Minimum Stud Fees/Foal Limits

[Ali Hedgestone]

Any thoughts on the topic of this thread from The Steward? Any temptation at all to at least change the minimal fee thing?

Do you have any ideas on how to make people police themselves fee wise, so that superstar stallions can't have 400 foals at $1?

"However, it is the official position of SIMHorseRacing.com that you are allowed to handle your stallions however you want"

It's not fair to players standing stallions where we have to compete with other players who decide to stand a superstar stallion for $1. It's already hard enough to get mares for good stallions that are standing at their minimums because people would rather pay 3-4x more for a superstar stallion. Which is where foal limits come in. Though you can now buy unlimited foal slots for your stallion, so foal limits are a thing of the past.

I would love to have the ability to petition the SIM to stand stallions for a lower fee than the minimum. But that would add a bunch of extra work for The Stew and Admin as that would likely have to be done by hand.

Another possible solution would be that if a stallion has less than 50% of possible foals bred when they hit 10 (12?), the stud fee minimum goes away? Or maybe after a certain number of years standing?

[Ashley Gibson]

However... I don't think it would be fair to the players to have a stud owner just pick and chose which mare is good enough for their stallion. Some players might have a decent mare, and would want to use a stallion to upgrade their broodmare line by breeding that mare and getting fillies. And some players might have the perfect match for a stallion, but because the stallion owner might not like the other player...then for reasons that have nothing to do with the game as far as breeding goes...they can deny that person use of the stallion.

This would not be a new thing. I am pretty sure similar has been happening since the addition of the limited spots. Popular stallions are taken down and you have to request an open spot with a mare. It isn't always done with malice, such as last year Laura took down Fearless Spirit after he was hammered but had spots available for mares that were retiring or missed out on him initially. It wasn't done to punish people at all or so she could pick people she thought were "cool" to reopen him for. Most private stallions are available if you reach out to their owners, but there will always be a few this does not apply to.

[The Steward]

Any thoughts on the topic of this thread from The Steward? Any temptation at all to at least change the minimal fee thing?

Do you have any ideas on how to make people police themselves fee wise, so that superstar stallions can't have 400 foals at $1?

"However, it is the official position of SIMHorseRacing.com that you are allowed to handle your stallions however you want"

Because the snark is real, I am updating my original post to say "within the rules" which was what I assumed everyone would understand, but I forgot this is SIMHorseRacing!

[Brian Leavitt]

Do you have any ideas on how to make people police themselves fee wise, so that superstar stallions can't have 400 foals at $1?

"However, it is the official position of SIMHorseRacing.com that you are allowed to handle your stallions however you want"

Because the snark is real, I am updating my original post to say "within the rules" which was what I assumed everyone would understand, but I forgot this is SIMHorseRacing!

Not gonna lie, this made me chuckle a little

[Andrew Chillin]

I may not have a place here but my snarky comment would be:
What’s to stop owners from giving people their money back and still standing a superstar stud for 1$? Except for that guy. Not that guy. You know who you are

[Nena Olson]

Any thoughts on the topic of this thread from The Steward? Any temptation at all to at least change the minimal fee thing?

Do you have any ideas on how to make people police themselves fee wise, so that superstar stallions can't have 400 foals at $1?
**Not meant to be snarky, really asking!

Have an absolute minimum fee of $5k if your horse isn't worth $5k stud fee, probably shouldnt be standing.

[Tammy Stawicki]

Any thoughts on the topic of this thread from The Steward? Any temptation at all to at least change the minimal fee thing?

Do you have any ideas on how to make people police themselves fee wise, so that superstar stallions can't have 400 foals at $1?
**Not meant to be snarky, really asking!

I have wondered if it would make more sense to have just a general breed minimum stud fee. So all appy/paints need to stand for at least a couple thousand, thoroughbreds maybe in the 5-10k range, etc. Agree you could still have some stallions standing for way less than they should be but needing to spend more game points to increase the limits should deal with that to some degree. And already you can have that with the current rules. My holiday stallions could stand for as cheaply as $500 because they have no earnings. You also have a horse like Fearless Spirit who because he only made a little over $1 million can stand for far less than a superstar turf miler racer that made something in the 2-4 million range but wound up being a dud at stud (it rhymes). Eliminating the connection to earnings at least would get rid of the situation where that stud dud could not be priced competitively. And sure there could be some true duds out there that wouldn't be even worth the minimum but would they really be a loss??

Also I would be remiss if I let a limits thread go without mentioning how nice it would be if there were separate within breed and crossbreed limits so us paint/appy breeders could maybe get some discounted stud fees again. I can afford shelling out the $50k for a quarter horse but I imagine that's not true for newer players.

Nena beat me to it but I already typed all this out so I'll reiterate what she said and make the point the minimum should vary by breed.

[Abby Brooks]

Do you have any ideas on how to make people police themselves fee wise, so that superstar stallions can't have 400 foals at $1?

"However, it is the official position of SIMHorseRacing.com that you are allowed to handle your stallions however you want"

Because the snark is real, I am updating my original post to say "within the rules" which was what I assumed everyone would understand, but I forgot this is SIMHorseRacing!

All gifs aside, why are we, as snarky SIMHorseRacing players, told "we are allowed to handle our stallions however you want" except for various reasons that seem to be decided with the flip of a coin that has a weight bias on one side.

