parents parent's original stats. I didn't know that 15 was the lowest foundation stat, but I would conclude that, 15 being the lowest "naturally occurring" low stat, it would be impossible to breed a horse below that UNLESS you bring in lined horses with lines extending before the recode (ie. Rising Dawn's Friesians that I so admire).

I looked into this when I was putting together the stat calculator and I can confirm that you are correct. The only way to reduce non-disclipline stats below the minimum that foundations can have is to breed to horses with pre-recode lines who've maintained lower non-discipline stats. Without changes to the game there's no other way to do this.

Dang ... That's going to be so hard to do then ... 0.0'

oh darn. i was very much hoping my math would be wrong! 

i like the idea of having my own lines, but this means that they'll never be truly competitive with pre-recode horses that have 0s in non-discipline stats :/

tweaking the modifier so that (mare base + stallion base) x 0.4 = foal base stat would make it possible in 8ish generations. That would mean all foal stats would be a bit lower than they are now though, and i'm not sure how popular making stats lower would be as a suggestion :p

Last edited on 2017-08-22 at 05:33:47 by ᴋᴀʜᴢɪᴇ ɪ

The game's foal stat calculation involves different modifiers for discipline vs non-discipline stats. I would support the non-discipline stat multiplication factor being reduced, as this would not affect the discipline-specific stats, and would allow zeros to eventually be reached in the non-discipline stats.

This is interesting to know. Now maybe I reconsider some of the pre-recode horses I have on my cull list.

Great idea, UB! Even reducing the multiplication factor to .45 or .47 would make it possible to reduce the stats slowly over time, but would still present a challenge and require time abd dedication  

For anyone who is interested I went through my horses and I have stallions (locked but available) with non discipline stats below 15 some are in the single digits. you can browse my locked studs and message me if interested in breeding to them.
101063 western paints
109347 endurance mustangs
109349 driving gypsy's
You can either pay for the breeding or trade me a foal from a repeat breeding to the same mare

^{I didn't realise there was a cap of sorts, my paints have been decreasing in all non-specs but endurance (solidly sticking around 30 stats the last three gens) which is actually really annoying heh.} 

For what you said about 15 being the lowest number of stats in a given area, I have this horse who is a foundation horse that I bought after the recode, but she has 9 Intelligence. So maybe it's just rare for the stats in an area to be under 15. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you or it's a bug. I'm not really sure.

This horse's parents were both after-recode foundations, and it's intelligence is 14.

I don't think that this will truly keep post-recode horses from being competitive; even having non-specialty stats in the teens is fairly low. However as someone who strives to breed horses with single-digit or 0 non-specialty stats, I would definitely support there still being a way to achieve that (even if it's a long process.)

Now I'm just confused. XD