[ADDED] *new idea for stallions unable to breed

so, after three weeks of  discussions about the new lock placed on studs offered, I would like to make a new suggestion. For those who do not know why this lock went into effect I will outline it.

Problem: Since the manual cron has been in place there have been some unexpected loop holes that can now be done. One of these is that stallions offered for stud can now be bred without aging. This means that they can live forever and be bred for an unlimited amount of times. This is unfair to those who progress their accounts often. 

Solution: Abbay has placed a lock on all studs (privet and public) so that the owner has to progress their account in order to have the stud available for breeding. 

problem: This lock has made it very difficult for players to find studs to breed to. since the cron restes early in the morning, and some players do not progress until night time, those studs are unavailable for most of the day (sometimes only for a few hours). This is making it hard for people who want to breed their mares, to broaden their gene pool, and for those who want to make money offering the stud for service. Everyone does not progress their account at the same time. Some players play to breed horses and this lock limits their game play. Because players that progress early in the day have a monopoly on their studs they have an advantage to those who progress later on. Also, it means their stallion will get used more making the overbreeding problem worse on equiverse.  

Solution: I propose a 5 day grace period for stallions offered for privet and public stud. Here is how I see it working 

1: the stud is offered up. he is able to breed for that day.
2: the stud has 5 days from the time he is offered for stud until the 5th cron reset
3: if the played does not progress their account before the 5th cron reset the stallion is automatically taken off of being offered for stud.
4: if the player progresses their account before the 5th cron rest the process repeats itself starting with set two.

Here are the reasons I believe this would be a good compromise for both parties.

1: it makes the owners of the studs progress their account. This would fix the loophole making the stallions age. It also helps keep players active because if they do not progress their income is limited. It also discourages players from exploiting this loop hole.

2: It helps the community by giving active players more selections of studs. Equiverse is a community, that is the best thing about a sim game. you make friends, help them out, and benefit from those in the community. It also enhances game play for those who breed for fun. Not everyone plays the same way.

3: with 5 days in between players that log in two to three times a week still benefit from their stallion. everyone has a life outside of this game. that way they can still help out the community without being pressured to play daily. 

4: it broadens the amount of available studs offered for breeding. It would fix both problems. it keeps players from using the loop hole while giving active and semi active players the freedom to play as they wish.

5: Because it has 5 days for a grace period it will limit the hassle of resting the stallion at stud every day, or every three days. 5 days seems to me a good amount of time. If a player has to relisting breeding caps, put their horse back up for stud every three days, or other caps making it challenging, the owner might find it too much of a hassle and not put their stud up at all. this would create the same problem as listed above for those who wish to use outside studs

Please contribute to this thread. When the community come together to solve problems it only makes the game that much better. Thank you for reading my proposal and I wish you all the best with your game play, what ever your goals my be :) 

stay calm, ride on, from Churchill Stables.

Last edited on 2017-09-02 at 12:45:34 by 🄲hurchill 🅂tables

I think this is a sensible way to solve this problem. It would definitely prevent people abusing the manual cron to get indefinite studs, while not placing any limitations on those who play regularly.

I think 5 days is fine, but if anyone suggested a slightly different length of time would be more suitable then I'd equally support both options. I'm not too fussed about exactly what's used.

I had chosen 5 because I saw some people say 3 and others say 7, so I went in the middle. The amount of time can change, however, Like I said before I think 5 days would be best because semi regular players won't have to keep putting their studs up again

on a side note, if the time were to change to say 3 days grace period, I would suggest not removing the horses from stud completely. The lock could then take effect (just like it is doing now) after the three days. its a catch 22, but i still like the 5 day grace idea better, but at this point anything like this system would be better than what we have now as not every player logs in daily.

Thank you for adding your thoughts :)

Last edited on 2017-09-02 at 12:46:35 by 🄲hurchill 🅂tables

Maybe add an option (like a drop down) for how many days the player would like the stallion up for stud before they have to jump onto the game to progress? Like 3, 5, 7 etc. but no more than 12 or 14?
Thank you for suggesting this idea! I can't use all the studs I normally would and that is starting to limit my line.
Also I have a couple GV stallions up for stud (two I bred and one EC'd). I try to be on every day to help combat this problem. The stallions are here:
https://www.equiverse.com/horse.php?id=597397   Stromatolite
https://www.equiverse.com/horse.php?id=597396   Jasper
https://www.equiverse.com/horse.php?id=643063   Stellar

@alphadelta, I am so glad that you added in with your thoughts. It has been limiting my line as well! I think ulyssesBlue suggested something like this with breeding caps (or days). The more automatic and set the time is the less people have to worry about, i personally think. its all about the ease of access. The more hassle something is the less people want to do it. It also might be harder to code, but i am unsure of this. But, this might be a good feature for those who know they can't be on but once every few weeks. 

