Steeplechase Update

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The Steward
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Steeplechase Update

Post by The Steward »

-4yo+ horses have gotten another boost to make them in line with impending aging older horses.
-"Freak" level gallops have been tightened to mean closer to actual freakiness (it was a range of 1.8 points before, too big).
-You can now create races for 6yos+
-More bumper races first half of the year, including bumper claimers

Happy racing!
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Rochelle Bos
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Rochelle Bos »

Thank you! <3
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Hamish Mcgonaghal
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Hamish Mcgonaghal »

Why now
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Gigi Gofaster
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Gigi Gofaster »

should we regallop older horses to find the true freaks?
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The Steward
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by The Steward »

Hamish Mcgonaghal wrote: 5 years ago Why now
Because it's break and that's when we try to do a whole bunch of fixes at once every year.
"There's no secret to training a good horse. It's a matter of being fortunate enough to get one."
"Funny how you often regret the stuff you didn't do more than the stuff you did do" - GG
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Laura Ferguson
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Laura Ferguson »

Thank you! Look forward to checking it out on Monday.
Hamish Mcgonaghal
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Hamish Mcgonaghal »

The Steward wrote: 5 years ago
Hamish Mcgonaghal wrote: 5 years ago Why now
Because it's break and that's when we try to do a whole bunch of fixes at once every year.
so when you said this to me a month ago

"We aren’t planning on doing another tweak at this time, because 3 year olds undergo their own tweak every year when they become four (aka older horses). It’s meant to mimic the natural progression of aging. I would need to see how it plays out in the first few weeks of next year before doing anything else. I can definitely see a tweak over break where we make the realm of “stakes” gallops smaller, right now it’s obviously way too big with not all the stakes gallops being true stakes runners. But that is an arbitrary amount that we just change one number and the array parrots a different word (allowance, stakes, or freak), and takes about .05 seconds to do"

In another email

"As I was explaining before, the word “freak” or “stakes” is super arbitrary. We can tweak it so there are way more 4 year old freaks, but it’s just a word, it has nothing to do with how the actual horses perform, if that makes sense. The designated word means little other than falling in a range minus training and racing (or plus), it just serves to make you guys real excited about your gallops. Doing away with it permanently would be lovely, but the fallout too much! There are freaks in dirt routing that never break their maiden, and allowances in turf miling that are multiple g1 winners even these days.

As I said in the last email, if it looks like the 4 year olds win 100% of the time (or even 80%) against the older horses week 1 and 2 next year, I would definitely do another tweak to make sure the 5 and 6 year olds are still well represented. But this is the first year we’ve had super well-prepped 3 year olds (thanks to bumpers) facing older horses at the end of the year (they’ve usually barely chased before this time), so that’s another reason for the discrepancy!"

After receiving that information i never entered anymore horses or did any breeding nor renewed my simperior or my track, waiting for the 1st 2 weeks of the new year to see where steeplchasing was heading. My post from 2 months ago asking for communication was never answered effectively and those emails state it was going to be observed.

Is the change happening now because those 2 creates have been retired and won't come up in this conversation? There was a "fix" earlier this season that many said never fixed what was wrong and nothing was said after numerous times being asked on the forum.
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Nick Gilmore
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Nick Gilmore »

Laura Ferguson wrote: 5 years ago Thank you! Look forward to checking it out on Monday.
Monday.....GALLOPS! YES!!!!!!!
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Carole Hanson
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Carole Hanson »

There sure is a lot of complaining and conspiracy theories going on in this game considering how little involvement the Steward has in the game. It’s not like she favours certain players and gives them all candy and the rest of us nothing. And also, believe it or not, she has a real life with 2 children, several cats, a horse and a dog to take care of ON HER OWN and you guys are demanding issues get fixed immediately. It’s really not fair. I know that this is a frustrating thing, I understand the extent of the problem and I get that it’s a major problem. Thankfully it’s fixed now, and looks like quicker than expected and yet you still complain??? I imagine poor Em, who created this game to connect with other racing folks when she didn’t have any around her IRL, comes home from a hard day’s work, she takes care of the kids, makes sure everyone is fed (including all the pets) and when she’s done she wants to sit down and see what’s going on in her beloved game today. Except, I can’t see it being so beloved anymore. We’re going to end up driving Em off of this game because she’ll decide she’s had enough dealing with petty drama over a fake game with fake horses when she already has stress in her real life.

Please just be considerate to Em, she’s human just like all of us and just because we’re hiding behind computer screens doesn’t mean we’re allowed to just disrespect her. Yes, disrespect because that’s what this situation is. Of course we should say something when we’re unhappy with an aspect of the game, but respectfully. And similarly, we should respect Em’s time and other commitments that come before the SIM.
Polk Buffalo
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Polk Buffalo »

Gigi Gofaster wrote: 5 years ago should we regallop older horses to find the true freaks?
My question too..

I like those changes...
Unfortunately I already retired all 5yo and up female chasers... but well, I might have done that anyway.