Rule #10 states "You may not form clique groups that are created for the purpose of one set of players becoming vastly more powerful than the rest." which almost contradicts this concept of partnerships and the ability to restrict breeding slots. Could I not suggest that for example, by setting a stallion at such a high price that you are creating a clique of wealthy players breeding to the best with the best and because of this, they find themselves developmentally years in front of the average player?

I say this because I see this happening, and I am not complaining about their actions or the unfairness of it but the lack of discipline presented to some and others not. I speak for myself in asking for clarity on decisions that seem to create double-standards in certain situations.

[Andrew James]

people rememeber that the minimum stud fee rule came in for a reason right? It didn't exist when I started. Then Anointed and a half dozen other studs were set at $1 and the SIM nearly broke. Anointed was at $1 for 2 seasons and he sired 3600 foals. Comparing that with Harry Potter (800) and You Are I am (600) should give you an idea of the extent of the issue.

Try to remember the outrage and complaints at the time when everyone with a dirt router couldn't get any mares at all because everyone just went to one of the $1 stallions. Im not exaggerating when I say the breeding part of the game was literally breaking.

Imagine the angst of all the turf miler stallion owners if Fearless Spirit was $1. They'd get 0 mares.

There clearly needs to be some minimum fee or maximum foal rule, the loophole has been exposed.

[Sten Rino Haakonsen]

I did not really have an issue with this until this year because mostly the problems with stud limits were in classes I am not too big in like see you monday in ts and some dr and in mixers but then came Fearless Spirit which got filled up last year which was fine I was just to slow to realise what a good sire he is so no real issue
but this year we arre not even in week one and he is allready fully booked making it difficult for someone like me who like to wait until halfway into the season before doing a whole lot of breeding
so If it wasnt for people obviosuly getting so nerous about not getting to the sire that they thrrow eerything they have at him before the first week I would not hae an issue with foal limits

when it comes to stud fees I had the problem with Old Dan even though he was a nice sire he only really gave out his best foals to the steward so when he had to stand in ecess off 20k no one used him when he got older but me

and well I don not think Fearless Spirit would be set at 1$ even if he could be and Havent people learned now not to set their stud at 1$

[Andrew James]

Sten FS has 31 foals this year. I dont want to speak for Laura but my guess is she is controlling the quality of mares he sees and will let you breed a quality mare to him if you ask her. Obviously this apparently isnt the case with DMB. Honestly, I dont know what to think of that so wont comment other than to say, just stand him for 500k and problem solved.

And yes, Laura wont stand FS for $1 but what if someone who would stand FS for $1 just to mess with the game owned him? The issue is that happened. It can and will happen again. If it was my game Id protect myself from that as well.

[Nena Olson]

How many freaks/stakes or blue hen/top producers did the $1 DR stallions produce? I don't remember them ever overwhelming the division come race time... sure Anointed was good but he was no James Dean or whoever else was standing at the time that everyone under the sun sent their mares to.

[Andrew James]

How many freaks/stakes or blue hen/top producers did the $1 DR stallions produce? I don't remember them ever overwhelming the division come race time... sure Anointed was good but he was no James Dean or whoever else was standing at the time that everyone under the sun sent their mares to.

He got 3600 mares. The vast majority (1500 age 9) of which came in the 2.5 seasons he was at $1. I dont think its unreasonable to think that if he'd been $1 for the entire time he might have had 10k mares. Go look up some other top sires to put that in perspective. Maelstrom saw 600, Doctor saw 1600, I metnioned You Are I Am and Harry Potter. These are generational sires, seeing fractions of the perentage of Anointed.

Just for a minute picture DMB standing at $1. Who the heck would breed to anyone else? Every DR stallion would be losing their mind. This is literally what happened. Anointed wasnt DMB but he was pretty good considering he saw literally every single crappy mare in the SIM.

[Nena Olson]

How many freaks/stakes or blue hen/top producers did the $1 DR stallions produce? I don't remember them ever overwhelming the division come race time... sure Anointed was good but he was no James Dean or whoever else was standing at the time that everyone under the sun sent their mares to.

He got 3600 mares. The vast majority (1500 age 9) of which came in the 2.5 seasons he was at $1. I dont think its unreasonable to think that if he'd been $1 for the entire time he might have had 10k mares. Go look up some other top sires to put that in perspective. Maelstrom saw 600, Doctor saw 1600, I metnioned You Are I Am and Harry Potter. These are generational sires, seeing fractions of the perentage of Anointed.

Just for a minute picture DMB standing at $1. Who the heck would breed to anyone else? Every DR stallion would be losing their mind. This is literally what happened. Anointed wasnt DMB but he was pretty good considering he saw literally every single crappy mare in the SIM.

Doesn't limited stud books help that? Also, why should a stallion that earned $4 mil on the track automatically have to have a $25k stud fee? What if they are not a $25k stallion but a $10k stallion? A minimum of $5k would ease that. My main thing though is I don't want approved mares for all stallions to be implemented. I could never imagine a mare like Broke Your Heart being approved for a stallion like Just Victory in that type of scenario which would mean I never would have had Prayers be born, which means I would never have Enchantment who is the best DR broodmare I have ever had.

[Ronnie Dee]

Have an absolute minimum fee of $5k ...

I am very supportive of a simple rule like this for all stallions,