I personally like the 3 day idea: after 3 days, the stud "locks" up again unless the owner progesses. That would be a nice happy medium, and solve both problems, as people who log in and progress at different times of day would not be penalized, nor would the people who just play two or three times a week. Although I prefer 3 days, I would be okay with 5, but I think any longer is unfair - people should have to log in fairly regularly to make money (from studs or anything else). For instance, to make money from shows or schools, you have to log in to put your horses in them! I don't like the idea of passive stud income for weeks at a time without having to check in and at least age your horses every now and then. This seems to actually penalize daily players, whose studs would age faster, die sooner, and make less money in their lifetimes. Just my two cents!

@north! thank you for your input! I agree that it is unfair to users that log in daily. However, I just don't think there are enough that do it for the income to justify a very short limit. I personally would like to see 7 days as I am in college now and do not have time to dink around with anything but putting my horses in riding school. I know others said 3 days but I think that's a little low for the majority of players who have very busy lives. I would really like to see something implemented soon as this has been going on for quite some time now. I totally hear what your saying :) and I value your input.  I I know that a majority of horses that are owned by players who progress semi regularly have their stud prices set very low. it would take hundreds of breeding to equal those players who have higher stud fees. I really doubt they are in it for making a buck or two without working for it. I agree that some people can abuse the system and some sort of check and balance should be put into place though. Thanks again for the input!
stay calm, ride on, from churchill stables

I don't think we want a time period longer than 5 days, as this would just bring back a variant of the indefinite studs issue. Even 5 days I'm beginning to feel is a bit too long. The shorter this time period, the less it can be taken advantage of with indefinite studs or similar, so I think it should probably be as short as we can get it without penalising daily or near-daily players. A time period of 2 days would ensure daily players faced no penalties, while 3 days would mean if you skipped a day your studs would be unaffected. So long as stallions wouldn't need to be manually re-listed every time this time period expired then there would be no real inconvenience from having a short time period.

@ulyssesblue, I totally agree that there is a fine  line between not hindering players and keeping those who wish to use the loophole at bay. I know many players are not able to do much during the school year as they are either in school or have children that are. I was hoping that 5 days would be a good compromise to those who have busy lives and suggested 7to 14 days as stated above and those who wish to keep it shorter to keep the loophole from happening. like I said before, a shorter grace period could happen if the stallion was not taken down from being a stud, but was simply removed from the option list of available studs. I am fine with either so long as it does not continue to limit game play to semi regular players :) thanks again for the contribution. 

Last edited on 2017-09-07 at 09:23:58 by 🄲hurchill 🅂tables

Personally, I rather 3 days or less for grace period. I can see players abusing grace period and 5 days are pretty long for a gameplay life span. 

A Stud probably will have 1-3 foals per a day on average if he is one of best studs in that breed. 
For this, I will go with 2 foals per a day because I like easy math.
Suppose that stud was put up for public stud at age 20 (7 days) for $50,000 per breeding.

If a player log in daily:
20.7 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.6 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.5 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.4 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.3 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.2 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.1 - 2 foals ($100,000)
Total: 14 foals and $700,000.

HOWEVER...
If a player log in every 5 days to progress:
20.7 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.7 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.7 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.7 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.7 - 2 foals ($100,000)
progressed
20.6 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.6 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.6 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.6 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.6 - 2 foals ($100,000)
progressed
20.5 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.5 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.5 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.5 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.5 - 2 foals ($100,000)
progressed
20.4 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.4 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.4 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.4 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.4 - 2 foals ($100,000)
progressed
20.3 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.3 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.3 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.3 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.3 - 2 foals ($100,000)
progressed
20.2 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.2 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.2 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.2 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.2 - 2 foals ($100,000)
progressed
20.1 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.1 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.1 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.1 - 2 foals ($100,000)
20.1 - 2 foals ($100,000)
Total: 70 foals and $3,500,000.

The difference are ridiculous huge. The 5-day grace periods can be abused easily and the players can earned more money than dedicated players who log in everyday. I am aware that it is not common for a stud to have 2 breedings daily but my point is that the players can earn easy bucks by doing this method.

I completely agree with Andromeda. Putting a grace period on studs that is longer than a couple days is just asking for players to abuse it like they were previously with the infinite studs. 

I agree with Andromeda 100%. That's exactly what I was trying to say in my post, but didn't have the math to back 
 it up. Thank you, Andromeda!!!!!

I am not saying this is a perfect solution, but if everyone can do it is it really even unair? Like I said about the compromise and fine line thing. Right now it limits game play to players. I don't think a two day  difference is that big of a deal, if everyone is able to play that way. I have high stated horses, very few players pay 50k for a public stud, at least in the qh world. Well, that's just my two cents. Thanks so much for adding to the post! I hope Abbey can find a good compromise for us all as I think we have exhausted every possibility. I personally am super frustrated with the restrictions on my game play. Thanks again guys and I wish you all the best!
Stay calm, ride on, C.S

remember, the days can be changed to three if need be, but the general idea is to have studs have some sort of grace period. Lets not get caught up on the trivial. 

@CS,
it is not really fair even if everyone can do this. It is not fair to dedicated players who log in. I am not going to stop log in daily just to earn extra bucks from Studs.
Like I mention, I used those number for an easy math. No matter what number I put, the difference are ridiculous because those players shouldn't earn those money in first place. It is not fair to dedicated players if a player earned something on second day of grace period when that horse is supposed to age.