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Ali Hedgestone
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Ali Hedgestone »

How about we go back to getting rid of gallop comments?
How about they don't decide to spend the time (on a short break) and make these changes. Some of which are requested by the players?
How about you be appreciative that we do have an awesome game to play where we can request changes be made, rather than just have to deal with something one person might consider wrong?
How about you be grateful that we can even send Em questions directly and she will respond.

Quit looking for conspiracy theories, there are none. A mistake was made and owned up to. Changes have been made, as they are during EVERY break. Em could have just kept quiet about the changes, but she didn't. The amount of transparency in this game is awesome. Quit trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Seriously, we are a weekend away from the new year. Take a break and come back Monday to gallop things.
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Tammy Stawicki
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Tammy Stawicki »

So let me get this straight. The 3yo/4yo steeplechase disparity was a horrible thing that needed fixing and thus multiple emails and forum posts were dedicated to asking for a fix. She originally was going to wait and see before doing more tinkering but then changed her mind (perhaps because of all the harassment) and now the fact that she did something is horrible. Well if ever there was a can’t win.

This is a game it is meant to be fun and while I am sure we all have our little things we wish were different (quarter horse breeding limits I am looking at you) as a whole we think this is a great game that is a lot of fun. If you think it is rigged and the powers that be are out to get you perhaps you should find something you find more enjoyable
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Mr. Lord Rich
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by Mr. Lord Rich »

Remove Gallop comments and replace with another function giving us some sort of details on the horses worth.

“This horse was born with an extra leg, it prob won’t amount to much on the track, you should consider entering it in. Side show”

I guess if we simply update the BS comments for active racers to be more accurate with their potential, might work also.
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The Steward
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by The Steward »

Hamish Mcgonaghal wrote: 5 years ago so when you said this to me a month ago

"We aren’t planning on doing another tweak at this time, because 3 year olds undergo their own tweak every year when they become four (aka older horses). It’s meant to mimic the natural progression of aging. I would need to see how it plays out in the first few weeks of next year before doing anything else. I can definitely see a tweak over break where we make the realm of “stakes” gallops smaller, right now it’s obviously way too big with not all the stakes gallops being true stakes runners. But that is an arbitrary amount that we just change one number and the array parrots a different word (allowance, stakes, or freak), and takes about .05 seconds to do"
How is this any different from what I said? A tweak wasn't planned at the time. We ran more reports. We decided another was necessary. The other thing about changing the realm of gallopers we did. So....
Hamish Mcgonaghal wrote: 5 years ago In another email

"As I was explaining before, the word “freak” or “stakes” is super arbitrary. We can tweak it so there are way more 4 year old freaks, but it’s just a word, it has nothing to do with how the actual horses perform, if that makes sense. The designated word means little other than falling in a range minus training and racing (or plus), it just serves to make you guys real excited about your gallops. Doing away with it permanently would be lovely, but the fallout too much! There are freaks in dirt routing that never break their maiden, and allowances in turf miling that are multiple g1 winners even these days.

As I said in the last email, if it looks like the 4 year olds win 100% of the time (or even 80%) against the older horses week 1 and 2 next year, I would definitely do another tweak to make sure the 5 and 6 year olds are still well represented. But this is the first year we’ve had super well-prepped 3 year olds (thanks to bumpers) facing older horses at the end of the year (they’ve usually barely chased before this time), so that’s another reason for the discrepancy!"
As I said, it looked like the 3yos (about to turn 4) were too competitive. So we decided not to wait.
Hamish Mcgonaghal wrote: 5 years ago After receiving that information i never entered anymore horses or did any breeding nor renewed my simperior or my track, waiting for the 1st 2 weeks of the new year to see where steeplchasing was heading. My post from 2 months ago asking for communication was never answered effectively and those emails state it was going to be observed.
Is the change happening now because those 2 creates have been retired and won't come up in this conversation? There was a "fix" earlier this season that many said never fixed what was wrong and nothing was said after numerous times being asked on the forum.
It was observed, just for shorter than we said. We didn't like it. So we fixed it again. If we still don't like it, we'll fix it again. If it doesn't go the way we planned, we'll change it again. When we have time to do it. It has nothing to do with those two horses, why would it? We didn't touch them last time we adjusted things, either. We don't look at one horse versus the rest, we look at the bell curves of the whole entire crop, including those that aren't made steeplechasers yet, which makes it tricky since not all TBs are chasers or ever will be, but they all have numbers that contribute to the curve.

As for your personal track, I deleted the Y52 races for it last night, but can happily re-generate if you want them back. Please let me know by Monday.
"There's no secret to training a good horse. It's a matter of being fortunate enough to get one."
"Funny how you often regret the stuff you didn't do more than the stuff you did do" - GG
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The Steward
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Re: Steeplechase Update

Post by The Steward »

Gigi Gofaster wrote: 5 years ago should we regallop older horses to find the true freaks?
And stakes level, etc. I'd regallop everything after a year turnover anyway, since thousands of horses change levels (or at least move within levels) today no matter what, steeplechaser or not!
"There's no secret to training a good horse. It's a matter of being fortunate enough to get one."
"Funny how you often regret the stuff you didn't do more than the stuff you did do" - GG
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