What's next and What do you think?

[The Admin]

As was announced recently in the SIMCast, the SIM plans to roll out multiple post times during the day rather than just a single post time each day. That will likely debut next SIM year. In preparation for it, there are some clean-up changes that need to happen. To me, these updates are to correct mistakes or anomalies that have evolved over the years in the SIM. The short summary is that midnight Pacific time will have less significance and instead, key race events will happen 24 hours prior to post time.

Event	Now	Soon
Horses Locked in an upcoming race - automatic scratching	at Midnight Pacific time on the day of the race - that is 20 hours before post time on Day 1/3/5 and 13 hours before post time on Day 2/4/6	24 hours before the post time - all races, all days
Betting Open	at Midnight Pacific time on the day of the race - that is 20 hours before post time on Day 1/3/5 and 13 hours before post time on Day 2/4/6	24 hours before the post time - all races, all days
Auto Ship Horses	at Midnight Pacific time on the day of the race - that is 20 hours before post time on Day 1/3/5 and 13 hours before post time on Day 2/4/6. So, when you choose to auto-ship horses 2 days in advance of a race, it actually ships 2 days and 20 (or 13) hours before the race	Auto-ships exactly the number of days you choose before post time

So, what is the real impact to you?

1. Races close for entries sooner than before. But all races will have the same amount of entry time and will have the same amount of open betting time.
2. You won't have to convert midnight Pacific time to your own timezone
3. You may want to increase your auto-ship time because 1 day will actually mean 24 hours rather that the 37 or 44 hours it means now
4. Since auto-shipping can happen throughout the day, you could enter a horse in tomorrow's race at 2:25pm, and it would auto-ship 5 minutes later. If you then scratch that horse at 2:35pm, it will have already shipped. This only would happen when you enter a horse in a race that is sooner than your auto-ship lead time.

When will this happen?
I'd like to do it soon. In working on this update, I was surprised by how much extra work was in the code to make stuff happen at midnight. The new code is more elegant where key events are related to post times, rather than an artificial trigger of midnight in a single timezone. The code is now done, but we are waiting to implement it until we hear your thoughts and concerns. Change can be unsettling, but if we didn't change, the SIM wouldn't have timed workouts, would have races one day a week, no claim game, no pick 6... and the list goes on. These changes are intended to make timing in the game simpler to understand and to pave the way for future enhancements. Please let us know what you think.

A side thought about auto-shipping... It hit me that it might be most useful if auto-shipping happened based on arrival time at the track rather than departure time. In other words, if you chose auto-shipping of 1 day, your horses would arrive at their tracks 1 day before post time. Whereas currently, they leave their current location 1 day before race day so horses that are far away won't make it in time. I have no idea if we can pull this off, but it was a thought I wanted to share for your input.

Thanks as always for your involvement and enjoyment of the SIM!

[Carole Hanson]

I have no problem with this and think this will be great now and in the long run Thank you for all the hard work!

[Cindy Saunders]

Love the new formats and I want to Thank You for all that you do!!!

[Jake Yu]

I want it to stay the way it's now.... as the game is awesome.

If it's not broken, don't fix it....

[Nena Olson]

Sounds good to me! Do we know how many time zones you are planning to have yet?

[Glenn Escobar]

Sounds good to me! Do we know how many time zones you are planning to have yet?

This is a good question, maybe a "mock up" calendar of future SIM dates with multi-post times accounted for would be helpful? Not sure if this is feasible or not.

[Dan Kauffman]

I'm fine with all those proposed changes.

[Eric Nalbone]

The notion of auto-shipping based on arrival time is *brilliant* and would likely lead to improved race results for everyone that uses it, but that's just my opinion.

[Robert Forston]

I like the changes to different time zones. My only worry is the race calls and how they will work

[Nick Gilmore]

It sounds to me like it will just add to the realism of the Sim. It will take a bit of getting used to, but I'm looking forward!

[Lori Hamill]

I'm looking forward to this change. One thing I've learned over the years here, all of the changes are intended to enhance game play. There is a diverse group of people playing this game so not all changes will be enjoyed by all. There's a few changes that I'm still not thrilled with (I'm looking at you random injuries) but none have ever been deal breakers, at least not for me. Admin, you are so right, without changes we would be missing out on so much - including All Weather and Mixer (!!!) racing!! (Probably milers of any sort, too.) I remember when I started playing in Year 22, the first changes I was totally like "But I LOVE the Sim the way it is!!" Now I'm so so glad that it has continued to evolve and get better and better.

Thank you!

[Stormy Peak]

I'm still wondering how these new time zones will affect a horse gaining or losing a day of rest. Are we going to have to figure out now, that if we ship from China to the USA or if shipping from the USA to Australia or whatever if the horse loses or gains rest time because they landed in another country at almost the same time they left another country....etc....

Hope that made sense.

Stormy

[Glenn Escobar]

I'm still wondering how these new time zones will affect a horse gaining or losing a day of rest. Are we going to have to figure out now, that if we ship from China to the USA or if shipping from the USA to Australia or whatever if the horse loses or gains rest time because they landed in another country at almost the same time they left another country....etc....

Hope that made sense.

Stormy

Absolute hours was, I believe, his point. Which is to say, if you auto-ship 3 or 4 days before the race you should be OK because your horse will travel in an absolute X# of hours, land in the new time zone, but it will be an absolute X# of hours before the race, no matter the time on the clock. This is why he was offering the basic concept of "I want to land 'XYZ' Hours BEFORE the race, not depart X# of days before the race regardless of shipping time".

[Glenn Escobar]

The notion of auto-shipping based on arrival time is *brilliant* and would likely lead to improved race results for everyone that uses it, but that's just my opinion.

Agreed 1000% on this point. Allowing the horse to arrive at the track XYZ hours before post time (36, or 48 or whatever) would be awesome, and a large part of me thinks that this is more reflective of the realism that is considered when shipping a horse IRL. Many of you I'm sure could speak to that point better than I.

[Patrick O'Malley]

The notion of auto-shipping based on arrival time is *brilliant* and would likely lead to improved race results for everyone that uses it, but that's just my opinion.

This.

Also no problems with the proposed changes, saves a lot of mental arithmetic. Also would probably further improve game performance around midnight pacific, in itself a good thing.