Bye Bye Steward Bred's

[Jack Meyer]

Misty, because there were underbids and pinhooks and things like that where newer players could get a hold of these top bloodlines and now they won't be able to. This was actually a way to help newer players get those bloodlines in their barn.

[Carole Hanson]

Sorry Dylan how many Freaks have you bred or home breds that have won a stew cup or any other major G1 ?

I’ve bred 2 steward’s cup winners, 4 multi millionaires and 3 other millionaires, and 12 individual Grade 1 winners. Yea I don’t own 1000’s of horses and 50 freaks but I make my small stable work for me.

You don’t need 500 trophies to be successful. And you don’t need steward breds to make a successful barn.

[Danny Derby]

Plus I think people are underestimating how long it will take me to phase out. I have tons of 4yos and numerous 1/2/3 year olds on the track right now that I've long since paid for. They'll be around a long time.

But you told me you were deleting all Steward-breds from the game on Monday?

[Rochelle Bos]

With no steward breeds this will absolutely favor the veterans with strong breeding barns.

I'm going to have to disagree with you hard there. Most newer players get a good breeding barn under them before they ever have any chance to get a Stewie. While a Stewie can help I know myself and many others have built breeding barns devoid of Stewie's and while they aren't anywhere near the veteran barns that's to be expected in every aspect when beginning.

Xander is 100% right here. Some people have 10-50 years of lines in their breeding barn. We have 5. That gap will ALWAYS be there. We’ll have 10, they’ll have 15-60. The best we can hope for now is snagging a nice lease in an auction like Danny’s, oh but wait, veteran players don’t lease out their best mares (unless you happen to be VERY lucky) so we get to pick cast offs, IF we can afford them

This is been a HUGE depressing point with the SIM for me, my biggest hope to get a competitive horse was managing to nab a stewie and getting lucky. Now it seems my only chance may be a random slide?

[Jack Meyer]

Yeah Rochelle, players aren't going to pass on even ONE foal from their best mares no matter the price. And the mare swap thing isn't reasonable because I may value my mare higher than you would making me want something more on your end than what you think you should have to swap. I've run into that problem a couple times where I overvalue mine in the other persons eyes or under value theirs or vice versa. So, you have to catch lightning in a bottle which is possible, just hard to do.

[Shannon Hunt]

I've seen quite a few top-class mares going through lease auctions in my comparatively brief time on this sim. I've had players spontaneously offer me free leases to quality mares (even though I know barely anyone on here, my time zone is not chat-friendly). I've seen auctions and sales of excellent homebred foals. Beyond my budget? Sure. But so are the stews. Whether I, as a newer player, build a base of nice bloodlines in my barn by saving up in order to give money to our esteemed Steward or to my fellow simsters doesn't really make a difference to me.

Jon Xett's got the right idea. The sim is full of people who are generous, kind, and committed to the goal of a flourishing sim - and who, consider stew-bred prices, may come to find a very nice market for topnotch yearlings when the stews phase out, and that'll likely tempt a few more early sales. Sure, there will always be a few who don't want to interact with other players through sales or trades, but the ecosystem will be fine even without them. The core of the sim is an interactive community, and it will take care of itself. This change will take many sim years to implement, there's plenty of time to still pick up stews or work out functional new strategies.

[Jack Meyer]

Their top mares will never be leased out, they are usually decent, but not the top quality

[LA Pepper]

I will sooo miss those stewardbreds because without them I need to rely on my own breeding and I seem to excel in claimers. Stewies are the only horses, save a few favorites which tend to get claimed away from me, that are giving me any excitement the past couple years. However, I'm sure leasing out mares will generate some super outflow of cash, and give poor breeders like me at least some chance of a great horse besides that good old random slide.

[Shannon Hunt]

Is anyone owed the right to someone else's top mares? Is it impossible to breed your own top mares based on the "decent" ones that do get leased out? Do you have specific people in mind that you are convinced will never be swayed by the temptation of a multi-million dollar lease, or is that a general assumption that everyone on here is an inherent Scrooge? I hope we can all view each other a little more positively than that.

It's a wonder that mixers have survived this long, with no steward to breed their winners for them.

[Misty Hills]

Their top mares will never be leased out

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

[Danny Derby]

Their top mares will never be leased out

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

I will do what I must.

[Laura Ferguson]

I think the key here will be what replaces steward breds as a way to draw $$$ out of the SIM? Most sales of top horses, whether leasing a broodmare for cash, or selling off a stakes/freak yearling, is driven by the need to raise cash for the TBS auctions. Without some similar reason to raise $$$, what I think you will see is more mare swaps, as players want to diversify or leverage a mare in a division that isn't their favorite to get access to a mare in a division that is. So, I still think you'll see good mares in auctions - but more along the lines of lease the mares I don't have time/interest in breeding, rather than, I need to raise cash for TBS, so I'm putting some of my better mares in there to raise $$$ because I want to buy blueblooded yearling that will go for a sky high price. I'll be interested to see how this plays out, but my guess is it will be harder to access some of the better mares than it is now, unless you have a comparable mare to swap in exchange. For example, I turn down leases for cash all the time - I don't need more money - for my best mares, I'd much rather have the foal - but I do consider swaps.

I'll also note that by reverting to the two horses per auction limit, but can own unlimited, I think we're back to the previous problem of where players could work together to effectively give one player multiple horses from the same auction (I give you $X, you buy Y and then immediately sell me Y post-auction, and no one else in the SIM has a chance to buy the horse or bid more, because of the pre-auction deal). I'm surprised no one has raised the return of that particular problem so far in this thread.

[Mr. Lord Rich]

Their top mares will never be leased out, they are usually decent, but not the top quality

I have leased plenty of top mares to the steward and have done plenty of swaps with other players.

If a player gives me the right deal, any of my mares can be had.

Please don’t assume this WILL NEVER happen just because you have not seen it or been involved with it.

[Mr. Lord Rich]

Their top mares will never be leased out

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

[Glenn Escobar]

I think the key here will be what replaces steward breds as a way to draw $$$ out of the SIM? Most sales of top horses, whether leasing a broodmare for cash, or selling off a stakes/freak yearling, is driven by the need to raise cash for the TBS auctions. Without some similar reason to raise $$$, what I think you will see is more mare swaps, as players want to diversify or leverage a mare in a division that isn't their favorite to get access to a mare in a division that is. So, I still think you'll see good mares in auctions - but more along the lines of lease the mares I don't have time/interest in breeding, rather than, I need to raise cash for TBS, so I'm putting some of my better mares in there to raise $$$ because I want to buy blueblooded yearling that will go for a sky high price. I'll be interested to see how this plays out, but my guess is it will be harder to access some of the better mares than it is now, unless you have a comparable mare to swap in exchange. For example, I turn down leases for cash all the time - I don't need more money - for my best mares, I'd much rather have the foal - but I do consider swaps.

I'll also note that by reverting to the two horses per auction limit, but can own unlimited, I think we're back to the previous problem of where players could work together to effectively give one player multiple horses from the same auction (I give you $X, you buy Y and then immediately sell me Y post-auction, and no one else in the SIM has a chance to buy the horse or bid more, because of the pre-auction deal). I'm surprised no one has raised the return of that particular problem so far in this thread.

I did mention Pinhooking way back early in the thread. And I’m likewise surprised that no one has mentioned it.